Joining the Dots

[NorthernRaider]

Joining the Dots
NR


I have been contemplating various trends and events that are so prominent in much of the media lately, and I am looking at the OVERALL information it provides.

Issues such as White Flight phenomena has almost become a white exodus in some parts (It would be more aptly named Middle Class Flight), The increased building of gated residential communities continues unabated for the rich and powerful, The huge amount of subterranean building going on with the “Tip of the Iceberg” housing phenomena is so big now the authorise are expressing concern. The huge sudden growth in the professional classes no longer putting Chelsea post codes as the most important criteria in their lifestyle choice now being replaced with having self-sufficient smallholdings with them “Embracing” renewable energy and self-sufficiency as far away from the conurbations as possible.

I note in the glossy Sunday supplement magazines there is huge interest in building SECURE, Self Sufficient, Self-Sustaining ECO homes. Today a wind turbine and a deep well has credibility than a BMW badge on your car.

I see designer homes incorporating both 240vc AC and 12 v DC power systems in their plans. I notice a huge increase in demand for 12 volt electrical appliances, far more than is needed just to satisfy the caravan market.

I’m aware that sales of wood, coal and multi fuel stoves in the UK have more than doubled in three years and in some areas there is up to a 6 week wait for installation of stoves. In other regions demand for firewood is outstripping supply.

I note that whilst the odious semiretired middle classes and professionals complain bitterly about the building of wind farms in their neighbourhoods that it is that very same section of society that is investing in both wind / solar and other renewables for themselves.

I see that sales of 4x4 vehicles has moved away from the Chelsea tractor pseudo off roaders and is now focusing more on 4x4s than can function well off road, I also note a huge massive exponential increase in the numbers of people investing, buying or building their own expedition camper vehicles.

I found out only this morning that people keeping Chickens, Rabbits, Goats and miniature pigs are growing hugely in numbers in the UK. Indeed many new magazine titles are appearing in shops almost daily such as Practical Pig and Chicken Keeping.

I read that more families are making sacrifices to fund sending their children away to summer school holiday camps to avoid them ending up as victims of urban gangs in our cities. These same youngsters are being encouraged to attend camps that specialise in wilderness survival skills, animal husbandry skills, Horse riding skills, camping skills, shooting, fishery and archery skills. (Yup I’m one of those parents myself)

I notice friends living in rural areas similar to myself especially in Wales and the South West report that the surge in people buying holiday cottages they once only used in the school holidays are now finding that many families are now moving in permanently.

Reasons people commonly give in public such as downsizing and better environment for the children usually become more frank in PRIVATE. “Getting away from crime ridden cities, no faith in the quality of supermarket foods, loss of community identity in cities, fear of terrorism, concerns about ever more extremist government and more aggressive policing, feeling isolated and vulnerable in city areas they once felt at home in”. Then of course the main one that has come to dominate many forums in recent years the negative aspects of mass immigration to the UK that has divided many communities!

I also see a huge increase in the number of vocational and leisure courses for people interested in growing their own food, making charcoal, animal husbandry, making bio diesel, building your own eco home etcetera.

After digesting that lot I looked at other influences such as the appalling state of the economy, the huge tax burden the ever declining numbers of tax payer’s face. The huge tax bill legacy the last Labour government has left for our children is a good example. The dreadful effect of the recent immigration wave has had on the integrity of the British national psyche. The present government’s obsession with giving away billions in Aid money and EU membership money we don’t have (£24 billion a year). The waves of gang violence and ethnic unrest in many UK cities and the almost certain collapse of the welfare state and the civil unrest that will surely follow. The spectacular collapse of the Euro and the divisions in the EU are also of great note.


Lots and lots on individual issues that when looked at together make me think that
(A)The rich and influential can see what coming and are taking steps to mitigate the effects on themselves.
(B)The educated and enlighten are losing faith in both the food supply chain and the utility supply system
©The professional classes are turning the back in the city centres and fleeing to the suburbs or the countryside
(D)The ruling classes have lost control over how we control and manage our own nation
(E)The next generation are realising that the traditional skills and professions such as ship building, coal mining, car building and electronics are gone from these shores for at least the next 50 years and the skills involved in self -sufficiency are the way ahead.

Big society is dying, small traditional rural communities are flourishing, and those big, rich, powerful, well informed and influential people can read the writing on the wall. THEY those who actually created most of our nation’s problems are moving to or building themselves redoubts and pulling to the drawbridges part way at least.

So Ladies and Gentleman if you agree even in part with my appraisal which side of the drawbridge are you going to be standing on if the whole lot falls apart ?

[Prepper1]

I was looking at Southern prepper1's website a while back and I think he nailed the thing.
Prepping's becoming popular so is self sufficiency.
On a council website about allotments they were saying there was a surge of interest during the war with the dig for victory campaign and again in the 70's and surge with programs on such as the good life etc now in the present day, with some allotments having a 30 year wait, where as the allotments I'm on, are half empty.
I think some savvy folk are aware and are prepping even if they dont know its prepping, but I think were in the middle of a trend in interest in self sufficiency and prepping again because of the loss of jobs and the low wages and the cost of shopping etc...
As the council website was saying during periods of affluence and good times nobody basicaly gives a shit about being self sufficient they just live the good life and worry when its gone away.
Just my 10 penneth worth.

Just on a side note I was at my allotment today and I found a thrupence!!! 1941!!

[Eric Warren]

NR, excelent post. BTW I've been lurking here for a while now. I haven't joined in mainly because I've seen a lot of these sites and on some of them, people spend more of their time having political rows or comparing latest fads in "prepping". Others have been mentioned here already & SD doesn't like it. I like to see what I'm getting into before I join in. This is the only UK site I've seen so far on which I'm happy to join in and hopefully contribute.
There does seem to be a trend lately towards dropping the "Celsea Tractor " in favour of 4x4s that actually work. This seems to be mostly among the "nouveaux riche" (I've always wanted to use that phrase), who have the time to make use of them, whereas the really rich don't have time. Gated or "secure" communities around the 'burbs' are also becoming more popular. I haven#t noticed a great trend towards self-sufficiency among these people though. Maybe I've missed something?

[NorthernRaider]

(7 November 2012, 21:38)Eric Warren Wrote: I haven#t noticed a great trend towards self-sufficiency among these people though. Maybe I've missed something?

Go to WH Smiffs and look at the very large numbers of monthly glossly magazines catering for pig keepers, chicken keepers,m goat keepers, self builders, off gridders, small holders, build you own home types. Then look at the thriving small adds in the back of these same mags to see the burgening industry supplying them with everything from Fish antibiotics, selected chicken feed, custom built coops, pig houses, micro turbines, PV systems, recycling systems, water filtration wood burning stoves, gun cabinets, vehicles and accessories to expand their functionality.

Go to your local rural estate agent and be regailled with tales of bidding wars on small holdings, small farms, self sufficient properties, self build plots, chunks of decidious woodland.

Ask your local planning officer about the increasde in people seeking to find ways of being allowed to live on chunks of the green belt or in parts of the national parks.

Watch how some folks are now specialising in breeding smaller varieties of pig and goat, note the decline in the numberr of plough / shire horses has almost stopped.

Now how Westminster and Chelseas councils are expressing concerns that in some areas icewberg housing schemes have now almost completely undermined so streets.
Note how many urban areas are finding its essential workers are now living far away from the city they serve. Look North rec ently reported on London Firemen who lived in Manchester, Durham and Northumberland

[Straight Shooter]

this is the best post i have read since i joined BRILLIANT well done nr...hats off my boy

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perhaps everyone is waking up......just incase a banker is reading this my cottage is for sale 2 acres 3 streams 1 well i will throw in the chichens.. 1 rayburn 3 woodburners........and lots of good looking rather slack sheep girlies

[The Local Ned]

Great Post NR.

It echos what I've been thinking for some time now - some of the sheeple are beginning to see the light and realise our nation and our society, are well and truly sliding down the shitter.

I think TPTB are sensing this too , and are speeding up that ever tightening control noose on our freedoms and civil rights.

[Tarrel]

Sh!t. And there was I thinking I was a bit of a trend-setter!

Just a small observation to add to NR's analysis; I'm on the mother of all road-trips at the moment. Scotland to Oxford to drop off a foliage-order, then to the outskirts of London to see my Mum, then down to Devon to run a course for one of my customers. I'm doing the trip on A-roads as usual, as it suits the Defender better, so mostly travelling through rural areas. What I've noticed is just how much more wood smoke you can smell when you get out of the car into the open air.

Btw, we had to wait a lot longer than 6 weeks for our Rayburn!

Also, I concur, great post NR.

[bigpaul]

(7 November 2012, 22:34)Tarrel Wrote: Sh!t. And there was I thinking I was a bit of a trend-setter!

Just a small observation to add to NR's analysis; I'm on the mother of all road-trips at the moment. Scotland to Oxford to drop off a foliage-order, then to the outskirts of London to see my Mum, then down to Devon to run a course for one of my customers. I'm doing the trip on A-roads as usual, as it suits the Defender better, so mostly travelling through rural areas. What I've noticed is just how much more wood smoke you can smell when you get out of the car into the open air.

Btw, we had to wait a lot longer than 6 weeks for our Rayburn!

Also, I concur, great post NR.

I was just wondering which part of Devon you were travelling to? if your travelling from London most likely A303, A30, most people in Devon would call these MAIN roads, i mainly travel on B roads or on unclassified back country roads, there are no motorways here!! i agree with you about wood smoke, i LOVE the smell of woodsmoke!

[Tarrel]

(8 November 2012, 16:07)bigpaul Wrote:

(7 November 2012, 22:34)Tarrel Wrote: Sh!t. And there was I thinking I was a bit of a trend-setter!

Just a small observation to add to NR's analysis; I'm on the mother of all road-trips at the moment. Scotland to Oxford to drop off a foliage-order, then to the outskirts of London to see my Mum, then down to Devon to run a course for one of my customers. I'm doing the trip on A-roads as usual, as it suits the Defender better, so mostly travelling through rural areas. What I've noticed is just how much more wood smoke you can smell when you get out of the car into the open air.

Btw, we had to wait a lot longer than 6 weeks for our Rayburn!

Also, I concur, great post NR.

I was just wondering which part of Devon you were travelling to? if your travelling from London most likely A303, A30, most people in Devon would call these MAIN roads, i mainly travel on B roads or on unclassified back country roads, there are no motorways here!! i agree with you about wood smoke, i LOVE the smell of woodsmoke!

Yep, A303 and A30. I was heading for Bovey Tracy, on the edge of Dartmoor. Now on the way home, near Penrith.

[NorthernRaider]

(9 November 2012, 00:17)Tarrel Wrote: Yep, A303 and A30. I was heading for Bovey Tracy, on the edge of Dartmoor. Now on the way home, near Penrith.

Should have hung a right onto the A66 and dropped in for breakfast.