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.

But all of these things have been happening for years already and no one has really been arsed until its started to affect them. Disability benefits and the like have been dire and causing people to choose whether to heat or eat for years but no one has listened, shops have been closing- high streets have been dying not so slowly for years, crime levels are rising as there isn't an adequate police force, the NHS has been fucked for a long time it's just that now it'll actually collapse.

Maybe step away from Facebook, you know it makes sense.

It'll be the rentamob crowd . Any excuse

There were 56 foodbanks in this country in 2010, there are now over 3,000.

A lot of the food banks rely heavily on donations by members of the public. If people are needing to reduce their food shopping to absolute essentials only, that is going to have a detrimental effect on those food banks supplies, at a time when even more people are needing their help.

It's going to be fine. There is no point at all to spread all this angst online. Instead, get a new qualification or better paid job.
Peak MN privileged delusion. Just get a better job, that’s what we scumbag poor people need to do. Why didn’t we think of that sooner?

In France the energy raise has been capped at 4% because the Government didn't sell of the EDF so they can control the price rises. A pack of paracetamol is under €2 !
@TenRedThings things aren't rosy in France; the French pay higher taxes already so are paying higher costs one way or the other. In England (can't speak for RoUK) a pack of paracetamol is around 29p. www.ft.com/content/993bbbda-e74a-4f32-9479-019d6c3f5f6a

People talking about the 70s forgot that it wasn't all bad. The early 70s had high employment & a strong economy due to manufacturing & strong trade unions. And one of the impact of high inflation back then was huge wage growth.

The difficulty now is high employment but low wages & low productivity, weaker unions & I think GDP is lower than it was in the 70s

No we had looting in 2011 and people sent to prison for even making jokes about joining in. The British wont riot again, we cant even legally protest properly

Don't they just? IIRC, the riots in 2010 were mostly naughty youngsters stealing fancy trainers from shops. They did damage all sorts of shops in some area but that's usually taken care of by their insurance. These consumerist 'riots' were organised on social media. They were not some sort of social justice riots 😁

x-post @Nothappyatwork

I do also wonder if the food bank has become a self perpetuating cycle. I know people who got food parcels during the pandemic and most of the food went in the bin because they didn’t like it. There’s definitely sections of society who will just go and take food because they can, to save the cash for the things. If it wasn’t there what would they do.

We should have invested in renewables 15 years ago with a view to being self sufficient (or as near as possible).

We didn't do this when we had the chance and if we did it now it would take years. We should do this now but it doesn't actually help the current situation.

Take on a second job or income stream, look at your options to sell or rent out stuff you don’t need, consider scaling back and having a home made Christmas this year etc. Positive action will help you feel more secure

FGS Many people are already working 40 or 50 hours per week, even more when time is taken out for travelling to and fro work and how does this work when you ve children?
As for 2nd income stream? yep get yourself on Etoro and start trading your hidden shares portfolio..

Its these sorts of crass musings that give the right/tories such a bad name.

What about companies making very large profits, paying decent wages instead.... wages in this country, in real terms, have fallen dramatically in the last 15 years.
Carers are leaving in their droves because the fuel mileage rates haven't been increased so folk on £10/12ph are having to pay to drive to clients... meanwhile Govt priority is to increase banker bonus limits.

I don't think they'll be riots etc but i do think we are heading for an awful lot of strikes and more legislation to ban them altogether.

There really has been an injustice since 2008 when the government used public funds to bail out risk taking investment funds and have largely paid for it by cutting real wages for the public sector and the working class, including massively cutting the value of pensions.

For all the talk of historic cycles, it used to be that there would be periods of belt tightening but there would be pay increases in between etc.

The problem is that in real terms pay has been eroded for nigh on 14 years by pay freezes.

Exactly

"Until May 2008, wage growth was above inflation, causing positive real wage growth. But, since 2008, the UK has seen periods of negative real wage growth."

we never came out of the 08 cycle

People riot when they've got nothing to lose. Society is only a few meals away from mass disorder.

If they weren’t there when I needed them there were two options, stop paying rent which would have then led to me being evicted, or don’t eat, which would result in a fairly swift hospital admission due to being a type one diabetic. Well technically three, I could have resorted to stealing food.

Such a delusional argument.

There are a certain number of jobs in this country. If one person gets a better paid job, someone else is still doing the worse paid job and struggling. So the situation is exactly the same!! Loads of people can't afford their bills and they can't ALL move to better jobs.

Duh.

We need to stop thinking about individuals in this country and more about the collective.

This is one of the things I’m worried about. I hope it doesn’t happen. It won’t fix anything.

we never came out of the 08 cycle

No, because the whole financial system collapsed in 2008 and the Tories have been pretending it hasn't for 12 years.

Same in America who even voted for Trump who promised something different (they were lied to of course).

Trouble is that we have a lazy, greedy, arrogant government that are largely devoid of ideas. I am quite sure (as the Mail would no doubt argue) that other countries have their own problems but that is no excuse for inaction.

True

just remember the word sensationalism. During the riots in 2011 the papers had a photo of a man in a balaclava on the front page.

That man was a colleague, in a high paid professional job who went out to “have a laugh” after a few too many beers after work. He came into work the next day & someone realised it was him. He didn’t cause any damage or do any “rioting”. He was just the poster boy.

The newspapers reported carnage and all sorts. Passing through the trail of destruction on the trains up through Lewisham, Peckham and then the DLR probably required binoculars. It wasn’t that bad (I acknowledge there was a few nasty isolated fires!!) but overall it wasn’t that bad.

Sensationalism
(and Boris with his bloody broomstick!)

I am worried too OP.
I normally dont take much notice of these things but i am feeling uneasy at the moment.

Unless things get REALLY bad dh and i will be ok but i live in a very deprived area and there are already massive issues which have become noticeably worse over the last 12 months.

I personally know a number of people who are already skipping meals to feed their kids, i know elderly people who restricted putting the heating on last year let alone this year.

last night i spent the evening in a and e my first hospital experience for a while and it was pretty much non functioning. The wait to see someone was 7 hours, they were activity telling people they had so many staff shortages there was one nurse doing all the ecgs and blood tests.There was no room in the waiting room. There were people who clearly needed social care help - for example one woman who shouting and crying becauae she needed weetabix and seemed to have no idea she was in a and e. I wish i was better with with words to describe the situation.

i think certain parts of the country are already in collapse. I have no idea how bad it will get but it would be foolish to think people WONT be terribly affected and even die. It probably wont be all over the news because it will be elderly or vulnerable people but it will happen.

I own a small, independent business.
I am friends with many other people who own businesses.
I know perfectly well how this is playing out. We are currently able to balance paying our staff a decent wage with not increasing costs too wildly for customers. Many of my friends’ businesses are working on lower profit margins so are having to cut staff.
You think it’s only Tory voters who don’t want their businesses to collapse? Hahaha

I’ll make sure I pass on your wise words to my friends’ and their employees “your business is not a viable one” and I hope your sentiment would be as cold if it was your husband’s company.

My uncle had his electricity meter replaced dozens of times as the electricity board wanted to take them apart to figure out how he was fiddling the bill.
When he wasn't at the working men's club, he was sat in his kitchen in the dark, listening to a battery powered radio.
Having been in a position where my entire salary just covered my mortgage repayments (thank you John Major), those were scary times for us and those who are worried have my deepest sympathy.
However, the price cap comes into play when you use a certain amount of energy, turning down thermostats, turning off heating altogether in some rooms, going to bed earlier, batch-cooking and doing full-loads of washing less often are all ways to save energy and expense. If there are free community events in walking distance, give them a try.
I have friends in large, detached country houses that cannot believe how low bills are in my small mid-terrace - one is approaching £1,000 per month.
We will get through it, along the way, there will be tragic stories in the press of frightened OAPs dying alone with high bank balances that they were afraid to spend. Some of the lockdown spirit of those more able looking after friends, neighbours and family members will help.