Emergency planning
Why you're right to be Slightly Anxious
Why it makes sense to prepare for emergencies in the UK: power cuts, floods and shortages happen, and a little preparation keeps you calm.
By Slightly Anxious
1st July 2026 13 minute read
IN SHORT
There is a reasonably high chance of a crisis that cuts our access to the staples of life, so it makes sense to prepare. But civilisation will not collapse, and you do not need a bunker.
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Thank you for taking the time out to read this article, we hope that we can bring you some peace of mind. Especially if you’ve recently turned on the news or scrolled through any news related social media commentary, because you could easily be excused for feeling Slightly Anxious.
The world is definitely getting crazier and crazier by the minute and it's beginning to look like this could start to affect the United Kingdom and therefore directly impact on you and me.
This article was written when missiles and bombs were flying about the Middle East. Nobody knows how this conflict will end or whether it draws in other countries and turns into something considerably worse. The most shocking news so far has been that it has been stated that Iranian ballistic missiles could hit the UK. Whether this is true or not it is a realistic question but it does make most normal people stop and think about just how increasingly dangerous the world has become.
A world in conflict
If we look around the world it is truly surprising how many conflicts are ongoing. This is just a few of them. In Europe, as you undoubtedly know, there is currently a war between Russia and Ukraine that is over four years old with little sign of ending. There is also a rumour that Russia could attack a NATO member, probably one of the Baltics (Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia) in the next few years. The Balkans also looks like they could be becoming an issue again with Serbia, Slovakia and Kosovo all showing signs of tension and possible conflict. On Europe’s edge is Türkiye, who are in perpetual low level conflict with the separatist Kurds and close to Türkiye are Azerbaijan and Armenia who are getting more irate over territorial issues.
Next door in the Middle East, as per usual, there is a lot of conflict. At the time of writing, the USA and Israel have jointly attacked Iran. Iran has responded by attacking its neighbours in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabi and Jordan. These attacks have been primarily focused on US bases in the region but have hit civilian infrastructure as well and there is uncertainty how these countries will respond. Israel has also attacked Iranian proxies in Lebanon after spending a year attacking their proxies in Gaza. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been involved in backing proxies in the civil war in Yemen where a civil war wages on and the Houthis, Iranian backed, have been attacking shipping and American assets . Syria and Iraq seem to have contained their civil wars but there are still many unresolved issues that could rapidly reignite conflict and low level terrorism is an issue.
Africa has long-term low level conflicts in the Sahel region of West Africa (Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger) where Islamic insurgents are exploiting territorial issues, the Democratic Republic of Congo has had for number of years had factions fight over its mineral resources with allegations of Rwandan involvement, the aftermath of the Tigray war still smoulders in Ethiopia, the Central African Republic has continuous friction between the government and rebel groups, Somalia and Nigeria have Islamic insurgencies and Libya where different factions clash regularly. As for an actual high level conflict, Sudan and the Darfur Region are in a serious ethnic conflict that has seen some of the worst crimes against humanity in recent years.
Asia also has a mixture of internal insurgencies and intra-state conflicts, which are often complicated by neighbouring states sponsoring local insurgencies. Pakistan has recently fought with Afghanistan and with India over border issues, India has also fought with Myanmar and Thailand over separatist insurgencies in their border areas. South Korea and North Korea remain technically still at war with North Korea’s persistent firing of ballistic missiles keeping tensions high. Maybe the biggest threat in the region is China, who has not only made repeated claims that it would invade Taiwan but given US military planners reason to believe this will happen by 2030. China also currently has disputes with practically every one of its neighbours around the South China Sea and beyond - Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand and Japan. China’s aggressive assertions of territorial ownership of contested island chains, which has included building military bases on them, has led to increasing disputes in the region leading to increasing military preparedness.
In the America’s potential conflict appears to be focussed on the Central America and Caribbean region. In January 2026, American special forces captured the Venezuelan President Maduro and took him back to the USA to stand charges for drug running. How this leaves the Venezuelan regime is unclear at the time of writing. Prior to this, Venezuela was making menacing territorial claims over the newly found oil reserves of it neighbour, Guyana. Oil is also the issue for Cuba who received its from Venezuela. This has now ended with the USA enforcing an embargo that is causing severe economic hardship and may lead to regime change. The impact of civil wars in the region (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Haiti) and the rise of organised crime, often linked to the illegal narcotics and arms trade, sees many areas in low level conflict with governments fighting ever more militarised gangs with many casualties. Mexico has also had a severe narco-terrorism problem on a sub-war scale for many years, just without the civil war.
It is not that difficult to conclude that the world is a dangerous place. A recent global opinion poll by IPSOS saw 70% of respondents thinking that a world conflict of a similar scale to World Wars 1 & 2 was likely within the next 25 years. The actual state of the world does seem to be one of high risk but this risk doesn’t initially seem to have recently increased. ACLED, an independent global monitor of conflict and protest stated:
Conflict remained at a steady level over the past 12 months. ACLED records 204,605 conflict events from 1 December 2024 to 28 November 2025, compared to 208,219 events 12 months prior. These violent events resulted — conservatively — in over 240,000 deaths.
This was written before the Middle East conflict that started in February 2026 so their next year’s report may be different. But, when you consider that the reasons behind many of today’s disputes are the same as those that have been around for centuries, namely territorial disputes for economic reasons, ethnic rivalries and Islamist expansionism, you could be excused for feeling these conflicts aren’t relevant to you in the UK. These have tended to be localised conflicts with only a minimal chance of spiralling out of control into regional or global wars and while we are possibly seeing more of these than usual, the potential impact on the UK has arguably been minimal.
The number behind the worry
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Around 70% of people in a global Ipsos poll think a world war on the scale of 1914 or 1939 is likely within 25 years
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ACLED recorded 204,605 conflict events between December 2024 and November 2025
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About 100,000 cargo ships supply the world; the Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal for six days in 2021
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Covid-19 showed UK shelves can empty in little more than 3 days when supply is blocked
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About 40% of UK electricity is generated abroad
Why it matters more than it used to
What has changed over recent years is how much more global we have become. The most obvious examples being the markets for oil and gas. While the energy we receive may have been generated in the UK, through renewables such as wind or nuclear. Or, where the raw materials, such as Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), have been imported and used to generate electricity at UK power stations, the price paid is set by the international market. This means, as we are seeing currently, that global prices of energy have exploded. The price of oil drilled in the Middle East has sky rocketed and although very little of it will touch our shores, we still have to pay the higher prices.
One of the major factors of this is another way in which we have become more global and that is our supply lines. The world is supplied primarily by approximately 100,000 cargo ships criss-crossing the world’s seas and oceans. Block the movement of these ships and the world’s supply of goods begins to dry up and because of shortages, prices increase. This can be an actual physical blockage, as when in 2021 the cargo ship Ever Given, carrying 20,000 containers, managed to run aground in the Suez canal and block it six days. Or as is happening now, oil containers can't get insurance to transit the Straits of Hormuz to collect oil, so are waiting empty for transit to get safer. Experience from what happened during Covid-19 shows that any blockages to global supply likes can lead to shortages on the shelves in the UK in not much more than 3 days. What this ultimately means is that conflicts around the world can easily impact us in the UK with shortages and price increases.
We also cant ignore the impact of global warming. Recent history has shown an increase in extreme weather around the world. At its extremes this has seen increased numbers of tornadoes/hurricanes, violent storms, flooding and heat waves. Here in the UK we are seeing more rain and flooding. So why we may suffer a localised emergency in the Lake District due to a river over flowing its banks, the whole country could suffer shortages if storms caused landslides that crippled a vital transport artery on the side of the world.
Globalisation also means increased speed and ease with which things can travel from one place in the world and then turn up in the UK. This has meant a whole plethora of benefits to the UK in terms of goods, services and people over the years. But, it has also increased the risk of importing threats to the UK. This can mean terrorists and terrorist ideology, bio-hazards and organised crime. The UK already suffers from all of these, with numerous mostly Islamist terrorist attacks throughout the years, the mother-of-all bio-hazards, Covid-19, followed by Avian Flu and Foot and Mouth in their severity and the growth of human trafficking, child sexual exploitation and drugs and firearms trafficking from gangs in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. All of these have the potential to create crises in the U.K.
Britain's ageing infrastructure
Unfortunately, the aging state of UK infrastructure means we are not as resilient as we could be to prevent and deal with any crises. Most shocking is the state of the National Grid for our electricity. Not only is it at its limit for the amount of electricity it can handle, so in order to accommodate all the data centres currently proposed it would have physically double in size, but due to the impact that switching to renewables has had on the consistent reliability of generation, we are at increasing risk of grid collapse as was seen in Spain in Portugal in April 2025 when millions went without power. Then we have to add that a significant proportion (c.40%) of our electricity supply is generated abroad. It goes without saying that if the ships carrying the LNG to fire our power stations are obstructed or the underwater power cables are cut, then we are in for some major problems. The same is true for all power-related commodities, including petrol, diesel and gas, as we have over the years severely reduced our storage capabilities becoming more and more dependent on the open market. As for water and sewage, the news has been full of stories recently of how our water companies have appeared to have been prioritising funding their investors rather than investing in infrastructure. All of which means that even in normal times our water infrastructure gets overwhelmed and we get rivers polluted and increased flooding. Increased global warming will not only increase the pressure as the amount of wet weather increases, but we will also see hotter temperatures, increasing the electricity demand for air conditioning.
The geopolitical picture
Probably the most critical issue though, is the current global geo-political situation. The world is moving from a unipolar rules-based international system to a multi-polar big power system. What this means in-depth is the subject of numerous PhD’s, from a top-level perspective it means we have moved from a situation where the international law provided the rules by which most countries abided by and the USA and its allies policed those rules. This has kept the UK and Europe pretty safe for decades. This is no longer the case. The USA has, for various reasons, retreated from that role and many of the major players on the world stage, such as China, Russia and India have started to use international law when and if it helps them and ignore it when it doesn’t. The use of military might to further their own political and economic goals is now seen by them as increasingly acceptable.
Countries such as Iran, Pakistan, Qatar and North Korea have been accused of funding terrorism and many countries in the Middle East and Africa have been accused of not doing enough to prevent the funding of terrorism coming from within their borders. All of which means that not only is there an increased risk of a full blown military conflict, as we discussed at the top of this article, but asymmetric attacks by terrorist groups are likely to increase.
So, are you right to be anxious?
Of course you are, you would almost be ignorant not to be.
Most knowledgeable people realise that the world is an increasingly dangerous place to live and that due to globalised nature of our economies and politics, a crisis that happens anywhere can impact on us on in the UK. When you factor in that there are countries and terrorist groups who have some very overt grievances against the United Kingdom and have either already attacked or have stated that they will do, then although the potential of World War III starting imminently is still, thankfully, a bit farfetched, being aware that we live in times of heightened risk is the logical approach. Even without our geopolitics seeming to look like the 1930s again, the risk of natural disaster and/or infrastructure degradation should alone be enough to make you worried.
So what should you do?
We at Slightly Anxious have set up a website to provide you with everything to calm your nerves and help you sleep soundly again. Slightly Anxious is a website for British people who want to prepare for the worst but don’t want to build a bunker. We think that there is a reasonably high enough chance of there being a crisis which reduces our access to the staples of life and that we need to prepare for that. But we don’t think civilisation will collapse and we still don’t believe in the Zombie Apocalypse.
The Slightly Anxious website will supply you with everything you need to prepare for any crisis. It will help you write an Emergency Plan. It will provide you with an Emergency Kit so you can endure shortages of light, heat and power. It offers curated meal choices based on premium tinned foods and water storage so you can drink and wash. It provides entertainment and useful information that you access even without electricity It offers all of this in aesthetically pleasing packaging so that you don’t have to live in a bunker waiting for the end of the world. Slightly Anxious emergency supplies will fit effortlessly with your home décor so you don’t have to be reminded on a daily basis that you’ve made the biggest move in protecting your loved ones should the worst happen.
Your to do list is:
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Read 'The complete UK household emergency preparedness guide' next
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Write a household emergency plan
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Build an emergency kit for up to a week at home
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Pack a Grab Bag for each person
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Join to get the Emergency Guide and planning tools
Remember, keep calm and visit us here.
