To think Britain is heading towards economical and social collapse

[Cheesecakeandwineinasuitcase]

It feels like we are living in strange times, having come out of a global pandemic, the war in Ukraine and now the cost of living crisis and the added pressure from Brexit.

Ive barely slept tonight, worrying about what might happen with energy prices. I’ve heard the energy price cap is expected to rise to £3,850 in October. A few months ago I’m sure they predicting it would be £2,400 and that was horrifying enough.
Now I’m seeing people on the energy support Facebook group talking about monthly energy costs of £900 per month. It feels like this is escalating out of control very quickly and the Government are allowing us to sleepwalk into a disaster.

I realised tonight that if the price cap does keep increasing at the rate it has then what will happen to all the businesses once people can’t afford their energy bills anymore? They will probably increase their prices to try and cover their costs but that will drive down sales even more as people won’t have as much money to spend anymore. Eventually it will only be the essentials that we can afford so that surely means that all the other businesses won’t be able to afford to keep going?

Then what? Unless our government actually get their heads together about this then the whole country will end up in financial ruin and we will see the breakdown of society. Why so much focus on the leadership contest, surely that must take a back step.

Ive just checked the parliament website and the House of Commons has now gone into summer recess so they won’t meet again until September! I think this is an emergency situation and that they should be called back to focus on this. They get paid enough.

I think it’s outrageous that they can claim for utility bills on their expenses when there are people out there with young children who are worried about being cut off and put onto a prepayment meter.

Fwiw on the internet, I have never voted Tory in my life. I was brought up in an old Northern mining area cursing Thatcher’s name and we don’t tend to. That was a pathetic swipe

Its not meant to be but i ve been on here long enough to know that when folk trash Labours record in office, its normally to divert from the failings of the current Tory Govt.
You are different fair enough

You are asking Starmer to come up with a plan to take the UK back to the 1960s and undo almost everything that has occurred in british society over the last 40 years.

He cannot do that in 4 terms in office, let alone one & he isn't in power, nor might never be.

Baby steps and halting of Tory divisive policies would be a start.

Wasn’t it Thatcher who emasculated local government? So we’re going back 30 odd years now. No, I lie - we’re going back to fucking Gladstone!

The PFI deals are still relevant as they are still not paid off. The contracts were all for between 20 and 30 years.

Well, we can't go back in time and not do any PFI (how would you have built and paid for these new hospitals and upkeep?)
but we could nationalise these contracts and take them back in house but the Tories wont do that... so we carry on pouring billions into private bank accounts.

But as per usual, instead of looking at the 10s of billions wasted currently in track n trace, business support loans and fraudulent furlough, its always "but Labour..." no matter what the time scale.

Meanwhile in the real world

www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/01/more-than-one-in-eight-uk-households-fear-they-have-no-way-of-making-more-cuts

"More than one in eight UK households fear they have no further way to make cuts to afford a sharp increase in annual energy bills this autumn.
More than a quarter of households earning less than £20,000 worry they will be unable to cope with higher bills, with families in Yorkshire, the south-west and Northern Ireland the least confident about covering their costs, according to the latest rebuilding Britain index of 20,000 people by Legal & General.
Almost half of UK households are concerned about being able to keep up with rent or mortgage payments over the next 12 months as the majority realise they will have to make cuts elsewhere."

This is going to affect a lot of people and it will affect the economy

The hospitals and upkeep should have been paid out of government funds, as it always has been. Paying £300 billion for anything only worth £54.7 billion is complete financial ineptitude.

If you’re referring to Test and Trace (there is no track n trace) most of the cost of that was for the millions of tests that were being used every week.

Mortgage affordabilty rules are being scrapped today

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62353114

"The "stress test" forced lenders to calculate whether potential borrowers would be able to cope if interest rates climbed by up to 3%.
Removing the test may help some potential borrowers get loans, such as the self-employed or freelance workers."

With bills increasing so much and inflation increasing, I wonder what is more - interest rates rising by 3% or the effect of these increased bills?

I wonder why they are getting rid of the affordability rules at a time when there is price uncertainty and people are struggling?
Maybe lots of people are finding it difficult to remortgage? Or maybe the housing market is about to crash?

That’s good news

I might be able to remortgage now at the moment I can’t and have been stuck on a variable rate for years I worry about my mortgage going up constantly (has increased twice in six months)

it used to be so much easier to get a mortgage it was ridiculous though but many people are stuck on variable rates because mortgage lenders are stricter now

And sorry I misread your comment - sometimes it’s difficult to ‘get’ the tone and intent behind messages, @RainCloud

Paying £300 billion for anything only worth £54.7 billion is complete financial ineptitude

It’s basically what anyone who’s paid for a house with a mortgage has done - particularly those of us who paid 17% interest on the loan. By your logic our entire economic system is financially inept.

I definitely haven’t paid 6x the cost of my home through my mortgage! Inflation also needs to be considered when looking at long loans. In our case the increase in the value of our house has far outstripped the interest paid on our mortgage.

PFI was ridiculous and should never have been signed off, but we are where we are and money wasted by this government corruption us probably similar except we don’t have new hospitals to show for it.

@Capri3 Even if a case can be made for T nT, arguable!
What about furlough fraud? Business support loans? PPE contracts? 10s of billions disappeared, written off by Sunak.

If you wish to revisit Labours waste from 25 years ago (which is pointless as we can't undo any of it) but wont address current fraud and waste, then you are clearly blinkered.

It is crashing in the US and there are issues in China at the moment with people refusing to pay back loans they have taken out on homes that were never built. Lots of developers potentially going bust over there. You never hear about it in mainstream media though. Yes it's a totally different part of the world, but as we saw in 2008, they are all linked and affect one another.

I see the relaxation of the rules as desperation.

@AdamRyan @Itdoesntreallymatter

Prices are dropping in NZ, Australia and Canada too.

MSM dont want to tell us about a whole heap of things.
That doesnt fit "their" "agenda".

Just read this article on measures the city of Hanover is taking to reduce energy consumption in public places.

amp.dw.com/en/hanover-turns-off-hot-water-with-eye-to-winter-gas-shortages/a-62638434

colouringindoors
Tax credit and child benefit continue until they are almost 20, if in full time non advanced education. Ie not at university.

Germany has enough storage for 2 months of gas, so the idea is to bring that capacity up to 100%.

Its not something we can do with no storage facilities, so will be at the mercy of the markets even more than most countries.

Its not something we can do with no storage facilities, so will be at the mercy of the markets even more than most countries

It's ironic when people criticise Germany for relying on Russia for a lot of its gas and praise the UK for not doing that, whilst forgetting that the UK got rid of its gas storage facilities.

Energy storage is the future. We do generate a lot of energy in the summer months and when its windy that we can't immediately use. Finding a way of capturing that for when we need it is going to be so useful - but that is not going to help people now.

Wow really. When I logged onto my DWP account to confirm income for last year re tax credits, my dd's name wasn't listed any more. Guess I need to get in touch with them... Thank you!

It’s not 25 years ago. My local hospital will be paying over £16 million pounds every year until 2043 for a £148 million pound new wing that will have cost them £766 million when it’s finally paid off. That’s a massive amount to take out of their budget every year.

I’m not being blinkered, just providing a bit of a balance to this whole “everything is the Tories’ fault” conversation on thread.

Absolutely shocking, indefensible.

My argument is that its done, contracts signed, i believe the only way round it is to nationalise the contracts on the grounds of public value for money.

The tories are in power, they could do this, it was in Labours manifesto in 2017 and 2019.