To ask what the rest of (geographic) Europe are doing differently?

[CanIJustAskAnotherStupidQuestion]

I have friends and colleagues in Nordics, Spain, Italy, Germany and they all keep asking what the hell is going on in Britain, with double digit inflation and 80% increases in fuel costs. They don’t seem to be feeling all of this to the same extent.

So why is it happening here, and not so much elsewhere? I know that e.g. France hasn’t been hit with fuel bills for consumers because EDF is nationalised (but presumably that means they will get hit in taxes). But what about elsewhere?

Yep. Also in Spain. @maddy68 is spot on, literally word for word what I would have written.

Agree fine for the OP to ask the question without having to deliver a PowerPoint presentation backing up her claims or pov

Spain here, our government has also helped with petrol prices, deducting 5c a ltr on the pump price . Yes our electricity and gas has increased but nothing significant as far as I can tell. As others have mentioned, free trains for everyone, I think for 6 months 1. To help with household expenditure for commuters . 2. To encourage more use of public transport . Tbf the train are amazing here and very reasonable even when we pay the normal fair.

If you separate out the political response for a moment, when the UK imports gas it's set up for lng that can be shipped from anywhere it just gets expensive quickly esp if there's a shortage. Probably similar with Mediterranean countries. Somewhere that relies heavily on piped gas imports (Germany Poland etc) from Russia doesn't have the same options, you can't just push gas in from the other side even if it's available/afordable, it requires significant infrastructure changes. Where we mostly need to worry about cost, they mostly need to worry about access/blackouts.

I think other european countries have a working government unlike the UK.

From what little I understand, is that the UK is hit twice, once with the global/ European energy crisis and overall shortage of goods from China. This affects all countries but has been mitigated by individual working governments.
Second is Brexit. We've lost the buying power of the EU and direct acess to any goods produced in the EU. We are literally sent to the back of the queue every time there is a shortage of something like naughty children.
Then there is the loss of end consumer protection that came with EU... although I don't believe this has hit us properly yet!

I also think that most UK citizens are far to complacent, this society is more focused on "I am all right Jack" & looking over the fence with envy because the neighbours have a bigger car ... rather than saying we are all in this together. We can do something about this together!

How is Spain going to pay for all that?

The UK is being worse hit by energy prices for a load of reasons @Getoff

1. We're massively reliant on gas, about 40% of overall energy
2. We use gas to create electricity thereby driving up the electricity price
3. We've got more household gas boilers than other countries - like 85%
4. We have worst house insulation in Europe so waste loads
5. EU countries have decent gas storage, up to 3months supply. But the UK got rid of nearly all its storage a few years ago
6. We therefore have to buy ALL our gas at top dollar on the day prices
7. We've failed to invest quickly enough in renewables and nuclear as alternatives
8. No big government intervention on bills has happened (yet)

This is why Catalonia wants independence. Because this region pays for all the crackpot socialist policies in Spain

Catalonia has always wanted independence and most famously when Spain had a fascist dictator.

In Mexico, the government has capped energy prices and though we have rising food prices, nothing compared to the problem in the UK,

I know that e.g. France hasn’t been hit with fuel bills for consumers because EDF is nationalised (but presumably that means they will get hit in taxes).

If it's nationalised why would they get hit in taxes especially? A nationalised company is basically providing a public service, that's their purpose in life. If costs have gone up those will likely be passed onto the consumer, but that's it.

We're getting hit with huge rising costs because there's a middle man (private energy company) whose purpose in life is to make a profit, and because what they're selling is one of life's basic essentials people don't have the option of saying "no thanks I'll go without". They're not running a public service for the lowest effective price they can. They're running a company to make themselves as much profit as possible.

You know how economics works ? It's the same money but redistributed in different ways

The Spanish government are subsidising and they have better solar power. The UK is s bit of a joke

this ^
The french would not tolerate the government that has been chosen in the UK

If you want greater equality/fairness across society, don’t vote Tory it’s that simple

Unfortunately we have a government who choose to spend the money raised by taxes in ways that don't always benefit the public.

They also choose not to bother properly taxing their friends and their businesses.

Then they choose to give big contracts to incompetent friends eg PPE.

Then they don't bother funding the NHS because the money has to be used for their mates, so that is failing.

They are allowing the energy companies to make insane profits at the expense of you and me.

As someone said upthread, other countries may also worry about cost of living rises but compare them and us and frankly we would be happy to swap.

Then there's the whole Brexit disaster which is costing us enormously.

We have such scarily self serving government that we are totally buggered until people stop voting Tory.

@PersonaNonGarter We live in France and it’s definitely not ‘complete chaos’ 😂 what is your reasoning for the crime wave?! News to me

We live in France and it’s definitely not ‘complete chaos’ 😂 what is your reasoning for the crime wave?! News to me

I live in the UK and apparently we are also in the grip of a huge rise in violent crime. Not where I live. Maybe you live somewhere nice like I do so don't see it? 🤷

I live in Germany and also really can't say I have had a "horrendous time" (apart from the heatwave ...)

@PersonaNonGarter so much wrong with your statement. EDF wasn't ever sold off so hasn't been nationalized.

Crime wave where? Certainly not where I live.

The French plan is a drop in usage of 10% by 2025 and 40% by 2050. Mostly by industry.

We also have a new nuclear power station going up but god knows when.

In fact 6 new nuclear power stations are in the pipeline for 2035 in theory.

Agreed. I don’t recognise that description of life in France, especially the ‘crime wave’. It’s still essentially a socialist country and the social contract still exists. French people like to bitch and complain about everything but the level of support here for low income families is in a different league to the UK. Plus rent controls and tenant protection make housing far less precarious. Cost of living is going up though and having a big impact on low income families, especially in already economically depressed areas, and that’s a really sensitive subject in a country with such strong socialist roots.

the ‘crime wave’ ties into a lot of social problems that France absolutely does have: excluded, ethnic minority, communities living in poverty and lack of opportunity on the outskirts of big cities. The rising cost of living is feeding into this. Alot of it is anti-social behaviour which is very distressing for inhabitants but not quite a crime wave.

I think 12% of EDF was not nationalised and has been re-nationalised. The Macron / Borne support measures (65bn€ iirc) were voted through. No crime wave in our bit of France either. Wood has gone up by 5€ a cubic metre to 65€.
It looks as if energy prices may go up next year but the price rise will be contained.

'My impression (German living in Belgium after 15 years in UK) is that there are problems everywhere, but not the same combination of toxic free market ideology and political paralysis as in the UK.'

Very well put by ThreeLocusts.

Like Doro, I live in Germany and like her, I wouldn't call the current situation 'horrendous'. We are worried, yes. But part of the shock in the UK comes from having previously had energy prices lower, often much lower, than elsewhere. There's also the factor that over here, we have adults in charge who take the situation and their job seriously, communicate clearly and, overall, work in the interests of the population as a whole. The fact that there's a relatively broad coalition in government means some disputes about the proper way to handle things, but it also means the govt has a wide range of interests in its collective sight.

Definitely no crime wave, here and nothing in the national news.

Our energy bills are actually going down because we have made a couple of changes in our house. We will not end up paying in taxes because low to moderate earners don't pay income tax.

The biggest problem in France at the moment is a shortage of teachers.

friendsin germany are worried about the energy prices. they have to pay 100€ a month more now.

and they have used reduced train fare fo commute (9€\month) which ends now and their usual season ticket has been raised by a substantial amount.

and they have been warned that there might be scheduled electricity cut offs in winter.

I agree with both posters here. I was also coming to say that energy prices in Germany had been higher then in the UK before this all kicked off. My parents who live in the UK were shocked when I told them last year how much I was paying for gas. Now I'm obviously paying more but it's nowhere near the increases that I read about on MN.