National Risk Register/National Resilience Update - Nothing new to us.
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You mean like all the doom and gloom predictions that there have been on BCUK? Seems like every week there’s a suggestion that the world is ending, society is over, etc, etc.
I think quite a few peppers want everything to collapse….
I don't think any prepper (can only speak for the ones I know) want everything to collapse. Nobody want that. Think the difference is that there is a spectrum of opinion between Everything Will Be Fine to Its The End of the World. People with a prep / resilience mindset are just a bit more towards one end, normally based on their experiences or view of how they see the various systems and infrastructure we have working (or not).
I have yet to meet a swivel eyed, gun toting Run For The Hills prepper. (In the UK, I should add. )
But, tangentially, would be interesting to know if BCUK has had any uptick in new members over the last month or so.
This is social media rumour and fearmongering. The old stock is at the end of its serviceable life so it’s being replaced. I’d say it was a rare instance of our government being responsible.
“This contract is part of routine planning from the Government in order to ensure it is prepared should an unexpected event leave hundreds of people dead. It replaces a similar system which has been in place for 20 years.”
THAT is exactly what THEY would say to confuse you! With statements like that it is VERY easy to slide to the paranoid side.
Before reading your post I wasn’t aware of this so I did a quick search to see what popped up. It appears that the Home Office have indeed recently put out a tender for mass fatality tents, mortuary equipment and other related supplies. I also saw one article which quotes the Home Office as saying “This contract seeks to update a capability that has existed since 2005 and which has been maintained under all governments in that period”.
Without wanting to travel down the road of paranoid tinfoil hat conspiracy theories I can think of a few sensible possibilities for it. Firstly it could just be a normal precaution for any future mass fatality event such as a bad pandemic or war which I actually think quite a sensible for them to do.
I can’t help wondering about the timing though. Why now? Has the old equipment worn out or become damaged is some way and needs replacing? Maybe they just like to waste money and replace the old equipment periodically even if the current stock is still in good condition and would be perfectly functional? Or do they have some other legitimate reason they haven't told us about which makes them expect a future mass fatality event of some kind?
Who knows? I certainly don’t. I’ll file this one under ‘it could be something but it's probably nothing’ and not worry about it. But I will remember it a and bear it in mind if any other seemingly related new information comes up in the future.
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Actually, there is nothing to see here. Around 2002 the then Gov did a review on Contingency, National Critical Infrastructure and various other things. (I was involved in some of the CNI stuff). One of the outputs was to standardise how they procure and manage assets like these. Unlike PPE which tends to have a shelf life of 3 to 5 years, heavier stuff lasts longer - the target was 20 years. When they went out to tender they stipulated that thinks like heavy tents, body bags etc should have a shelf life of 20 years.
That clock is now up, so the process has them replace the kit, and thats why the tender has gone out. The kit itself is very probably still ok, but its like mean time before failure (MTBF) for electronic kit - you replace the kit at an appropriate "estimate" time, before it packs up/fails/degrades. For instance, big plastic water containers - they go brittle after several years etc. There is no "something bad is going to happen" behind it - just normal kit rotation.
The upside is expect a lot of kit to start appearing in Army and Gov surplus sites in a bit.
That clock is now up, so the process has them replace the kit, and thats why the tender has gone out. The kit itself is very probably still ok, but its like mean time before failure (MTBF) for electronic kit - you replace the kit at an appropriate "estimate" time, before it packs up/fails/degrades. For instance, big plastic water containers - they go brittle after several years etc. There is no "something bad is going to happen" behind it - just normal kit rotation.
The upside is expect a lot of kit to start appearing in Army and Gov surplus sites in a bit.
And then endless YouTubers showing us how we too can make an emergency poncho out of a simple surplus stock body bag?
Thank you Gerald, great summary. That was my understanding also. The Covid PPE shortage was partly due to the failure to properly store and look after the existing contingency PPE stock.
The amount of background contingency planning and stock expenditure etc. done by the Govt. is stunning. It is not usually mentioned for fear it will alarm the general public, or cause division on what and how much to buy.
That was the rather superior view taken by the Civil Service. Now that contracts are tendered in public, they need to recognise that more info should be with the tender, to stop scare stories.
Done more openly and frequently, it would create a lot more public reassurance in their competence, and less interest in what and how it was spent. The recent tender for data storage and services is a case in point. Done correctly, it does not provide anything of interest or news for foreign or bad actors, the usual excuse given for not doing so.
The amount of background contingency planning and stock expenditure etc. done by the Govt. is stunning. It is not usually mentioned for fear it will alarm the general public, or cause division on what and how much to buy.
That was the rather superior view taken by the Civil Service. Now that contracts are tendered in public, they need to recognise that more info should be with the tender, to stop scare stories.
Done more openly and frequently, it would create a lot more public reassurance in their competence, and less interest in what and how it was spent. The recent tender for data storage and services is a case in point. Done correctly, it does not provide anything of interest or news for foreign or bad actors, the usual excuse given for not doing so.
Fully agree - more openness around Gov procurement processes would stop a lot of the guessing, especially in the Media, who are always looking for a story.
However, the is a flip side (which also might be a good thing). More visibility would highlight exactly how poor Gov procurement processes are compared to the private sector. Tenders are vague, with ill defined requirement, often dressed up with lots of non functional requirement.
Yes, absolutely true. As an ex-procurement professional having worked on both sides of the fence, I'd have to say it can vary widely, depending upon the client and procurement team dealing with it. But mainly shockingly poor. At the end of the day it is the Procurement team who are, or should be, responsible for proactively guiding the client how to specify to achieve a successful outcome.
Largely this does not happen, and even if they have the skills and interest to do so, they do not get the necessary political support from their top management line. I've had some big successes, but only when totally backed by my senior management and the sometimes reluctant acquiescence of the client.
On the whole, local government is pretty good as failures show up quickly, but there have been some horrible failures. (Children's Social Services especially). Some of the Civil service/NHS/Defence/DHS monoliths are a nightmare to deal with, mainly due to incompetence and ego's at top high level, and personal politics. (Met Police attempted single source of Palantir ? A classic example).
There have though, been some awful ones in the private sector - TSB n my opinion, and a lot in the utilities, banking and city sectors, and telecoms. There are also some quasi private/public ones, usually involving expensive blue chip consultancies and IT companies.
If I where in your shoes, and of course if money permits (its seems to be that age old question) i would look into a getting a gene .. battery banks are ok ive a few myself just small pack size ones if you ration the power the Anker and Samsung I highly rate, but a generator would be much more beneficial to you in you, you can pick the up on the market place second hand pretty cheap, Infact if you are lucky the local tips have them come in sometimes and will sell them at a fair price.
Just safely store say 10L petrol with some fuel stabiliser should be good for say a year and just rotate it from there.
As for radio it all depends on what your wanting really, it can be relatively cheap to setup if you look about, CB doesn't need license anymore Ofcom abolished that in 06, HAM you need licence as you most probably know, its mostly free apart from booking the test itself, I think you'll find HAM equipment can come with a bit of a price tag, I'm not completely ofay with that side of things, you can get them Baofeng radios are pretty good one they are set up you got rhe 5w little £20/£30 things UV-5R or something and the 10w can't remember the price of the top of my head.. they ain't to much more say £50 get yourself a one of them folding whip antennas if mobile or i reckons you could set up a half decent home based antenna.. a lot of it is down to what your local terrain is like what obstacles will your transmissions encounter the higher the antenna the better.
Antenna antenna antenna, thats what you biggest thing to focus on if anything first.
I mean don't get wrong i don't know a mawhosive amount about coms and I'm sure there is others on here who know way more than myself but I think its doable!
I'm on CB myself, its nothing like it once was admittedly, but there are people still out there, I managed to pick someone up in Ireland last year with my T2000 sat on a hill with a silver rod set up so it was above most obstructions and im in East Anglia so was pretty happy with that he must have been putting some power out though to reach me if I managed to pick him up
Any how.. sorry went on a little bit there haha, I hope something in that essay might be able to help you somewhat.
Thanks Travelling Tree. I remember the old CB & FM becoming popular with "youth" and wondered if it was still being used. But are there many folk out there on any/all forms of radio & what use will any of it, incl "Legit" stuff actually be?
Unless you subscribe to the "End of the World" scenario, any national or local emergency or issue is likely to be relatively short-lived, days or a few weeks at most. Unless your fellow radio ham is fairly close by, they are unlikely to be able to really help you. Information on the national news/position/rumoured situation, is purely a nice to know.
Now back to the You Tube surplus body bags conversions..too much condensation as a poncho, but might make a great hidden buried emergency/stealth stash..? Say on a roundabout..?
Unless you subscribe to the "End of the World" scenario, any national or local emergency or issue is likely to be relatively short-lived, days or a few weeks at most. Unless your fellow radio ham is fairly close by, they are unlikely to be able to really help you. Information on the national news/position/rumoured situation, is purely a nice to know.
Now back to the You Tube surplus body bags conversions..too much condensation as a poncho, but might make a great hidden buried emergency/stealth stash..? Say on a roundabout..?
I have been considering some sort of comms, mainly to be used when out and about or in an emergency. CB was one option as I had discounted PMR due to its limited range and power (0.5). Then I found out that there is a business PMR licence that you can get - it costs £75 for 5 years. This lets you operate up to 5 mobile business PMR radions, which can have a power up to 5W for handheld and up to 40W for mobile devices. That increase in power substantially increases range.
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