Britons Start Stocking Up as Government Urges Three Days of Emergency Supplies

Dried foods, bottled water, medicines and backup power banks might look like the contents of a disaster film's props cupboard. For a growing number of UK residents, they are everyday household purchases, made in response to official warnings about Russian "state-sponsored terrorism" and the effects of the climate crisis.

The government launched a campaign on Thursday urging people to set aside three days' worth of supplies to cope with a wide range of possible emergencies. Some households had already begun preparing well before the announcement, as ministers have been sending similar signals for several months.

Lawrence Barratt, from Hythe in Hampshire, said he is adding a few tinned and dried items to each weekly shop. He listed beans, soups, chilli con carne, noodles and rice, all foods he can cook using bottled water, which he is also buying gradually. His aim is to have enough for two people for three days. He is also setting aside a first aid kit, a battery-powered FM radio and a torch, and owns a portable power bank used for camping that he believes could charge phones, run a television and even power a small fan heater.

Barratt said he started about a fortnight ago, after seeing the government's advice online. Memories of the days around the first lockdown in 2020 also played a part, when shelves of pasta, toilet roll and tinned goods were emptied. The government's Be Ready campaign website, he said, made him realise he "would be completely unprepared for anything."

Marco Camurri, from Greenwich in London, is collecting pasta, passata, stock cubes, tinned food, bottled water, medicines and toilet paper. "We remember Covid," he said. With relatives in continental Europe, he said his family could leave temporarily if the UK entered war and London faced a risk of direct attacks, or if extreme infrastructure failure put their jobs at risk.

Camurri said he has wood stored in his small garden to light a barbecue and boil water if needed. The household also keeps power banks charged, along with USB rechargeable flashlights, matches and lighters, and tries to keep its fuel tank above 50 percent, about 300 miles of driving. His family began preparing a few months ago, when reports of possible supply chain disruption linked to El Niño surfaced. Because they normally eat what they stock, he described it as like one extra week of shopping for staples. They are now building a spreadsheet of expiry dates for their "Doomsday Stash" so items can be eaten and replaced in time.

Jack Davenport, from North Shields on the River Tyne, also cited El Niño as a reason to start stockpiling, but said it was "hard to judge the size" of the many threats facing the country. He pointed to climate-related disasters, Russian shadow threats, artificial intelligence and interest rate rises driven by energy insecurity, adding that the country's physical and technological infrastructure is "creaking and outdated." He suggested the government wants to "reduce long-term panic" by presenting such events as possible, noting that several generations have not faced the hardship common before the war.

Not everyone is persuaded. Deirdre O'Sullivan, from Leicester, called the guidance "daft" and said it reminded her of 1970s advice to hide under a table in the event of a nuclear attack. She argued that the advice looks inadequate for a genuine emergency, saying that any danger to drinking water should be anticipated more precisely, and that an extreme food shortage would surely become apparent over a much longer period.

She compared the guidance to something "Yes Minister would come up with to demonstrate that they have a policy in place, even if that policy is clearly totally useless."