Is it possible to stay put when you're near London?

[NorthernRaider]

If you decide to " GO" where are you going to go?, Unless you have a plan and a place you can be welcomed in and live self sufficiently you really ought to plan on " Staying" but living withn 8 miles of central London is almost a death wish in my humble opinion, if there was a crisis or societal collapse the rot is going to start in the London boroughs and spread out like a plague

Setting aside the prepping issue I am sure are aware on the ever increasing population density in Londonistan, the rising crime and decaying environment. air and water quality in the GL area is bad and getting worse, schools, shops, hospitals, healthcare, etc are in terminal decline. Social cohesion is breaking down and huge swaiths of the GL area are simply no go areas after dark. Is that the right place to raise two children??. Personally I would rather be much poorer up north or in the west country but safer , more secure with cleaner air, water, lower crime and the chance to feed my kids on healthy locally grown produce. Can you at least consider moving home to a place further away from London.

One of the changing trends in the British prepping, survival and off grid scene is more and more preppers are realising that Bugging Out is becoming an almost impossible to achieve choice, traffic, roads, geograpghy, weather, crime, population, tourists, strikes etc etc have persuaded many preppers that Bugging IN is the only practical and feasable option, especially for families. And for many ( but not all) bugging in has meant finding a more sustainable secure place to live further away from the cities, places where community still exist, places where village schools still thrive, places where you can source clean water and at least grow part of your own food etc, places where you can be safer and more secure that would not object to you fitting a few solar panels, storing water in buttts or converting part of the garden over to food production. So these folks like myself have made that extra sacrifice to get as far out of town as we can ( not an option everyone can choose I admit) so if something does happen they only need to get home from work to their home and put their disaster plans into practice. its more practical and feasable overall to live in tyour bug out location than to try and keep a house in the city and a retreat in the countryside.

The decision has to be yours but I can think of two good reasons you mention already why you should do your best to move further away from London

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Rachel you asked how long before chaos reigns if something big happens then you mention weeks and months, I would suggest that you look at the recent Toxteth riots in part at least for your answer. When the locals went on the ramage the police withdrew for at least three days leaving anarchy to reign and that was just in a few local boroughs which was eventutally brought under control when the Met supported by cops brought in from the provinces reclaimed the streets. Try and imagine London if say the govt stopped paying out welfare money, or an killer epidemic broke out, or terorism or gang warfare, or drought, or EMP etc and the entire city erupted into chaos topped off by the people being unwilling or unable to stop the chaos. It would go on and on with arson, looting, rioting, gang warfare, murders, rapes, vandalism until their was nothing left to destroy...... then they would start to look towards the suburbs and targets further away. The nearer to the city you are the greater the threat and poorer your environment??

As UKS points out most of us are now bugging in and intend to make our stand where we live, but those of us who can are moving to the most suitable location we can before we put our roots down, most of the preppers I've had the pleasure of interacting with in the south east accept their predicament is bad and intend to move further out ASAP. Even bugging in you still need supplies and kits but instead of Bug Out Bags you develop Get Home Bags instead.