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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

OP posts:
GreenLunchBox · 04/08/2022 12:14

Blossomtoes · 04/08/2022 11:16

We need to all be in it together and all suffer proportionately to get out of this mess faster

With the greatest respect someone defending their right to visit a champagne bar and buy a new frock “just because” and then talking about all being in it together and suffering proportionately while increasing numbers of people depend on food banks is a very bad parody of Marie Antoinette. That’s probably the most tone deaf and callous post I’ve seen for a very long time.

Indeed. I stopped reading at that point, it was so ridiculous 🤪

1dayatatime · 04/08/2022 12:14

Sporty2022
The thing is , many millions are being affected. So if millions of people can’t eat or heat their homes what will happen? The government will have to do something.

Whsts the alternative otherwise?

+++

To be fair millions of people have effectively "chosen" not to be able to afford food or heat their homes by:

  1. Agreeing the UK should support Ukraine and stand up against Putin's invasion .
  2. supporting the lockdown and government measures / spending to stop the NHS getting overwhelmed and buy time for the vaccine and prevent further deaths
  3. voting for Brexit so that the UK could "take back control "
lightand · 04/08/2022 12:17

sst1234 · 04/08/2022 12:09

That’s the point I am making. We are not energy secure because we can’t get any initiative off the ground. Unpopular view, but since Thatcher, no leader has had the backbone to get anything done in this country, on energy or any other imprint any issue. We have been coasting for 30+ years.

Show quote history

Agreed. Everything has been short termism
30 years of kicking the can down the road.
Well now the road has well and truly run out.

lightand · 04/08/2022 12:19

Iamdonewiththis · 04/08/2022 10:56

How do you all know 'Labour is equally bad'. There hasn't been a Labour government in over a decade but hey ho carry on with that old rubbish.

Name me just one that has been good in the last 50 years

Cailleachian · 04/08/2022 12:19

BarbaraofSeville · 03/08/2022 21:22

Exactly. Older public sector colleagues remember getting two substantial pay rises a year in the 1970s.

We don't even get a single rise of a few measly percent these days.

Inflation is probably effectively a lot more than 15% already for low to middle income households that spend a large proportion of their income on food (up around 30%+ on average?), gas and electricity (up by so much I've lost count - 300%?) and petrol/diesel (up at least 50%). Plus housing is getting more expensive for all except the mortgage free due to rising interest rates.

Show quote history

There is an app that tracks primary data sources that gives you an accurate picure of inflation (rather than the carefully curated data sources that make up the official figures).

Its showing that overall inflation is currently running at 13.77% in the UK, down slightly from a high of 15.75 at the end of July. It also breaks it down by category. Utilities inflation is running at a very scary 71%, food at 6.78%, housing at 14.75% and transport at 15%

app.truflation.com/

lightand · 04/08/2022 12:20

Not that i am that into tories either. Havent voted tories in the last 3 elections either.

Personally I have been saying for ages, give the other candidates on the voting paper a chance.
But people dont.
They carry on thinking the answer has to be labour liberal or tory. When history has taught us that is not necessarily true.

UnnecessaryFennel · 04/08/2022 12:21

'Oh noes I may have to stop visiting champagne bars. WHy wOn'T ThE goVeRnMeNT do SoMeThInG??'

I'm as tediously middle-class as they come but, FFS.

dhair · 04/08/2022 12:26

Or is it we are massivley impacted by energy prices as we are net importer of energy due to our fixation with Green power!

err productivity was an issue before the war

dhair · 04/08/2022 12:29

I agree a switch to high skilled economy is a good idea

How do you do that without investment from the government & them encouraging businesses to do similar?

dhair · 04/08/2022 12:30

Yes but why is UK worse hit than other G7 economies?

Yes exactly after all the pandemic was global.

boys3 · 04/08/2022 12:37

www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy-report/2022/august-2022

makes for grim reading

dhair · 04/08/2022 12:39

And it's only going to get worse.

Svara · 04/08/2022 12:40

@Grumpybutfunny
Every penny you take off me and our friends is money that isn't spent or invested elsewhere which leads to economic stagnation and a recession.
It is spent elsewhere. If you want money spent quickly then give it to the poor! Better if it's used to feed kids or keep the elderly warm, win-win.

Hrpuffnstuff1 · 04/08/2022 12:45

Svara · 04/08/2022 12:40

@Grumpybutfunny
Every penny you take off me and our friends is money that isn't spent or invested elsewhere which leads to economic stagnation and a recession.
It is spent elsewhere. If you want money spent quickly then give it to the poor! Better if it's used to feed kids or keep the elderly warm, win-win.

It's not a good investment though is it?
We've given the money via furlough and benefits and look at what has happened.
It's the whole teach a man to fish parable or the parable of the talents.

Blossomtoes · 04/08/2022 12:46

It's not a good investment though is it?

And visits to champagne bars and new frocks are?

Itisasecret · 04/08/2022 12:47

Svara · 04/08/2022 12:40

@Grumpybutfunny
Every penny you take off me and our friends is money that isn't spent or invested elsewhere which leads to economic stagnation and a recession.
It is spent elsewhere. If you want money spent quickly then give it to the poor! Better if it's used to feed kids or keep the elderly warm, win-win.

Keeping the population low skilled and reliant on benefits. Yeah, we shall see how that ideology pans out over winter. It’s not sustainable long term.

dhair · 04/08/2022 12:49

Keeping the population low skilled and reliant on benefits.

is the majority of the population on benefits? I assume you are excluding pensioners?

Blossomtoes · 04/08/2022 12:51

Keeping the population low skilled and reliant on benefits. Yeah, we shall see how that ideology pans out over winter. It’s not sustainable long term

So where’s the upskilling been for the last 12 years?

Itisasecret · 04/08/2022 12:56

Blossomtoes · 04/08/2022 12:51

Keeping the population low skilled and reliant on benefits. Yeah, we shall see how that ideology pans out over winter. It’s not sustainable long term

So where’s the upskilling been for the last 12 years?

It hasn’t and that’s the point. We now have a low skilled, low paid population. The govt have now realised how short sighted this is and they’ve been subsidising low wages for far too long. Labour first and now the Tories.

Many do not have a skill set and trade or transferable skills if the shop, bar, service outlet they work in goes bust. Yet because of the endless top ups people expect the government to sort it out and tax everyone else to pay for it. People expect to be clearing similar to people who have studied for years in their fields accumulating masses of student debt.

There needs to be a radical change in this country, focusing on levelling up and stopping people becoming trapped in the cycle of tax credit/UC to- up because at any time that can be moved and it can’t support people when the economy is the way it is.

dhair · 04/08/2022 12:57

Plus there is the "silver exodus" where more than 1/4 mill workers between 50 & 65 are economically inactive post covid. I think I read it's not higher earners doing this. The treasury did not expect it as people have being working longer.

dhair · 04/08/2022 12:59

@Itisasecret your posts ignore the impact of the 08 recession & what QE did to income. Plenty of skilled workers have seen wages fall, look at doctors.

lollolll · 04/08/2022 12:59

@Itisasecret you keep the population high skilled by paying them to upskill and not expecting people to spend 60k on a degree. I would gladly re-skill ( I wouldnt say upskill as I have plenty of degrees). However, I am in my 40s and I am not about to spend 20-60k on that especially not during a recession. I simply dont have the money and I am already a professional but I have a couple of kids and a mortgage.

SleeplessInEngland · 04/08/2022 12:59

UnnecessaryFennel · 04/08/2022 12:21

'Oh noes I may have to stop visiting champagne bars. WHy wOn'T ThE goVeRnMeNT do SoMeThInG??'

I'm as tediously middle-class as they come but, FFS.

It's always weird when the Daily Mail comments section seeps into this forum. Do they never write this stuff and think 'wait, am I being a ridculous cliche' before posting?

ClottedCreamAndStrawberries · 04/08/2022 13:03

dhair · 03/08/2022 21:19

But what was the alternative to paying people some of their salaries because the decision was to close down industries. Lots of the "excess" money floating around has come from the better off who saved huge sums.

The stamp duty holiday was a mistake.

The alternative was for those people to apply for the million plus jobs that were available and not take furlough. I worked throughout, as did my husband, as did millions of others and we’re having to pay back that money now.

dhair · 04/08/2022 13:12

@ClottedCreamAndStrawberries just think a little bit before you type. I worked throughout as did DH as did everyone I know, so what? I was pretty glad I didn't see a cut in my salary. I personally don't understand the jealousy towards the furloughed. Also the government introduced furlough so you think people should have refused it 😆

You can't just move people from one industry to another as they won't necessarily have the skills. And plenty of people did jump industry which is why airports are in chaos now.