Are survivalists as rife in the UK?

Originally posted by Anonymous ATS
Im 16 now, not as intelligent as the rest of you on this forum...

Don't knock yourself..
If you're enjoying it..You're doing something right.

Even bad-weather days can be fun..
If it's chucking it down with rain it's a good day for a wash..

Speaking as a Brit i can only add the following to this (good) thread.

I have a big stick for protection and plenty of matches so i can start a fire and brew up, maybe make some toast. There is NO event i want to survive that cant be made tolerable with a cup of tea.

I think that survivalism in the UK is a different kettle of fish to what it is in the USA, for two major reasons: access to firearms, and amount of land.

In America, you have access to firearms, and millions of square miles of unpopulated land to retreat to. We don't have these luxuries in the UK, so survivalism has to take a different form. Our take on survivalism is more along the lines of self-sufficiency.

The next 'Situation X' we are likeley to face is the consequence of economic depression (food shortages, mass unemployment etc), as opposed to any nuclear war/nwo/comet situation. So I think the self-sufficient ideal is quite apt and suitable for such an event.

The question then could be answered that in our own way, Survival - that is the ability to survive, eat, shelter etc without the umbilical chord of society - in the form of self sufficiency, although not quite rife, is definitely on the increase. More and more people are turning over their gardens and planting vegetables, putting up wind turbines or solar panels, learning survival skills (that don't involve guns).

There is definitely something stirring. You only need to look as far as your television. Celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fernley Whitingstall are ecouraging us all to grow our own and live the good life. Survival experts like Ray Mears and Bear Grillis have become household names with their survival shows. Every major channel seems to be running more and more features on growing your own produce.

Are they trying to tell us something?

I would say more and more people in the UK are coming to the conclusion that we cant sustain this kind of lifestyle indefinetly, there seems to be alot of people who are gradually moving away from the luxuries we take for granted now and there starting to re-learn the "old ways"

This is good in my opinion, people should be able to take care of themselves without having to rely on society or the govenment, some people do it out of necessity but others do it out of sheer laziness.

I think it's a cultural thing more than anything.
It might also a matter of priorities.

We all know certain common words have different meaning in the UK.
ex:
torch-flashlight,
pissed-drunk,
lift-elevator,
fag-cigarette.

Same can probably be said about the word "firearms".
I recently did a quick search on the word "flatulence" and discovered there were actually a few books written on this gaseous subject, almost all of which were written by Brits.

One actually had a segment on "fart etiquete" and another contained many fart limericks.

This leads me to believe Brits tend to be more vocal on the subject of firearms.

reply to post by Paul


I also agree, and have been watching Ray Mears, Bear Grillis and also survivor man.
I plan to have a small garden soon to start with and the ability to plant more.
But with this also comes the need to store.
So alot of good skills need to be re-learned like canning etc.

I wish you all the best.

Hi All,

Interesting and intelegent comments all but how about developing the original point and saying HOW can more UK citizens be pointed towards survivalism (at a level they feel is appropriate)?

The amounts of prep, advice on travel etc must be "site specific", i.e. what works for the UK wouldn't work in France, North America etc.

Has anyone any pointers for me, a begining to become aware survivalist?

Newsboy

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I have not been on here for aaages but that was the biggest UK thread when i used to come on here....

Most people tend to either want to flee to france or come up to sunny scotland and take refuge in camps in the hills.

The rest want to go rambo and hunt deer etc... stupid idea IMO

But the general concensus is groups of 5-15, well trained/armed (depending on the situation) heading north or to the continent.

Originally posted by expatwhite
There is NO event i want to survive that cant be made tolerable with a cup of tea.

Too true...take away the Typhoo and we become no more than savages

I know where I'm bugging out to!

New tea plantation in North Yorkshire

FORGET Sri Lanka, India and Kenya, the tempting cuppa known as Yorkshire tea could soon be just what it says - from Yorkshire.

Family tea merchants, Taylors of Harrogate, may soon be sourcing tea leaves for the nine million cups of Yorkshire Tea enjoyed each day from much closer to home.

For the blenders of the popular brew have just planted their very own tea plantation - in not so tropical Harrogate.

Originally posted by Gregor100
www.abovetopsecret.com...

I have not been on here for aaages but that was the biggest UK thread when i used to come on here....

Most people tend to either want to flee to france or come up to sunny scotland and take refuge in camps in the hills.

The rest want to go rambo and hunt deer etc... stupid idea IMO

But the general concensus is groups of 5-15, well trained/armed (depending on the situation) heading north or to the continent.

Well most survivalists I know prefer the south west of England, the north east of England, and central to coastal Wales. I think the Scots sutrivalist community is pretty satified with where they are so long as they are not in Glasgow or Edinburgh. But the two English families I knew who had tried to setttle in Scotland had to leave after it become clear that they were not very welcome north of the border. I think i am fortunate in being in the north east as its still largely empty.

I laugh my socks off at people who say survivalism is a no hoper in the UK. All people are doing is returning to the habits and practises of the pre supermarket era, and buying and storing food whiles times are good. If you remove the american implication of the title SURVIVALIST and look at prepareness more objectively you will realise that most allotment holders, village dwellors ( not second holiday homers) and small holders are every bit as much SURVIVALISTS as the american community are. Distance from town, access to shops, costs of transport, becoming aware of the benefits of locally produced foods, etc all contribute towards making people become more prepared and self sufficient. Just about every damn small scale farmer and allotment holder is a survivalist by default, just as those folks happily building self sufficent eco homes all over the country.

More and more individuals and familes in the UK are realising the benefits of living in self sufficient communities, be they eco villages, or traditional villages, thats why we are experiencing things like white flight and mass migration from the cities to the countryside. More and more people are losing interest in living in trendy post code areas and driving fancy cars, more and more are looking for homes with large gardens, well and room to grow chucks and bunnies. Anyone with half a brain can see the terrible vulnerabilities that modern society has in ensuring a steady supply of clean, cheap, affordable and ecological foodstuffs and energy supplies, and they are doing something about it, instead of making silly snide comments that preparedness is a joke.

What is changing more than anything else is that the trhinkers among us are now realising that independance, self sufficiency, prepareness and self reliance is a far better route through life than the diseases called socialism and the nanny state have to offer.

[edit on 14-10-2008 by Northern Raider]

Originally posted by Anonymous ATS
Hi All,
HOW can more UK citizens be pointed towards survivalism (at a level they feel is appropriate)?

Has anyone any pointers for me, a begining to become aware survivalist?

Newsboy

If everything 'domestic' you have was taken away and you have no money,where would you go?How are you going to get there?
What would you do for shelter.heat,food,water,etc.?

Once you identify those areas and can give an answer.
Then you are on the way to being situationally aware in raw,back to basic 'survival' terms.

I would just like to bring this back to the original OP's thread title ''Are survivalists as rife in the UK?''.

YES is the answer. Just do a google of the survival/bushcraft websites that are now available in the UK. There are at least 6 that i have looked at. As for survival/bushcraft schools, there seems to be new ones springing up almost every week. Bolt onto that the amount of surplus stores and outdoors equipments stores and i would say Survivalism in the UK is in a very healthy condition and thriving.

Originally posted by Wotan
I would just like to bring this back to the original OP's thread title ''Are survivalists as rife in the UK?''.

YES is the answer. Just do a google of the survival/bushcraft websites that are now available in the UK. There are at least 6 that i have looked at. As for survival/bushcraft schools, there seems to be new ones springing up almost every week. Bolt onto that the amount of surplus stores and outdoors equipments stores and i would say Survivalism in the UK is in a very healthy condition and thriving.

I agree with Wotan, for example if you look at the annual Wilderness-Gathering event held on a buffalo farm in wiltshire each Sept the numbers attending increase dramatically each year, people now have to book to gain access to some seminars. Survival forums flourish many of which are only available to invited members. Some groups like Ludlow survivors seek publicity, other like UKSG avoid publicity at all costs. Twice in the last year the BBC and Channel four have been trying to make a TV program about British survivalists, they have identified that there are absolutely loads of us out there, but none of us are daft or unwise enough to talk to a journalist. Many people actually practise fully fledged survivalism as a way of life, but they dont call themselves survivalists, just home steaders, off griders, small holders and the self sufficient. In fact two more companies in the last 9 months have asked me to give seminars to their staff on disaster preparedness as a route to keeping the company running during a disaster. Preparedness in the UK is definately growing, it just does not always get called survivalism.
NR

I think this link will show you just how many people are getting into survivalism.

www.wildernessgathering.co.uk...

Remember there are still as more survivalist people NOT attending this even that actually do.

theres no shortage of survivalists, retreaters, bushcrafters and venturers in the UK at all.

britain falls apart with an inch of snow ,i for one agree with the americans in ther preparation for life after a major incident .when tshtf britain will be not a nice place to be unprepared northwoods

i know many people who are prepared for short term survival (and some for longer term) but i never knew them as "survivalists" until i found the internet, just people like myself who thought ahead and where prepared.
Not necessarily to the extent of having a fallout shelter and years supply of food but just the simple things like being having stuff in your car for unforseen emergencies - a few years ago i was cut off by snow a few hours drive from home and a decent distance from the nearest pub, just having some warm gear, blankets and water etc. in the car made all the difference while waiting for the roads to be cleared enough to get us out. This was on a main A road and lasted only 7 or 8 hours, imagine being completely unprepared on a less travelled road in slightly worse snow and it seems just common sense to have plans in place.
Preparing at home is just an extension of that, i live out in the country and being cut off for several days is something that could easily happen in extreme weather, our council/goverment systems have already proven that it doesnt take much to stretch them past what they can manage.
I dont see the obsession with stockpiling guns etc. but then if i lived in a country where everybody else had them maybe i would.

Interesting thread, interesting responses. I instinctively know that many in Britain are instinctively survivalists, as many of us Americans come from your stock.

And you are more polite than we are. One ancestor, from the northern tip of Scotland was killed and much of his family run off, to Ireland. Even the Irish have their standards, and we were run out of there too. But we found our spot in the Americas.

We have a close affinity with the mainland, even though we may have many superficial differences. The blood and moral connections are strong.

And about that rabbit starvation. It isn't the nutrition shortage, it's the lack of fat. If we don't get a certain amount of fat in our diet, we die. If we don't have salt, we die.

If you have a large stash of salt (cheap) and a large stash of lard (cheap) then if you can keep the other buggers fought off, you not only stand a good chance of surviving, but you also have some invaluable trade goods.

The answer to this question is simple. Survivalism is packaged as 'Bushcraft' in the UK. The likes of Ray Mears and to-a-certain degree Bear Grylls introduced a new generation to the outdoor lifestyle and that in turn led to an increase in interest in the bushcraft genre. So, aside from the older hands who have looked WTSHTF type situations before this, newer Bushcrafters have become interested in survivalism on the back of research, especially when looking at 2012, US and other international websites such as this and as well as the economic collapse.

Been ready to roll for years, kit always packed and fine tuned, every member of family has a bug out bag.
I dont advertise it all people here know about me is i hit the mountains for weeks at a time.
Some call it paranoia some call it justifiable fear!
Sorry if this is a little off topic but i support anyone who is prepared in the UK.
Next off grid for us