At the emergency relief centre, the queue of Guardian readers continued to grow. "We decided that stockpiling was inequitable", they said. "And really the government should have done it. Are none of these ration packs vegan?"
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This is the point. The government is proactively placing the responsibility on the individual citizen to avoid blame later. In London, when Thames water fails, we’ve seen how long it takes to get bottled water deliveries. Clearly the gov also doesn’t have a storage or distribution network.
The question was why there was no public information campaign here, as there is in most European countries, about what simple steps people need to take and provisions to keep, in case of some disruption; why is the British public so peculiarly infantilised on this issue? Today we have our answer.
Soooo this extremely poorly-defined PFI-for-power-plants scheme has, in fact, turned out to be a largely ineffectual placebo to avoid actual state intervention in the energy market? And has been viewed by the Treasury as as a lump of dead money to be assigned elsewhere? I'm shocked, I tell you.
Devolving readiness to households is devil take the hindmost. what is the strategy for foodbanks, councils, the vulnerable... early discussions in our residents association (which does not cover social housing!) Covid response very patchy. Big mosque stepped up but for its own community.
Never mind that stockpiling requires storage space people don't have – it is also maddening that this burden falls on individuals when the risks are largely the result of government policy
Traditional British governments are simply not able to respond to the kinds of crises we will face in the mid-twenty-first century. You cannot leave these things to be absorbed by the existing (strip-mined) infrastructure; you actually have to DO SOMETHING.
Also: Personal stockpiles are targets for targeted violence. The government has access to security forces that regular people do not. The advice to build personal stockpiles is therefore a dereliction of duty in the part of the government to protect its people.
The defence secretary telling the public to stockpile in case of emergency, but not for anything in particular, just for one of the many shit things that could happen that we have no real state plan for, really does capture the mood of times
There is more than a touch of 'security theatre' and 'shock doctrine' about this all. Panic serfs. That's far more important than our government doing anything about the climate crisis or wealth inequality or food security...
Curfews and blackout too? I mean, yeah, probably a good idea to have water and batteries at least, given the likelihood of power failures due to storms or shortages. But this is a very British ideological campaign pretending 'we're all in it together' and designed to invoke the wartime spirit.
It’s true that many can’t. We’re struggling with the high cost of living right now. Who is going to protect those living in really poverty, the housebound and the most vulnerable?
France’s economic problems won’t be solved by pushing reforms through without public trust. People are dealing with high costs and pressure on essential services. The government needs to explain the benefits fairly and protect vulnerable households, especially when living standards are at stake.
They approve Jackdaw (which is owned by the price gouging fossil fuel predators - so we won't *actually see* what they get out of it - just feel the impacts) and then they do this there is literally no joined-up thinking in the entire @labouruk.bsky.social Government.
Wes Streeting is proving to Andy Burnham that it wasn’t necessarily his best idea to appoint most of the ministers from the failed Starmer govt.
This is all because of billionaires. They are driving the climate crisis, wars, right-wing agenda dividing people causing displacement of people, and buying up resources. Hoarding money and resources needs to be outlawed.
Absolutely spot on. Governments around Europe are quite aggressively telling their citizens to stockpile goods. Thousands can't afford to and Governments aren't doing anything themselves either... except adding to the tensions ofcourse
I am sure that when we are unable to get hold of basic necessities we will proceed to deal with it in true, stoic, British fashion, chin up, just like we did during the Blitz, during which there was absolutely no crime or looting of any kind. Vera Lynn, everybody!
Look at this absolute bollard simpering at the camera and asking us to stockpile stuff because he's definitely going to shit the bed at some point and wants to make sure he can blame us for not stockpiling rather than us having any expectations of a competent Defense Secretary.
There's a large section of the British public that loves talking about the Blitz spirit and how kids these days are too soft, while losing their mind as soon as they're asked to inconvenience themselves in any way.
Exactly so. Essentially this government is privatising the national response to war and climate change.
The UK's right wing media will not allow a Labour government to explain the importance of preparation and resilience. In this way it does Putin's work for him.
WE TOLD YOU SO The UK Govt has just announced a “Be Ready” campaign. About time. The collapse of our food supply-chain system is just one of the existential risks we face The full unredacted National Security Assessment must be released to the public. @tbij.bsky.social #LoveAndRage #NoFoodNoFuture
Amazing how many people (all American so far, I'm sorry to say) who have come to argue that the government doesn't have the duty to provide access to food, water and basic services.
I’m prepping for civil unrest already. Stockpiling timber to build a guillotine and weaving a basket to catch the heads.
Trouble is this scaremongering by the government is probably going to lead to shortages!! Isn't all about gaslighting the electorate- don't look at inflation and general cost of living but be scared that we might be attacked 😳 😅. Like the red menace in the USA in the 1950s @lbc.co.uk Scaremongering
Bro I can barely feed myself today never mind stockpile. Stop treating inbred army toff officers as some sort of reliable source and fuck streeting off into the sea.
Do as we say, not as we do, says the government with pitifully low stored gas.
Message from the Government: we have dismantled everything, no one is coming, buy more stuff you can barely afford and put it in a cupboard.
How in the name of ever living fuck do those of us at the bottom stockpile? When the pandemic hit you couldn't even get bog roll in Aldi because those with money hoarded the supplies. My ex Mrs and I borrow off each other several times a month to keep our kids fed. I'm forever grateful we get on
Call me old fashioned but I'd feel a lot safer if our government built resilience in our own food and energy production rather than me having 3 days' worth of tinned food in the cupboard
And don’t get me started on the folly of “Just In Time” supply chains…
I live on a bloody narrowboat, where pray tell is this "stockpile" meant to go?
And who's paying for the poor and vulnerable to stockpile shit, Wes? You? Oh no, I forgot, you lot don't give a flying fuck about us, do you? We can die for all of you.
Every Briton should stockpile water & food supplies, government advises! Yet the same government has trashed our economy & expects us to find the funds to do this - to fund their emergency! Bunch of absolute cockwombles 👎
The US government shows us on a daily basis that it is beyond the pale, what is the UK government doing about it?
Don't forget to whitewash your windows, pile your furniture against the wall and watch When the Wind Blows
Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Palantir.
I will never not be amused by the notion that this island is populated by 'Britons'.
FFS ..These pricks could have turned it around and Peter Mandelson's favourite anti trans replicant Wes Kryten is preparing us to eat from cold tins and shit in a bucket
the end goal of thatcherism?
People obsessed with rugged individualism and the Blitz spirit raging about govt suggesting we should have some self help civil resilience
🙄 So, the UK govt is basically telling us: "You're on your own. We can't and won't plan to do anything to help you. Good luck". It really is quite the drop-off from Burnham's early hopeful vibes...
Showing Wes Streeting's face from the side should come with content warnings.
Is this the government being pragmatic again?
During a cost of living crisis when people can’t afford to stockpile food!!!
Pin this to the top of Bluesky today pls.
Costco having a good weekend 📈
I wouldn't lead the next election with it Wes
This current UK government "fear mongering" about stockpiling tinned food and water is annoying. Tin hat brigade etc will be panic buying no doubt.
