I can also remember to my great shame NOT getting my camp craft badge at the Cub Scout because I did NOT have my pen knife with me and both evening meets and the camping weekend, and I remember a Scout called Graham who was NOT allowed to join the Wolfpack on the Lyke wake walk because he had not got his fixed blade scouting knife.
when I was in the Scouts(1960s) our clasp knife(the one with the pointy metal spike for getting stones out of horses hoofs!) was part of our uniform and you weren't properly dressed without it, even worse than not wearing your woggle!!, in camp we were allowed to have a sheath knife but not on parade.
We HAD to wear the Sheath Knife when out on the Moors.
In years gone by I felt supremely confident going about my business anywhere at anytime under any circumstances...not so now , I think it's a combination of slipping morals and standards amongst the community my own strength/capabilities waning and my lack of confidence in the authorities to adequately protect and support me.
Every weekend in our younger days my Wife and I would go night clubbing from Wigan Casino to Martines in Chichester to The Fiesta in Norton to Cinderalla Rockerfellas in Leeds to the Princess in Newcastle. Not once, NOT ONCE did I fear for our safety, not even a passing qualm it simply never crossed our minds that we could be in danger that continued right up to around the mid 90s.
Now I would not visit such places or go into London or Brum after dark unless I was armed.
They say street crime is less well back in the 70s as the nightclubs chucked out you may find one or two plods loitering near the Taxi rank to ensure we did not fight over cabs. Now at that exact same place in the shadows near the hotel you will see large groups of Asian men lurking, the police park up by the van full an Ambulance is normally on standby near the town hall and you see cop cars racing from job to job. Go to my wifes works hospital and by the middle of the night A & E looks like a war zone with cops and security trying to keep the peace as the mdics stitch the idiots wounds. And the police tll us the streets are safer BOLLOCKS.
I agree with pretty much all you say NR ......so what is the answer.....do we all turn into CHARLES BRONSON or CLINT EASTWOOD, governments create policy people create society .
I think its far less about policing than about people, society has changed and not for the better, when I was younger people knew just how far they could go and no further, these days people have no OFF switch, look at "black Friday" for instance, people FIGHTING over a so called bargain? no off switch!!!
Totally agree BP what idiots i seen it but could not believe it, i said to OH if its like that now just imagine wtshtf EXACTLY she said....we will not be seeing many coppers then though NR
I'm a survivalist not a miracle worker
I can only react to issues that surround and affect me and my family. I just know that our Justice system is not fit for purpose nor is our police, as preppers we can and do assess threats to us and react individually or as a family or as a group. We can only respond to the threats by whatever means possible. That takes us all the way back to the age old adage that always gets BP and me into trouble. Get Out Of Town and move somewhere more civilised.
there is not a damn thing I can do about politicians(except vote them out) or the police, what I can do is to keep watching and listening and assessing threats to me and mine and act accordingly, that's what prepping and survivalism is all about.