So much is going up in price today

[ProudAmberTurtle]

Council tax — Typically by between 4 and 9%

Water — Average rise of 5.4% (£33 a year)

TV licence — Up by £5.50 to £180 a year

Broadband and mobile phones — Providers often hike prices in April

Vehicle Excise Duty (car tax / VED) — The standard rate for post-2017 cars goes up today

Stamps (Royal Mail) — First-class to £1.80 and second-class to 91p

I know the Iran War is bad for the economy but ALL of these price rises were planned months ago - mostly in last year's Budget.

I don't dislike Rachel Reeves as much as some but wish she would do...

Something.

Reeves is as much use as a chocolate teapot. Anyone else and they would of been sacked by now.

Water rises are limited by law - the rises are driven by the profit making companies

ditto stamps and broadband and mobile

council taxes well if you want schools with SEN support someone has to pay for it. The hiding “creative accounting “ of SEN costs - by the tories - has left a huge problem

The biggest fuck ups were Brexit. Costing us over £100 Billion a year. But we know that won't be touched.
And the privatisation of water, utilities and the Royal Mail. Meaning, shareholders got paid huge amounts of money rather than investing in the infrastructure. And green energy's that would be reducing the impact of the bills.
I don't love Reeves but this hasn't been caused by this government but predominantly by the Tories.

Council tax is expensive enough 😭

I didn't realise it was all caused by Brexit and Thatcher.

Some are saying it's due to the huge public spending that was announced in last year's Budget? Is that not right?

If Brexit is to blame then how come the main EU economies are all performing badly at the moment as well?

The whole world is in turmoil. The Ukraine war hasn't helped and the Iran war hasn't either so far. Brexit was and continues to be a huge hit to the UK economy. Countries in the EU are also struggling but the latest OECD report predicts the UK to have the second highest inflation rate (after US) meaning they will struggle more than most EU countries. The UK is now 8% more expensive to to live in than the average OECD country and the increases have been very steep.

Some people are conveniently forgetting the mess that 14 years of a Tory government left behind, instead blaming the party that's been in power for a year or two.

That is due to the energy shock caused by the Iran war and the fact we are the least energy independent of all European countries rather than a direct consequence of Brexit.

Yes, the energy crisis is because of the current war but brexit has been more of a constant drain since it happened.

It's nothing on what's to come with the fertiliser shortages and cost increases yet to flow through. We are going to be seeing crazy increases in food prices.

Yep, my 2.5% payrise isn’t going to go far…..

At least you have a pay rise. Pay freeze over here …

To answer your question directly: we did really well out of the EU as the bridge between the US and Europe. But we were also part of the reason the EU succeeded. We were a major player. It’s been bad for everyone.

People refer to the UK as being a net contributor as though the sum of contributions given / grants received was the only benefit you can have. The seamless access the EU gave us to the bloc had a huge positive impact on our economy.

The EU isn’t perfect. It’s bureaucratic and pre-Brexit got overconfident, with its civil servants assuming the EU project trumped the will of the elected politicians. That was certainly part of the problem.

What blows my mind now is how we’re unwilling to look the two main shocks we’ve faced - Brexit and Covid - fully in the face. There are lessons to learn but people just pretend the elephants are not in the room.

If Thatcher hadn’t of sold everything off, we would be in a much better position as a country.
Brexit just put the final nail in the coffin.
The goverment needs to take back control & renationalise certain things like rail, post, transport etc. Reopen our steel works that didn’t need to shut down. But they will not.

You seem surprised @ProudAmberTurtle . Didn't you realise that these sort of things go up in April every year? It is nothing new.

My council tax has increased by 10%. I'm in Scotland so my water is included in that too, but it is so expensive now.

I have an English and a Spanish SIM card. My English one increases in price every year, my Spanish one has stayed the same price for years as has my Spanish broadband. My Spanish council tax didn’t go up this year either. Why do prices in England go up every year??

My water bill just went up 22%!!!

I think the effects of Iran aren’t even felt yet. I’m in business and have counted four emails from suppliers today basically saying “you know we wrote to you a few weeks ago saying prices were going up by 3%, well, scrub that it’s 8% due to unexpected increases mainly in freight”

I hear you OP but I fear the worst is yet to come. Trump and Netanyahu decided our lives weren’t miserable enough 😡

It’s not a race to the bottom!

Umm rail is being renationalised...