GB Govts Advice on disasters??

[Tengu]

I, personally, have never had any trouble with zombies.

On another forum, there was one a self styled werewolf hunter, all his guns had names and his shootiest one he had silver bullets made for...

I guess this is an important object lesson in preparedness, be well informed.

Of course, it could have been good tactics; a werewolf who is ROFL isnt going to put up much of a fight, is it??...

 

[mortalmerlin]

............

In reality when real shortages do strike (ie, for more than just a few days) there will be laws imposed to prevent people from hoarding food and food will be collected by whoever has the job of keeping the peace for redistribution, mainly to the peace keepers.
...........
QUOTE]


Y'see, I think that's paranoia, not preparedness. That's the edge of teotwawki that irks folk.
...
cheers,
Toddy

Sorry I don't want to cause a state of irkedness but that's what happens when the stuff hits the fan in other countries. Napoleon did it, the Red coats, the Germans and the Allies (all claimed they were keeping the peace). All payed visits to houses and farms when supplies were running low.

I am pointing out that if you subcribe to TEOTWAWKI and sit on a huge pile of food and guns etc. The first thing that will happen in a TEOTWAWKI situation is that you will be raided, your guns and stores taken. In New Orleans the Fedaral Authorities were taking guns from people, many of whom subscribe to the idea that the guns are part of the 2nd ammendment to protect them from exactly that. Quite ironic really.

So my point is if you do keep a store, you keep it hidden in times of need, from everyone including whoever is in charge. As someone has already mentioned the wishes of the people in charge, be they police, army or whatever, may not be in line with your best interests as a family.

 

[BigShot]

In New Orleans the Fedaral Authorities were taking guns from people, many of whom subscribe to the idea that the guns are part of the 2nd ammendment to protect them from exactly that. Quite ironic really.

I think it's a credit to the nature of those gun owners, and a huge argument against gun control that the people allowed their guns to be taken even though they have a constitutional right not only to bear them - but to USE them to prevent that and all other rights being taken away.

I was actually surprised that didn't turn into a bloodbath.



Agreed whole heartedly on keeping any stockpile secret for all the reasons you mention (added to the angry-mob element).

 

[BigShot]

I, personally, have never had any trouble with zombies.

...yet!
Just because the rage infected monkies haven't been released, or we haven't (so far) had evidence of a need to cover graves in concrete - doesn't mean it won't happen.

Just you wait and see. Haha.

On another forum, there was one a self styled werewolf hunter, all his guns had names and his shootiest one he had silver bullets made for...

I guess this is an important object lesson in preparedness, be well informed.

Of course, it could have been good tactics; a werewolf who is ROFL isnt going to put up much of a fight, is it??...

This made me laugh but I need to ask - so I can figure out whether I should be laughing more.

Is he a werewold hunter in the same way some people prepare for the zombie apocalypse? (see zombiehunter.org home of The Zombie Squad)
Or is he so deluded he actually thinks he's going to end up hunting werewolves?

 

[Wayland]

I think the most valuable thing we'll have if it all goes pear shaped will be our library.

Information will always be king.

 

[BigShot]

Wayland - you mean for accumulated knowledge or for things like survival manuals, wild food guides and so on?

If the former, an intresting point I'd not considered. The "construction" section could prove useful. Some of those things are bordering on a "how to" guide for building houses!
If the latter - I wouldn't want to have to either fight for a copy of try to stop it being stolen.

 

[Dougster]

I have a cupboard full of bottles of red wine, just in case there's a shortage.
[/URL]

This is about the only bit of this thread I haven't winced at - good man.

Few days in snow as Spikey said is clever, we always have a few things ready for a just in case.

Any longer than that and you need to read 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy. When there ain't no food left, that's fine - you're the food.

I'm not trying to upset anyone, but are there a few people who seem to actually be looking forward to this kind of scenario?

Survival, apocalypse and other associated lingo doesn't sit in my mind with Bushcraft - which is being comfortable and enjoying the outdoors.

 

[Tengu]

Deluded, Bigshot.

But in whether he thinks there are werewolves to hunt, or that werewolves are a threat, or that they need silver bullets, I cant tell you that.

 

[johnnytheboy]

I was brought up in a small town of about 10000 people in scotland, one thing that would surprise you when the snow fell heavily is how quickly the bread sold out the local shops and supermarket. I was only a kid but i still remember my mum updating me on the supermarket chaos.

Recently there has been two occasions where panic buying has emptied all petrol stations near my work, once i had no fuel and had i not been able to use one of our other cars to go home i would have been caught out with no way to get home. I have considered how to get around this but fuel is to dangerous to store. One thing i did notice though was the petrol stations were full of pensioners buying £50 (full tank) worth of fuel, those nissan micras must be hard on petrol

I think if anything the zombies won't come all be it i work with a few, but there are two possibilitys natural and man made (media driven) panic buying. So far its never been a disaster its just been a minor inconvience. There is every chance, suppose some candles and a few extra tins won't go a miss

 

[BigShot]

Johnny.
Things like a pair of good walking shoes, a bottle of water and some warm/dry clothes in the boot of your car are a simple preparation for the fuel problem and not getting home. Just pull the car over, secure it and take to the shoe leather. It's that kind of thing zombie preparedness helps with.
When I've lived in France (French alps) the local infrastructure was well suited to heavy snowfall, most roads would be cleared in a matter of hours and there are contingencies in place just in case. Over here a semi heavy snowfall would be crippling in a way faced only by very remote areas in the Alps - and in those areas they are prepared for it, typically in the UK we are not.

One very harsh winter would cause some people plenty of problems with people stranded in cars and shops unable to be restocked. It's not the shambling undead horde, but it's something that would be much easier to get through with preparations in place.


Tengu.
Poor guy. He sounds around the same level of madness (though much more interesting) than the guy I met who thought he was a vampire. And by that I mean he thought he was one of the undead.
No, I've never seen him again and hope I don't. He was odd in a bad way.


Dougster.
I don't see how survival doesn't sit with bushcraft. Surely bushcraft is perfectly suited for a Zombie Apocalypse, it's not just about surviving, but doing so in safety and comfort. How that wouldn't include Bushcraft escapes me. Unless Bushcraft is nothing more than roughing it on a deliberate camping trip there's no way it's incompatible with anything that's been discussed so far.
If you consider the way Ray Mears uses the term Bushcraft, he includes primitive tool use, tribal living off the land and much more. Things like that have a definite use in a "zombie apocalypse" and more than that... Ray Mears said in an interview something I've often thought but never put into words. Bushcraft isn't about throwing away all the modern things we have to make life easier, but using the skills and respect for our environemnt to enhance what we have. Preparing to and using those skills to deal with temporary or permanent failures in various parts of the infrastructure we rely on for or normal way of life makes perfect sense.

The only reason I use the word apocalypse is for saying "zombie apocalypse" which is an intentionally silly scenario that would require preparation and survival/bushcraft skills. The whole point of using that as a reason for preparing is that it prepares you for anything without having to get into the fine detail of why you might need to use your preparations in any way.

You're dead right that some people look forwards to it, and while I do enjoy it when the grid goes down for a while (having everything switched off and having no way to argue with that brings a welcome break from tech-saturated life) I'm in no way looking forwards to a zombie apocalypse on any level.

The things we're discussing using the words survival and apocalypse are exactly what's needed to get the 3 few days in snow Spikey mentioned - without it you could be blocked in just before you're due another supermarket trip and faced with 3 days on tight rations.

 

[Squidders]

the reality is this...

There are way too many people for the environment to sustain without public services and farming.

stashing masses of tins/cans of supplies in bunkers is a great idea until one nutter with a machine gun decides it belongs to him.

collecting "trade items" like axes is a great idea until the same nutter decides they too belong to him.

The british isles are too small for you to seriously hope to find actual wilderness.

carving spoons and kuksas will not save you from a zombie apocalypse.

If you have access to this forum bushcraft is nothing more than a hobby or a part of a job teaching or selling stuff to people who have it as a hobby.

I love this passtime and many of the people I have met who share my passion but I do fear a lot of people have a very poor grasp on reality.

 

[Wayland]

Wayland - you mean for accumulated knowledge or for things like survival manuals, wild food guides and so on?

If the former, an intresting point I'd not considered. The "construction" section could prove useful. Some of those things are bordering on a "how to" guide for building houses!
If the latter - I wouldn't want to have to either fight for a copy of try to stop it being stolen.

Our library contains a fairly diverse mixture covering ancient technology and engineering to livestock maintainance, food preparation and preservation to primitive textiles and leather production, emergency medical treatment to building horse drawn vehicles, historical architecture to building and sailing ships and boats.

Oh and then there's the bushcraft related stuff....

I could go on but we lost count of the books a few years ago around the 3000 mark.

It's a fairly specialist collection by most standards these days.

 

[Tengu]

Damn. That sounds one helluva library.

Have you read `Frozen Echoes` by Kirsten Seaver??

 

[Wayland]

Nope...Not come across that one.

 

[BigShot]

Wayland - sounds like just the kind of library I'd like to accumulate. I've only got a few shelves worth of very varied things at the moment. All in good time.


Squidders...
...that assumes that large parts of the population would make it. Consider how many people have no clue at all about building shelter, keeping warm and feeding themselves without use of a loyalty card. The pressure on resources would be short lived as people poison them selves, become hypothermic and fight over what's left. Consider also how many people would do the instinctive things to keep warm and end up dead as a result. You need specialist knowledge to survive without the infrastructure in place in the UK and as a result most people wouldn't make it.

That said - there's really not going to be any need for that, so we're back down to the zombie apocalypse being little more than a fuel shortage, lightning strike or other severe weather.

 

[johnnytheboy]

I would never have been able to walk home the reality is i would have just stayed at work, wishing it was the other way around i was stuck at home

 

[BigShot]

What if it was the weekend? I take it you have to cover a fair distance.
I can understand sticking around if you'd be walking miles and miles only to have to do it back the other way, but if it meant a whole weekend stuck at the office I'd be getting the walking gear out of the boot and calling ahead to let her indoors know I was going to be late.

Then again - I work at home these days so the chances of being stuck at work and not getting home require a major structural failure of the house pinning me in place! Haha.

 

[mortalmerlin]

There seems to be two groups emerging, those that prepare for who knows what and those that don't.

But I am left wondering why people in the those that don't group have so much to say about "preparedness advice here in GB".

 

[Tadpole]

There seems to be two groups emerging, those that prepare for who knows what and those that don't.

But I am left wondering why people in the those that don't group have so much to say about "preparedness advice here in GB".

I’m not prepared for “who knows what”. I’m prepared for power cuts, floods, loss of the gas main, I’m prepared for fuel strikes that last a few weeks, and industrial action on the part of transport. I’m not stockpiling for the end of the world or even anarchic, lawlessness and the breakdown of civilisation.
In other word, I’m sort of ready for stuff that may happen, and not bothered about preparing for stuff from the “penny dreadful’s” and zombie and post red-dawn films that will never happen.

 

[Wayland]

There seems to be two groups emerging, those that prepare for who knows what and those that don't.

I'm not particularly "prepared" for anything.

I have a decent supply of dry goods so I can bag it up and take it camping with me.

I have an extensive library because I like to read, and in connection with my work.

For me it is not "preparing" for anything, it's living my normal life, but that life has the side effect of us being able to cope with most short term scenarios.

Longer term, who knows, but I do feel the odds are slightly stacked in our favour because of our lifestyle.

But I am left wondering why people in the those that don't group have so much to say about "preparedness advice here in GB".

Well some people just have a lot to say on any topic so long as might stir things up.