What do you think this winter will really be like?

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I've done a bit too much doom scrolling tonight. Our landlord has just put our rent up by 120 pounds due to inflation and our fixed energy bill ends this month. I am starting to grow really concerned on how we are going to manage, as well as society as a whole. So many people are going to be in so much trouble I don't understand why there seems to be no plan!

What do you think this winter will really be like? The catastrophic rolling blackout, schools with 3 day weeks scenario, or do you think the government will do something to fix it. Somewhere in the middle of the two? Societal unrest?

I've never felt so uneasy living in this country before.

We used to dream about having desks 😉

This was actually taken completely out of context. He wasn't talking about the cost of living. He was discussing nuclear power and how we must invest to save, and he then gave the example of buying a new kettle to save energy longer term being the smart thing to do too. But this wasn't for people facing sky high energy bills.

@velvetvixen @MoistBandana no doubt the govt will outsource to successful businesses like Amazon because that will encourage entrepreneurial spirit.

The catastrophic rolling blackout, schools with 3 day weeks scenario

Yep same old 70's again.

Give up any notion of Govt rescue.The scale of the crisis makes that financially impossible. It couldn't and didn't happen back then, and can't and won't now.

I think many people are going to be very disappointed tomorrow. I think the goernment may help schools and businesses but I don't think the average household will be getting anymore than the £400 energy top up.

What we're the mid-sixties like? I am only aware of what it was like in the 70s (run away inflation, strikes, power cuts etc.)

In the 60's, you had to live within your means.

In the mid 60's UK nobody was affluent. Plastic cards and direct debit did not exist; nor did instant cash withdrawal from a hole in the wall. Most working class people had no bank account. They were paid weekly in cash notes. They paid for goods in cash.

Salaried people (paid monthly by cheque), could have a bank account so long as they kept it in credit. To get cash from your bank account, you had to go inside the bank building and ask a teller. If your account was empty, they refused. Unfunded cheques were bounced by the bank.

I worked full time in a shop, six days a week, 8 till 6 with a half day on Wednesday. I was paid £8 a week in cash. My rent was £4 a week paid in cash. For that, I got an unheated room and coldwater "kitchen" (stove cupboard and sink) in LL's attic. The only bathroom (downstairs) was shared with the LL and other tenants. The LL controlled the hot water supply to the bath; each tenant was allowed one shallow bath per week. Whenever I wanted my weekly bath, I had to ask the LL to turn on the boiler. Otherwise, I boiled a kettle and washed in the kitchen sink. The attic opened onto communal stairs and had no private entrance door.

It sounds like the making of a good kitchen sink drama.😁 I can relate though as I was brought up in the 60/70s.

The thunderous sound of bubbles popping all over the country this week when it becomes crystal clear the government haven’t got the foggiest about how to handle this situation will be deafening.

A lot of hope is being pinned on Liz (or Rishi) having the elusive magical answer, yet it doesn’t leave much potential for solutions when the current resident at No10 suggests buying a new kettle to save a tenner 🤨

You can make a good pie from a pigeon and the mushroom season is nearly here.

I was forced to eat that as a child 🤢

To be fair some of us were born into fiercely political families where current affairs were the backdrop to everyday life. I wasn't born until 1977 but I have a very clear memory of my mother sobbing her heart out because Thatcher got elected. We were in a coal mining community and dirt poor at the time. Nothing to do with being precocious or reading War and Peace at 3, everything to do with politics actually affecting working-class people's lives in an immediate sense. Politics wasn't just a hobby of the chattering classes who frequent MN, my parents weren't worrying about having to buy cheaper hummus.

Politics wasn't just a hobby of the chattering classes who frequent MN, my parents weren't worrying about having to buy cheaper hummus.

😆 err the point is even within fiercely political families it's unusual to have a grasp of current affairs at age 5...

I remember the 3 day week very well. Sitting in the office with my manual typewriter and hurricane lamp. Wrapped up in hat, coat and scarf. When computers for everything came in I said we would be buggered if anything like it happened again.

Having the power off wasn't too bad if you had family nearby because they turned it off in areas so it was easy to go to someone else's for the evening and the reciprocate on another evening. I don't recall any panic. We just worked round it.

Let's hope for a mild winter.

If living with in your means meant those kinds of living conditions even on a full time wage, then thank goodness for cheap credit and the march of progress. That doesn't really sound like living, more just existing and putting up with your lot in life no matter how demoralising.

I worked full time in a shop, six days a week, 8 till 6 with a half day on Wednesday. I was paid £8 a week in cash. My rent was £4 a week paid in cash. For that, I got an unheated room and coldwater "kitchen" (stove cupboard and sink) in LL's attic. The only bathroom (downstairs) was shared with the LL and other tenants. The LL controlled the hot water supply to the bath; each tenant was allowed one shallow bath per week. Whenever I wanted my weekly bath, I had to ask the LL to turn on the boiler. Otherwise, I boiled a kettle and washed in the kitchen sink. The attic opened onto communal stairs and had no private entrance door.

If this was the norm how did people afford childcare?
If you were paid in cash did that mean paying no tax?

Of course we paid tax.

Employer would work it out and send a cheque to the tax office.

of course not, the company paid the tax

I think it will be no different for some, ok for us and absolute hell for others.

I truly believe it will be absolutely fine if they were gonna let it go to the dogs and really do some damage to this country it would have happened during Covid my whole industry literally got wiped out in one day and then everything was put straight again two days later.

If you were paid in cash did that mean paying no tax?

How old are you? At one time, not that long ago, it was usual for people in non-professional jobs to be paid in cash. The tax and NI contributions were deducted before they received it. Just the same way as it is now.

Hopefully not as bad as it will be for people in Ukrain.

Or indeed the Congo where 5.4 million have died since 2008 not that anybody cares.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Congo_War

I remember. It was still a thing in the 90 for some companies. There's probably some these days still doing it this way.

I remember going on the wage run once to collect the wage packets. 50 or so small brown envelopes with a wage slip and cash inside. Each had about £1000 in it. Most money I've ever physically held.

Shocking. Yes. People gloss over. I see both sides, we are abundantly lucky to have homes and food.

We are selfish beyond belief.

Poor black people in deepest Africa only make the news when some might appear on dinghies trying to seek refuge in the UK. News is framed around a narrative and we are conditioned by the media as to what is important and what we should focus on. Where's Bob Geldof or Bono these days?