New prepper in London

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nightowl
Posts: 89
Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2019 1:25 am

New prepper in London

Post by nightowl »

Hi,

I live in east London but am originally from the West Country. I've always been interested in hiking and camping and used to be in St John Ambulance so have some knowledge of first aid. My main concerns are:

1, Escaping London in an emergency. I've always lived in smaller areas before, usually in the vicinity of large wilderness areas like Dartmoor and the Brecon Beacons. I'm not even sure what the accepted wisdom is in terms of whether it is desirable to escape London. Obviously in a potential nuclear situation it would be. The problem for me is work and family (they work too) which makes it difficult to think of dropping everything unless it's in an absolute crisis situation. The trouble is by the time it gets to that point you worry that the transport network will be clogged.

2, Where to go. Most of my family live in Devon and Cornwall which at first thought seems like a good place to head to... until you think of Devonport and all the military camps down there. Basically, I'm assuming that in a nuclear situation that area will cop it big time. I don't really have the finances to consider buying a bolt hole type of property somewhere.

3, Brexit. Who can predict what's going to happen in terms of food shortages etc but I'm definitely going to stock up. My main concern is more in terms of social order. It seems such deep splits have opened up in the country and every extremist has been given licence to come out into the open. You can obviously also see this potentially leading to the break up of the UK, the return of conflict in Northern Ireland etc.
Arzosah
Posts: 6323
Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2012 4:20 pm

Re: New prepper in London

Post by Arzosah »

Welcome to the forum :)
nightowl wrote: Sun Feb 03, 2019 1:33 pmI've always been interested in hiking and camping and used to be in St John Ambulance so have some knowledge of first aid.
Thats a great start.
1, Escaping London in an emergency. I've always lived in smaller areas before, usually in the vicinity of large wilderness areas like Dartmoor and the Brecon Beacons. I'm not even sure what the accepted wisdom is in terms of whether it is desirable to escape London. Obviously in a potential nuclear situation it would be. The problem for me is work and family (they work too) which makes it difficult to think of dropping everything unless it's in an absolute crisis situation. The trouble is by the time it gets to that point you worry that the transport network will be clogged.
We always ask new people what they're prepping for, but that seems an extreme scenario to prep for - there's other things that are far more likely, depending on where you are: broken water main, rioting, gas explosion, flooding, WWII bomb, terrorism, all sorts of things. A distant possibility is an accident at a nuclear power station - listening to what the authorities are saying is important, of course, but your own research and knowledge could also be lifesaving.

Can I ask why the nuclear thing is so high up your list, please?
2, Where to go. Most of my family live in Devon and Cornwall which at first thought seems like a good place to head to... until you think of Devonport and all the military camps down there. Basically, I'm assuming that in a nuclear situation that area will cop it big time. I don't really have the finances to consider buying a bolt hole type of property somewhere.
Erm, yep to the first, and ditto to the second.
3, Brexit. Who can predict what's going to happen in terms of food shortages etc but I'm definitely going to stock up. My main concern is more in terms of social order. It seems such deep splits have opened up in the country and every extremist has been given licence to come out into the open. You can obviously also see this potentially leading to the break up of the UK, the return of conflict in Northern Ireland etc.
All distinct possibilities, some more likely than others. I hope you find useful stuff on here.
nightowl
Posts: 89
Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2019 1:25 am

Re: New prepper in London

Post by nightowl »

I'm not fixated with nuclear conflict but obviously you do consider what is the worst thing that could happen. I suppose I did grow up at a time when people were scared that this was a real possibility and now it feels like it's not in the realms of impossibility again with Russia essentially a dictatorship and the US led by a thin skinned egomaniac.
User avatar
korolev
Posts: 606
Joined: Thu Jul 06, 2017 2:18 am
Location: Land of the South Saxons

Re: New prepper in London

Post by korolev »

Hello :mrgreen:

Advice I go with is to spend as much of your time/money as you can reasonably afford in direct proportion to what you think is going to affect you; for example if you think there is a 1% chance of being affected by nuclear war, then spend 1% of your efforts on prepping for it.
Far more likely is a money, weather or health related problem so direct more effort into that.
It is, of course, entirely up to you what you prep for though.
Arzosah
Posts: 6323
Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2012 4:20 pm

Re: New prepper in London

Post by Arzosah »

Nightowl, I understand (and agree) with what you're saying about new developments politically ... preparing for the less intense stuff gives you a good start on that bigger picture too. And like you I remember those days, I even helped mailouts of the Protect and Survive leaflet as part of a 'voluntary' work project I had to do :oops:

As far as escaping London is concerned, I've had lots of fun with google and transport maps - railways, trams, motorways, roads, cycle paths, footpaths, rivers and streams, tunnels of various sorts, there's a lot of options. But yes, where to go is the first question.

Korolev's proportional spending layout is nice as well.