The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

[Deleted User]

A little newsflash just popped onto the screen and Jeremy Corbyn has pulled out of the cross party Brexit talks as 'he can't trust unreliable Theresa May' so I rather feel we're back to just before square one in the dealings on Brexit and may be in for some 'not so entertaining' political playground squabbles in the next few weeks! a sense of deja vue creeps upon me, again!


I shall keep prepping as the future looks increasingly like a minefield and I think people are going to become increasingly cross about the uncertainty and unknown outcome of the whole Brexit process.

DigForVictory

Mindful of your concerns Mrs LW & while working in a major city distinctly sharing them, I was intrigued to research advice on how to survive/get out of a riot.

In case you wanted to know:
Try To Blend In - In a riot, there are three groups of people: the rioters, the police, and the non-violent bystanders. You want to do your best to blend in with the third group and avoid the attention of the first two while making your way to safety.

Drive Carefully - as if you’re driving towards police officers, they may think you intend to use your vehicle as a weapon. Rioters, on the other hand, seem to love nothing more than upturning a vehicle. The key here is to stay calm and drive normally, avoiding crowds of people as best you can while you make your escape.
(Not sure about you but my satnav is really unhelpful on where crowds are, but google maps does at least warn you of known traffic blockages & roadworks.)

Move With the Crowd Until You Find an Opportunity to Escape - don't fight the flow but go with the crowd until an opportunity such as a doorway, an alley, or a side street presents itself. Then, moving laterally, make your way out of the crowd and to safety.

Avoid Riot Control Weapons - tear gas, water cannons, rubber bullets are supposed to be non-lethal, but why test it? Stay far away from the front lines of the riot, and keep a careful eye out for signs that nonlethal weapons have been deployed, such as people running away from a particular spot with their arms shielding their faces.

Don’t Try to Be a Hero - targeting rioters individually is a deadly business. As difficult as it might be to resist the urge to intervene in such situations, doing so likely won’t help anything and may cost you your life. Get yourself and your loved ones to safety and leave the rest to the police.

Avoid Getting Pinned In - to minimise the risk of being crushed, stay away from tight spaces and buildings (unless you have a way to enter the building). Also, try to keep away from the edge of the crowd. Not only will this protect you from being pinned, it will also make you less of a target for police officers.

Get Indoors Right Away - if you remain calm and patient, the opportunity to get indoors should eventually present itself. If you are lucky, you will already be inside a building once the riot starts. Either way, get inside the nearest building, lock the doors and windows if you can, and stay there. If possible, secure a weapon as well. You never know when someone with bad intentions will enter the building you’re in. Arming yourself and hunkering down in an interior room is the best way to stay secure for the duration of the riot.
(I think I'd rather have a wind up radio & my knitting but I take the point riots are uncivilised.)

Trust Your Instinct, Be Prepared to Improvise - Remaining calm, keeping a wary eye on your surroundings, and trusting your gut as you make your way to safety is the best way to survive a riot of any size and violence level.

Oh yes, a 'poker face' so those with you don't realise you're scared & take their calm lead from you & 'responding with confidence' as if your choice is entirely reasonable are also recommended. These Americans are far too experienced in how to walk nonchalantly away from tear gas, rioters and promptly hunkering down & tooling up. More British might be to observe something happening at a distance, elect not to go that way, pick a different to the mob & get home & brew up with all reasonable decorum.

Says she with her calendar set to leave the city before the Footballers (& their open top bus) start serious celebrations & generally eyeing the main and the minor roads out...

[Deleted User]

I had an 'experience' yesterday D for V, HWK was in surgery and I'd gone into the city later in the day on the bus and was doing some shopping and came out of a shop right into the middle of an extremely volatile argument going on between two young non British men and a couple of young women who had been walking down the road and were verbally abused by the men, I heard shouting as I paid in the shop but hadn't banked on walking out the door and nearly being mown down by the young men going at a rate of knots towards the women. I just put my head down, sidestepped and walked away at pace, didn't look at any of them just got out of the way and left. It left me a tiny bit shaken but I put distance between me and the situation as fast as I could without running and drawing attention to myself.

I guess, as yesterday proved, that things can happen out of the blue and you only have to be in the wrong place at the wrong time to be caught up in things that have noting at all to do with you.


Being 'grey' and not standing out, almost like invisibility in a crowd is about as safe as you can get and getting away from anything that has kicked off as quickly and unobtrusively as you can is the only thing you can do.

Worse thing I've been in and unable to get out of was when we first were moving to Hampshire and HWK was down there working and the girls and I were going down for a half term on the train which turned out to be full of football supporters from a London club, all well oiled, very turbulent between themselves and the language and 'maleness' of it all was daunting BUT there were policemen patrolling the carriages with police dogs and in the main other than alcohol induced argumentativeness it was just 'rough' round the edges. The police were watching out for us, made sure the blokes round about us behaved as well as they could be persuaded to and generally maintained a presence near us, grateful for that but more grateful to actually reach destination and get out of the station away from them.

CRANKY40

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

I guess, as yesterday proved, that things can happen out of the blue and you only have to be in the wrong place at the wrong time to be caught up in things that have noting at all to do with you.

My friend Rose and I were part of the Poll Tax march more years ago than I care to remember. It was a warm day and at the end of the march we stopped at a shop in Whitehall (just steps away from Trafalgar Square) to buy a drink when we reached the end of the march. The shop's owners were being sensible and only letting so many people in at a time, then the next lot and so on. After we bought our drink, the police closed the shop as the crowd pushing to get in was deemed unsafe. The mood started to turn ugly and my friend Rose who was way more streetwise than me (she was black, from London and educated me thoroughly about the racism that I didn't even know existed until I met her) said "Run". We ran until we reached Embankment tube station without looking back and caught the next tube home.

I have often remembered the occasion of the Poll Tax riots and thought thank goodness that Rose knew when to run.

cuddlymarm

Hi guys
I wasn’t expecting anything but failure from the discussions ( as far as I can see neither could give enough to make a difference and it was just kicking the can down the road as usual)
Unfortunately my prepping is going to have to be downsized due to us having to move out to get renovations done. But I’m being positive about it. The money I’m now saving is going off my CC and savings account.
As soon as I’m back in I’ll start again.
We’re lucky that it’s quite sleepy and there’s little chance of unrest here. My eldest lives in the country but my youngest lives in a city which unnerves me at the best of times. He’s moving nearer here soon so I’m hoping that his moves over and done with before anything else happens. Let’s face it the government have a few weeks to complain that they didn’t get voted for in the European elections, then to turn Mrs May plan down again, then their summer hols so nothing is going to happen anytime soon.
I’ve decide to just go with the flow. I’m not going to stress out anymore.
I’m making the most of the nice weather and making some lovely meals.
I hope everyone is keeping well
Cuddles

Karmacat

DigForVictory wrote: »

I was intrigued to research advice on how to survive/get out of a riot.

Your notes are really good, DfV, thanks for that. It's very particular, and could be incredibly valuable.

Plus I downloaded the pdf about children - not for myself, but any medical peep of my acquaintance, including a young second cousin.

cuddlymarm wrote: »

Unfortunately my prepping is going to have to be downsized due to us having to move out to get renovations done.

Exactly what I had to put up with this month and last, cuddlymarm - I was having metaphorical nightmares about how I'd cope if something really bad happened with nothing else in my kitchen except broken brick on the walls ... luckily everything's fitted now except the wall tiles and the central light, so I count myself very lucky.

DigForVictory

Our A Level Candidate is prepping. Sort of. Very specific biros. Bottled water in clear bottles. Packet rice by the galore as both he & little brother cook & devour the stuff as tickover fodder. Mentos mints as apparently chewing boosts your IQ. (Some days QI has a bit to answer for, but I double checked & Google agrees, so meekly I will be adding to the shopping list.)

He has just cleared out my stash of highlighters & the vivid post-its, which I will need to get to some conference to resupply on.

Ah well. He will be fed, bathed & packed off to bed in an unnaturally quiet house (as is our exam tradition) tonight. We will then likely slump back into our usual ways but I now know to ask youngest what chewy sweets he likes for next year... As well as to stocktake the stationery cupboard earlier, but he'll be doing Art & will doubtless have his own disconcerting list.

DigForVictory

It seems we have a copy of Land Operations vol3 Counter Revolutionary Operations pt 2 Internal Security.
Which amongst other light entertainments includes the use of water cannon. (Please don't ask how come we have a copy - I suspect it came with a wad of other nifty military manuals which were being flogged for so much per carrier-bag-full at a militaria fair um-years ago.)

I have an odd feeling that, battered though it is, I will be studying it with extreme curiosity. As the tools may be outdated but (a) that's not stopped the Army before (they took bread ovens from museums to the Falklands) & (b) the basics of the logic behind how they are used will not have changed & understanding that saves a lot of effort in figuring how to avoid getting stuck in the wrong place.

Although I strenuously doubt "Run!" will ever be bad advice, in which direction also helps.

Greenglockenspiel

Hello everyone,
I have been following this thread and its predecessor for a while but have only just made an account because I wanted your advice. We are currently renting and our tenancy ends in September, at which point we were hoping to buy our first home. This is all very well and good but the question is, what to do about my preps? I built up a fair stock in my pantry (murmurings were heard about a lifetime supply of pasta and toilet paper) and I’m wondering whether I should run it all down as much as possible before moving (and then try to build it up again quickly and cheaply ahead of Brexit and winter) or attempt to move it - potentially in a lite version? Has anyone here moved a stockpile?

[Deleted User]

We ran most things down to a couple of months supply before we moved last summer and I've built up our reserves again since we've been here. I knew we'd have room to store things because we viewed the house so knew ahead how much would fit. I'd think to use some and move some would stop you feeling vulnerable (ask me how I know) rather than run everything down to a minimum. When you know how much room you'll have in your new home you'll know how much to keep and how much to use up.