UK Preppers National Geographic

[Naomi86]

Hi All,

I work for Bullseye Television, who made ‘Preppers UK: Surviving Armageddon’ for the National Geographic Channel. You can see more about the programme here http://natgeotv.com/uk/preppers-uk-s...food-insurance, or you can see the full show by searching online.

We are now working on a follow up documentary and are looking for more UK Preppers and Survivalists who are happy to tell us about the issues they believe our country faces and how they have prepared for them. Like the first programme, we will be looking at all aspects of Prepping and Survivalism in the UK, from new starters to established preppers and survival experts. It will also look across the diverse reasons to as why people prep from economic breakdown and rising food prices to SHTF scenarios.
It would be great to speak to some of you further about your experiences with prepping and find out more about you.

Our experience with the first documentary means that we are aware of the issues facing Preppers and we understand that keeping your personal information safe is key. Under no circumstances will we share your details with anyone else and contacting us in the first instance does not mean you are obliged to take part in the documentary.
If you would like to know more or have any questions, please feel free to send us a message at:

ukpreppers@bullseyetv.co.uk or call us on 0203 189 3204. We are looking to meet people from all over GB, and Europe in the next 3 weeks, so please get in touch soon.

I look forward to hopefully hearing from you.

Best Wishes,

Elliot

[clv101]

I think a more interesting programme would look at the folks who have no preparations at all, who live a neo-hand to mouth existence, totally dependent on the complex industrial systems around them for their very lives.

How do people become so dependent? How do people come to trust corporations like Tesco with their lives? Having electricity, clean running water, a supermarket full of cheap food... and a wallet full of money is a strange situation. Several billion people in the world don't have it, and for all but the last half century no one had it.

A couple of generations ago we were all 'preppers' - today many people have devolved that responsibility to corporations and the state. They are the strange folk one should be making documentaries about.

[peaceful_life]

I think a more interesting programme would look at the folks who have no preparations at all, who live a neo-hand to mouth existence, totally dependent on the complex industrial systems around them for their very lives.

How do people become so dependent? How do people come to trust corporations like Tesco with their lives? Having electricity, clean running water, a supermarket full of cheap food... and a wallet full of money is a strange situation. Several billion people in the world don't have it, and for all but the last half century no one had it.

A couple of generations ago we were all 'preppers' - today many people have devolved that responsibility to corporations and the state. They are the strange folk one should be making documentaries about.

Indeed.

[Little John]

I think a more interesting programme would look at the folks who have no preparations at all, who live a neo-hand to mouth existence, totally dependent on the complex industrial systems around them for their very lives.

How do people become so dependent? How do people come to trust corporations like Tesco with their lives? Having electricity, clean running water, a supermarket full of cheap food... and a wallet full of money is a strange situation. Several billion people in the world don't have it, and for all but the last half century no one had it.

A couple of generations ago we were all 'preppers' - today many people have devolved that responsibility to corporations and the state. They are the strange folk one should be making documentaries about.

What utter, sneering, self-satisfied, smug bollocks.

You talk about it as if the common mass of people, who must spend their entire lives dancing to a tune not of their composing on a stage not of their making until finally, as their body-clock fades, they realize the tiny dreams they were allowed to dream amount to nothing anyway, had any real bloody choice in the matter.

[clv101]

What utter, sneering, self-satisfied, smug bollocks.

I preferred your reply to my same comment last year: http://powerswitch.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=205492

My only point here is that I think there's a more interesting story looking at how essentially everyone (certainly you and I, we strange folk) in this country has become totally reliant on a complex and probably fragile system - and how most don't seem in the least bit concerned by it. I see this situation as a lot more worthy of investigation than a few folks stockpiling. Of course I'm not talking about, let alone blaming the individual here, but the system we've created.

[Catweazle]

You talk about it as if the common mass of people, who must spend their entire lives dancing to a tune not of their composing on a stage not of their making until finally, as their body-clock fades, they realize the tiny dreams they were allowed to dream amount to nothing anyway, had any real bloody choice in the matter.

Were they really forced into that lifestyle ? Or did they just take the easy route ?

A bit of both perhaps.

[Little John]

What utter, sneering, self-satisfied, smug bollocks.

I preferred your reply to my same comment last year: http://powerswitch.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=205492

My only point here is that I think there's a more interesting story looking at how essentially everyone (certainly you and I, we strange folk) in this country has become totally reliant on a complex and probably fragile system - and how most don't seem in the least bit concerned by it. I see this situation as a lot more worthy of investigation than a few folks stockpiling. Of course I'm not talking about, let alone blaming the individual here, but the system we've created.

I apologise unreservedly for the tone of my last post CLV. 2012 was a shit year and I'm not in the best of moods. No excuse though.

[clv101]

No worries.

[RenewableCandy]

Anyone remember the "IF..." series on the Beeb? The first one "IF the lights go out" was a bit like that, but it was a drama, not a doc following real people.

I often wonder why we've heard nothing (even during the recent aniversary) about the millions of Londoners whose power got cut for safety reasons during the gale of October 1987.

[Kentucky Fried Panda]

Opsec.

[Tarrel]

Anyone remember the "IF..." series on the Beeb? The first one "IF the lights go out" was a bit like that, but it was a drama, not a doc following real people.

I often wonder why we've heard nothing (even during the recent aniversary) about the millions of Londoners whose power got cut for safety reasons during the gale of October 1987.

There was a good one in that series about oil depletion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSQ0KtnaMVc

[Naomi86]

We would be keen to explore all avenues, all dependant on who was interested in taking part. What their story was. Get in touch if so, or you can recommend someone who would best portray the movement.

The Bullseye team.

[Blue Peter]

My only point here is that I think there's a more interesting story looking at how essentially everyone (certainly you and I, we strange folk) in this country has become totally reliant on a complex and probably fragile system

To slightly hijack the thread, and to relate it to the The Beginning of the World one. Another point that Greer makes is that the world probably isn't as fragile as we might think. It could break in all the ways which "we" fantasize about, but the world spends a good proportion of its wealth on paying people to keep it going, and they aren't going to just let it break. They will do all they can to keep it going however illegal, crazy, dangerous it may be. It will eventually fall, and parts will break, but it is more resilient than we might imagine,


Peter.

[PS_RalphW]

We would be keen to explore all avenues, all dependant on who was interested in taking part. What their story was. Get in touch if so, or you can recommend someone who would best portray the movement.

The Bullseye team.

I don't think there is peak oil 'movement'.

The ASPO http://www.peakoil.net/

is probably the most formal statement of theory (BTW he made a hash of his Radio 4 piece this morning).

There is the UK parliamentary group http://www.appgopo.org.uk/

The best discussion website is www.theoildrum.com

But there is no typical member of these institutions. They are all ages genders and social backgrounds and politics. They range from 'not a problem' to 'end of the world as we know it'. Largely reflected on this web site.

If there is a link it is personality type - on informal polls the INTJ type
comes up more oftan than usual.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INTJ

They also tend to be white middle aged male and computer literate - but then this is the internet...

The best known peak oilers are probably

Richard Branson
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010 ... -oil-close
Warren Buffet
Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R - MD)

etc

[extractorfan]

good summary Ralph