It always starts with a tweet …
No I wasn’t sat in The Winchester (but more of that to come).
This blog is a post about my musings that became an amazing podcast with Jenny Radcliffe and Cary Hendricks … maybe consider downloading or subscribing here:
So I’m seeing a lot of stuff about #GrabBag
So I’ve grabbed my #GrabBag … Where am I meant to go?
If there is an emergency that I’ve had to prepare for, where is the safe place to go?
What am I running from?
Where am I going to?— SPCoulson (@SPCoulson) September 8, 2019
This whole campaign could fit into an episode of #TinfoilHatClub on @Jenny_Radcliffe ‘s podcast.
Massive push on an annual campaign (never heard of it before) from every police force to get us “prepared” … The month before Brexit happens.
Is this civil unrest preparedness?
— SPCoulson (@SPCoulson) September 8, 2019
This whole thing started because of a hashtag I had seen on Twitter #GrabBag (https://twitter.com/search?q=grabbag&src=typed_query&f=live). After it clogging up my timeline on Twitter for a while I decided to pay some attention it. It had clearly gone viral and, knowing what a grabbag was, I was curious.
In the UK, a campaign was being run by in conjunction with some of their 2017 partners aimed at the general public of the UK to make their own grabbags.
A grab bag contains key items in the event of a sudden evacuation. Here’s a list of suggested items, what would you include?#30days30waysUK #grabbag pic.twitter.com/LevHb6vo61
— Prepared In Essex (@PreparedInEssex) September 8, 2019
A #GrabBag contains key items that’ll come in handy should an emergency happen ??
Check out our handy guide to see the sort of things you should pack ? https://t.co/ug8gi1jIvi
Personalise your grab bag so it contains items useful for you ?#30Days30WaysUK #BePrepared pic.twitter.com/QicTbMJwv2
— Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service (@cambsfrs) September 8, 2019
September is preparedness month. Emergencies can happen at any time and it’s recommended to have a #GrabBag ready containing essential items including medication, copies of important documents, food/water, torch, radio and other personal items #30Days30WaysUK #BePrepared pic.twitter.com/7ZtQlVJ7Yr
— Police Scotland Control Rooms (@polscotcontrol) September 8, 2019
What are the most important items to have in an emergency?
Put them together in a #GrabBag so you’re prepared if you ever need to leave your home or workplace immediately #Preparedness #30Days30WaysUK pic.twitter.com/KG9eWmL2JB
— Thames Valley Police (@ThamesVP) September 8, 2019
What struck me as odd in the immediate was that non of the messages aligned. If this was a national campaign, I’d have expected to see similar branding, stock images etc. instead we had this mish-mash of messages and. frankly, some rather obscure images. The graphic from Police Scotland in fact originated from a Canadian Wildfire Alert blog.
So I started to do some digging…
In the Beginning …
Where did the GrabBag story start?
Well America of course!
2003 : Ready.gov Part of Dept for Homeland Security is created to give advice on
- Hurricanes
- Storm Surge
- Flooding
2004 (September): United States Environmental Protection Agency created National Preparedness Month
2010 : US Federal Emergency Management Agency : 4 Phases of Emergency Management
Mitigation : preventing future emergencies
Preparedness : preparing to handle an emergency
Response : responding safely to an emergency
Recovery : post incident
On this side of the ocean we have:
2004 : Civil Contingencies Act (guidance)
2015 : 30 Days 30 Ways UK from Northamptonshire Emergency Planners and Partners
and this campaign has been running ever since, albeit rather quietly.
So what happened this time?
For some reason, in 2019, the hashtag explodes across social media, leaving Twitter and reaching other social media platforms as the public took the messages coming from the Polie and other Emergency Services and either:
a) ridiculed it, or,
b) asked a lot of questions
How and when to use Grab Bags
I think I need to explain that I am not against grab bags at all… in fact when I travel, I usually have a form of a grab bag with me at all times. However, that is because I have:
- assessed my risks of an incident
- assessed the types of incident I may be faced with on my travels
- assessed the likelihood of an incident occurring
- and where I need to go to if an incident happens
This is good practise and businesses ad organisations have been doing it for years (maybe under the banner of Business Continuity).
However, and this is important, when you create a grab bag, those statements above are critical when selecting what goes inside your grab bag.
- Know what you are running from
- Know where you are running to
What kinds of risks should I be thinking of?
It depends on where you live, your ability to move and your risk appetite. I know that doesn’t sound like much help but hear me out.
Location
If you live in a city centre, you will have very different risks to those faced by people who live in the countryside. City people will expect risks to be around people. Riots, civil disturbances, fights, rallies etc. In the countryside, you would expect more environmental and geographical risks, flooding, blocked rads from falling trees etc. Yes, these are generalisations, but I think yo get he gist.
Ability
Someone with a disability, someone who has mobility issues, an older person may find movement more restrictive than a young spritely youth! In case of a flood, for example, a yout may be able to climb on to the roof of a building to safety, whereas a grandparent may struggle to even make it to a loft space. This means that when planning for an incident, you have to think not just about yourself, but the others in your party that you may have to evacuate alongside.
Appetite
This is not about food, but instead is about how risky you are. If you are cautious ad think of every eventuality, it is more likely that yo are going to prepare for every eventuality and may even have created escape routes already. Have known safe places to evacuate to. If you are not already thinking about risks and maybe even are more hardy “it won’t happen and even if it did, I’ll be alright” then ts group of people may not think about risks or plans ad may even be reluctant to leave their properties if there is an incident.
Types of risks
This is just a random collection of risks that popped into my head as I was preparing for this. Some will sound far-fetched an some are added for comedy!
- Flood
- Fire within property
- Fire outside of property e.g. Wildfire
- Nation State physical attack
- Power Outage
- Pinky an the Brain finally work it out
- Gas outage
- Telecoms outage (mobile and/or landline)
- Alien Invasion
- Hurricane
- Politics (e.g. Brexit)
- Snow
- Climate change
- Fuel shortage
- Wind (storm)
- Civil disobedience
- Looting
- Riot
- Earthquake
- Zombie apocalypse
Each one of these can then be thought of in terms of likelihood of that event happening. If you live on top of a hill, a flood is unlikely. But, if you live next to a big river or watercourse, flooding should be something you think about. Same for zombies outbreak. If you live near a large population of people or a “research lab” maybe consider different grab bags (and watch Shaun of the Dead a lot!)
Reach for the Tinfoil Folks!
And herein lies my problem with this 30daysand30Ways campaign…
What is the disaster I am preparing for that requires me to grab my grab bag
and then, when I have that grab bag
where am I mean to go now?
Are you sitting UNcomfortably?
So … we have a list of risks that may or may not involve you grabbing your grab bag. I sat down with my wife and thought about likelihood of events happening in the UK and came up with a top 3 list:
- Flooding
- Winter Weather / Snow
- Politics (e.g. Brexit)
Flooding
Ok, it’s the North of England … it rains a lot. FACT. So, taking a story like Whaley Bridge where a dam wall was in threat of collapse. Yes, a grab bag would have been a critical asset in that incident. However … this #GrabBag campaign was a cross-UK campaign and we have not had floods hitting all parts of the UK in one and so it seems like an unlikely campaign based on this risk.
Winter Weather / Snow
Winter is coming … and our beloved UK media is already on the trail of the BIG ONE …
Yes, our UK media may be known for it’s sensationalist ad clickbait titles! But … the snow sometimes does fall in the UK and all across the UK too … Hurrah, we have fund a cross-UK risk … BUT.The worst thing to do in bad weather is to leave your house ! So, don;t grab your grab bag, instead hunker down and home and keep warm and hydrated.
Politics (e.g. brexit)
Certainly cross-UK (TICK!!!) and in the same week as #GrabBag was the release of the documents for , the UK emergency plan for a United kingdom that leaves Europe with no deal. The risks that come with Operation YellowHammer are that:
- ports will be in chaos due to new rules and ways of working. This will cause trucks to back up carrying food and medicine.
- this will cause food shortages and a rise in food prices
- in turn this will cause under-privileged parties to strike back and potentially rally against the government
- these rallies may then bring out pro and anti Brexit groups which could clash and so civil disobedience starts
- due to the tensions due to food shortages etc it is likely this will then fall to widespread riots
And all his s being fuelled by a media storm pushing the “looting and rioting” stories
Wow … I hope you have your tinfoil hat pulled down real tight now !!
If all this happens, for sure, you may want to grab your grab bag and get he hell out of town! (TICK!!!!)
Tinfoil Sombrero
So we have:
- Full, national un-co-ordinated campaign from multiple police forces on Grab Bags
- If this were a UK Govt scheme then there would be consistent messaging, branding and images
- Use of non-uk material (e.g. Canadian Wildfire graphics by Police Scotland)
- Lack of any follow up from public questions (like they didn’t understand why they were posting it themselves
In other words
- No identified threat
- No message as to where a safe haven is
- No response to public questions
- No Central Government comment
Summary
I suspect ts is just bad messaging rather than some conspiracy theory but … with the uncertainty with politics and “anti-everything” feeling at the moment … we just don’t know.
Fake Media / anti-trust messaging is causing a deep sceptical society that no longer believe what it reads – with the rise in Deep Fakes, we soon won’t believe what we see or hear either. That means that if this is a serious message, we just will ignore it.
Regardless of your political slant, there is a general complete loss of trust in the Government / Politicians from all sides so if they are giving this message out, we just won’t believe them.
Do I have a GrabBag?
Kind of. When I travel for business, I travel with additional kit depending on my circumstances. As a family, we have emergency boxes that live in our vehicles during winter for those “what if” scenarios. But for the home … no. But … I asked my kids about it and I would like to share with you some of their items that they suggested as well as some of my thoughts:
[table id=7 /]
Final Note
Massive thank you to the People hacker herself for inviting me on to talk on her podcast and the other guest on the podcast Cary Hendricks.It was an absolute blast to sit back and chill with some very clever people and talk about a topic that was bugging me and getting to the bottom of it.
What do you think? Tinfoil Sombrero? Should we be worried or was this just a rubbish marketing campaign? What would you put in your #grabbag?
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