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.

Oh here they all are, the usual suspects trotting in, defending the indefensible as ever. The alarm must have gone off at CCHQ.

Babyroots - I agree with you.

Most of our homes when I was growing up were cold. I think that's why I cannot stand the cold now.

It is a disgrace. We are a rich country.

I also grew up in a cold house with no central heating and only one coal fire. It was shit, but at least we had a coal fire and coal was affordable. Most people don’t have open fires now, plus loads of people rent poorly insulated homes from private landlords and don’t have the option of installing a bloody log burner or whatever. So we are not in the same position now are we? People will be living in freezing houses with no fire / heat source at all!

@ColtBolt

I can't believe someone up-thread actually referenced the fucking Blitz Spirit. FFS when is this country going to get over its pathetic, destruction obsession with how we got through the bloody war, which none of us on this thread actually experienced??

@UnnecessaryFennel I was at the blitz reference as well. What an odd parallel to draw. The money is there for people to be warm, fed, and housed.

Sorry you have chilblains

I'd forgotten chilblains. I had them alot as a kid but nearly 60 years on I suddenly remembered how horrible they can be.

I don't know anyone who remembers the 50s or the 70s and wants to go back to them. I've thought for a while they we are heading for the 70s but now I think it is more like the 50s but I suppose experiences vary.

People will survive, well most will, but that isn't good enough is it. The govt are going to have to do something or there will be riots. It isn't riot weather at the moment, I used to do the lists for policing riots and I'd know when I woke in the morning if it was a good day for a riot and I'd get to work early to start drawing up the lists and sorting out vehicles and refreshments. Let the govt wait for June or July and we have some hot dry days and the riots will start.

Maybe they will see sense then.

My house is freezing year round its cold the windows are a couple of years old but draughty as hell my door is wonky as hell the whole house leaks like a sieve it's rented so I can't do much my son has breathing issues we are going to struggle this winter we have already spent the last 7 years living upstairs in winter as downstairs is colder

Remember 'we' voted for this, 'we' accept this.

Through the storm of Brexit, through COVID, through the lying behaviour of the Tory party and now sadly Ukraine. Divide and conquer.

Those who didn't want the Tories in, were in the minority. Vast swathes of this country even believed the levelling up stuff and voted Tory for the first time.....

@Moonface123

Its called adapting, that is how the human race has survived this long but for some reason as Covid proved people dont want to adapt anymore, ni its so much easier bitching, moaning and bringing everyone down who dare so much as throw another perspective on it, than finding a solution.

Excellent point

We coped then, we'll cope now

This is a HUGE problem - because it isn't true.

Some people coped then.

Some people did not cope.

Those people suffered, some of them died, as a result of actually starving/freezing etc or as a result of suicide.

I can't keep warm by simply putting on jumpers, my health issues mean I don't regulate my own temperature well and once I get cold, I need direct heat and a warm room to warm up. Otherwise I am wrapped in blankets and gloves... and still painfully cold.

It isn't just being cold though, because I am cold (and I am cold right now but we had the heating on an hour this morning and it wont be on again until 8pm for an hour), I am tense. Because I am tense my shoulders are located in my ears and im getting muscle spasms as a result of that and the shivering. Those are causing significant pain on top of the pain from the cold itself.

To remedy that I'll need to take some diazepam, sufficient that I won't be able to work so that won't be happening until im off shift at 8.

I get benefits because the costs of being disabled are considered higher than the costs of not being disabled.

What chance I'll see a significant rise in my disability benefits as a result of these enormous price hikes? None I should think. Disability benefits have not risen with the cost of living.. ever, really.

SO next time someone thinks 'well we coped then', please remember it wasn't true then and it won't be true now either. Some of us won't cope, some of us won't even survive.

Hey OP have a freezing

I was a poor kid in the 60's no heating at all, shared toilet with the whole house of 7 flats and mentally ill mother on benefits.
There is no way I'm going back there again.

@Scoobygang7

I had a taste of this at the end of November when storm Arwen hit us. 8 days with no electric. Which due to how rural we are meant no heating, no water either as we get it from a borehole which is powered by an electric pump. House is extremely drafty and its only part double glazed and the glazing is old so doesn't do the job anyway.

Did we survive only due to the kindness of my dhs 87 year old Nan and eventually northern powergrid putting us up in a hotel for 2 night. Doing this with a 6 year old and a 3 year old, who cannot stay under a blanket nor want to keep a hat on was awful. We had the fire going going but due to the fact our living room door has never closed we couldn't block the heat in either.

I am lucky that we may skip various luxuries and our food may be basic and meal planned. I have the ability to fill our oil tank. I am scared at the moment as i plan our deliveries and pay monthly by DD. They have changed the conyract and are going to decide for me when i need a top and then look at the dd quarterly rather than the beginning of the year. I am scared that they are going to whack my DD up to something that is not affordable.

Sounds awful.

Heavy curtains across a door are great, or even a big fleece blanket will give you a barrier to drafts.

This was very popular in my grandmothers time.

German Govt is doing loads to help its people, especially those on low incomes.

Germany was discussed on Newscast a week ago - it was stated that Germany's overall package was similar to the UK. Energy prices are higher in Germany to start with.

it might be better to post something more up to date?...

Financial Times 30 March 2022

German inflation hits 40-year high as ECB president warns of ‘supply shock’.

www.ft.com/content/2f2fb7cc-3039-416b-ad22-f42315d0b1d0

Across the EU, Governments are doing far more to assist households, esp the poor.

Has Spain sorted out this shanty town yet?

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/15/canada-real-europe-filomena-settlement-madrid-covid-snow

October 2021
Power to sectors five and six, which make up more than half the length of la Cañada Real’s 14km sprawl – and which are home to 4,500 people – went down at the beginning of October last year. Three months later, Storm Filomena roared in, bringing Spain’s heaviest snowfalls in decades, freezing water pipes and pushing the powerless population of the Cañada to the edge of endurance.

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/27/you-kind-of-die-life-without-power-in-the-canada-real-spain

30 March 2022
Inflation in Spain hits 9.8%, highest rate in nearly 40 years.

www.aa.com.tr/en/economy/inflation-in-spain-hits-98-highest-rate-in-nearly-40-years/2550122

This situation is difficult for so many I get it .My question is why are so many houses so poorly insulated and such a poor standard.New builds have no solar why?it should be part of planning.Buyers should be asking more questions.A well built property should be very cheap to heat,we need to up grade older properties with grants.Gardens on cheaper new builds have such small gardens so difficult to dry washing outside.Land is so dear so many pushed into a small space.How do we fix this?High energy prices are here to stay,we need to act now.

For all my life (born in 60s), I've had a sense that things were on the whole getting better, the world was getting more open and people were getting more prosperous. For the past 5 years or so, it feels like that is no longer true. And yes, I do in great measure blame the Conservatives.

This still happened to me in my first home in 2012 😂

Agree…. It’s hideous. All the ‘back in my day’ people are likely sitting pretty with retirement funds and property that has increased in value. Meanwhile the nxt generation can’t afford to get on the property ladder, no ability to fund retirements and now can’t heat the houses they don’t own.

“I deserve all this wealth as I worked so hard for it “ is nonsense. So is the “millennials can’t afford property as they spend too much on lattes”.

I am going to say something that’s incredibly controversial but hear me out,
I think we are in danger of whipping ourselves up into a frenzy about this and panicking people.
I am not minimising the price rise - far from it, it’s massive and i being as careful as anyone else.
But I am a member of a couple of budgeting Facebook pages and the level of ignorance on there is amazing, all fuelled by snippets of media doom they have picked up without listening to the full story.
I live in one of the areas where council tax has risen the most. I am paying £4 more per month for my band E house. My water has risen 10% which again will equate to around £4 per month. I have saved £14 a month on my home insurance and £2 a month on my car insurance. The headline percentages are big but the actual cash is not that much.
Fuel is massive but to put it into perspective, if you were paying £100 a month, you will now be paying £154 a month. A huge jump, and as I have said, I am not minimising it in the slightest.
However, there is no need to panic and do some of the ridiculous things I have heard of, such as using solar lights or candles or turning off your fridge and freezer overnight. I have even heard of people requesting to be disconnected from the mains.
Yes you need to cut back, that makes sense, but as I said, we are in danger of creating a much bigger deal of this than it really is

Its called adapting, that is how the human race has survived this long but for some reason as Covid proved people dont want to adapt anymore, ni its so much easier bitching, moaning and bringing everyone down who dare so much as throw another perspective on it, than finding a solution

Thousands of people in the UK die from the cold each year or become ill from living in poorly heated homes. I suppose we "adapt" by accepting the number of deaths will be much higher next winter and ill health will rise..

A total of 168,000 excess winter deaths have been recorded in the UK over the latest five-year period. Of 30 countries studied, only Ireland has a higher proportion of people dying due to cold weather

Almost 17,000 of those people are estimated to have died as a direct result of fuel poverty and a further 36,000 deaths are attributable to conditions relating to living in a cold home, the research found. The number dying through cold each year is similar to the amount who die from prostate or breast cancer

www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/cold-weather-uk-winter-deaths-europe-polar-vortex-a8224276.html

Thank God! That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking when reading those stupid posts. It’s pissed me off most of the day!

Katyppp this is just the first huge leap in prices. People may be able to muddle through Spring and Summer, but there will be another huge hike in October. Why do you think the government has introduced the (woefully inadequate) fuel "loan" for next winter? It knows this is really serious and that more people will actually die next winter because of the price rises.

It’s stupid. People used to have to wash their clothes by hand but I bet they won’t be going back to that

@Soubriquet

It’s stupid. People used to have to wash their clothes by hand but I bet they won’t be going back to that

Maybe they'll all get rid of the tumble dryers and get a mangle for the back yard instead.

I was born in the 60s.
We moved to a new build in 1966.
There was no central heating and no double glazing but the property had big windows.
Oh it was bloody freezing.

Moved a few times in the 70s. All had no heating , ice on the widows , used paraffin heaters etc...

This is 2022.
No one should be living like this , 50 years on.
Absolutely NO-ONE!

No one should be shuddering under blankets with a hot water bottle.
No one should be deciding to not use an oven because of their fear of the bill.

No one should be shivering in their own homes.

Those who didn't want the Tories in, were in the minority

Not true. Of those who voted, the Tories got well under 50% of the vote.
We're stuck with them because of the electoral system.

And about a third of those eligible to vote didn't vote. Maybe if more of them had turned out to vote we'd have a different government.