Energy to go up 64% in October

[ToastedWaffle]

And 4% in January.

Fuck sake!
I dont even have an AIBU, this is just fucking ridiculous.

This^^

I remember DM crying all the time about rising fuel costs in the 70s we only had a coal fire for heat and a Coke burning Rayburn for cooking and hot water
we lived on free school dinners - bread and jam or margarine for breakfast and in the evening
on a weekend we loved staying at grandparents (looking back it was probably so we didn’t go hungry)

Energy in the 70's was still nationalised. How could prices rise if the government is in charge and nationalisation would fix everything?? Your DM was obviously lying.

The Covid bill is mind bogglingly large - to put it into context in the 2019 election Corbyn was accused by the Tories of wanting to bankrupt the nation because his total spend on nationalisations, extra funding for the NHS etc would have increased the national debt by £60 billion. Rishi Sunak ripped through £450 billion increase in debt on his Covid spending including my bug bear £600 million on eat out to help out.

Or to put it another way if you put one pound in a jar (a very large jar 😀) then it would take you 11 days to get to a million and 33 years to get to a billion. To get to £450 billion would take 14,840 years or 12,800 BC or around the time of the end of the last great Ice Age.

But in answer to your question of paying back the mind boggling Covid debt then this will be done in three ways:

1. Higher taxes such as the recent NI increase or freezing tax bands
2. Lower Government spending - no wage increases for public sector etc
3. Higher inflation which inflates away the debt in real terms.

She wasn't lying there was the family allowance nothing more. Now there's a myriad of government assistance that was far into the future. So your comment @Notlabeled is both ignorant and rude

@Notlabeled

"Energy in the 70's was still nationalised. How could prices rise if the government is in charge and nationalisation would fix everything?? Your DM was obviously lying."

++++

Prices could still rise if the energy industry was still nationalised as gas and electricity are internationally traded commodities.

If the international price of gas goes up then the UK either pays the higher price which gets passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices or higher taxes or it refuses to pay the higher price, the gas is sold elsewhere and the UK freezes.

Believe me, gas and electricity went up in price the 70s.

Sarcasm detection is lacking today. Precisely my point. People squealing about nationalisation constantly when it would do nothing for prices.
Which was exactly my point.

Do people thinking nationalisation will be the answer do understand that this country produces a fraction of the energy we need and so we have to buy and if it’s going through the roof - the cost set by government has to reflect that.

it’s not like the government has a little well in One of the offices in the HofC where they can endlessly produce energy and charge tuppence for it!

I have 4 children and work pt.
My youngest is only 7 months old and ever since the rise in prices started I've been regretting having her. We now can't afford her 😪 we must look benefit scroungers popping out baby after baby but it isn't the case at all
Every time I go shopping I stand in the aisles and cry. I am really struggling to afford the basics.
I had only just sorted out my kids diets and eating habits, they now enjoy strawberries but I can't afford them anymore. I feel like a proper shit mum who has failed her children. I am dreading Christmas altogether

Stupid question, and I know it is stupid but why don't we urgently build some other sources of homegrown energy?

Nightmare this. My fixed rate mortgage is coming to an end shortly too. Rate was 2.09% when I fixed it and lender now offering 3.75%! That would push my mortgage up by around £250 per month on top of this.

Not a stupid question indeed what is stupid is both political parties do nothing about it for the last 25 years.

The problem is time to build it takes a new nuclear about 20 years, offshore wind about 10 to 15 years, onshore wind 7 to 8 years and solar about 3 years.

Four Kids in never going to be cheap though is it, and you don't even get extra benefits now after the first 2 ( except child benefit and childcare cost help ). You just have to do your best by using hand me downs etc. At least young kids can share bedrooms, bathwater etc. It's when they get older that you really notice it when you want to help them get started with driving lessons etc. I say that as someone with four teenagers myself ! There are some great threads around on cheap meal ideas, meals can be really cheap and still nutritious.

I remember my mum had a Mrs beaton cook book which was all about how to cook economically.

We only had one child, couldn’t afford to have another. That was with both of us working full time. By the time we could afford another, it wasn’t to be. Cherish your beautiful children & enjoy spending time with them

I'd say the 1970's price hikes are similar to what's coming. It was indeed expensive. Combined too with weekly power outages due to strikes.

We heated one room, had a shared bath once a week, and had candles in jars by our beds when the electricity went off. Food was sourced as economically as possible. I remember my dad clubbing together with neighbours to have a 1/4 of a pig or a sheep, it was so much cheaper to buy a whole animal and have it butchered to put in the freezer. We grew vegetables. The oven went on once a week for casseroles, bread & cakes and meals were reheated on the hob.

We had home made clothes and hand me downs. Our home made clothes were taken up twice, let down the next year and the following, then taken back up for the next child. Knees were patched and jumpers were darned. Nothing was wasted ever.

We walked everywhere, it was unheard of to take a bus.
We ate out once a year and once a year we had a take away.

Despite how austere this sounds it was a happy childhood.

Quite, don't believe that the energy distributors are making a mint and that it would all be solved if we nationalised them. It's not Scottish Power/SSE/EDF etc. making a fortune, it's the fossil fuel giants at the top of the chain. Nationalising won't drop the wholesale gas prices.

EDF have been forced to artificially hold prices down for a bit, until Macron was re-elected, but one way or another the French will be paying that back.

Partly because of the completely insane reaction to nuclear energy in this country. We desperately need nuclear energy but the nutty campaigners are against it. I hope this brings to light what a mistake it is to not be pursuing this option.

Yeah, you see that column on your payslip labelled "Deductions"? That's how they do it. You pay, one way or another.

Corporation tax, wealth tax, tax on other sources of income.

It's not just income tax and NI as tax options.

Good job I'm too lazy to vacuum regularly then.

EdF’s nuclear fleet is currently in shambles. France is facing rolling blackouts this coming winter, same as Germany. Their one year forward energy contracts are actually record highs at levels above even Germany now.

You're dreaming if you think that will achieve anything like the sums required.

We're facing blackouts ourselves I think. Wanting us to wash less and eat later to avoid peak times I was reading recently.

Personally I'm prepping for winter. Inverters to run the freezer, stuff to do. Camping lanterns.... While still paying loads to an energy company.
Almost hearing twilight zone music.