Why is nobody talking about the impending disaster?

[bensherman]

Is it just me or does there seem to be a complete miss from Truss and Sunak about what is concerning at least 75% of our population?

People everywhere considering heat or eat dilemmas or in some cases, possibly neither...concerns they will not be able to pay the mortgage...and all this in the sixth richest country in the world.

And while this is looming, the two candidates for leading our country are touting nonsense. Does Truss realise that millions don't earn enough to pay tax, so will have no benefit from a tax cut? But that those who can probably afford to survive will see their taxes cut by their marginal rate? Does she, even now, grasp that supply-fuelled inflation is increased, not decreased, by tax cuts?

Does Sunak understand that attacks on "wokeness" and the less vocational degrees at universities are about as much use as a yo-yo to a dwarf?

It is surely bizarre that they compete for the support of Colonel Bufton Tufton of Chittingfold and Mrs Marjorie Outrage of Bromley by dangling the bright pieces of bead, while thousands may die this winter. And while their mentor strolls around on holiday (no doubt at someone else's expense) after enjoying his £95,000 jet fighter, play while at Central Office they try to come up with some way of getting him free of the charges of lying.

[MICK/GILLY]

Are you still allowed to say dwarf?, what sex is the dwarf ?, are they gay dwarfs or coloured dwarfs, can you still even say yo yo.

[Toodles McGinty]

Is it just me or does there seem to be a complete miss from Truss and Sunak about what is concerning at least 75% of our population?

It's Truss and Sunak. Only to be expected.

They haven't had a capable politician since before Johnson's purge.

As far as vocational degrees that don't improve people's earnings potential are concerned, has he forgotten the bloated 2:1 classics scholar currently ending his tenure as he began - by ignoring a crisis completely?

May's 2:1 in geography? Mogg's 2:1 in history? Nadine Dorries'..er...

Hmm, maybe he has a point.

The Tories have always been at war with the Arts and Humanities. They only care about uncultured and apolitical people that act as a production chain.

[jamyramy]

Are you still allowed to say dwarf?, what sex is the dwarf ?, are they gay dwarfs or coloured dwarfs, can you still even say yo yo.

dwarfs .well head s up all round!

[Toodles McGinty]

It's going to be out of control without direct intervention now. Which is why Parliament should be off their jollies and back in the House.

It isn't just homes that can't be heated. Care homes will close. What will happen to their residents? Social care, already under massive pressure, will be in almost irreparable crisis. Hospitals may not be able to pay their energy bills. Schools. Councils.

What happens when the council can't pay the gas bill at the Crem?

Ordinary households will not be able to carry the burden of over 4k on average p.a. on energy, leading them into massive debt. The consequence of that is a threat to the rest of the economy. Recession is almost guaranteed. Hospitality, leisure and retail, to name just a few, will then come under severe pressure. Businesses will fail, and it won't be their fault. People will not have any cash to spend. So unemployment will rocket.

Then the banks get hit. Mortgages and rents go unpaid. Without mortgages paid and landlords servicing their debt, banks fail. They'll make a hell of a lot of money at first, along with the obscene profits made by energy companies now. But then, with millions in debt and not paying anything at all, banks fail. Energy fails.

Because our government now, and the next in September, give tax cuts to the rich in the pathetic hope it will 'trickle down'. It never, ever 'trickles down'. And if by some miracle it did, it will be too late. Benefit increases are off the table, apart from a £1600 payment to 'some' households. 20% of the UK have household incomes of less than £15k a year. £1600 knocked off a bill of £4-5k doesn't make a lot of difference.

Tax the rich. Tax corporations even more. Give the money to the poor to actually spend. That money trickles up. Fast.

If not, the legacy of deaths, homelessness, increased crime, broken services, passed on by the past 12 years of Tory government will snowball into devastation. And it is literally months away.

Our economy is heading for a meltdown. Possibly worse than anything we've seen before. They'd better shore up the walls of the Palace of Westminster. As the saying goes: Winter is coming.

[said]

Don't upset Truss and Sunak. They are singing off the same music sheet as every other politician has been doing for the past thirty years.

[MICK/GILLY]

So you are basically saying they are making it up as they go along .

[Stuartli]

We are not alone.

Inflation in the UK is 8.2 per cent, compared to an OECD average of 10.3 per cent and just below the rate in Spain, Sweden, America and the Netherlands

That's currently a little above the rate in Italy and Germany. Inflation is not welcome, but one shared by most advanced countries.

Some countries that are more reliable on Russian energy supplies could well be worse off than the UK this coming winter.

[The PNP]

Ordinary households will not be able to carry the burden of over 4k on average p.a. on energy, leading them into massive debt. The consequence of that is a threat to the rest of the economy. Recession is almost guaranteed. Hospitality, leisure and retail, to name just a few, will then come under severe pressure. Businesses will fail, and it won't be their fault. People will not have any cash to spend. So unemployment will rocket.

I don't know if you were around back in the '50's, but we all seemed to get by o.k., long before todays energy-hungry lifestyles became the norm.

Almost nobody had the modern luxury of central heating, relying on one simple coal or gasfire. Even then, some would spend the evening sat by the fire in the snug at their local, to save on fuel. Beds were heated with a hot water bottle. Few families had the expense of running car/s, either walking, riding or bussing it to work, shops and school, etc.

[Toodles McGinty]

We are not alone.

Inflation in the UK is 8.2 per cent, compared to an OECD average of 10.3 per cent and just below the rate in Spain, Sweden, America and the Netherlands

That's currently a little above the rate in Italy and Germany. Inflation is not welcome, but one shared by most advanced countries.

Some countries that are more reliable on Russian energy supplies could well be worse off than the UK this coming winter.

Absolutely not alone. Inflation is as bad or worse in many countries.

But the European average for energy increases is 41%. The UK's is 214%. At the moment £263.79 per mega watt hour compared to 43.99 Euros in the EU. Unless massive intervention happens, and happens quickly, the scenario I described will happen. And soon.

We're already facing blackouts in January, according to the government. I think for many it'll be self-induced and sooner. Gas and electricity will get turned off. Or in homes where there are children or vulnerable people, the debt will mount and mount.

To be honest, while I have every sympathy for folk elsewhere, I'm most concerned about people here. About family, friends, the elderly already in crisis mode.

I know people who simply cannot afford to live. Literally. And the two candidates to oversee this disaster, and it will be a disaster, are wanging on about university courses and killing off the right to strike.

People are going to die because of this. Directly because of this. Through freezing to death, depression, starvation, being unable to keep meds at the right temperature. And worse of all they can intervene. If they wanted to, they could.

[Toodles McGinty]

I don't know if you were around back in the '50's, but we all seemed to get by o.k., long before todays energy-hungry lifestyles became the norm.

Almost nobody had the modern luxury of central heating, relying on one simple coal or gasfire. Even then, some would spend the evening sat by the fire in the snug at their local, to save on fuel. Beds were heated with a hot water bottle. Few families had the expense of running car/s, either walking, riding or bussing it to work, shops and school, etc.

I wasn't around in the 50s, but I do recall my Grandparents houses with open fires. I've still got hot water bottles. I remember windows with frost on the inside. I remember coal deliveries. I remember coats on beds to keep people warm.

Thing is, my parents and grandparents could afford coal. They could afford a gas fire. They could afford the kettle on for hot water bottles. They could afford food. When they got out of bed with bedrooms full of frost, they could go down to a fire to warm themselves. They had electricity.

Foodbanks are having to cater for families that can't afford to cook, much less heat their homes. There's little point giving a family a leg of lamb if they can't cook it. There's little point in having insulin etc if you can't afford the electricity for a fridge.

And there is the knock on effect of kids not being able to learn if they are cold and hungry. Not being able to do their homework. Generations of potential lost to poverty.

People will die. Simple as that.

[The PNP]

I wasn't around in the 50s, but I do recall my Grandparents houses with open fires. I've still got hot water bottles. I remember windows with frost on the inside. I remember coal deliveries. I remember coats on beds to keep people warm.

Seems to me, that recent generations have been brought up knowing no other way to live, than with whole-house central heating and cars to take them everywhere, etc. Open-plan modern living is fine too, till gas bills go through the roof. Back in the day, many people lived in one small room at the back of the house, where they could keep warm, as it was the only sensible thing to do.

I still live like that, at least to an extent, as it's what I'm used to and is all we need anyway. I.e. with a single (modern) stove, which is far more efficient and controllable than a traditional hearth. Thankfully, heat is rarely a problem in a bedroom, though electric blankets can be called on, should the need arise.

[donkey22]

Not content with nearly killing granny during Covid, now the tories are going to try and freeze her to death this winter.

[Lamparilla]

I'm not an economics expert, so perhaps someone can explain the situation we now have with regard to energy bills.

The government is going to give people an allowance of up to £1600, not as cash, but as payments towards their energy bills. This money will presumably be paid by the government to the energy companies who have recently announced multi-billion pound profits.

The goverment is then going to apply a 25% windfall tax to those same energy companies, so this will presumably pay for the allowances they are 'paying' to consumers, so the money is just going round in a circle. The energy companies will just have to 'get by' on 75% of their multi-billions of profits.

Wouldn't it be easier to introduce emergency legislation to force the energy companies to lower their prices, and when the energy companies say that this will make them insolvent, then they are taken into public ownership. Of course, no Tory government would ever do that, so the solution is in the hands of the voters.

I realise that this is an over-simplistic view, but isn't this whole situation of recirculating money just designed to prop up a failed system that depends too heavily on non-renewable energy?

[local]

I'm not an economics expert, so perhaps someone can explain the situation we now have with regard to energy bills.

The government is going to give people an allowance of up to £1600, not as cash, but as payments towards their energy bills. This money will presumably be paid by the government to the energy companies who have recently announced multi-billion pound profits.

The goverment is then going to apply a 25% windfall tax to those same energy companies, so this will presumably pay for the allowances they are 'paying' to consumers, so the money is just going round in a circle. The energy companies will just have to 'get by' on 75% of their multi-billions of profits.

Wouldn't it be easier to introduce emergency legislation to force the energy companies to lower their prices, and when the energy companies say that this will make them insolvent, then they are taken into public ownership. Of course, no Tory government would ever do that, so the solution is in the hands of the voters.

I realise that this is an over-simplistic view, but isn't this whole situation of recirculating money just designed to prop up a failed system that depends too heavily on non-renewable energy?

This is not realistic it is the world prices of energy that are the problem.

The only answer is under our feet for the short to medium term and in the future keep pushing on the development of renewables and in particular storage.


Even then this would need the regulators to have far greater powers than now, in effect back door "nationalisation light".


Until Putin invaded most people didn't give the consideration needed to our energy resources and in particular our faux green government.

If you think we have it bad Germany is concerned that Russia might turn its gas off which would affect homes and industry badly.