To ask when is the cost of living going to go down?

[scotpancakes]

When will working hard start to pay off? I scrape by every month. I can't afford to save, so I can't afford a house! I live in the South East and rent prices are crazy. Will this country ever become more affordable? For the past 16 years it's been doom and gloom and it just goes on and on!

If you live in the South East rents are so high you will always struggle. Your DD could be happy in a school in the North too. You'd have so much more spare cash each month after renting to treat your DD to more things like activities too.

Farage would say anything to undermine the two main parties.
His aim is purely to disrupt.

I was only thinking last night that we hear nothing from him or his party now.
He's doing nothing with his power or to work for his constituency. He'll only kick back into action when there's an election or headlines to be had in order to fuel culture wars. The man's a provocateur backed by god know who (we have a fair idea).

Think you must have missed this post @caringcarer

If people were happy with the two main parties, there'd be no "demand" from the disenfranchised for a disruptor! Yes, he's a pain in the arse and seizes opportunities from division, but he's just an opportunist and the two main parties have brought it upon themselves to be so open to someone like him as they're out of touch with a large proportion of the general public.

It's exactly how Hitler gained his power - exactly the same scenario of sweeping in due to a power vacuum and no one speaking up for a large proportion of the population. Hitler did the same - he identified the weaknesses of other politicians, actually understood the people, and offered them something different. I'm not saying Farage is like Hitler, but it's the same opportunism and popularity of someone who appears to be listening and understanding the disenfranchised people.

Both the Tories and Labour need to learn from Farage, get their houses in order, and start to actually listen to Joe Public rather than their narrow focus groups! Otherwise, we really could end up with the unthinkable situation of Farage (or similar) starting to have real influence and power. He was already mostly responsible for the Brexit fiasco, so it's up to Labour and Tories to stop him doing any more damage and that means dealing with the genuine worries of Joe Public.

I really do think it’s a good idea. Obviously it does mean having various compromises as your living with another adult but I think financially it works but also for helping each other out. Another pair of hands to look after the children. Share cooking duties. Company in the evenings. A babysitter. Someone to share the stress of running a house ie “how the Jeff do we fix this?”, “dunno but let’s you tube it”. It could mean you could have a house with a garden rather than a flat, and maybe then afford a better area or near a better school or be walking distance for stuff.

I agree. Both parties have been rubbish.

at the start Labour made some good changes but they went bananas with PFI and by the time the end came, “there’s no money left”. It was a joke, but it’s not funny.

You can see the curve rise sharply at the end of their tenure between 2008-2010. Gordon Brown nationalised the broken banks and we paid for it.

Sincr then there’s been all sorts of financial tinkering mostly coming out the US and the Fed. Whatever they do, we must follow.

Trump spent over $6 trillion during covid proping up the economy and the stock market.

We did the same thanks to Boris Johnson.

Weve got masses of debt to pay back.

No party has covered themselves with glory.

Overall we’ve been run by very bad leaders.

im not sure Starmer will change much.

We need a wealth tax of some sort but millionaires are leaving the U.K. faster than anywhere else in the world but China.

Id prefer a more European socialist style of government with higher taxes.

The problem is they don’t seem to be able to run a bath any of them, let alone a country.

Shipping in a ton of migrants illegally to solve the pension/population problem. But then allowing the sell off of prime agricultural land to property developers up and down tthe country to try and solve the housing problem. (Not saying migrants could buy houses but the bottom end is ever so squeezed, we’ve all got to squash in somewhere).

We used to grow 75% of our food. Now it’s 50%. With the new inheritance tax on farms, it will go lower.

Spain/Valencia gave us a glimpse of the future. Many of the greenhouses and fruit trees have been devastated there. Less and less food…and more and more people to feed.

All governments are too short-sighted but no one ever wants to make hard decisions. You don’t get voted in for that do you?

Id like to see the back of all of them. People who go into politics/yearn for power seem to be the least able to do a good job.

Some of the public are stupid, thats the only reason people like Farage get coverage, Reform only just went into double figures in this GE.

Much of the problems we currently have are todo with leaving the EU, not least x channel migration, as said by an ex Borderforce chief this morning "the EU no longer sees channel migration into the UK as anything they should be concerned about..."

Public spending did not go up to meet demand or costs, which outstrip CPI, thats the whole point of Austerity, if it had, we wouldn't have crumbling schools, hospitals and roads, we had little of this in the 70s 80s and 90s...

I can't comment on the turmoil inside HMRC, we certainly did a lot of IT work for them but did observe an awful lot of office closures.

PFI ? well, the hospitals PFI repayments cost per year is around £2 billion a year, not a great deal in terms of Govt spending and what would we do without the hospitals it built?

I don't think that is the reason debt to GDP is 100% now.

You'll have to provide evidence of the colossal waste in the NHS, independent research says the NHS is one of the more efficient Health systems in the world.

I think there are so many problems on the horizon including climate change and AI. But I don't think any of our politicians (here or internationally) are ready for them. Not because they don't care but because they don't fully understand the consequences.

Cost of living can only fall if inflation falls and stays down.
That is not going to happen anytime soon ,if this Government keeps giving double digit pay rises to unions at the first meeting.

Also changing to rules to borrow more than ever before, means increasing debt and who do you think pays for that?

Maybe move to PR? Better salary, can be interesting. Lots of ex media there.

I’m not sure it ever will tbh. People in power don’t really care about people just scraping by. The rich will just keep getting richer.

it never goes down. it only goes up.
if their costs increase, they increase their prices.
if their costs go down, they sit back and enjoy the extra profits.

Not going to go down. At best it may lessen in the speed it rises but? On that not, if it’s possible to cut your cloth so to speak then do so.
Most ppl notice it shopping for food so there is one chance? Change brands, cook wisely and cut out waste.

utilities, again shop around every time any are due.
Up your working hours if possible?

Try not to use the credit card, as it catches up if just minimum payment.
Batch cook if you have a freezer and the no how to make it work.
Prob loads more that have already been covered but every little CAN help.

Clothing inflation seems to have stopped/ mainstream retailers realised people can't afford to spend £££ I have been pleasantly surprised by quite reasonable cost of clothes in M and S lately. Eg cardi £25, tops £12.50. Bought a decent bra for £14.

That's the best you're gonna get I'm afraid!