Stop implying it's not so bad now because you grew up with no central heating and scraped ice off the windows.

[flashbac]

FFS

I also had no central heating in the house as a kid. There was a hole under the bathtub that cats would use to come in while you were freezing arse off on the loo. It was bloody grim. I don't wish it on anybody. People shouldn't have to be uncomfortable in their own bleeding homes for goodness sakes. It shouldn't be happening in this day and age. Stop defending it.

PS: The group is actually called, '1950s Memories by DoYouRemember.com. If you're interested. I use a different name there, initials of which are EF.

@BlackeyedSusan it can’t be insulated. It’s a solid brick converted 1800s cottage. The landlord has tried. As have others. Broke their equipment.

In the summer within a few days it’s like an oven and stays that way, if it’s hot for weeks, for weeks after.

the 21st Century and people are talking about putting cardboard in childrens shoes, absolutely shamefull that people in a country like ours should even be suggesting this and that some will have to do it, where the fuck is this going to end up?

There is being hard up but being plunged into true poverty is a scary proposition, its grinding, just exisiting with no end in sight and causes lifelong issues, physical and mental health will decline.

At risk of belabouring my point...

I am not saying it isn't shocking. It isn't shameful if needs must though. What I am saying is that currently it is needful for some and that we should be sharing tips, tricks, information that others might find useful.

That is totally separate from any longer term political intervention, global financial upheaval etc.

I am a 60s baby and I can remember the house being cold, I had good parents who sheltered us from the reality of how poor they were but even then there was a light on the horizon for them, they could and did 'better themselves', I'm not sure young familes have that prospect now, huge house prices, zero hour contracts etc etc. We are travalling back in time, not to the 'good old days' but to the depairing victorian age.

@SamphiretheStickerist

At risk of belabouring my point...

I am not saying it isn't shocking. It isn't shameful if needs must though. What I am saying is that currently it is needful for some and that we should be sharing tips, tricks, information that others might find useful.

That is totally separate from any longer term political intervention, global financial upheaval etc.

Well why don't you start a thread on Chat then?

This thread is a very specific AIBU. I am sure there are people on Chat who would find your advice helpful.

I did start a thread on there about energy and how to save energy effectively.

I'm not saying it would be 'shamefull' for a person to have cardboard in their shoes, I am saying it is bloody shamefull that in 21st century Britain that that position could actually occur, particularly as we have a Chancellor who has plainly no clue about life being lived in such poverty.

By 2025 all landlines will be switched off in the uk. ALL. Everyone is expected to have broadband internet in their properties. I live somewhere most of my county struggles to get a 2G signal, and dead zones for digital tv and radio are rife - it’s so bad if I put my radio on I get taxis and emergency services coming through the radio!. There have been campaigns to get it put back, which BT have ‘agreed’ to, yet their statement still says must be done by 2025.

Because the landline system is too old.
No ones trained in it and,
‘everyone’ has broadband internet.

I got a letter this week demanding I put my electric account online. My ipad is ten years old+ and won’t run their website and I can’t afford another. My phone, shock , horror, only does calls and texts. They don’t offer a phone number for customer service, or address and I must WhatsApp them. Then there’s the following

tens of thousands of customers JUST LIKE YOU manage to input a meter reading on out app!! See the simple how to guide enclosed!! If you need help simply scan the QR code on your smartphone

Well no, actually tens of thousands of customers like me DO NOT do this because they don’t have the means to.

Then there’s the part about how rarely people need bills to prove identity, in which case simply print them out on your printer!

Uh no. I don’t have a printer...

Registering to vote here is the same. Online only.
Housing benefit from next year will be managed online only.
Housing associations will only accept payment online (been that way for years now)
Council tax from next year will be online only.

Don’t have access? No problem! Go to the library.

Our only library is fully booked now by jobcentre, access is an issue and only open two days a week and staffed by volunteers with signs saying will we not help with computer issues and customers must provide evidence of being a resident to use them.

A time when we could manage without internet is now past.

This thread is a very specific AIBU. I am sure there are people on Chat who would find your advice helpful.

Because I am answering the specific OP. Challenging it's preconceptions and trying to explain what many posters are actually trying to do when they post about their experiences.

And I have seen the same angry responses on a number of threads, even those set up specifically to gather such information.

Am I only to post in a certain manner?

I agree OP. There’s probably a place for some kind of gung ho Blitz spirit but this isn’t it.

@SamphiretheStickerist

This thread is a very specific AIBU. I am sure there are people on Chat who would find your advice helpful.

Because I am answering the specific OP. Challenging it's preconceptions and trying to explain what many posters are actually trying to do when they post about their experiences.

And I have seen the same angry responses on a number of threads, even those set up specifically to gather such information.

Am I only to post in a certain manner?

Its preconceptions are that people get pissed off when people say "it's not so bad, we had no central heating etc in the old days"

We have moved on from then. Our society has advanced. Our technology has advanced.

We shouldn't have to live like this. So when people say "it's not so bad", they will get annoyed

A time when we could manage without internet is now past.

And for those of us living rurally, regular power cuts, no broadband, slow internet, closed libraries, cancelled buses etc etc,.we are told that "Less that 8% of people in the UK are without speedy connections" etc. Yet here we are, many of us watching that deadline getting nearer and wondering how we will manage when the landline technology gets switched off.

Looking at the roll out timetable for VOIP won't be here before that happens. What will we do?

That's something else we are looking at. A possible local solution rather than waiting for whichever of the providers might get lumbered with us.

@TheVeryFaintRedLine A civilised society that then has to import workers to do the jobs we love to hate, almost like slavery (Think fruit workers, British people don't want to move from their homes to work for rubbish wages and live in site doing hard manual labour, perhaps because we've encouraged them to go to university.)

A civilised society would value manual labour and the work done by carers, cleaners, shelf-stackers etc.

You don't need a university degree to be useful in society.

I would suggest it's more of a case that the advice given doesn't fit the entitled way of life some people think they should have.

I would suggest that the advice given is often useless in today’s world. I wonder if your “entitled” label also extends to pensioners constantly complaining about pension levels etc, saying “I’ve worked hard all my life I’m entitled to money from the government”

A time when we could manage without internet is now past.

A time when we could manage without electricity is now past. Doesn’t mean that’s a bad thing.

I suppose it was naieve of me to have never considered it before but I have completely underestimated the sheer anxiety many people have about the way the world is changing. By that I don't mean e.g. rising cost of fuel. I refer specifically to changing attitudes, development of tech. People know where they stand with a bowl of gruel and a table cloth they can use as a duvet. They struggle to change that mindset because it would unravel their whole world view, everything they've ever 'thought to be true' would crumble.

British people don't want to move from their homes to work for rubbish wages and live in site doing hard manual labour, perhaps because we've encouraged them to go to university

Those jobs used to be done by locals and migrant workers, who had to stop when the benefit regulations changed. People can't leave their homes for more than 4 weeks; and they can't do as 'and when' contracts like they used to be able to because they can't suspend their claim for the weeks they have work.

Your thread title reminds me how no one was allowed to say they were too hot in that heatwave a couple of years ago because it was nothing compared to 76 don’t you know

Your right I don't want to move to an area with jobs because technically I'm under occupying my home but both my kids have sen and can barely share a car let alone a room

They are waiting on assessment six years and counting if I moved I would have to start again ds1 is already 13

Picking in fields its doable but who takes care of the kids? my family used to do it all the time kids came with and helped that's not allowed anymore and no the hours are not kid friendly its down the road from me they often start way before childcare and on hot days split it so you don't work for a large chunk of the day but you do work late at night again not child friendly

We have no open fire I could scavenge wood year round but there is nowhere to burn it

We had ice on the inside of the windows, but I don't remember it being an awful way to live. I loved the weekend mum announced it was time to get the flannelette sheets on!

We were probably more fortunate than some, the living room was always warm (although you'd still need a warm jumper). We didn't live uncomfortably, we just had different ways of keeping warm. It is bonkers the way some people heat their homes so they can wear summer clothes or use the same duvet all year round.

@Titsflyingsouth

We coped then. We'll cope now.

I disagree. The welfare state was bigger back then - the NHS was functioning not on its knees. We hadn't just come out of a massive pandemic. We had a decent social housing stock and people didn't have to rely on private landlords as much. Levels of social mobility were higher in the 70's, people genuinely had a better chance of dragging themselves out of poverty.

Agree. People didn't cope. Kids got ill with chest infections. and iut was fucking miserable as a teen.

We don't need to "cope", we need a government that cares about ordinary people and is willing to take action to protect their standard of living from slipping even further. Why does that seem to be such a far fetched idea to some?

@mumda not doubting for a moment that those vital roles are pointless. But university education of a large section of the population still has a key role to play in society.

@SamphiretheStickerist quite. I too live in such an area. It’s really frightening.

Yanbu. I grew up in a third world country, which has its own challenges. And even I think those who say they had it hard in the 70s can bog off. It's 2022 Britain - this should not be happening.