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.

Whyaretheynotdoinganything

Because the govt of other European countries are imposing price controls / caps on energy. They will have to find a way to pay for it. Energy isn’t any cheaper for them.

Windfall taxes might help in the short term but I suspect that the companies involved will either be bankrupted themselves if they continue because, without Russia, there is an actual massive shortfall between supply and demand (its not made up!!) so the huge profits will be short term. In order to meet supply longer term, they need to be investing in sourcing new oil and gas which is massively expensive especially when done at speed.

France ignored the environmentalist and their own public outcry and built more nuclear stations in the 90/00. Out govt proposed the same and the public outcry lead by labour / greens was so huge they stopped. They are in a better position.

Agreed

Again there will be the " everyone will die" camp and the " we can't buy a new aga" camp then everything in between.
One thing you can bet on is that crime will rocket and the well off will be largely unaffected.

The reason our energy bills are so high is that we don’t have the storage facilities like the rest of Europe do. We sold it off

So this means we buy more immediate use energy which is more expensive

Comparison of U.K. energy costs in summer 2022 for European countries. This gap is set to widen from 1 October.

metro.co.uk/2022/09/01/how-do-uk-energy-prices-compare-with-the-rest-of-europe-17277277/amp/

The solutions for the U.K. are

• bring in immediate rationing eg planned blackouts. so your street might be cut off 3 nights a week for 6 hours each. That would be manageable and fair if planned ahead and everyone is affected
• invest in green energy at pace
• nationalise the energy companies
• build storage facilities and batteries for storing green energy

Ps only electricity would be cut off like the 70s not gas

Would also help if electricity prices were uncoupled from the price of gas.

Well my understanding is they are working around the clock to increase the storage capacity.

Agreed.

Unbelievable that the stupid governments allowed this and didn't plan for the future

I think they’ve reopened a massive gas storage place again this week.

It would all be different if we actually had a government with one iota of common sense, planning and leadership skills

oh wait ……..

Yes the government have screwed up our energy security. Centrica, a private firm did warn them that disinvestment would leave us vulnerable in 2017. So recently and at a time when we knew what Putin was capable of.

Its infuriating because we generate 43% of our energy from renewables. If it weren’t for the lack of storage and Brexit, we’d be much better protected than much of Europe. But as it stands, we’re in one of the worst positions.

We also knocked down coal fired power stations instead of mothballing them, which in hindsight was a mistake. We could have used them to bridge the gap while we move ahead with green energy and insulation schemes.

One positive is that we have the mandate now to progress with renewables faster than we ever have before. One silver lining.

@RunningSME yes you’re right, they’re trying to get the facility at Rough in Yorkshire up and running asap!

To people saying the answer is 3 nights a week blackout.
this is totally not ok.
night shifts are a huge part of uk lifeblood
disability equiptment
machines generally update /fixed overnight.this has huge implications for a modern world that relays on technology.

disability equipment

Any decent equipment will have batteries (which the mains recharges). A lot of medical kit is designed to be used in situations where the power supply is sporadic.

@kateandme if it was planned those factors could be accounted for though? It would be tough but we would get by. My parents did in the 70s. Surely it’s much better than unplanned blackouts which is what we’re facing if we continue to consume energy at current levels? If the government addressed the red tape, it would reduce the price we pay drastically.

I’d support it and I have young children so wouldn’t be easy for me. Clearly anyone with a disability or medical equipment would be provided with a powerbank or other arrangement. The elderly would be given heaters etc.

@Whyaretheynotdoinganything Do you not know the chaos this caused in the seventies?

Why do people always talk about returning to the 70s as if that's a good it feasible idea. The world is so different. The implications are hugely different. Perhaps we could cope with blackouts but the justification that it happened 50 years ago is so absurd because we live such a different life. You might as well say my great grandparents didn't have electricity 100 years ago and they were fine.

Not saying blackouts are necessarily bad but stop justifying it based on experiences 50 years ago

I think

The 70s show us that even when thing are crap we can do more than survive but also be happy - and I think that sone of the ways we might find to have fun and be happy will also have less damaging effects on the environment

And at the same time I think

We are a very rich country it's an absolute disgrace that as a bare minimum people don't have good food and warm houses

So what I am saying is
To individuals- try not to be too scared and sad
And to government
Get your ducking finger out

I think people have to get used to the fact that their homes cannot be 25C all yr round.
And neither can they live forever.

We need to have a social conversation about the definition of what we mean by the bare minimum of living standards and the consequent cost.

Because so much now runs in technology.no no basically everything! When your grandma was around doing it things were done manually. Every single thing from your water on the power grid to your food,every way you live is done via an online or technology system of some kind.so yes it would be bloody chaos turning these things off over night.
partnof the worries with the heat recently was it would shut electric and power down.this was a problem because of how many systems in life run on power.
alao more than ever thing are done via shifts and over night.
wouod you be ok if it was done in the day?

And if you really think the government will ensure the elderly and vulnerable are ok. Haha. Ok.

Totally agree

I hope I die before I end up in a care home of any description. That is one of my biggest fears to be honest. Next to paying the bills of course

@CeeJay81 the whole of MN doesn't concur with some of the more right wing views shared on this thread . In fact I think mostly people don't . I have also seen recently a lot of helpful and supportive threads under the cost of living topic.

I agree with you that this thread seems to have attracted quite a few goady twats.