On a Thursday in Telford, where tank gun barrel production had just been returned to British soil, Defence Secretary Wes Streeting turned attention from the factory floor to the kitchen table. Across history, societies have learned that the quiet preparations made before a disaster matter as much as the response that follows, and the government now asks households and businesses to accept that modern life rests on fragile chains of power, water, data and food. Its new 'Be Ready' campaign, which urges families to keep three days of supplies, is an invitation to balance vigilance against fear at
Streeting urges UK households and businesses to prepare for cyber and climate supply disruption
Alert but not alarmed
Mark
Why is a defence secretary talking about bottled water and torches?
Mimi
Because the government is framing resilience as something households share in. The Be Ready campaign lists three days of supplies: food, water, a torch, sleeping bags, first aid items, and an FM radio.
Mark
Why a radio?
Mimi
If phones and the internet go down, it's a way to get updates. The advice even says to write down the frequencies of the stations you use.
Luke
Streeting was asked directly whether this is scaremongering, and he said there's no specific thing the government has in mind. So the campaign isn't tied to a named, identified threat.
Mark
But he did say the threat is greater than in most of his lifetime.
Luke
That's his assessment, made on Question Time. The article doesn't give independent evidence for the comparison, so it stands as his claim.
Mimi
The concrete example is the PHP flaw. In the UK, 32 government services went offline while it was addressed.
Luke
Which is a fact. But the article doesn't say the outage affected the public in any way beyond the services being offline, and it doesn't say who, if anyone, exploited the flaw.
Mark
And the weather side?
Mimi
Eagle linked the strongest El Niño in a generation to more extreme storms, and the National Audit Office said Defra hasn't done enough on food supply resilience.
Luke
Worth noting the NAO comparison with Finland and Sweden is about household preparedness, not a prediction that shortages are coming.
Il Polso
- A critical flaw in PHP, the software beneath much of the internet, forced 32 UK government services offline while experts scrambled to patch systems.
- Ministers warn that threats from cyber-attacks, extreme weather and hostile states will happen 'more and more', pressing the public to act now.
- The 'Be Ready' campaign asks households to stockpile three days of food, water, torches, first aid and an FM radio for use during outages.
- A National Audit Office report found Defra has not done enough to protect the food supply, leaving Britain less prepared than Finland or Sweden.
- Officials insist they aim to keep people 'alert but not alarmed', and the campaign's reach and public response will determine whether the message lands.
On a Thursday in Telford, where tank gun barrel production had just been returned to British soil, Defence Secretary Wes Streeting turned attention from the factory floor to the kitchen table. Across history, societies have learned that the quiet preparations made before a disaster matter as much as the response that follows, and the government now asks households and businesses to accept that modern life rests on fragile chains of power, water, data and food. Its new 'Be Ready' campaign, which urges families to keep three days of supplies, is an invitation to balance vigilance against fear at a time when floods, wildfires, cyber-attacks and hostile states all press on the same supply lines.
On Thursday, Defence Secretary Wes Streeting stood in Telford, at the UK Gun Hall Plant where tank gun barrel production had just been brought back to the UK, and spoke about something closer to home. He pointed to this summer's wildfires and the flooding expected this winter, and said households and businesses must think harder about how they would cope with natural disasters, cyber-attacks and state-sponsored threats.
The government is launching a "national resilience conversation" to raise that awareness. Streeting warned of increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks and of supply chain disruption caused by hostile states or terrorists. He told BBC One's Question Time that the country faces a greater threat than at almost any point in his lifetime. He cited a critical flaw in PHP, the software behind much of the internet, which took 32 UK government services offline while it was fixed, and he said such incidents would happen more and more, driven by criminals and by artificial intelligence.
The practical face of this is the "Be Ready" campaign. It advises households to keep three days of supplies, including non-perishable food, bottled water, a torch, sleeping bags, first aid items and a battery or FM radio, with station frequencies written down for outages. When a Question Time audience member asked whether this was scaremongering, Streeting replied that the government wants people "alert but not alarmed" and has no specific threat in mind. Security Minister Dan Jarvis added that the advice would help emergency services prioritise those most in need, and noted that France, Ireland and the Netherlands already treat such preparation as normal.
The warnings have been building for weeks. Environment Secretary Dame Angela Eagle urged people to prepare for extreme weather as a strong El Niño develops, and a National Audit Office report found Britain's food supply vulnerable to disease, cyber-attack and extreme weather, with Defra having done too little to strengthen it. The campaign follows last year's national security strategy, which spoke of preparing for direct threats, even in a wartime scenario. What comes next is how far the Be Ready message reaches, and how the public responds.
On Thursday, Defence Secretary Wes Streeting stood before an audience at the UK Gun Hall Plant in Telford, where it had just been announced that production of tank gun barrels would return to the UK. He used the occasion to talk about something much closer to home: the everyday challenges households face. He pointed to the wildfires that burned this summer and the flooding expected this winter, and said members of the public and businesses need to think harder about how they would cope with natural disasters, cyber-attacks or state-sponsored terrorism.
The government is launching what it calls a "national resilience conversation" to raise that awareness. Streeting said people should be more alert to emerging risks and make plans for them, including preparing for "increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks" on businesses and for supply chain disruption caused by "hostile state actors or terrorists". Later, on BBC One's Question Time, he said the UK faces a greater threat than at any point in most, if not all, of his lifetime.
He pointed to a recent example: a critical security flaw in PHP, the programming language that powers much of the internet, which has left organisations worldwide scrambling to update their systems. In the UK, 32 government services were taken offline while potential security problems were dealt with. Streeting said such incidents will happen "more and more". The danger, he told Question Time, does not come only from foreign states engaged in espionage or sabotage but also from organised criminals. He added that artificial intelligence brings its own threats when people innovate and push against conventional cyber defences.
The practical side is the "Be Ready" campaign. It warns that severe weather or hostile cyber-attacks could leave people without everyday services such as mains water, sewage, phones and the internet. Households are encouraged to stock enough to last three days: non-perishable food, bottled water, a torch, sleeping bags and first aid items. The advice also suggests keeping an FM radio for updates during outages and writing down the frequencies of national or local stations used for news.
A Question Time audience member asked whether this amounted to scaremongering. Streeting said the government wants people to be "alert but not alarmed", and that there was no "specific thing we've got in mind" behind the advice. He argued the listed supplies might help through power cuts, or if a local shop is hit by a cyber-attack and card payments stop working at the till.
Security Minister Dan Jarvis said the advice would let emergency services prioritise people who need more support in a crisis, and that he hopes it will "improve our resilience as a nation". He noted that France, Ireland and the Netherlands have run similar campaigns, where such advice is a "normal part of everyday life".
The weather warnings have been building. Last month Environment Secretary Dame Angela Eagle said people should prepare for extreme weather as the strongest El Niño event in a generation develops over the Pacific Ocean. She said it would bring "more extreme storms in this country" and urged households to stock up on food. Her comments coincided with a National Audit Office report warning that Britain's food supply chain is vulnerable to plant or human disease outbreaks, cyber-attacks and extreme weather. The NAO said Defra had not done enough in recent years to improve resilience, and that UK households are less prepared for emergencies than those in countries such as Finland and Sweden.
The campaign follows the national security strategy launched last year, which said the UK must "actively prepare for the possibility of the UK coming under direct threat, potentially in a wartime scenario". It cited Russia's war against Ukraine and "Iranian hostile activity on British soil". The government says building resilience means reducing reliance on others and keeping supply chains and energy security intact even in a crisis. What to watch now is how far the Be Ready message reaches, and how the public responds to it.
Citazioni salienti
We want people to be alert but not alarmed.— Wes Streeting, Defence Secretary, on BBC One's Question Time
The advice should improve our resilience as a nation and help emergency services prioritise those needing more support.— Dan Jarvis, Security Minister
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