HEALTHPLAN MAGAZINE

Whatever next?

First it was ‘project fear’, followed by mass hysteria and the governor of the Bank of England putting his two cents in with his ‘Doomsday Briefing’. Now we hear of reports of some in the UK taking extra precautions and purchasing what has been described as a ‘Brexit Box’.

It seems that the fear-mongering from politicians has sent UK citizens over the edge with many starting to stockpile food items and other essentials in preparation of a possible no-deal Brexit.

With MP’s expecting to reject the Prime Minister’s EU departure agreement on Tuesday, making a no-deal scenario even more likely, many are concerned about the effect it will have on imports of everyday items such as food, toiletries and medications.

With the UK importing around half of its food, there is a real danger that some items will be missing from shelves from as early as the 29th of March. However, some supermarket chains have previously indicated that they would be stockpiling extra reserves of non-perishable foods to cushion the blow of a no-deal.

But fear not. Retailing at around £295, Brits can now purchase their very own ‘Brexit Box’, which contains everything one will need to survive the first 30 days in the event that everything goes pear-shaped.

One such company offering the Brexit survival kits is EmergencyFoodStorage.co.uk, which describes their own product as "Brexit stockpiling made easy”. Owner James Blake has said that the company has already sold in excess of 600 of the boxes over the past month, which gives us a strong indication of the level of panic that is currently being experienced by much of the UK population.

The survival kits contain a variety of tasty freeze-dried foods such as sweet and sour chicken and macaroni cheese. They also contain a water filter and a fire starter kit just in case there are issues with water, gas and electricity supplies!!

Blake said, "We tried to put a box together that gives people the basics they would need, it's got 60 portions of main meals plus 48 portions of meat, a water filter and a fire starter in case they need to heat the water,".

When he was asked as to whether he was profiteering from people's concerns about the impact of leaving the EU, he said: "The fear has been around ever since the vote happened because nobody knows what is really going to happen.”

"Having something like this in place actually helps calm somebody's fears a little bit because they know they have done something to prepare for what may come.”

"It's just being that little bit more prepared and having that little bit more wiggle room."

UK officials have stated that there is "no need" to stockpile any of the items in the box.

A number of Facebook groups have also sprouted up since the Brexit referendum including the 48% Preppers page, which says that it discusses "the practical preparations people are making for life after Brexit". The page also states that “It’s aimed at those staying in the UK, not those lucky people who are able to escape abroad”.

Fortunately it seems that those stockpiling food and other items are only a tiny fraction of those who voted to remain. The group currently has 3,500 members, which is a long way short of the 16,141,241 who voted to remain in the EU.

One person's catastrophe though, is most definitely another person's opportunity! If you are in the UK, you better hurry and purchase your Brexit Box today before supplies run out! Time is ticking...

At the time of publishing this article, the EmergencyFoodStorage.co.uk website is currently down, although it’s unclear as to whether this is due to huge demand for the survival kits or some kind of technical issue...

The whole thing kind of reminds me of one of my favourite Mark Twain quotes.

“I’ve suffered a great many catastrophes in my life. Most of them never happened.” - Mark Twain

Sources:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-46814527
https://inews.co.uk/news/brexit/brexit-box-stockpiling-no-deal/

Image: Daniel Case [GFDL or CC BY-SA 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons