UK 4 meals away from anarchy in a disaster?

[Mortblanc]

In spite of this sensationalism, selective memory and projection of the impossible, the situation is not pertinent to a prepared person.

If you are prepared for whatever duration of time you have selected as your target then how long the goodies in the supermarket will last is not a consideration, nor is the reaction of the people running in to fight over the crumpets.

There is a very great difference between a riot and a revolt. And if the unarmed police are waiting for reinforcement of other unarmed police then SHTF has not happened. When the unarmed police are pulled out and replaced by military forces with specific rules of engagement and answerable to military court rather than civil authorities is when you have a problem. Just ask the Venezuelans. They have been at this for 10 years.

And those people have discovered that even in their South American country, with many truly remote areas and only a fraction of the population of GB, there is no place to run to and nowhere to hide.

As for the beggars??? Keep in mind that all through the ages the children have been sent out to beg for the parents because they are difficult to refuse. I have seen groups of child beggars sweep through a village and come out the other side loaded with food and cash, jump into their parents vehicles and speed away.

Even today the organized beggars of UNSCO, UNICEF, charity hospitals and relief organizations use dramatic films of the starving and crippled children to gain offerings without telling anyone that 95% of the funds go to political contributions and salaries of staff.

So gather your gear and supplies, sit on your stuff, above all keep your mouth shut, and wait. I do not know of anyone that has regretted having a bit of food available for emergencies.

Personally, I have been waiting since 1962, through a half dozen recessions and several stock market crashes, through riots, protests, devaluation of currency, threats to established law, changes in government, shortages, droughts and blizzards, and it has not happened yet.

I have become certain that if society wide SHTF occurs in a modern first world nation it has to be specifically and thoughtfully engineered by the governments in charge as a means of transfer of power.

[Straight Shooter]

Nail hit well and truly on the head MB.

[bigpaul]

the problem is that everyone, or nearly everyone, is reliant on the system and when that system fails humans will fail with it. if they rely on the system for all their needs, from cradle to grave as we say here, then they have nothing to fall back on when the times get hard.
growing up my parents always had a larder, my dad grew most of our fruit and especially veg, not all of it but a good proportion was home grown.
very few people do that anymore, their gardens are the kids playgrounds because they cant let them out of the streets because, they think, there is a pervert around every corner, they could be right.
self reliance is now a thing of the past.

[Straight Shooter]

Dead right BP ....thing is the younger generation following on have been brought up in times of plenty and having pretty much all they desire and parents gladly giving them a better life than they had ? i wonder....its not their fault ...how could they possibly begin to understand the older generation knowing nothing of Real hard times and the true value of things and stuff ...all they know is what they see as normal right at this moment in time, every parent wants their children to have a better life than they had , this usually means possessions of meaningless shit structured in such a way to absolve themselves of true responsibilities on bringing them up right with a good moral compass ...just give the kid an Xbox and let them get on with it ..no life skills are learnt at all...but the parents seem to manage MY TIME pursuits all the while...

I really am sick and tired of Iphones , everywhere i go some knob is talking some absolute rubbish , taking selfies , and occasionally looking up to see where their at ....driving or walking ...they are totally immersed in their pathetic little world with no care or even awareness of anyone but themselves....selfishness seems okay ....my pet hate is "please excuse me i need to take this ".....take as much time as you like i say.....while i just fuck off.

[Mortblanc]

Yes life was so much better when we all worked as peasants, died at 30 and communicated with smoke signals.

[bigpaul]

(7 April 2018, 17:18)Straight Shooter Wrote: Dead right BP ....thing is the younger generation following on have been brought up in times of plenty and having pretty much all they desire and parents gladly giving them a better life than they had ? i wonder....its not their fault ...how could they possibly begin to understand the older generation knowing nothing of Real hard times and the true value of things and stuff ...all they know is what they see as normal right at this moment in time, every parent wants their children to have a better life than they had , this usually means possessions of meaningless shit structured in such a way to absolve themselves of true responsibilities on bringing them up right with a good moral compass ...just give the kid an Xbox and let them get on with it ..no life skills are learnt at all...but the parents seem to manage MY TIME pursuits all the while...

I really am sick and tired of Iphones , everywhere i go some knob is talking some absolute rubbish , taking selfies , and occasionally looking up to see where their at ....driving or walking ...they are totally immersed in their pathetic little world with no care or even awareness of anyone but themselves....selfishness seems okay ....my pet hate is "please excuse me i need to take this ".....take as much time as you like i say.....while i just fuck off.

I look at wife's cousin and her family as an example of the "me me" generation, up to their necks in debt yet they still keep buying rubbish to fill the house up with and getting further and further into debt because its all on the card.
reminds me of the old girl I heard about a long time ago, kept writing cheques but she had no money in her bank account, when questioned by family, she said " of course there is money in the account, why else would the bank keep sending me new cheque books?" duh.

[bigpaul]

(8 April 2018, 05:15)Mortblanc Wrote: Yes life was so much better when we all worked as peasants, died at 30 and communicated with smoke signals.

I'll ignore that remark as its just stupid and ill informed.

[Mortblanc]

(8 April 2018, 11:17)bigpaul Wrote:

(8 April 2018, 05:15)Mortblanc Wrote: Yes life was so much better when we all worked as peasants, died at 30 and communicated with smoke signals.

I'll ignore that remark as its just stupid and ill informed.

Don't get on your high horse with me BP, I have been here for too long to put up with your back handed insults. Don't try to set yourself up as something you are not.

That remark was insightful and educational. You are obviously beset with a case of selective memory.

You do not remember the scandal that was the Rock and Roll of your youth? That music was going to be the downfall of society and those haircuts were the work of Satan.

After all, we are bemoaning the present generation, just as all other societies have, and downplaying technology while using home computers with more memory space than every brain on planet Earth combined, and connected to a world wide web that allows access to all the curmudgeons on the globe instantaneously.

I remember my father talking about his grandparents thinking the automobile was ruining my grandparents generation and my grandparents feeling the radio was ruining his generation, just as my father complained about the TV ruining my generation and ranted about the constant use of the hard wired telephone hanging on the wall.

I know for a fact that SS is alive today due to some doctor that used technology that was not available 50 years ago to preform surgery (as am I) and was probably summoned to the operating theater by use of a cell phone, and you BP have not grown or bottled an ounce of food in decades. You live in a flat and buy your food at the shops just like many others here.

Your parents and grandparents grew and bottled and gleaned the fields because the government required it by law during the war and it was forced to continue by severe rationing for a decade after the war.

Most of that "self sufficiency" you remember was forced by the government either by law or by restricting imports to maintain balance of trade! Farms and fields were taken by force from those that did not produce sufficiently and the nation was still dependent on imports for most of your food.

Over here that same generation equated the "self sufficiency" you worship with a state of abject poverty that required one to do without anything they could not make or grow. It was not their choice, it was their lot in life.

So let us not mistake our present "hobby farms" with self sufficiency. After all, we worked inside that "system" for many years to save enough surplus cash to afford that "self sufficiency experiment".

Others of us do not have the hobby farm but work inside the system, or are funded by the system, to maintain whatever lifestyle we have. You can rant all you want, you are still biting the hand that feeds you.

And sooner or latter each of us will reach for that cell phone to summon emergency services to our doorstep, or die wishing we had charged the battery.

.

[bigpaul]

most of what you say is true of the time you refer to.
you are wrong about me living in a flat and having grown nothing, I moved out of my flat 20 years ago, I live in a house and I've had several allotments and grew most of my own food, there is a garden here-back and front with many plants growing.
I have also lived off grid for many years, growing and shooting my own food.
I am tired of this constant back biting about my personal circumstances from you and other misinformed people like you, my personal life is none of your business, we are here to discuss prepping in general.
my previous reference was about your remark about peasants, dying at 30 etc, which has no relevance in the 21st century, we are much fitter and healthier and wiser than those who lived in the middle ages.

[bigpaul]

TBH trying to have a decent and reasoned conversation with someone on the subject of prepping seems to be a physical impossibility.
the 21st century seems to be the era of the troll .
personal experience and a life time's knowledge is of no use if one has a view which is not shared by the majority.