Scottish dad-of-three, 52, spends £6,000 on doomsday shelter stocked to last 25 years — but his kids think he has lost the plot

Brian Forbes, a 52-year-old engineer surveyor based between Glasgow and Stirling, has put £6,000 into two family shelters this year, loading them with freeze-dried food, power banks, night-vision goggles and military rations. His wife Donna, 51, shares the prepping costs with him, though their three children — aged 15, 27 and 29 — make no secret of their doubts. Forbes cites growing anxiety over Britain's failing power grid and water shortages as the reason his outlay has climbed steeply in 2026. The UK Preppers Club online group has passed 16,000 members.

A brutal Scottish winter in 2010 — marked by gridlocked roads, bare shelves and closed schools — was what pushed him to begin stockpiling 16 years ago.

'I only need to be right once,' Forbes said of his sceptical children — adding he does 'no harm to anyone else.'