To think in the UK, in 2022...

[justonanote]

The lowest incomes should be able to -

Have food in at all times and be able to do a shop without fear they haven't got enough

Adequately heat their homes and have as much hot water as they need

Have a enough left over for a few little treats. An ice cream, a coffee out once a week, enough to enjoy a cheap trip out every now and then?

The lowest of incomes.

I despair, I honestly do.

@bigyellowTpot

I myself am on a very low income and live in what is called a deprived area with a high amount of people on benefits or on very low income children on free school meals etc, But I am seeing things differently as I'm surprised at how much these people on benefits or on low incomes can afford. No shortage of holidays abroad, days out, concert tickets and the latest gadgets, latest phones on £60 per month contracts including their children having them too. kids dressed in the latest designer gear. Of course they also all use the food banks too. I know many of these parents personally so I know they genuinely afford these things. So all is not as bad as its made out to be in many cases.

Yawn.

@LindaEllen

You're right - but I actually think the lowest income CAN afford those things. But people don't stop around, and people don't prioritise. THAT'S the problem.

I have friends who complain about not being able to afford the new heating bills, but then they have expensive phone contracts, Prime, Netflix etc. And Sky!!

This right here is delusional thinking.

Phone contract is £20/month
Prime is £8/month
Netflix is £10/month

If your heating goes from £100 to £200 per month, eliminating phone/netflix/Prime will not magically pay the bills.

So my suggestion is to stop being deluded about poorer people living beyond their means.

I tend to agree and think that in 2022 Great Britain, glorious exceptional world super power, a G7 chief willy swinger (ahem) which has long standing regal, noble ambitions of stupendous magnitude upon the elite global stage on which it proclaims civility, power, togetherness and progress would be able to guarantee its population food, warmth and a sense of belonging.

Yet scratch beneath the gilded surface and it quickly becomes apparent that this is absolutely not the case.

Instead we’re a small naf island with lofty ambitions and an ego not too dissimilar to those of a Coke’d up 5’1” Moncler wearing body builder squaring up to the 6’4” bouncer on a Wednesday afternoon outside a Wetherspoons.

Pathetic doesn’t even come close.

rugbunch

That’s a very depressing comment. Look to immigrants, so many of whom leave their countries in search of an education for their children.
Education does change lives for the better.

I'm a 2nd gen immigrant so please go ahead & educate me 😆“

So, do you not believe education changes lives? Why?

@LindaEllen

You're right - but I actually think the lowest income CAN afford those things. But people don't stop around, and people don't prioritise. THAT'S the problem.

I have friends who complain about not being able to afford the new heating bills, but then they have expensive phone contracts, Prime, Netflix etc. And Sky!!

God forbid somebody working full time on minimum wage has the notion of wanting to watch NETFLIX!!

@MrsSkylerWhite

you wrote

Education is free for those who have bettered themselves but in a lot of cases aspirations are missing .

I asked what is there to aspire too?

You then started talking about immigrants.

Explain why you think in a lot of cases aspirations are missing?

Explain how easy it is to better yourself when you come from nothing in 2022?

So, do you not believe education changes lives? Why?

I don't believe it changes the outcomes for many who are already disadvantaged. Social mobility reports agree with me. Why do you think differently?

@bigyellowTpot

I myself am on a very low income and live in what is called a deprived area with a high amount of people on benefits or on very low income children on free school meals etc, But I am seeing things differently as I'm surprised at how much these people on benefits or on low incomes can afford. No shortage of holidays abroad, days out, concert tickets and the latest gadgets, latest phones on £60 per month contracts including their children having them too. kids dressed in the latest designer gear. Of course they also all use the food banks too. I know many of these parents personally so I know they genuinely afford these things. So all is not as bad as its made out to be in many cases.

Stop reading the Daily Fail

"I agree no one should be cold or hungry but ice cream and coffee out are not things I expect to be subsided by taxes"

Do you think that people who can never work ( like my severely disabled son) should never have anything other than the absolute basics?

You need tech these days to do anything , it is an essential ( just my opinion , but it's how we have been programmed and made to accept that everything is about having it because we can't line without it ) if your job hunting you need tech. No way around it.
Netflix is cheaper a month than going to the pictures for one night out.
I think some people would only be happy if everyone went back to living in caves.
Even my parents had the odd take away fish and chips now and again and we were really poor , everyone needs a lift or a treat sometimes.

BambinaJAS
The UK has 5 of the 10 most deprived areas in Europe.
It is very, very far from being a developed country.

Seems an unlikely statistic - have you included Central, Southern and Eastern Europe? Spain has Europe's largest shanty town for example;

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

@MoonminMummy9 I don't read the daily fail. if you read my post properly it clearly says I know many of these families personally that are on benefits or low incomes and can afford all these things quite easily. I live in a so called deprived area but I have honestly never witnessed any deprevation. The majority of families also seem to own atleast 2 cars which are definitely not old bangers.

If you are on a low income you cannot afford expensive stuff. Basic fact.

Meanwhile our Chancellor is relaxing in sunny California where he will never have to worry about putting on the heating (wouldn’t have to anyway as MPs can get heating paid for). Nevertheless the majority of you lot will forget when he throws you a few crumbs in 2024 and go back to calling him ‘Dishy Rishi’.

Many of the working and middle classes suffer from a peculiar British version of ‘Colo-mentality’ an illness identified in colonised nations where many people were taught to overly identify with the people stealing from them and looked down on others similar to them all to their own detriment.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/apr/03/sunaks-5m-santa-monica-flat-offers-sun-sea-and-a-pet-spa

Bread and Roses

I'm in the middle and I'm cutting back. I would never go out for treats tbh.

I'd rather have something tangible itms

@TheRealBoswell

Time and time again people vote against their best interests. The Tories have been in power for well over a decade and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better I’d like to see why people keep justifying voting for them when many are struggling to make ends meet.

I think the utter uselessness of Labour is a major factor

ugbunch

@MrsSkylerWhite

you wrote

Education is free for those who have bettered themselves but in a lot of cases aspirations are missing .

I asked what is there to aspire too?

You then started talking about immigrants.

Explain why you think in a lot of cases aspirations are missing?

Explain how easy it is to better yourself when you come from nothing in 2022?

So, do you not believe education changes lives? Why?

I don't believe it changes the outcomes for many who are already disadvantaged. Social mobility reports agree with me. Why do you think differently?“

Too many quotes. I didn’t write that?
It’s someone else’s quote.

I mentioned immigrants simply because all of those I know/have known have all valued educational opportunities in the UK.

I think differently because I was an abused child from a council estate, then single parent, long line of poor family. I had aspirations, worked hard, now have a comfortable life and happy marriage. Husband similar. No abuse but poor family in social housing. His parents had aspirations though and he and his brothers all went on to university (in the 60s and 70s) with their emotional support and encouragement and went on to achieve outstanding careers.
We all put that down to education.

If that was possible in Britain in the 1960s and 70s, it is certainly possible now.

The trans thing— this is very much a minority thing— its the right wing press that keep pushing it frontline so as to keep people thinking it’s ‘leftist/bad labour’ — personally I would rather labour focussed on under education and disabilities - however saying you couldn’t vote labour because of the trans issue is nuts — especially if you say you could vote for a party that has overseen fraud and corruption on a massive scale, spent 330 billion on Brexit (more than our contributions for 40 odd years) , totally ignored their own rules regarding covid and basically done a giant thumb nose to anyone who ‘isn’t like them’ — not liking a bit of ‘wokeness’ seems a bit trivial to me in relation to that— you talk about safe spaces— please explain why making sure women struggle to access housing in many situations , struggle with childcare costs and bear the brunt of cost of living rises is giving them ‘safe spaces’ - we live in Copenhagen at moment although back to UK shortly— let me explain how the system works here , wages are much higher £14 an hour minimum and a lot of quite mundane office jobs are £22 an hour, 70k very common in professional jobs - Tax though is also much much higher— so people come out with about the same as the UK in pay packets— the big difference though is full time childcare is about £260 a month per child— there is no council tax, there is no national insurance— benefits and pensions are much higher— superb and reasonable public transport — most families have 2 working parents as well because they can afford the childcare, women often work 8.30 to 3pm . There is ‘a lot’ of very good social housing (Danes only) . Women are in a much stronger position to leave unsatisfactory situations. There is little referencing to getting a new place . In my opinion the UK needs a total reset , however it would require a different mentality, a lot of older people resent paying high taxes for services they no longer need like schools and childcare etc. The Danes believe in society- that’s the big difference

And this government are not old school conservative- they are UKIP in disguise. Old school Tory’s would not have been so blasé about small business and the economy , this lot just want to concentrate on getting those working class constituencies by encouraging xenophobia and a feeling of ‘divide’ and bugger the economy , bugger the fact you can no longer make it pay to export direct to the customer outside the UK — it’s glorifying the little Englander mentality

@Neverendingdust

I tend to agree and think that in 2022 Great Britain, glorious exceptional world super power, a G7 chief willy swinger (ahem) which has long standing regal, noble ambitions of stupendous magnitude upon the elite global stage on which it proclaims civility, power, togetherness and progress would be able to guarantee its population food, warmth and a sense of belonging.

Yet scratch beneath the gilded surface and it quickly becomes apparent that this is absolutely not the case.

Instead we’re a small naf island with lofty ambitions and an ego not too dissimilar to those of a Coke’d up 5’1” Moncler wearing body builder squaring up to the 6’4” bouncer on a Wednesday afternoon outside a Wetherspoons.

Pathetic doesn’t even come close.

Excellent post.

It’s not a small thing that’s the issue

It was for a long time considered an argument on social media not really to be concerned about

But it is concerning changes are being made that we would have laughed at 10 years ago some are not foe the better for females women or girls

Labour are tying themselves in knots not to be offensive to a small minority of people but forgetting that many of they voters are now waking up to this and are not comfortable with women being erased or definitions being changed

Regardless of education changing lives for the better, people will always be needed to do the jobs that are currently poorly paid - eg caring ( poorly paid despite being a demanding and skilled role). Those people deserve to be paid a decent wage for those roles.

@MrsSkylerWhite I assumed you were the same poster who had replied to me. I don't pay for the filtered thing.

If that was possible in Britain in the 1960s and 70s, it is certainly possible now.

But social mobility has gone backwards, so why are you assuming it's the same now?

I think differently because I'm a millennial. I had aspirations (as did my parents) & worked hard. However the reason I have the life I have now is because I could live at home to save a deposit & buy. In fact if I had stayed in my holiday job & not bothered with uni I would be wealthier by buying earlier.
I was lucky to go to good schools as a dc. My dc go to excellent schools too, the difference is the catchment is approx 300 metres & a house costs about 1.1m plus so not so easy to access those good schools now.

Your husband is a perfect example of a) why we're in the situation we are and b) why it will never change. Far, far too many people vote Tory because they either mistakenly believe they might one day be rich enough to benefit from tory leadership, are terrified people who "doesn't deserve it" might get help they didn't get (or just help in general), or think that creating a more equal society will somehow negatively effect them.

Oh and then of course you've now got the "I won't vote for Labour because the don't know what a women is but will vote for a party that have spent the last decade eroding women's rights and increasing inequality that disproportionately effects women" lot too. Which would be hilarious if we didn't have to live with the consequences.

Spending £10 a month on Netflix is cheaper than a television licence. If you're watching on a device and don't have a television at all then that's an economy.