Be Excellent To Each Other

So, the government is a shambles, there's no political consensus to do anything, and if nothing changes the UK leaves the EU with no deal in a little over eleven weeks. Every credible forecast is that that would cause immense disruption to all imports of food, medicine, etc.

How worried are you? Have you already started, or are you planning to start, a stockpile of canned foods? How big a stockpile?

We're looking into stockpiling Mrs Grim...'s medicine.

I'm not a fan of tinned food but usually keep some in the cupboard for when I go camping (because, frankly, fuck hardtack). Over the last few months I've been adding one or two more cans to my weekly shop than I normally would so I've more than I'd normally keep in stock, but I doubt it would last for a prolonged emergency.

Unfortunately I'm trying to maintain a policy of not keeping beer at home so once my hipflask is empty I'll be out of alcohol.

I have an external pantry and a chest freezer full of stuff, so it's sorta stockpiled by default. I'd like to put more stuff in both, but we are in the process of eating down the chest freezer contents as it really needs a defrost.

We sort of inadvertently have done. Like Kern, my wife has been buying a couple of extra things in the weekly shopping for a few months now. We already have a large freezer with a fair amount of stuff in it so if the worst comes to the worst, I imagine we'd last a few days at least.

I have been adding extra canned goods to our weekly Tesco order for a while, and we have started stockpiling essential medications for Jnr and Mrs Hearthly. (I have been sort of doing the same with my omeprazole but I can mostly fix the need for that by not drinking any alcohol. However, Jnr and Mrs Hearthly have some things that they really do need.)

The run of thinking is that a No Deal Brexit (and the attendant supply chain carnage) will not be allowed to happen, but when it comes to food and medical supplies, safe is definitely better than sorry.

I guess we'd have some other options on the IOM as we already have many established shipping routes, but in reality of course most of our freight currently comes from the UK so new chains would need to be established. Also we're a relatively small population, we have an airport, so that's another possible route for essentials to get in.

As Kern notes though, realistically the most any of us are going to manage is a week or two's extra supplies, so it's more window dressing than anything else if it really does all go to shit.

#TakingBackControl

I might dust off my Twilight Zone DVDs and rewatch 'The Shelter'*



*Wikipeida link, contains spoilers.

I reckon Mrs May's painfully aware that the minute the shops run out or the power goes off, her government is over. And, somewhere, Edward Heath would appreciate the irony.

I also imagine that as a diabetic, she's already got her own medication supplies arranged in the event of import delays.

Personally, I haven't started stockpiling anything as my needs are quite basic, but from an exporting point of view, as my biggest customers for ConsoleMAD are in the EU, particularly Scandinavia, I'm debating whether to pause overseas ordering until I can be sure there'll be no delays.

I chose the "other" option, as my position is that i'm too idle to do anything out the ordinary, so haven't stockpiled anything or thought about it.

This, word for word.

How is that not "no, I'm not scared"

Because it's "I think everything is going to turn to shit, but you're seriously underestimating my idleness"

You're not bone-deep-scared though. That would override any amount of idleness.

My wife has enough homemade stuff frozen to feed an army. This is not because of Brexit

Just click on more things for the Tesco man to bring to your front door. In fact, just click on the same things as usual, but make the numbers larger.

At worst I'll be starting a new and incredibly effective diet plan that requires zero will power on my part; while also being forced to come off the anti-depressants I've been considering dropping for a while. Thanks Brexit!

I’m not going to be baited into stockpiling food by Project Fear. It’ll sort itself out by the end of March.

...and if it doesn’t I’ll be too busy watching my new telly secured in the riots to notice.

Yeah, this. Doesn't feel like a lot of work to me.

We have this also, mostly because my mum has been amazing whilst I’ve been ill, but reading this thread has put the fear in me a bit because people I respect as non-crazies are stockpiling food. So I’m going to get some UHT milk and bread flour, etc so we don’t run out of basics, and some chickpeas, beans, other things that we’ll use anyway, and hope for the best.

A niche case, I am aware, but I plan to be out of the country at the end of March. It's not booked yet, but depending on how it's looking, I might just extend how long I'm away for to let the dust settle.

There is a twitter poll version of this (with larger sample size) here: https://twitter.com/PenLlawen/status/10 ... 2662823936

Are you considering stockpiling food, medication, or anything else in case of Brexit disruption?

— Richard Gaywood (@PenLlawen) January 8, 2019

Sure, but that still doesn't give an option in the poll that covers my position. And the wording is worse in the twitter poll, because it assumes that if I don't stockpile I don't think there will be any problems.

Not too idle for nitpicking criticism, eh?!

Never

I'm stockpiling the idle.

I've spent 41 years proving that procrastination is always the answer.

I'm sure it will hold.

If not we've got pheasant living in our garden and the chickens are giving us 2 eggs a day even in this alleged winter, should be back up to 3 in spring.

We already have 3 freezers full of stuff, I've been looking for an excuse to add a big chest freezer. This is my chance!

I'm down to my last 6 bags of hipster charcoal too but that's British so I should be ok!

I heard the story about your storage locker and I shall never, ever underestimate your idleness again.

I would recommend buying tinned foodstuffs and soups.

*adds location to 'the shopping list'*

Anyone know any good gammon recipes?

Spoken like a man who hasn't reached zen idleness.

Ordering more things on your regular online shop is less work than that post.

It's not just the amount of work that defines idleness, it's the perception of the idleness pay-off.
I will put more effort into being idle, than actually doing something.

And you have to put shit in cupboards. That's like a job.

No understanding of the consequences, that's the problem with active and engaged folks.

Those vegetables won't pick themselves.

I already hoard food, be it canned or frozen. Nothing to do with Brexit though, and more due to being an autistic worrier. Mum is the same too, her cupboard shelves all sag due to the amount of food in there.

I've been convinced I need to do something, so I stopped at Morrisons on the way home and bought a pizza and some iced fingers.

Not seen that but it sounds good having hearthlyed the plot. I have seen Threads though and cynical Wook is not stockpiling food because it would be a pointless and futile excersize in the face of the brutal CiMay Special Enforcers and roving gangs of Brexiteers, intent on making sure you understand how much BETTER EVERYTHING IS in the Empire. While we eat our shoes and language devolves into grunts and gesticulating with sharpened blue passports.

I went through the kitchen cupboards and threw out everything expired to make room for a few more bits and pieces should I choose to stock up.
The oldest thing was Best Before 2008, which is odd as we moved here in 2011.

I'll see what happens next week, and then decide if i can be bothered buying a few weeks worth of stuff.

I'm not normally this cautious but I've more or less lost any confidence in the ability of the current government to actually govern, or in the mass of Conservative backbenchers to wake up and stop the country falling off a cliff.

Say what you like about the actions and personalities of the Prime Minister's immediate predecessors, but at least under Major, Blair, Brown, and Cameron we never worried about the maintaince of essential supplies due to the deliberate choice of their administrations. The 2000 fuel crisis is the closest we've come (that I can think of), but the blockades were not organised or foreseen by the Labour administration.

In short, this is probably the first time since the 1970s when we're facing a serious governability crisis. I hope that this time next year (or indeed in the summer) it's something we can chuckle over.

We didn't have the opportunity to worry about any of this under Cameron because the very instant he realised his gamble had actually fucked the country in the ass he fucked off. Everything that's happened since then is mostly because Brexit is a ridiculous and unworkable idea no matter who was trying to implement it. Fuck David Cameron.

There's no need to blame one person.

Fuck the lot of them.

Worst orgy ever.

Nah, I'm not scared

With his trotters up...twat.