Firearms.

Contrary to popular belief when it comes to guns it is every British persons born right to own a Shotgun & is a relatively easy process to acquire a licence.
As far as im concerned it is your absolute civic duty to own one and to enjoy your freedoms given to you under law to the fullest.
The onus is on the Police to prove you cannot own one as opposed to proving why you need one like (for example) owning a 22lr AR-15.
Providing you have a cleanish criminal record, a note from the doctor, pass a police interview & have somewhere to store the gun (it doesnt even need to be locked in a safe) you will be issued with a licence, the only drawback to this is Police incompetence in how long it takes to process your application.

A shotgun like any firearm is a tool, it can be used to put food on the table, for sport (shooting is genuinely a fun past time) & of course for self defence.
If you take preparedness seriously & protecting your family, its one of the first things you should look into, you can literally apply online right now & potentially have a shotgun in 30 days.

You can carry 3 shells in your shotgun, one in the chamber and two loaded - were not talking protracted gun fights over x amount of distance here however in a home invasion situation 3 shells will quickly turn the fight in your favour - UK gun laws and specifically self defence laws are dumb as f*** so you need to judge what is an appropriate response to an invader.

Shotguns enable you to put food on the table & start 2nd hand from about £200, you'll be putting Ducks/rabbits (amongst others) on your plate that have lived free happy lives compared to factory farmed misery meat, that is pumped full of hormones that make it grow faster.
You're untethering yourself from all that s***e.

It's completely personal preference what you go for however something like this [Link]
Is what I would look at, Pump action, picatinny rail to run a red dot (proven to be faster at target acquisition) a Pistol grip again makes it a faster weapon, not expensive & if you really enjoy the sport side of things you can always buy something nicer later.

I would urge everyone to get training and even look at tactical shotgun courses which are stupidly good fun.

If you're put off by owning a shotgun (man up ffs) then there are a handful of alternatives.

Crossbow

Get one whilst they're legal, even the pistol versions will put a bolt through someone should they be running at you with a machete in your home (something that has happened to my mum & younger brother)
A hunting Crossbow will take down a deer so in a shtf situation feel free to shoot the Muntjac deer that occupy the woods around Banstead

Air rifle
Useless for self defence but if your looking for somewhere to start that is not a shotgun then they're great , it will put food on the table, & is a very cheap way to get into the sport of target shooting, break barrels if looked after will last forever and I have seen videos of people taking small wild pigs with a 22mm
[Link]

Links
Apply for shotgun licence here
[Link]
Join Basc
[Link]
Addition info to chew over
[Link]

The mountains are calling & I must go.

A shotgun could be quite useful at the turnstile when your season ticket barcode doesn't work.

Palace since 19 August 1972. Palace 1 (Tony Taylor) Liverpool 1 (Emlyn Hughes)

Like many I don't have a gas cooker and my gas boiler needs electricity to work.

Any sensible suggestions for heating my home and boiling a kettle in the event we have power cuts this winter.

One more point

The most bizarre radio advert I ever heard was when stuck in traffic on the M6 coming back from a cup replay defeat at Villa.

I heard a siren and thought it was something trying to get through the traffic. Turned out to be a fire engine on the radio as part of an ad on the local channel asking people to stop burning their rubbish indoors!

Maybe they were just years ahead of their time in those parts.

Living down here does have some advantages. At least you can see them cry.

Your heating Boiler probably only needs about 400 watts to run. You can get lower kw kettles, say 1 to 1.5 kw. Try the camping shop. Then buy a 2 kva generator ( 2 kw) Bit of wiring mods through the window or hole through the wall.
Generator needs to stay outside and exhausted away from the house.

Exactly what I would suggest, best/worst case scenario is you have a few gas bottles you can take camping.

Just today it was announced that domestic UK energy prices are set to increase by 80%, absolutely staggering increase.

When I built my home the best part of 4? years ago now I was dead set on an off grid wood pellet/multi fuel boiler.
It was about €2000 cheaper to buy and install however long term it would have worked out more expensive to run.
Peer pressure, the convenience of gas & the fact I am running a B&B in 60% of my home made me drop the extra on a gas boiler.
Given my proximity to the war in Ukraine & the likelihood the Russians are going to switch off my gas supply this winter I am absolutely kicking myself.

So yeah go and buy some cheapo gas cylinders from your local camping shop, like I say if you dont need to use them you got some to go camping with.

Low wattage kettles designed for Caravans is also a great idea.

Edited by Ouzo Dan (26 Aug 2022 9.00pm)

The mountains are calling & I must go.