PowerSwitch

Just coming off the bugging out of London thread, I wonder whether people have considered what would make them leave their workplace early with an excuse, or to phone in one morning with an excuse? Pandemic? War in the Middle East? Any broadcast with the phrase "the Government has announced emergency powers..."?

featherstick wrote:Just coming off the bugging out of London thread, I wonder whether people have considered what would make them leave their workplace early with an excuse, or to phone in one morning with an excuse? Pandemic? War in the Middle East? Any broadcast with the phrase "the Government has announced emergency powers..."?

Cash points running dry would probably mean everybody else was about to go into headless chicken mode and the shops will be soon be stripped of goods.

In general being told "There is no need to panic" is a sign you need to keep smiling and edge towards the door.

I have "bugged out" due to reports of snow fall, 30 odd missed calls from my partner and her family warning of snow.

Work didnt mind, and I was mindfull to take pictures of the very very deep stuff.

I should have and didnt bug out before the looters shut down central manchester, and we were all sent home early the next day.
Even a fast crash from this level is unlikely to to knock out transport links to get home in under 12 hrs.

But I can see why others would have different plans.

The last State of Emergency in the UK was 1974, under Edward Heath.

Here is a little flavour of the times:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj9OlIiHFo4

One of the comments was spot-on: can you imagine any politician being as straightforward as that today??

Erm, right: the topic! One of the reasons I gave up my olde job was the sheer difficulty of getting there and back: it started off taking 90 minutes, after the 2 years it was taking nearly 2 hours! Were I still doing that today, I think I'd bug off with absolutely any reason: snow, traces of H5N1 in Leeds, PM on TV talking about a decision in the middle-east, bank run, you name it. I would of course have to live with the possibility of losing my job...but I would, of course, live

Back before I knew anything about PO I did bug out when the first Scud crashed into Tel Aviv during Gulf War 1.
I can remember the sudden chill inside me even now. I would love to know what kept the Israeli Air force on the ground that day

The last time I walked out of the office without conventional excuse (at least when anybody was looking) was the day the US/UK invasion of Iraq started.

Went to join the local road blockades by the school kids next door. We shut down a key junction for several hours.

I was careful to stand on the pavement and not sit down in the carriageway, the schoolkids were the offspring of the Cambridge elite and would not be touched by the police. I am a pleb and need to keep my profile clean...

Eventually a few kids were arrested and charged. All charges were quietly dropped a few months later.

Suggested trigger points, any one of the following.

Actual or probable declaration of martial law
Attack on the UK with WMD
Repeated or large scale attacks on the UK with conventional weapons
Nulclear weapons used anywhere in the world
Large scale war or invasion in a major oil producer.
Nuclear accident that renders a major UK urban center unsafe.
General systemic failure of the UK banking system, branches shut, cashpoints empty.
EMP event.
Plague or disease with rapid spread and significant mortality in the UK.

Alternative trigger points would be 2 or more of the following, but not just one.

Actual or likely declaration of a state of emergency
Repeated or frequent minor terrorist attacks in the UK
Credible threat to use nuclear weapons anywhere in the world.
Rioting leading to actual or likely multiple loss of life in the UK
Large scale utility failure leading to significant loss of life in the UK
Natural disaster leading to large scale loss of life (over 1,000) in the UK.
Serious shortages of basic food stuffs or fuel, no matter how caused.
Military assistance required in peacetime.
Solar storm leading to widespread infrastructure damage.

And of course any event that on a national scale may not be that bad, but which renders your immediate area uninhabitable.

Adam, I'll be delighted if we get through the next couple of years without one or two of those happening.

adam2 wrote: Nulclear weapons used anywhere in the world

That's the one that would do it for me, all the other's I'd still wait around a little, but then again I'm within walkable distance of my family.

adam2 wrote:
EMP event.

Would that be anywhere in the world or just western Europe? If it hit us, without warning, only the most doomer prepared would have anything to bug out to / with, I'd walk home observing the delerium and then fire up the bbq and cook what's in the freezer. If it was summer I might make some beef jerky, and open a bottle of scotch.
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7/7 was the trigger for me and my family to move away from London; we were out within 6 months. In the past 18 months I started coming back in part-time to work on a particular contract, a case of making hay when the sun is shining.

The riots have been the only possible bug out trigger for me since, but it became clear pretty quickly that it was not getting any worse.

Could be something much simpler, such as actual shortages of fuel for power stations. Once you've a power cut, work stops. Go home. Recently, just the internet being down (we still had lecky) sent people a tad crazy. Tempers? Frayed knot.

We have an incredible situation where, without power, some shops can't take money!

Surprised no-one mentioned Swine-Flu from a couple of years ago. If i lived in a city, that would have been one event I would have seriously considered bugging out from. At one time it seemed very serious, especially when politicians talked about using football stadiums to pile up the bodies.

Snail wrote:Surprised no-one mentioned Swine-Flu from a couple of years ago. If i lived in a city, that would have been one event I would have seriously considered bugging out from. At one time it seemed very serious, especially when politicians talked about using football stadiums to pile up the bodies.

There seem to be a lot of games played around flu and vaccines.

I believe the EU was investigating the WHO for corruption for ramping up the level of flu threat; allegedly because of an unhealthy relationship between WHO and drug companies. If it was true it wouldn’t be the first time there has been a hype and a fortune has been spent stocking up pointlessly.

Then there was the CIA organising a fake vaccination programme in the town where they believed bin L@den was, supposedly to obtain DNA from his family.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/the-l ... 1/jul/15/1

I'm not suggesting for one second that vaccines aren’t needed sometimes, but I’m not sure I’d fly into the hills with a tin of beans and a catapult based on a virus scare. It could just be more mind games or the usual shake down.