Prepping goes mainstream - how ready should we be?

Manveen Rana (0:01)

From the Times and the Sunday Times, this is The Story. I'm Manveen Rana.

It used to be the preserve of tinfoil hat wearers and doomsday cults. But last week, it became perfectly respectable to talk about prepping. In fact, the government couldn't stop.

SPEAKER_2 (0:24)

Today, the government's launched a Be Ready campaign. And it's about saying to households, you can be ready by having, you know, three litres of bottled water per person per day to last you three days, have some tin goods, have you got first aid kits, do you have a battery-powered torch? Just really practical things. It's just about everyday national resilience.

SPEAKER_3 (0:45)

It's not about panicking, is it? It's just about being prepared and having a sensible amount of supplies in the home.

Manveen Rana (0:53)

But even in government, some ministers were clearly taking it more seriously than others.

SPEAKER_2 (0:59)

Angela Reyna says she's stockpiling a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, baked beans and a tin of custard. Tory frontbencher Mac Vickers says Percy Pig's in a Mars bar.

SPEAKER_3 (1:08)

Well, I'm not sure a bottle of wine is your best first port of call if you're in a slightly crisis situation.

Manveen Rana (1:14)

Despite the mixed messages at the launch of the Be Ready campaign, the country seems to be on board. Guys, listen up. We've been told to stockpile.

SPEAKER_4 (1:26)

Things are getting serious.

SPEAKER_5 (1:27)

I've just ordered a portable water filter.

SPEAKER_6 (1:30)

Two packets of baby wipes. Tin pineapple. Oh my God, the toilet roll aisle. This reminds me of COVID.

SPEAKER_7 (1:36)

Where's it all gone?

SPEAKER_6 (1:37)

I finally feel justified. Everyone has been having a go at me, calling me a prepped conspiracy theorist. I'm not a mad conspiracy theorist. It's a genuine thing that's happened.

Manveen Rana (1:48)

So what exactly are the threats that we're trying to prepare for? And are we, as a society, ready? We hear from an emergency planning expert.

The story today, why prepping is entering the mainstream.

Lucy Easthope (2:22)

So, I'm Lucy Easthope, and I'm a very proud emergency planner. I work in response, but I also do a lot on preparedness and readiness.

And because of my research work, I have professorship in the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath and at the Manchester Met University, looking at how communities respond to disaster response.

Manveen Rana (2:44)

And I know you've often been asked to advise the government on these matters too.

Last week, we all saw Andy Burnham, West Streeting, half the cabinet really gathered for the launch of this Be Ready campaign. What did you make of that as somebody who's been thinking about this for such a long time? How did it feel watching government talking about this out loud? I mean, it's taken a while, I suppose, for governments to take this seriously.

Lucy Easthope (3:08)

It was a very interesting experience because it's something we've campaigned for for a long time. And it's a bit like waiting for Christmas. You know, we thought it was going to come out years ago, really. The suggestion was actually it's the day that Rishi Sunak called the election was going to be the Be Ready day.

And then we thought Kia would bring it out in the summer. And then we thought it would come out in September. So for us, it was, it was very much very frustrating. I think Wes, there's a sense that he sort of took one for the team. It does give it a very defence feel, which was unfortunate. I would have liked to see it fronted much more by people like the cabinet ministers, Louise Hague by Angela Eagle, with a sort of communities feel. So for example, in my work, we see 72-hour or three-day schemes all around the world. We're very supportive of them and we're very aware that the UK is behind that. Seventy-two hours has traditionally been something that you've seen in America, in Australia, New Zealand, places in Europe that have perhaps more vulnerability to weather and tsunamis and other things.

You've seen 72 hours is about the right time for responders to get help to you and to be able to focus on the most vulnerable. So for me, it was desperately overdue.

Manveen Rana (4:19)

What is the Be Ready campaign? What does it consist of? Because we're told it's going to take over a couple of years. What is the aim? Is it getting us ready to be able to survive for, is it just 72 hours? Or is it like the bigger cultural piece of understanding that everything won't be as available as we assume?

Lucy Easthope (4:36)