Survival in the UK now

[Laurentius]

I am going to have to fortify my allotment, wait a minute with a river round two corners and brambles between the fence and the river, I'm half way there already. I don't know whether I could live off it all year round, however I have not been near a greengrocers for a couple of weeks.

Incidentally I don't think Neolithic man had to strike a flint or use a bow drill or whatever every day, they could always carry a few embers around or keep a fire going in a static camp.

 

[mark oriel]

For me the best bit of kit for the house is the Rayburn. Cooks the dinner, boils the water, heats the house, deyhdrates the food, dries the clothes a hot bath and all for the cost of a barrow of logs. Even with the pump off it heats upstairs. Worth a look at the defra site on food security, appparently we are more self sufficient as a country now than pre war at about 60%. This means we are are dependant on import for about 40% of our food. There are a number of concerns they have which are global weather situations and failing crops, bio fuels being grown in favour of food crops and the Chinese shifting their dietry tastes to western food. Last year most of the NZ lamb export was to China, which pushed the uk price of a lamb at mart to over £100.00. Expensive chops eh!!
The population of the uk pre war was apparently about 48 million now it is 62 million and growing. The above stats are only for the people that are dependant on buying everything they eat, so gather, grow and rear your own.

 

[British Red]

Worth a look at the defra site on food security, appparently we are more self sufficient as a country now than pre war at about 60%.


The population of the uk pre war was apparently about 48 million now it is 62 million and growing. The above stats are only for the people that are dependant on buying everything they eat, so gather, grow and rear your own.

Or put another way, in 1945 we couldn't feed 55% of 48 million - on our own resources, 26.4 million people would have starved

Today we cannot feed 40% of 62 million - so on our own resources - 24.8 million will starve

In effect we had around 25 million mouths we couldn't feed then - and we still do. But now we are for more dependant on mechanisation and fossil fuel derived fertilisers. Reduce them and the number spirals.

 

[Beefy0978]

I expect most of us could eat 20% less overnight and grow a good 20% in the garden to make up the difference. We're better off than most. The only thing we lack now that we had then was the royal navy. There's not much of it left after successive cuts and there's quite a few daft buggers out there who could swim to blighty.....

 

[mark oriel]

The other massive difference between now and then is the numbers producing the food has massively reduced in favour of agri factories, producing vast amounts. Bring back the village shop. I remember when I was a boy refreshers, sherbert lemons and tip tops. With time you can learn to go without though.

 

[santaman2000]

I think for the sake of reality of prepping has to be broken into 2 categories:

1. Short term interuptions (a few weeks or less) such as would be experienced from storms, natural disaters, trade interuptions, etc. For this type of prepping, stocking up of neccesary items is obviously the most important. Supplement that with a pre-thought evacuation plan and destination and it should be enough.

2. Long term (likely to be months or years (if not permanent) such as running out of oil, economic collapse, international turmoil, etc. For this I think BR's advice is among the best. However, as others have pointed out there are other mitigating variables; There will already be villages and communities established to share the skills still practicable, fire need not be knidles afresh every time you need it (someome in a group would simply be assigned to tend it and keep it burning) Unfortunately, as others have also already pointed out, there would be aggravating factors as well; the unavoidable fact that without our current supply of cheap energy and active trade (consumerism) there is simply no way that any given area could support the current population levels or sustain those of us with certain medical problems.

 

[Silverclaws]

Population, what percentage of our population would leg it as son as they got things started to get iffy, perhaps last in first out since they are the ones more keyed up to shifting on and then there are those with money to fly away, the wealthy would head for better climes as many are already doing, as it is we constantly hear about immigrants, what no one mentions is those emigrating from our country, it is a sizeable number every year and has been for a good while and according to immigration matters website it is reckoned to be about a thousand Brits a day most of whom are highly educated and young, but of many foreigners that come here, what is never mentioned is how many of those foreigners leave, but that's politics. If push came to shove, the towns and cities would fair badly, crime would rise for a start and new criminals will be created as the 'me first' attitude swings in full force. The countryside I expect will carry on much as usual as myself working out at the smithy, it well in the sticks, I am amazed at the network out there and what goes on, with even work being exchanged for food as it has always been. But if things go wrong in this country and the cost of oil rises much more beyond what it is already there will be people hurting as every other price rises along with the cost of fuel at the pumps, so how to manage without some modern conveniences is prudent and I am old enough to remember the power cuts in the 1970's and the bread shortage and the bin men strikes, it doesn't take much to upset our fragile existence as the fuel protests proved only this year, with someone influential mouthing off in public panic buying caused problems for weeks in some areas as fuel stations ran dry.

But the Rayburn mentioned, i experienced similar out in the forests of Sweden where one of my parents live, that thing fuelled by wood in the middle of a very big wood did all sorts and it was always lit and in a wooden house too, but there was always hot water, always heat and always something ready to cook on, in fact the thing had a water boiler attached which I took on repairing as the tap had stuffed up, an old tap, the type that is just a tapered valve in a tapered hole held there by the taper so easy to repair and the facilities out there at a two hundred year old torp were impressive, self sufficiency in most things was encouraged and indeed necessary so far from the nearest town, 45 minutes by modern car.