Keir Starmer has warned us to prepare for inflation in a recent speach.

[EvangelicalAboutButteredToast]

errr haven’t we just had a 50% ruse in food prices alongside huge utility and energy/fuel hikes? I heard that and thought how much fucking higher are we going before people are unable to pay their bills?!

All of the above with a large dollop of incompetence from the UK govt exacerbating it.

Given their apparent preference for political dogma over voters’ prosperity and their inability to understand the ramifications of their domestic fiscal policy (housing reforms driving up rents, VAT closure of private schools driving up state pupil numbers, failure to address welfare budgets, employer NI increases leading to unemployment, ever increasing violent crime, insecure borders) I do not trust them for a moment to get their response right or to exercise appropriate judgment on behalf of the working people of the country.

So we have to look after ourselves - what can we do to prepare for the forthcoming shortages and recession?

Yes, their response to anything seems to be to increase tax and it won’t be any different this time.

@GlobalTravellerbutespeciallyBognor agree.

A wealth tax is a one off event that would be nothing more than a sticking plaster. What do you suggest, a wealth tax every 5 years? We would have no ‘billionaires’ left. It isn’t a policy, because you can’t do it repeatedly - it’s a one off raid to prop up a failing system, which is as bad an idea as it sounds.

The Greens are economically inept, Polanski didn’t even understand the difference between the debt and the deficit.

Some people on here are mad. This inflation is entirely because the strait of Hormuz has been blockaded for weeks. Oil costs affect everything from food to everything which moves around by vehicle and everything with a premises needing heating (so everything in the shops or a warehouse then)

Ranting on about benefits is completely beside the point. I wonder if it feels more comforting to rant about Keir Starmer because you can vote against him, than accept this situation is out of the UK’s hands, and that Trump can affect our lives and we have almost no control over it.

Those talking about historic energy security decisions I have more sympathy with - but right now all we can do is weather the storm

@Dolphinnoises

Some people on here are mad. This inflation is entirely because the strait of Hormuz has been blockaded for weeks

Some people on here are mad indeed. We already had the highest inflation in Europe (apart from Estonia, Slovakia and Romania) before Iran war started.
UK inflation in May 2024 was 2%, in December 2025 it was 3.4%.

It is not entirely because of the Strait of Hormuz has been blocked.
This impact hasn't even reached as yet because the prices we're seeing in shops are still based on the contracts signed before this war. The war will start impacting inflation soon, but it will add another 2-3% on the top of already high inflation which is caused entirely by Starmer's incompetent government.

It's hardly surprising given the global landscape
Trumpflation

@Dolphinnoises becusee they have not done what other countries are doing to help people and we were worse off to start with

You underestimate their wealth and just how much of the total wealth of the country they now hold, having hoovered it all up. In America Musk is getting paid a billion EVERY YEAR ffs.

It won’t happen because they control the wealth completely now, because they control governments and control media and information. However the collapse is coming. What joy that that’s the only way of stopping slavery now.

https://equalitytrust.org.uk/evidence-base/billionaire-britain-2025/

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/24/bernie-sanders-opinion-billionaire-politics

@WaryCrow

A very interesting link, thank you for sharing. Have you read and analysed this? what's your take?

My takes are:

• the count of billionaires in the UK dropped 12% between 2022 and 2025, this includes 5% in the first year when Labour came to power
• accordingly, the wealth held by UK billionaires dropped 10% between 2024 and 2025. This is wealth which UK is most likely to be able to tax. They do leave, it's fact.
• Total wealth held by UK billionaires in 2025 was 619bn. If we take this all, 100% tax, and redistribute, it's about 8.9k per person, hardly life changing even for the poorest.
• Alternative, if we take all this wealth, again 100% tax, it will fund one year of welfare and NHS bills but won't stretch to cover education or defense anymore.

So we're done with billionaires now. What's next?

My take - since you need more than the facts I’ve already supplied - is that the stately homes have been reinhabited, and those of us who work for a living have most definitely not got it to give. My ‘take’ is that the Sunday Times Rich List and the list of highest taxpayers are grossly mismatched. My take is the current economic crisis that has not even begun yet. Cost of living crisis? This is socio economic collapse, happening again as it has happened before so many times in human history, caused by the greed of elites. Every time. Men will never learn.

The billionaires are there. The wealth of the country is there. What do you mean ‘we’re done with billionaires’? They exist. They’re there. They control our wealth, our info and our government. Aww have the our dears lost a zero? People who can throw hundreds of thousands, millions on a single day or evening, looking to be propped up by people whose annual earnings they outstrip by the end of the first week in January each year?

And what exactly is that fool doing about the cost of living beyond issuing warnings?

So many EU countries have been taking measure to curb utility companies profiteering and help their citizens yet the UK is doing nothing.

Can't wait to see the back of him (and I voted Labour).

We need a PM with a vision and real Labour policies.

I don’t disagree, but then you’re in “if I wanted to get to Tipperary I wouldn’t start from here” territory

There is another agenda here. We were never in danger from Iran and neither were the U.S. We have the evidence. Trump also said he had obliterated their military and nuclear capabilities in the first week. If that was the case, why was he asking for the UK to get involved. Please do not be so gullible. Look at how much money is being made off the back of this war and the insider trading going on.

absolutely this

we still rely heavily on imported gas.
being more careful about where we import from
reduce dependence on imported gas.

I don't understand why people think these items being imported matters.
UK does not ban export of LNG, (do they)?
That means that UK producers can profit LOTS of money by exporting food or gas if global prices are high. They don't have any reason to sell to UK domestic market for a lower price if they can make more profit by selling globally.

UK citizens will pay more because global prices went up.
Something that can be exported but is much more difficult to export is ... electricity, including from renewables.

If you want to develop an energy product that can contribute to UK security, electricity is probably place to start.

Neither Rayner or Streeting would be worst than Sir Whatever! Starmer has proven to be an elitist, not very diffetent from Johnson. He thinks he is above us all and is using his priviledge to stay. I would have kept some respect for him if he had not use Robins as a scapegoat and allowed his party a free vote on whether to open an inquiry on Mandelson's appointment. But nope. He has used his priviledge....... He does not deserve to be our PM.

So how do you propose we tax someone IN AMERICA as you put it?

We should have got busier with this much earlier, but if we do not start now, then the future is bleak.
We have a huge wave power potential. Just a turbine anchored in strategic places, making energy. We have huge roof surface that we can cover with the Oxford solar panels. Wind power.
That will reduce the cost of manufacturing in UK.
Other issue we have to tackle is the cost of housing. Mortgages and rent are far too high here. Also, rental costs in the high street. Once energy and housing are under control, the benefit bill will come down, to care for people who are ill or in temporary trouble, instead of paying exorbitated rents to rich landlords and rich banks. Food and goods prices will come down with lower energy and rent prices and an adequate control and pressure from the government to adjust prices.
Nationalising caring, childcare, energy, transport will offer a way to both control costs and create jobs. Maybe water too.
Oh, and the GPs. They should go back to be 100% NHS and no paying huge amounts for locums. Said shite should be deemed illegal in UK.

Slightly off the point of what we can all be doing to look after ourselves over the coming months/years, I totally agree with greenwitchart re ‘vision’. It’s totally lacking and has been lacking in quite a few PMs recently.

I cannot fathom why anyone of any political complexion would enter politics without a driving goal and hope for Britain. Stay as a DPP, or a journalist or whatever. Don’t inflict your lack of ideas and knee jerk reactions on the working people of the UK, as that’s what is currently happening. Driving DOWN living standards for most of us.

Perhaps I’m naive but they disgust me.

I get frustrated with the British people for consistently voting for tax cuts until public services fall over, and then howling like toddlers when decades of underinvestment isn’t sorted within a couple of months.

I’m far from being a cheerleader for this government. I think they’re too frightened of public opinion to be bold. But this is the equivalent of moving into a house which hasn’t been properly maintained. Where do you start? It generally takes years before things start to look better. Just as, when Cameron et al started cutting, it took years for it all to fall over.

You do realise the U.K. currently has the highest tax burden since the end of world war 2? I’d really love to see your working out on how you arrived at the conclusion that ‘tax cuts’ are responsible for the cost of living crisis.

The world is screwed financially. It's not just the UK.

At least we are getting a bit of warning what to expect so that we can make decisions over summer.

I think we have a bit of a buffer, but we are cutting back to make sure we can have the summer holiday. Which is important to us and worth sacrificing other things for.

Since our babies turned into teenagers life has just become eyewateringly expensive, but what to do?
Pay bills, pay for what they need, rest is irrelevant.

Starmer loyalist urges prime minister to go further on tax

Don't you worry guys - tax rises are coming.

Unlike MPs on the soft left of the party, Sandher defended Reeves’ fiscal rules and accepted it was vital to maintain credibility. But he suggested that taxes on wealth could fill the gap. “How courageous we are going forward, I think, is the question. And it’s a question for future budgets,” he said, pointing out the government had already targeted dividends, private jets and windfall energy profits.

They also increased taxes on interest, put pension into IHT estate, taxed pension contributions from 2029, taxed property in higher council tax bands.

Which tax cuts? what did I miss?

A few p of NI cut by previous Tory government? after decades of frozen tax bands?