National Risk Register/National Resilience Update - Nothing new to us.

[Falstaff]

MP Darren Jones has been making announcements/press releases recently, adding 7 new risks to the national risk register, and removing Russian Gas supply as no longer being a risk. They plan a public awareness campaign, recommending prepping, in recognition that in the short term they may not be able to cope.
Nothing new in that for anyone on this website, and sad that they've taken so long to publicly admit it. He did however, make one "mis-quote" that made me laugh cynically.
As part of other measures he recommended ensuring that everybody has at least "one secure phone line."

As Woody Girl and several others can atttest, that ain't happening. The older 2025 Risk Register is still viewable, but it's come a long way since Covid. It has an interesting table of potential risks, 64 I think, with their likely impact and probability of happening. The impact of total loss of telephony is not rated that serious!

A random chat with a stranger in a car park, as one does, revealed that he is part of designing and installing an updated emergency services/govt.-only mobile comms system that will survive that. Except, I pointed out a potential flaw in the software integration, and power supply, (as discussed on this site) and he cycled away thoughtful and worried.....

 

[FIU]

I'm confused? It's now OK to buy Russian gas? What about the massive supply of UK owned gas in the North Sea Oil Field north of Scotland?

 

[Nice65]

MP Darren Jones has been making announcements/press releases recently, adding 7 new risks to the national risk register, and removing Russian Gas supply as no longer being a risk. They plan a public awareness campaign, recommending prepping, in recognition that in the short term they may not be able to cope.
Nothing new in that for anyone on this website, and sad that they've taken so long to publicly admit it. He did however, make one "mis-quote" that made me laugh cynically.
As part of other measures he recommended ensuring that everybody has at least "one secure phone line."

As Woody Girl and several others can atttest, that ain't happening. The older 2025 Risk Register is still viewable, but it's come a long way since Covid. It has an interesting table of potential risks, 64 I think, with their likely impact and probability of happening. The impact of total loss of telephony is not rated that serious!

A random chat with a stranger in a car park, as one does, revealed that he is part of designing and installing an updated emergency services/govt.-only mobile comms system that will survive that. Except, I pointed out a potential flaw in the software integration, and power supply, (as discussed on this site) and he cycled away thoughtful and worried.....

I put reference to the National Emergency Briefing here and the thread was disappeared for being political, less political than this. I dare say this'll go the same way.

 

[Woody girl]

I guess it needs discussing..if onlywe can keep away from the political side.
Difficult, but its about our safety, and the safety of our families and communities. so the more people are aware, and share the awareness and any possibilities of solutions to what will be co.ing down the line, it can only be a good thing.
Just keep info, solutions etc practical. No need to argue, we must stick together, build networks and support each other calmly and sensibly.
No room for snipping, backstabbing or arguing the toss.

 

[GeraldTheBonsai]

I can understand how this subject area might be a bit difficult to accommodate, if you are viewing things from a pure bushcraft perspective. The whole National Risk Register and associated topics are focused at the macro national level, rather than at the more practical aspects that you could capture under bushcraft.

Working out how to respond to these themes is, to many, crossing over into prepping territory. Now, open disclosure - i'm a prepper - have no problem saying that. So yes, it can be discussed, and doesn't need to be political. Just wondering though if it's straying into territory the mods might think are out of scope for this site.

 

[slowworm]

I think people are more interested in the political side rather than the practical. There didn't seem to be any interest when I posted up a link to the useful government emergency advice.

Anyway a link to the BBC article. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp3x37lw1ndo

It's amusing to me because I can't see the Russians or even a UK based teen hacking our 100 old ram pump!

 

[Woody girl]

To be honest, i use a lot of bushcraft skills in my daily life anyway. foraging, learning herbal or bush medicine, which is extending my herb and veg gardening, for instance.
I also hunt in charity shops for practical books, woolblankets, and things to use in my home that require no electric. Ie spong mincer. So my home and outlooks and skills are set up to cope with outages and shortages.
I don't label myself a prepper, I'm just relativly more prepared than the average person .
When I talk to people on this sort of thing, they all agree it's a good idea, but do nothing about it, past getting a few candles in a drawer, and some tins of soup in the cupboard, along with some sort of camp stove and a can of gas. The attitude seems to be, "We'll be OK. Don't fall for the fear mongering, it's all a scam". At the same time, believing the powers that be will quickly come to their aid, and put things right.
The "nothing will happen, so i don't realy need to do anything more than preparing for a short power outage" attitude is quite comendable in my area.

 

[Falstaff]

It's not meant to be political, the Register exists irrespective of any political party. I flagged it up for info, with a wry laugh. Responsibility for this is held and owned by the national civil service and security services, who then brief the MP's. Covid showed that they had fallen short.
The whole essence of Bushcraft is self reliance and forward planning. Most of the forum extend those skills to looking at their own domestic "risk register" and acting/making plans accordingly. A lot of the shortcomings of the pre-Covid register have been spotted and discussed. So the new one does not hold any great surprises for us, that we can do anything about.
Sure, I had a wry laugh at the mis-quote by the MP, but I'm sure it was that, and he is now aware of the true situation.
I am actually hugely pleased by the depth of the 2025 Register, (and Consultees), and surprised by some of the assessments. The public recognition and warning of the reality. i.e. a delay in recovery, irrespective of any politics, is a good thing, and long overdue.

The true assessment of risks has now been taken out of any short term political considerations and arena. Funding the envisaged coping strategies will always be political. Whether you agree with the Register risks and measures, or not, is up to you

I mention gas supply as it indicates how this is a live register. Over 90% now comes from a variety of non-Russian sources, and is felt stable enough that this is no longer a risk issue.

 

[Woody girl]

What worries me, is everything going online, from doctors appointments to car parking. Yes it's convenient to have automatic door opening in the supermarket along with self checkouts and paying with your phone. But a major outage caused by anything(remember the hacking of supermarkets a while ago) and everything stops. No petrol, no shopping banking, or telephone, among many things that spring to mind.
Every aspect of your life needs the Internet. Less than 30 yrs ago, life carried on fairly normaly. You could still phone through to order petrol for your forecourt or goods for your business. Everything kept largely running, with minor inconvenience. Now it all comes to an instant halt.
That is where we need to be putting our thoughts and energy.
Personal safety is also a big issue. I won't go into that, as it could be considered the wrong thing to say, but I'm sure we are intelligent enough to fill in the gap and know the threats facing us on that score.
I'm lucky enough to live fairly rural, but that is no guarantee of safety as the recent case on dartmoor illustrates. Politics of the case aside.

 

[GeraldTheBonsai]

When looking at things at this national level, I personally see a theme repeating that makes me uncomfortable. There are lots of very vocal "Something needs to be done!" followed by a very quiet "and somebody else needs to do it..."

 

[Falstaff]

I agree, this is where the recommendation of three days unsupported comes from. Which is maybe like going camping on a 3 day trip, without having to carry it all!
Provided you've got the water and heating bit covered off, which I know you have, I think most folk can manage that.
They might get a bit hungry or bored with their food options.
I wouldn't worry too much about personal safety in rural areas, as long as you/your property are not an obvious attractive target or made too easy. Communities tend to pull together well for a time after a crisis.

Most rural crime and safety is as a result of prior targeting/knowledge of something attractive, and the unsavoury types having transport to get to and from. In the event of a systemic crash, opportunistic crime is unlikely to happen for a few days. Ride-around opportunistic crime will be limited by petrol/fuel shortages. (And folk being home).

On the positive side, the powers that be have clearly taken on board the lessons of recent issues and Covid failures. They have realised it needs a far more localised management and response on the domestic end of things, and better prevention and planning at the forward end. Inevitably there will be resource shortages, but the old 5 P's should reduce the hopeless headless responses of the past.

 

[Falstaff]

There didn't seem to be any interest when I posted up a link to the useful government emergency advice.

Thanks for the press link. I'm reluctant to criticise when they are trying to do something, but the advice and suggested info form is wordy and somehow weak, not wrong. Or especially useful. It feels like a reluctant lesser civil servant writing it to discharge a chore.

There are a lot of more practical advice and better checklists websites out there, and they could have cribbed from them or even better, added a link, say to one of the retired UK forces folk.

 

[Woody girl]

It's funny. I had two conversations today with local people. Both said they knew nothing of this, had stored shop bought water during covid but don't bother anymore, as it wasn't needed so wasn't nessasary to keep put aside.
I reminded them of the Brixham debacle a while ago, and the recent problems in Kent. Neither were aware of the problems in Kent. But assured me, it wouldn't happen here and I was worrying over nothing, and one told me I needed to relax and stop being a scaremongerer.
I give up!
I feel this winter might well be a bit rough, so on that score alone, I am making sure my winter preps are sorted, and up to scratch. Finished the last bit of my pulk by getting two carbinas, and refashoning an old hip bag into a belt to clip it to, so I can be hands free. Made mullion cough mixture, and am keeping eyes out for blackberries, rosehip and elderberry for winter health syrups.
During the winter, I'll look at summer preps, buying (by then) out of fashion cooling items for hotter summers, and look at how to stop my veg plot from suffering with the heat, and make the soil more water retentive..
Always a season ir more ahead.
Today's other preps were a couple of toothbrushes, and two tubes of toothpaste, charity shop found me 8 kilner jar pickle tops so I can make smaller quantities of kimchi, and sourkrout, rather than using the big crock I've got. I've got spares now aswelljust need a few more wide mouth kilner jars and il ever need to buy the stuff again providing I can keep the cabbage whites off the brassicas!
Proper netting needed.
Another prep under the belt, a bit more to go..mainly garden stuff now, as most of the house is buttoned up quite nicely..

Dam! Just burned the potatoes i was cooking for a potato salad while typing this. More burned pot cleaning!
I've got too much on the go at once.
Busy busy me. Ten minutes rest and it all goes to heck and back! Oh well. Such is life! )

 

[slowworm]

I thought I'd have a quick look through the register and, as expected, I think it's written too much as an exercise without much real thought and practical knowledge. For example, telling people to use their mobile phones when many people don't have mobile access.

I think it would be useful, certainly interesting, if they took all the senior people responsible for the report and put them in a remote place with no city conveniences and see how they cope.

It also seems to miss what I genuinely think is possibly the biggest current risk and that's too much red tape and box ticking in government which seems to produce huge amounts of pointless material and not do anything useful.

For example, when Mum was sent home from hospital her GP was sent discharge paperwork. She was sent home with four weeks worth of meds and it was assumed the GP would continue her care and reissue meds as needed. In reality, despite a lot of chasing, her details were only looked at by the GP after 6 weeks and then there wasn't anything meaningful about her on going care needs. Apparently the GP is snowed under with paperwork and if I hadn't chased she would!d have been without life saving meds for several weeks.

Now she's back in hospital and I'm sure excessive red tape leads to many premature deaths a year.

 

[Woody girl]

I've got most cases covered to at least some practical degree, my one weak spot is communication with emergency services should it be needed..
I don't have a car, so can't just take myself off 25 miles to a hospital in the middle of the night, or at a weekend when the surgery is closed.. I can't call for a fire response, I can't call for a police response.

This is my only worry now that my phoneline has been turned on to this new system.. rather stupid in my opinion, as as soon as there is a power cut,everything instantly goes offline around here.
I know you can get a battery back up,, but they only last a few hours.. not much good if things go bellly up for days on end.
Can't afford a radio set up and realy don't want to have to spend time money don't have getting a licence and set.. guess you'd need a battery back up for that aswell.. so for me it's not realy a solution.
In my opinion, certain things have become more vunerable,and less usefull..
With the old system I didn't have any worries as it would still work. If we had outages, the power company would ring me , and keep me up to date on things, ask me if I need anything.. I felt safe. Now they can't do that anymore, so what is the point on being put on the vunerable register? Which a lot of older and disabled or vunerable, such as small babies, or disabled children, those on c pap etc are entitled to be.
To my mind, it's gone backwards, not forwards. It's put many at risk.

 

[slowworm]

I know you can get a battery back up,, but they only last a few hours.. not much good if things go bellly up for days on end.

If you don't have mobile coverage then your landline phone supplier should give you a battery backup free of charge. The one I was eventually sent should last over 6 hours. Whilst not long enough to cover some of the outages we get, it could be left off and only turned on when you need the phone.

Not ideal but a workaround.