To think it’s not going to be a case of heating or eating for many families

[LadyCatStark]

We can forget heating altogether! I know it’s a nice little rhyme but for many, many families it’s going to be a case of eating or putting just enough petrol in the car to get you to work to pay all these increased costs. Eating yourself, or feeding your kids (hopefully most people will choose their kids). Eating healthily or eating cheap rubbish.

I’ve just nipped to Aldi as I had a work appointment cancel in the area and spent £40 just on the few bits I needed, not even a proper shop. I could have cried that I’d driven even just the 15 minutes to my appointment and it was cancelled and every drop of fuel counts.

@Thebestwaytoscareatory

I’m pretty sure it’s an entirely unforseeably consequence of war in Europe

No, this is an entirely foreseeable consequence of allowing a tiny minority of elitist cunts to rule us. In 2022 there is absolutely zero reason for anyone to be struggle other than protecting a bunch of arseholes wealth. I can only hope that the masses will waken up to the fact that those at the top contribute fuck all anymore and overthrow them to create a more equal society. Unfortunately I fear the reality will be for us to bury our heads and pretend nothing is wrong, all in the vain hope that somehow "we" will become one of "them".

Totally agree.

And the more the government are allowed to blame this on Russia or covid the better for them, as they don't have to think creatively to solve any of the nations problems.

I am well off. I will not suffer at all from increased fuel or food costs. I probably won't even notice them.

I'd like to be able to help the less well off deal with this situation but it's hard when people consistently vote in poor leaders who routinely fuck them over. I donate to charity and food banks what else can I do.

@Yorkshirelass04

This is an entirely foreseeable consequence of Brexit.

People got what they voted for and so have to accept what comes with that.

This is complete codswallop. Other countries are experiencing the same regardless of Brexit. The UK government got rid of North Sea gas storage in 2017 which has further exacerbated the situation for people in the UK.

Oh and someone posted this link on another thread. If this is true then this is utterly outrageous!

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10404277/MPs-charge-3-500-energy-bills-second-homes.html

I was thinking about this tonight when I washed my face weirdly. Always do my skincare at the sink but let the tap run to get warm before I wash my cleanser off. Had a thought I should do it in the shower when the water is already warm and then thought "2022 in the U.K. and I'm thinking about not running a tap for 30 seconds to save energy"

It's a tiny thing (I'm really conscious of water/energy use already) but now I'm wondering how to actually dry clothes without using a heated airer if the house isn't warm. Stuff like reusable pads/jeans/jumpers take ages

@Yorkshirelass04

This is an entirely foreseeable consequence of Brexit.

People got what they voted for and so have to accept what comes with that.

Huh? Explain please, I don't understand how this is all a consequence of Brexit or why people have to accept it

I live in the US and we are having the same problems over here with cost of gas, food, and heating.

if this is on the wrong thread can someone just delete or something? I cant seem to delete it and have no idea what happened.

Hopefully the current short term trends continue with commodity prices starting to fall again 🤞🏻

@sexishard I have reported your posts for you, you can also report your own posts asking them to delete them for you.

Unfortunately, there is no delete (or edit) button.

I know a lot of people who are looking forward to the Spring/ Summer just so they don’t have to worry about heating costs etc.

They are hoping by next winter it would have sorted itself out.

Thing is, this isn’t just people here in the UK. I’m hearing this from people all over Europe and and States as well.

I also know people in New Zealand and Oz very concerned about their winter.

@BambinaJAS, if you mean that the U.K. is now importing fresh food from countries outside the EU, that has long been the case for some things, e.g. out of season asparagus, mange-tout and pineapples, but I still see the same amount of salad stuff from the Netherlands and Spain, tons of Danish butter and bacon, pork from the NL and Germany, French cheese, butter and yoghurt, and so on, in my local supermarkets.

So I’m not sure where you got that idea from, unless you live elsewhere than the U.K. and are making erroneous, Brexit-related assumptions.

@sexishard I've posted on the wrong thread recently too. The freaking screen jumps around like a puppy. Very annoying. @mumsnet

The cost of petrol is crippling. We have an old car that won’t take E10 fuel, so have to use E5, which is 10p per litre more expensive. It cost £50 to put half a tank of petrol in earlier. I don’t know how much my gas and electric bills are going to go up, but am worried.

Perhaps those Brexitty fans would like to explain- energy costs in France - up 4% ( rises capped by govt) , Energy costs in U.K. - up 54%
One Brexit bonus we were promised - VAT would be cut on energy prices. VAT has been cut on energy in some EU countries - not in the U.K.

@Yorkshirelass04

This is an entirely foreseeable consequence of Brexit.

People got what they voted for and so have to accept what comes with that.

Find a new drum. You've beat this one to death.

And I'm pretty sure Brexit has nothing to do with global wholesale energy prices.

Yet France have capped the price rises to 4% and U.K. allow 54% increase

I’m pretty sure it’s how the government decides to mug off its subjects

Cheesecakeandwineinasuitcase

MPs get heavily subsidised meals and can also claim back on expenses, we pay for their eating as well www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/inside-the-members-dining-room-where-a-30-meal-costs-mps-just-12-75-216257/ it’s costing £57000 per week

We're halfway through a properly miserable cold, wet weekend, stuck isolating in an unheated house. And because we're isolating, I've not been able to go to the shops, so I've been scraping the barrel trying to cobble together miserable meals (I can usually afford to buy enough food, even if its not very exciting food).

I've got this awful feeling in the pit of my stomach that this is just the beginning. I can't bear to think about how I used to live in the 90s (tbf I didn't have kids then. But I didn't give a second thought to putting the heating on, or driving 3 hours to see a friend. I even used to go on holiday!!) and how I'll never live like that again. But then again, we're not stuck in Mariupol.

theconversation.com/why-global-food-prices-are-higher-today-than-for-most-of-modern-history-168210

Its a global problem, plus shortages in fertiliser. It’s perfect storm stuff really. Maybe Brexit made it slightly worse who knows but it’s not the cause of this.

We've just been quoted 140ppl for red diesel. We're farmers, we grow food directly into the food chain in the UK. We run four tractors and at the moment during spring drilling they are all running between 7-10 hours a day and consume between 25 & 35 litres per hour. We can't actually afford to produce food without running at a loss unless the commodity prices rise to meet our cost of production, a cost which will be passed on to you as consumers.

It's really frightening.

It is horrendous though, we are probably looking at worsening global fuel and food insecurity, I imagine it will have a very destabilising effect on countries which are already teetering (places like Lebanon perhaps).

www.nytimes.com/2022/02/03/business/economy/food-prices-inflation-world.html

This is an interesting read

I don’t put the heating on at all, and haven’t since January. I grew up in the north with no central heating - the only source of heat was a single gas fire in the living room. It’s normal to me for bedrooms to be very cold, for example.

@gerispringer

Perhaps those Brexitty fans would like to explain- energy costs in France - up 4% ( rises capped by govt) , Energy costs in U.K. - up 54% One Brexit bonus we were promised - VAT would be cut on energy prices. VAT has been cut on energy in some EU countries - not in the U.K.

Choice of where we spend our money (I'm remain), France has chosen to spend money keeping energy bills down, BJ hasn't.

We only have a set pot of money to spend so it's up to our government how we spend it, personally I would like to see it spent on education, health, environment (so council leisure centres, roads etc), emergency service, elderly care then what's left can be spent on benefits and subsidies such as cutting VAT on energy bills.

The hike is likely to be temporary and short lived if you follow commodity prices oil and natural gas are already falling.

Yes it going to be a rough few months but if you cut say 5% off VAT now you will also lose that money in 6 months time that could be better spent on educating our kids.

What's needed is more self sufficiency - North Sea and fraking I'm looking at you. We also live in a mining area maybe it's time we dug that up.