East Anglia HI

[SecretPrepper]

Hi from hertfordshire. I am also doing first aid course for work starting tomorrow for the next 3 days

[bigpaul]

hello and welcome from North Devon, I prefer the term Prepper-as in "he/she who prepares" or the old boy scout motto(yes I was one back in the mists of time):"be prepared". you could also use the term "self -reliant" or "self-sufficient", its all about being prepared to look after yourself (and yours) rather than be a sheeple that relies on the govt to save them in a crisis...some hope!

[River Song]

(21 May 2013, 17:07)bigpaul Wrote: hello and welcome from North Devon, .........., its all about being prepared to look after yourself (and yours) rather than be a sheeple that relies on the govt to save them in a crisis...some hope!

One thing I've come to realise is that the context in the US is different from the UK. I reckon that when things fall apart over there they will fall apart big time and for a long time.

Over here if the brown stuff hits the oscillating device I reckon it will be bad for an extended period of time but not, IMHO, needing to restock the earth, seeds etc etc.

My analysis is probably dependent on the kind of shit thats hit.

If we are talking Pandemic Flu for example, we will see wave one lasting around 8 -10 weeks followed by a 3 week hiatus followed by a 12 - 16 week wave two (the most deadly) followed by a 4 - 5 week hiatus followed by wave three 5 weeks. (Give or take)

If we are talking EMP or war then all bets are off.

It's possible that we will need to survive for 12 - 18 months and you can actually see the death flows:

1. Those on life support machines - sorry
2. Those yuppies who have a lot of kit and no skills
3. Urban Pond Life (hoodies) -- Looters will be shot
4. Hippies - (I love you) - No defence tactics

Once that is all over it will be up to small communities to band together to organise.

<Begin Rant>
(One of the sad things about preppers is the rampant individualism). Whether you believe it or no, I do think that over the long term, and I repeat long term, government will try and restore some semblance of life.
</end Rant>

Still looking for my sonic screwdriver ..........

[bigpaul]

maybe, that all depends on the event and whether the govt actually survives! personally I prefer to prep for ALL eventualities(apart from global nuclear war) then I am covered for the lesser events. I really don't see a small scale event...12-18 months then hey ho-all back to the way it was, I see a large event and your own your own-forget the govt, the state, it dosent exist, remember the Romans? look what happened to them!

[bigpaul]

say for instance, we've all seen about the "austerity measures" on the news, just say that for some reason, lack of money, lack of will, whatever, we could no longer IMPORT anything anymore, no more oil, no more metal, coal, gas or electricity coming from abroad. this country could NOT feed all its population, then that would be TSHTF for everyone, about 75% of the population would go hungry, starve and eventually die, they govt would not run to help anyone because they no longer have any food stocks to dip into, and whats in the shops would be gone in 48 hours, followed by arson, riots and looting on a grand scale. how about that!

[River Song]

@BP

There's a serious load of assumptions there and in order for your hypothesis to work out,
all of your factors need to come into play.

i.e. "for some reason...." "lack of money" - Quite possible economy could go down the pan.
"lack of will" --- I can't see that unless everyone in HMG is out of their trees on mogadon.
Can't Import. ---- Quite possible of lines of credit dry up but although they might for about 10 days, I can't IMHO see it any longer.

Admittedly it will get very nasty and those of us who have prepared will be better off.

I had always thought that Urban Pond Life would be the first to be shot when they riot but you need to compare them to the old inhabitants of the USSR when it collapsed. Never underestimate a population who have been used to stealing, skyving, ducking and diiving to survive. Having said all that be prepared

[NorthernRaider]

River good post but dont forget about speculators such as oil and grain speculators, those bastards deliberately buy up suptanker loads of sweet crude and grain and park them up often for over 6 months in places as diverse as Milford Haven to off the coast of West Africa just to drive up prices, all legal and all untouchable.

Of course when we actually kept war reserves and national contingency reserves it stopped speculators, but now they can and do bulk buy much needed resources and hog it for up to a year to push the prices up.

[bigpaul]

(22 May 2013, 13:05)River Song Wrote: @BP

There's a serious load of assumptions there and in order for your hypothesis to work out,
all of your factors need to come into play.

i.e. "for some reason...." "lack of money" - Quite possible economy could go down the pan.
"lack of will" --- I can't see that unless everyone in HMG is out of their trees on mogadon.
Can't Import. ---- Quite possible of lines of credit dry up but although they might for about 10 days, I can't IMHO see it any longer.

"unless HMG is out of their trees on mogadon": don't you think they are already? some of the decisions they make? load of hooray henry's! imports could easily dry up, they would stop because HMG do something the exporting country don't like, hey presto no more oil or food or whatever! i'm not saying it could happen, but I like to consider ALL possibilities in my prepping, not just those minor inconveniences people on other forums consider SHTF but I look on as "normal" life!

[River Song]

@BP

Nah!

HMG is not the politicians and anyway they are not all hoo-ray Henries. The Labour lot are just as bad.
And did you know that the Malay word for 'vagina' is 'farage' -- If you think I'm voting for that ,. well .....

HMG is actually the civil servants and you may not like them but at least they are not all replaced at election time. We have some form of continuity and for what its worth, generally, our civil servants are a reasonably competent bunch with a few exceptions like Universal Credit etc.

Sorry I didn't mean to slip into politics. I know that you want to prepare for ALL eventualities and that's cool but we all need to delinerate between possibilities and probabilities. Total Breakdown is a possibility. Pandemic Flu with a 9 - 12 months downside is a probability and a very high one

:-)

[bigpaul]

(22 May 2013, 14:17)River Song Wrote: @BP

Nah!

HMG is not the politicians and anyway they are not all hoo-ray Henries. The Labour lot are just as bad.
And did you know that the Malay word for 'vagina' is 'farage' -- If you think I'm voting for that ,. well .....

HMG is actually the civil servants and you may not like them but at least they are not all replaced at election time. We have some form of continuity and for what its worth, generally, our civil servants are a reasonably competent bunch with a few exceptions like Universal Credit etc.

Sorry I didn't mean to slip into politics. I know that you want to prepare for ALL eventualities and that's cool but we all need to delinerate between possibilities and probabilities. Total Breakdown is a possibility. Pandemic Flu with a 9 - 12 months downside is a probability and a very high one

:-)

not that I know anything about politics, but don't the civil servants have to do what the politicians tell them? otherwise whats the point in having ANY government?