After wildfires raged across Britain this summer, war continued across the world and fears of a new 'plague' emerged from Russia, it is understandable that some may have felt the world was going to end.
uncertain
world → rag → Russia
Some Britons took these threats seriously and have been quietly preparing for a national emergency, even before Andy Burnham announced a 'doomsday guide' today.
asserted
Burnham → take → guide
With self-styled 'preppers' on the rise, the Daily Mail investigated the measures some are taking to prepare for disaster.
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some → style → disaster
Ana, a 42-year-old mother living in Wales, started the UK Preppers Club group on Facebook in 2024.
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Ana → live → 2024
The group now has nearly 17,000 members who share advice and tips on 'self-reliance', 'household resilience' and 'practical preparedness'.
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who → have → reliance
Ana told the Mail the Government had been 'drip-feeding' advice on emergency preparations so far and said the 'panic' Mr Burnham's announcement had caused was 'crazy'.
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announcement → tell → preparations
Asked what the country's biggest threat was, she said: 'It's difficult to tell honestly because over the last few years we've seen it all.
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we → ask → it
The [Ukraine] war's been ongoing obviously for a good few years, the issue with food security is crazy - we don't really have food security.
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we → have → security
We rely on imports, pretty much 50 per cent.'
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We → rely → imports
She said the Government had 'admitted we were vulnerable but haven't done anything about it'.
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we → say → it
Ana, a 42-year-old mother living in Wales, runs a doomsday prepper Facebook group
She gives tips and advice on preparing for apocalyptic scenarios and said Britain's resilience was flawed
Cyber attacks were 'one of the most likely' threats against Britain, she said, given they were not only a risk to banks but to supermarkets, electricity and water infrastructure too.
'
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they → live → supermarkets
But whatever potentially is going to happen, the preparedness advice and points are pretty much the same - we're talking about food, shelter and water, regardless of what happens.
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what → go → food
Ana said the Government could 'absolutely' have done more to prepare for a doomsday scenario, adding: 'They could've been more transparent with people.'
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They → say → people
She said the official preparedness website 'semi-launched' two years ago and had run exercises which found flaws in British resilience.
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which → say → resilience
And she criticised Mr Burnham's emphasis on three-day stockpiles, asking: 'What happens after three days?
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What → criticise → days
What's the Government going to do then?
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Government → go → What
She said building a stockpile responsibly could involve gradually buying supplies over years.
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building → say → years
'If they had a truly honest conversation a few years back and said "we're not stupid, we can say what's happening all around the world" - it would've been better than coming out and drip feeding us the same thing every time.
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it → have → thing
'
But on the other hand, those slamming Government 'scaremongering' should look at the world with their own eyes and see the need to protect their families, she added.
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she → slam → families
The threat is not 'the old-fashioned war we expect or a nuclear war,' Ana said.
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Ana → expect → ?
'You can look around and see that we're already in conflict, we have wildfires - which we never thought would be a huge problem in the UK but it is - there are food shortages.
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it → look → UK
'It still baffles me how people can still say this isn't happening.'
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this → baffle → me
She said doomsday preppers were 'not trying to cause a national outrage' but were instead trying to 'think ahead and be prepared'.
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preppers → say → outrage
Ana said many Britons were unprepared for a situation where national infrastructure was attacked or supermarket shelves were left bare
Andy Burnham launched the Government's doomsday survival advice and spoke with Angela Rayner at the Wildfires '27 resilience summit earlier
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Burnham → say → summit
The guide advises Britons on what to do if supermarket shelves are left empty, but Ana said the advice to stockpile for three days was insufficient
Ana said she wanted to join a prepping group in 2024 but, being a woman, was not allowed to join many established organisations.
She said she did not fit with the 'prepper' stereotype - the rural huntsmen who stockpile guns and ammunition for a Hollywood-esque apocalypse scenario.
'But real life preparedness is so much more than stockpiling weapons and hunting,' she said.
'When I created that group I wanted it to be for normal people and to change the perception of preparedness because it's not what it was many, many years ago.'
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it → advise → preparedness
She said many households previously had a pantry stocked with ingredients whereas modern life is based around 'just in time' approaches.
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life → say → approaches
And she said her group had roughly equal male and female members, which she said was 'fantastic'.
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she → say → members
'People keep joining and understand it a little bit better.
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People → join → it
I relate to the group because it's ordinary people who just want to have peace of mind.
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who → relate → mind
They're sharing knowledge because there are people with no knowledge at all.'
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They → share → knowledge
She said her group offered practical tips for those who wanted to go beyond the basic list of items to build stores of.
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who → say → stores
'People have to start somewhere, but they need a little more detail on what to do with the water, for example, how to divide it up between drinking, cooking, washing, even things like flushing a toilet.
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they → have → toilet
Some people don't know what would happen if they can't flush the toilet, if there's no electricity, or no water comes out the tap, or the water coming out is contaminated.
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water → know → tap
They're combing through the basic things, but being prepared is so much more than having the items.
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being → comb → items
They're super important to know.
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They → know → ?
Family planning in particular - what happens when - is essential.'
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what → happen → ?
She said some families could find themselves scattered across the country in case of emergency.
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themselves → say → emergency
Her YouTube videos include advice on no-cook emergency food to stockpile, protecting your supplies from theft and even making alcoholic ginger beer.
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videos → include → beer
In the US, one doomsday prepper built an 'extreme' home bunker with £315,000 worth of emergency supplies and revealed that a family of four would need at least £5,000 in starter cash if Britain went to war.
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Britain → build → war
Rowan MacKenzie built an 'extreme' home bunker with £315,000 worth of emergency supplies and warned a family of four would need at least £5,000 in starter cash if the UK goes to war
Estate agent Rowan MacKenzie, from Missouri, said the money would buy one month's supply of food, water and supplies, plus a portable emergency kit or bug-out bag.
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money → build → food
…and 7 more, not listed.
The Aporia
