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.

Iirc Starmer recently ruled it out

Do people mean buy it off shareholders? What cost to taxpayer

Or does referring to legislation mean another way

Here User135644 this was 2019

Do people mean buy it off shareholders? What cost to taxpayer

yes, as after 7 years it would have paid for itself

This winter will be hard for many, however, expect our new PM to ignore this and launch a new ‘war on woke’ or some other distraction.

I don't think many people are aware of the bigger picture. I mentioned the increase in energy prices at work this week - and few people were aware, let alone what they paid or even what kind of tariff they were on.

It does feel a bit like "Don't look up" when few people are listening until it's too late

It’s not great, and I fear it will get worse. Action will only be taken when ‘haves’ start to feel it.

But- there are lots of jobs which are way above minimum wage which are available but people don’t know how to access them.

who is going to then do the essential jobs that kept us going through lockdown?

supermarket cashiers, shelf stackers, supermarket delivery drivers,

all on minimum wage, why shouldn’t they be able to take home a decent wage if £15 an hour?

In winter when the smart metre reaches near £5 for the day, everything will be switched off. We had a few days last winter where it reached £7 + and we cant offord it. So it's not going to happen in my house.

If it starts to cost too much to cook or wash then we will have to use the microwave/ air fryer and wash once a week and live in oodies. Not a happy prospect but if it's that or starve / die as OP suggests then I wont be heating the house and my kids will have to suck it up.

I could live on beans on toast once a day for a year ( or three when a student) I cant see people dropping dead in the street come winter.

Yes of course some people will die due to poverty as they do every year but I dont think we are heading to end of days this winter.

With regard to energy bills the fact is that we pay rental (standing charges) for products and items (gas and electricity) that we cant afford to use. That is insane, ever increasing rental charges people can ill afford, combined with a product that is simply unaffordable in use. It's not netflix, it's not Amazon Prime, we cant just cancel our subscriptions and go off grid, crazy shit.

The governments since 2010 have baked poverty and widening social and asset driven inequality into the system, ordinary people and families have nothing/ not much left they can cut back on. Add in sustained high inflation, ever increasing food, fuel, energy, council tax (the new poll tax), rents, mortgages and property prices - it's game over.

The "Well I'm going to be fine, so everyone else needs to stop panicking" posts are sickening.

The above is utter silliness. Do you have any idea how long it takes to build a nuclear power plant?

Also nationalize energy companies? Which ones? All of them? How on earth does that increase competition? Having just one supplier? Also how do you plan to nationalize foreign companies?

There is no competition for customers between energy suppliers at the moment because the cap imposed by the government means they are not making a profit on the energy they sell. They can’t offer it at lower prices as global wholesale gas and oil prices are high. This affects electricity prices in the uk as we generate a lot of electricity from gas.

cobra meetings are for emergencies not for something like a rise in oil prices that we can do little about. Although I agree that politicians seem to get a lot of holidays (I imagine they are supposed to be doing things in their constituencies).

There has been a surge in energy prices due to Covid cuts in supply and a sudden increase in demand post Covid and the war in Ukraine. This will settle down in time as we move to different sources of energy and supply increases. And hopefully the war in Ukraine ends.

if course for people on low incomes energy price rises are worrying but you need to calm down. The world isn’t ending. Also imagine how it feels to those in Ukraine bombed out of their homes to listen to hysteria about gas bills.

Starmer is the least radical Labour leader i've ever known. He doesn't seem to want to actually change anything.

They are having cold showers in public gyms in summer months.

Don’t be so dramatic!

Not to mention the state of our roads, the endless roadworks, the crowding in trains and on motorways. Going on a long journey anywhere in this country now feels almost impossibly arduous.

The NHS at near collapse, some hospitals with a 40 hour wait in A&E for beds, which makes me feel terrified of getting sick.

The number of unfilled vacancies everywhere. Businesses increasingly under strain because of understaffing issues.

It's all beginning to feel pretty dystopian.

if course for people on low incomes energy price rises are worrying but you need to calm down. The world isn’t ending. Also imagine how it feels to those in Ukraine bombed out of their homes to listen to hysteria about gas bills

A lot of people don't have much headroom in their income to support extra costs.

Telling people to calm down doesn't help.

More money being spent on bills means less money being spent elsewhere in the economy as people cut back.

Less income for businesses, increased costs of running a business...

Also the French taxpayer just had to pay billions to renationalize EDF (it was about 80% publicly owned) as their low energy cap and huge losses caused flight among private investors. That’s billions of taxpayer’s money that is taken from schools, hospitals, welfare, etc. is that really the best use of taxpayers money? Especially considering very many wealthy people and businesses will be paying a subsidized price?

also France generates most of its electricity from nuclear so hasn’t been so affected by gas prices.

the answer to surges in global oil and gas prices isn’t to nationalize energy suppliers. That’s not going to help in the long term.

@usernamealreadytaken - yip paracetamol about 25p in Scotland.

We should have invested in nuclear 20 years ago. Renewables on their own, with the current technology, will simply not supply all the energy we need. They are currently covering up thousands of acres of our farmland with solar panels, thus adding a future food crisis to our current energy crisis.

By the way, OP, do you ever read the European news? It's just as bad there.The decades of Germany know towing to Putin has out the whole of Europe in a precarious position.

Putin has triggered this by going to war, but you can thank Mutti for the fact the west is so weak.

By the way, OP, do you ever read the European news? It's just as bad there.The decades of Germany know towing to Putin has out the whole of Europe in a precarious position

You do realise that we are all connected - a downturn in Europe and other parts of the world affects us as well.

@TenRedThings a pack if ibuprofen here can be had for 50p

If the price cap is £3500 how does that equate to £900 a month in bills

Also nationalize energy companies? Which ones? All of them? How on earth does that increase competition? Having just one supplier? Also how do you plan to nationalize foreign companies?

its not about competition, it’s about basic needs light, heating, water - not about how much shareholder make at the cost of cheap Labour that can’t then afford basic needs

people need to do what they need to do to get by. As part of an immigrant family I know that as well as anyone. But stopping panicking and catastrophising will help. Really it will. The world isn’t ending.

inflation is not a good thing- agreed. We have had a long time without it and so perhaps have got used to not having it. But inflation has risen before and fallen back and it will do so again.

don’t panic and if you are struggling financially so practical things to help as much as you can. But the world isn’t ending yet.

I accept a lot of people were but I’m really not sure it’s correct the majority of people were using credit cards for food.

I think the difference today is several things:

24 hour media and social media blasting us constantly with doom and allowing the panicked to run amok

covid hangover and the ongoing stress from that which has affected every single one of us whether we like it or not

This is going to be nasty. People will seriously struggle. But not everyone and hopefully that means we can find ways to help those that will. There is no point going into blind panic.

Investment into sustainable power energy is already happening. A huge project is underway into sustainable natural energy of the north east coast. Two years ago we noticed jack up rigs out to sea, we watched over a couple of weeks, they’d be in a different area every few days. DH said at the time, they are exploring for something and it isn’t for oil or gas.
They were exploring the depth of the sea for this project, a huge factory is being built near the river to make wind turbines, huge vessels are needed to move them into position, it was found that the sea here has the deepest draught along the U. K. Coast.hence this massive development, there’s also something to do with sea power being used to generate electricity. it’s going to provide work for many here, it already is. Work is happening at the old SSI plant, it’s being transformed into a plant for another type of energy.

OP the goverment have acted hence why many on lower incomes received £325.00 this month and will receive more
Yes it will hit many of us of not already , but there isn't loads they can do immediately, you could raise min wage but then those costs have to be passed on , normally to the consumer
Tesco has to pay more , then they have to cover those costs