Staying Alive

 

I don’t know about you, but I pricked my ears up when I heard Wes Streeting, the Defence Secretary, say that Britain must be ready for war in 1,000 days as Russia intensifies its hybrid warfare against NATO.  He said Britain’s enemies could be in a position to attack the country by 2030, and the UK must be “ready to fight with our allies and win.”  I assume planning and provisioning for this uncomfortable event is well under way and there is little urgency since the Government has delayed setting out a detailed plan for meeting our NATO commitment to increase defence funding until next autumn’s spending review. Nevertheless, to indicate intent, I hear that the Chancellor, John Healey, is expected to use his first Budget as Chancellor tomorrow to promise a “down payment” on hitting 3 per cent by 2030.  Although, apparently, there are some clever sleights of hand to fund this transaction, everything is said to be well under control and I am sure there is no need to be concerned (like we used to be, with reds under the bed)!   

Still, if we needed confirmation of our precarious position, our Government recently published guidance which advised us to keep three days’ worth of non-perishable food and bottled water, an FM radio and blankets at home to prepare for disruption caused by natural disasters or attacks by hostile states. I didn’t think 3 days provisions sounded very much unless, of course, the only disruptions we are likely to face are very minor indeed or, on the other hand, nuclear in which case, to borrow from Tom Lehrer, “we’ll all go together when we go.”  But this is rather at odds with Wes’s preparations to resist attack from our enemies.  I don’t suppose an invasion of England would be over in 3 days – but if it weren’t, for how long should I provision to protect and survive?

I thought it would be helpful, for the purposes of civilian resilience and planning, if the Government would define some scenarios in which we may become engaged in fighting and match the resources required to sustain capabilities for a certain period accordingly.  In particular, how would we deal with a direct attack on our country, as Wes envisages?  Armed with a worst case, we could then plan our own survival strategy.

Unfortunately, your guess is as good as mine but it would certainly involve surviving deprivation for a lot longer than 3 days.  So I shall begin my stockpiling immediately.  I’ll need quite a lot of stuff and somewhere safe (we haven’t seen a Bobbie on the beat round here for years) to keep it.  Then there is the Anderson Shelter to consider.  Altogether it could cost me a lot more than I could raise in ready money.  The credit card is on the buffers after that “well-deserved” family break in the summer.  I’ve tried the Martin Lewis tricks of balance transfers, but the awful reality is that if I want to buy anything I can’t borrow to pay for it, except for pay-day loans of course.  As it is, the minimum payment on my credit cards is a big chunk of my pension after tax so there is not that much ready money either.  I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I may need to cut back on current expenditure and reassess the holiday plans for next year just to fund my survival cache.  How unjust is that?