Sales of torches, power banks and radios have jumped sharply in Britain, according to figures obtained by BBC Newsnight, with retailers also reporting a rise in tinned food purchases. The increase follows a public call for households to stock up on emergency supplies.

Hypothesis: the surge suggests that years of civil-defence messaging elsewhere in Europe — Finland's long tradition of household shelters and reserve stocks, Germany's more recent push for citizens to keep emergency food and water on hand — are now reshaping everyday behaviour in Britain too, not just government rhetoric. Supporting this: Newsnight's figures, confirmed by retailers, describe an actual change in what people are buying. Against this: the data covers UK retail sales only. It shows nothing about whether the same shift is happening in Helsinki or Berlin, and nothing about what specifically triggered British shoppers to act now.

What remains unclear is whether London will follow Nordic and central European governments in issuing formal, government-branded stockpiling guidance, or whether this is a diffuse reaction to broader war anxiety rather than coordinated policy. Whether government formalises that shift is the next thing to watch.