To wonder how people will financially survive?

[Cupcakeicecream]

To think that many people are struggling already. Food price rises, gas and electric costs. The general cost of living due to inflation from either brexit since the pandemic and Ukraine war. But come on some people were struggling before any of those factors. Financially people will be pushed to breaking christmas will be off the cards general life will stagnate no meals out leisure activities cinema socialising new clothes treat foods. The threat of blackouts and wondering how we will pay bills to keep warm or keep a house running. Never mind buying food the price of it plus the large gaps on shelves. Winter will be miserable. It's becoming impossible to live in this country.

BluOcty
During the pandemic, oil prices dropped to zero and then negative values and these energy companies made massive losses. Should the public have paid then? If you nationalise the oil/gas market all you do is reverse the situation. When they are making losses the public pays rather than this way round.

We do generate our own electricity. Nuclear, wind, hydroelectric, solar and gas powered.

On the wind and solar question, it isn’t a solution. There is too much demand at times of darkness and low wind for these to provide sufficient base load.

Its OK. The people the Conservatives really care about are doing fine. Pay for FTSE100 CEO's rose 39% to £3.4m last year. These are the people who donate to the Tories and ensure economic decisions support their wealth. Liz Truss doesn't care if poor people freeze or go hungry

if it’s that much x4 I can expect around 240 per month which is doable for me.
I think my parent is already way out of their depth and I dread to think what they already pay something like 400 I vaguely remember - which is terrifying x4! But they have a million pound house to sell and bloody well should so that’s their problem tbh.
Sil is terrible with money full stop and is already squeezed so I just don’t know what she will do. She’s on prepayment too so can’t just hide and wait for the courts to grant a small payback arrangement . She’ll actually end up with no power if we don’t sort something. She already gets a lot of local assistance like food bank vouchers but for the children’s sake I hope there is more available as they never seem to have anything. I always try to help but I’m going to be too tight now myself I think .

Don't beat yourself up re not having a wood burner, we sell logs and the prices are going through the roof.

Fuel is needed to supply from Europe and then cut the raw timber up.

anniegun
seriously - do you know what the FSE 100 even is? Millions of people are Conservative voters - 100 CEOs aren’t making the difference. But yes conservative politics dictates that supporting economic growth is what will ultimately pay the bills.

*RayneDance^
100 BILLION not million

100 BILLION … on top of the 400 BILLION that COVID has cost.

Famine. That's what is coming. A lot of food producing countries, including European ones, have been hit by drought and ongoing heatwaves this year, which will have a knock on effect across 2023. I don't know if the UK will experience shortages but I presume prices will rise a lot.

As to the war, i presume it has to escalate to a hot war for Nato (boots on the ground) soon because Putin has to escalate to save face.

The French, Belgian, German and Spanish leaders are all warning of very difficult times ahead. I think they're probably right.

I don't understand how the government is allowing this to happen. I've already been told my energy bill will increase fourfold by January.

But it isn't just paying your electricity / gas bill. This will send the price of everything up as businesses try to pass their energy cost increases onto customers. Going to a restaurant will be exorbitant because of the price of cooking food & lighting & heating a restaurant, likewise for going to the hairdressers. Not just the treats in life, but also the basics.

Fundamentally, people will die. I can't see state pensioners being able to survive, can you?

And whilst I agree that 400% increase in energy bills is unsustainable for almost everyone - I’d point out that this estimate is IF YOU CARRY ON USING ENERGY AS WE DO NOW.

And there is no need to do that. This may be the best thing that ever happens for the environment. How many of us heat every room even when we don’t use them? Abe hot water on twice a day even though when we don’t need it. Walk around our houses in the dead of winter in teeshirt and jeans? Im guilty - I’ll put up my hands. My electricity bill is the same as if was this time last year because I actually think about it now. Hot water is on for 30 minute before we need it and at no other time. Clothes washed when they age dirty & Full washes only. Drying is outside bit tumbler drier and if it’s raining, we wait. Dishes are washed in sink not dishwasher

This is why I wont fix my energy bill at a ridiculous price, because if I, in a tiny terrace house am expected to pay £400 a month for g&e- and I have a decent enough wage and cant afford it, there is no way the government can not step in.

The people have brought down a government before, they could do so again. Truss and Sunak need to remember the poll tax.

The poll tax was levied by the government. The government has nothing to do with getting gas out of the ground or burning it to provide you with electricity.

Why are people blaming the government for how much electricity and gas cost?

Surely we'd be no better off if we were self sufficient as a country and didn't have to buy electricity from other countries at current market rates. @StillGoingStrongToday

Tidal and wind still happen in the dark don't they? Every little helps.

Wasn't the Swansea Tidal Lagoon going to supply half of Wales's electricity before Brexit mothballed it?

Who was that American loon who suggested recently that if we use renewables we won't have power after sunset? Marjorie something. .

It's not true is it?

Small businesses, such as restaurants, are already closing:

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/uk-businesses-closing-energy-bills-cost-of-living-crisis_uk_62fcfc01e4b0a85a8197c961

More than 70% of pubs expect to pack up for good this winter. For those that remain open, they think beer will be £14 per pint within a year or so:

www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/23/pubs-winter-energy-costs-soar

OnlyFoolsnMothers
You are right - don’t fix just use less. My husband is a plumber - he is always astounded at how few people have actually read the instruction manual on their boilers. Boilers set with temp far higher than necessary. Hot water ‘on’ for two hours twice a day with no clue how long it actually takes to heat their tank or how much hot water they actually need for their shower/bath requirements. Radiators permanently on full, never turned off. He has to actually show them them the temp valve. Thermostats turned to max all the time.

How long ago was that? What about Londoners or people living in flats who have no gardens and cannot grow their own food?

What magic do you really think any of these parties have up their sleeves? The idea that Labour is going to come in and make everything better is laughable. Rishi basically opened his cheque book and signed off on everything when it came to covid. Brexit has left us in a situation where we have to be favourable to businesses or else we will have no employment. So what grand plan do the other parties have that’s going to save the day?

Wrong quote 🫤

Think very carefully about who you vote for at the general election next year

And when the lucky amongst us who do have luxuries we can cut down on do so, it's the small businesses, the sole traders, the non-chain cafes, restaurants, children's groups, dog walkers, farm shops, etc. who will suffer, and then the whole thing spirals. So far we can afford the increases in the sense of we won't go hungry or cold, but we will stop spending money on a lot of things that we used to, so other people's incomes will suffer.

It'll come out of the £14billion overseas aid budget.

I also can't help thinking about the Germany in the 1920s, the Weimar Republic, when inflation reached such ludicrous proportions that people were having to degrade and prostitute themselves just to survive, crime and chaos were rife... But it's not the 'Weimar' stage that frightens me, but what could come after it when we are all broken.

Clearly, the only people who will survive this are the wealthy, who see it as 'just a little price increase' and 'Oh, it's good for the planet for people (poor people) to consume less'.

None scheduled yet.

There's been a trend set for calling a GE after changing leader mid-term. It started when Brown took over from Blair and the Conservatives made a big deal about him having no mandate, people didn't vote for him, he had a duty to call an election and let the people decide whether or not they wanted a government under him, and so on (Johnson himself wrote articles about it). Since then every PM who has taken over following a mid-term resignation and fuck knows there have been a lot of them has called a GE shortly after.

Liz Truss is fucking useless, she'll struggle to hold the party together considering its already fractured and the current crisis' will make it even more difficult. She'll end up pushed into corner and will call a GE to try and slice through the knot of the problem rather than unravel it.

I always do.

This no exaggeration needed!