It’s not looking good is it?

[User15384]

Cost of living crisis
Choice between heating v eating
Pound dramatically falling
Higher interest rates
NHS on brink of collapse

And now the warning of a flu-covid “twindemic” this Winter

It’s all quite overwhelming and sad and seems to be never ending 😞

What scares me is what will be the final straw before the shit really hits the fan?

The shit has already hit the fan. It's just that the fan is switched off to save on unaffordable electricity charges, and we won't notice until it has to come back on again and abruptly deposits its load upon our heads.

Well if your energy bills are £500 a month and you’re paying £1000 in rent or mortgage there’s not much left after that is there ?

This is surely the key difference.

Things in the 70s were hard because the government was maintaining systems of proper universal healthcare, free university education, liberally available social housing etc. in the face of challenging economic circumstances.

Things now are hard because, having just come through some challenging economic circumstances, the government and their mates are asset stripping the country and forcing us to pay for it, while they laugh.

The challenges and costs might be similar. The difference is what they are being paid for and what ordinary people will have to show for them once they're paid.

@Barney60

I think this winter may be harsh for some, but we will survive

I really wish people would stop saying things like this. Because the truth is, some people will not survive.

I’m a member of the Labour Party and campaign for change in government. I have direct debits set up to local food banks etc. I’m amused by the idea you think I might want you to hand over your cash to me. On an individual level I’m probably as insulated from it as it’s possible to be, not least because not all of my income is in sterling. But yeah, you should hand over a load more of your income in tax, as should I. Because we’re part of a society and society can’t function without pubic services.

@Doingprettywellthanks

Not meaning to be defensive, just sometimes hard to discern tone on here 😊

Oh yes, me, me, me. Me, me, me. Me, me, me. I hope you’re never unfortunate enough to become disabled / get dementia etc.

Nicely put.

I genuinely don't understand how a person working FT (I assume if 2 jobs), get to the point that they can't afford to heat any room, never have a take away, can't use a dryer, and even afford a hit bottle water. With a FT job, and benefits if rent is high, there are children and or disability, everyone should get at a minimum £1500 to over £2k a month. So where does all the money go?

Mortgage. Gas. Electric. Water. Council Tax. House insurance. Car insurance. Petrol. Childcare. Food and household supplies. Pension contributions. Student loan. Phone. Internet. Car maintenance. Clothing. Phone to support medical condition (system not supported by basic/older phone). Old house that needs constant maintenance.

Single, child with disability. No child maintenance.

I don’t have a dryer.

How far do you think £2k a month will go if you have a mortgage and childcare?

Trouble is things have been pretty good for a long time. Now your time to step up and get on with things has come. We've had ours already. Maybe stop tantruming and you might learn something.

You really don’t get this, do you? Our economy’s being trashed, the £ is in the toilet, the housing market will probably crash - best case scenario is a 20-15% fall - businesses will fail and unemployment will rise. Public services, already cut to the bone, will get even worse. When people are really poor, crime rises. So presumably you’d be happy to be burgled and the police are too overstretched to attend? Or to call an ambulance for your sick child or parent and it takes 12 hours to get there?

10-15% fall, godammit!

When were these 'good times' ? I don't recall that many during the last 12 years to be honest.

Bearsan will be the first weeping and wailing if it actually ends up personally affecting them: if the police don't show up when they've been burgled; if they can't get a scan because there isn't capacity; if their circumstances change and they can't afford to heat their house. It's all very well looking back with rose coloured glasses about how they got through worse. But these people only ever see things from their own perspective and would soon be showing outrage if it affected their own situation.

Fortunately there are a lot of people in this world who don't want to see others struggling to heat their houses.

Hopefully the public will finally be able to see through the MSM lies about the Tories being the party you trust with the economy and see them as the self serving charlatans they truly are.

So some messages hint that posters -

A) are fully protected from requiring public services.
As an individual you can not independently buy everything you need. You can't renew your passport, educate a future workforce or do your own emergency c-section.

B. Everyone should get a turn at life being hard.
There's so much wrong with this I don't know where to start. It's like the opposite of paying it forward.
It is highly likely your lives were made harder by choices made by our Governments. Decent Governance which makes the best of bad situations shouldn't lead to successive generations crying over bills. This is exactly what we pay the Government to manage. At the very least they should want to make our lives easier.

So just because lots of people had a shitty time balancing money 25 years ago doesn't mean you are owed someone from the next generation going through the same thing.

We should want better for our young people. There's lots of talk of ambition - why wouldn't you aspire for things to improve?

(In my 50's. Experienced very difficult times blah blah. Worked hard and got lucky.)

Our rent is £1800 a month. £2000 a month wouldn't go very far for us.

You know we can see your other posts where you talk about how your parents’ inherited wealth insulated you from the problems of the 70s? And your rental property?

I do hope you’ve told your children about it being ‘their turn’ to have hard times.

Cloutneer - That is a huge amount to spend on rent. Is that London? What size property?

Oh and you forgot looks like the financial masters of universe have been fucking around inside private pensions as well hence the 55 billion bailout as their clever dickery gilt instruments blew up. Nothing has been learnt these crooks are still cooking up toxic financial shit. They will destroy us all on the end. Apparently Blackrock Legal and General and Scroders Bank have their fingerprints on this one.

Cloutneer - That is a huge amount to spend on rent. Is that London? What size property?

Im in an average Hampshire town and £1600 pcm is the norm for a bog standard 3 bed semi or terrace. So £1800 is far from out of the ordinary I’d say.

Nasty and jealous aren't you. Hiding this thread now.

I was talking to a friend about rent in London (not Central London) and she said the going rate is £2K per month for a small flat.

Ha, what would I be jealous of? My own financial position is good and I’ve escaped being cruel and bitter enough to want other people to suffer. I earnestly hope I never end up like you, quite the opposite of jealousy.

Rents in London are huge.
It's quite scary.

Bristol. 4 bedroom house. It's less than a third of our income so it's affordable for us but yes it is large. We'd not be able to get a house in Bristol for less than £1300, in a not nice area. Mortgage wise we'd have been looking at repayments of £1900 pcm minimum.