Cost of living- what’s going to happen?

[Edie]

So my Mum & step-Dads gas & electric direct debit has gone up from £85 a month to over £500 a month! British Gas. I’ll be following this up That’s like a fucking mortgage!

What the actual fuck is going on in the UK? Energy costs rising like that, petrol costs are now just fucking insane, food costs are soaring.

I’m in the lucky position to not only be okay but also help my Mum. But this has got to come to a head this autumn/winter hasn’t it? I mean huge swathes of the population- not just the unemployed, retired and those on UC but lots & lots more- are simply not going to be able to meet their basic living costs.

Anyone have any advice on how to tackle British Gas? My step Dad (ex forces) is vigilant about sending in meter readings. How can it of gone up that much

The people of the uk are absolutely fucked.

 

[Pickman's model]

I think you're really optimistic if you don't think this clusterfuck's going to last past the winter, if you think it'll come to a head then

 

[lazythursday]

So my Mum & step-Dads gas & electric direct debit has gone up from £85 a month to over £500 a month! British Gas. I’ll be following this up That’s like a fucking mortgage!

What the actual fuck is going on in the UK? Energy costs rising like that, petrol costs are now just fucking insane, food costs are soaring.

I’m in the lucky position to not only be okay but also help my Mum. But this has got to come to a head this autumn/winter hasn’t it? I mean huge swathes of the population- not just the unemployed, retired and those on UC but lots & lots more- are simply not going to be able to meet their basic living costs.

Anyone have any advice on how to tackle British Gas? My step Dad (ex forces) is vigilant about sending in meter readings. How can it of gone up that much

The people of the uk are absolutely fucked.

I think you should check this carefully. Perhaps they were on a fixed rate that has come to an end? If so make sure that the £500 isn't another fixed rate they're being offered - you are much better off on a variable rate right now. As the sudden leap that much doesn't make much sesne - most people have already seen a significant rise earlier in the year (mine doubled) with another one to come soon.

 

[Edie]

I think you're really optimistic if you don't think this clusterfuck's going to last past the winter, if you think it'll come to a head then

I have no expectations it’s gonna end this winter

 

[cesare]

Some of us remember the 3day week etc etc of the 70s. We'll have a modern day version in the next few months. Current politicians don't remember the warning signs.

 

[ska invita]

Arab Spring kicked off because of high increase in the price of bread

Use your loaf: why food prices were crucial in the Arab spring

Egyptians have tasted the bread of liberty – and want more, writes Rami Zurayk, professor of agricultural and food sciences at the American University of Beirut

www.theguardian.com

i expect shit to kick off

 

[Pickman's model]

I have no expectations it’s gonna end this winter

I took your it'll come to a head this autumn / winter to mean that you felt stuff would be done then so things would get better thereafter.

 

[MickiQ]

That's a cock up surely my gas and electric debits (also BG) went up from £162 to £210 and I was on standard rates and up until October last year there were 5 adults living in my house. Unless your Stepdad is tryng to signal Alpha Centauri that can't be right even if he has just come off a fixed rate deal. If you don't have the number it's 0333 100 0056, give them hell.

 

[Pickman's model]

Some of us remember the 3day week etc etc of the 70s. We'll have a modern day version in the next few months. Current politicians don't remember the warning signs.

Stock up on candles then

 

[A380]

I think this is the new normal. We have had cheapish energy since not long after the the oil crisis and that meant cheap food, cheap steel and cheapish transport (especially air transport).

I think those days are gone for good. It might, might be a good thing for the atmosphere in the mid term but its going to be a very very bad things for lots of people right now.

 

[Pickman's model]

That's a cock up surely my gas and electric debits (also BG) went up from £162 to £210 and I was on standard rates and up until October last year there were 5 adults living in my house. Unless your Stepdad is tryng to signal Alpha Centauri that can't be right even if he has just come off a fixed rate deal. If you don't have the number it's 0333 100 0056, give them hell.

Yeh this

 

[A380]

Arab Spring kicked off because of high increase in the price of bread

Use your loaf: why food prices were crucial in the Arab spring

Egyptians have tasted the bread of liberty – and want more, writes Rami Zurayk, professor of agricultural and food sciences at the American University of Beirut

www.theguardian.com

i expect shit to kick off

If you study the history of actual disorder (UK) and revolutions (most other places) they almost always kick off once things start getting better. Not as things are getting worse.

 

[Pickman's model]

If you study the history of actual disorder (UK) and revolutions (most other places) they almost always kick off once things start getting better. Not as things are getting worse.

Yeh that's very true

 

[Edie]

I took your it'll come to a head this autumn / winter to mean that you felt stuff would be done then so things would get better thereafter.

No I meant it’s at that point that huge numbers of people are gonna reach the point of simply not being able to live

 

[oryx]

So my Mum & step-Dads gas & electric direct debit has gone up from £85 a month to over £500 a month! British Gas.

Just as a comparison, ours is £209 a month for a three-bedroomed house (gas and electricity). It's gone up a lot recently - I think it was £100+ until a couple of months ago. Neither of us work so we have the heating on a lot in winter.

I would ask British Gas for an explanation of the enormous increase. Has their previous rate been massively underestimated? Has there been a mistake? Doesn't sound right to me at all.

On the broader issue, it's going to fuck a lot of people unimaginably. The government have been forced to make ad hoc payments to people (e.g. the council tax payment, the £400 this winter) and they will probably have to do more. Even then people will still suffer.

We need a windfall tax on the privatised utilities as a start, and in the longer term to renationalise them. The profit they are making in the face of people having to choose between eating and heating is obscene.

Good luck with getting some clarification from British Gas!

 

[pinkmonkey]

I’m absolutely shitting it on behalf of my elderly parents because come October, the bills will be more than their pensions. I’m gonna try buy all my winter solid fuel next invoice payment, get it delivered to their garage, (I’m off grid and don’t face the same rises), because I think we (my brothers and I) will need to bail them out, constantly.

We wrote a budget for them after the previous rise, now got to write another. I don’t know how much more we can tighten our belts - we can’t really. We’re thrifty, we batch cook, shop second hand, dry the washing outside, don’t eat out, go to pubs, get haircuts, any of that, but it’s never enough is it?

I can’t put into words how angry I am with the Tories, I’m raging.

My parents have a chimney and fireplace, it looks more decorative to me though, will ask dad, he built the house, because honestly, I think a lot of fires will get lit in this area this winter. Wonder if we’ll get smog?

Yes I think shit will kick off. It needs to kick off.

 

[Pickman's model]

No I meant it’s at that point that huge numbers of people are gonna reach the point of simply not being able to live

It's going to be bloody. I think MickiQ has it right that it's got to be a bg error. But a sum like that in the autumn might be on the cards. The fault for all this is with our government who could simply legislate to restrict the price rises and tell the companies they've done bloody well for a long time and to take a hit this time round, much like they've done in France. This winter Truss will have the deaths of thousands on her.

 

[cupid_stunt]

The DD going up from £85 to £500 is odd, have they just come off a fixed deal? The price cap (average for a UK household) went from about £1300pa to just under £2k* in April, just over 50% increase, not the almost 600% in this case.

You need to go over the bills from the last year or so, and check the actual meter readings against them, and ask BG to explain how they arrived at this figure.

If they are anything like OVO, expect it to take months to resolve, OVO has over-charged me for 2 years of electric, which I've been trying to resolve since Jan., I went to the ombudsman in the end, they ruled against OVO, who are now rebilling the last year & a half, paying 3% interest on balances and £150 as a 'goodwill' gesture.

* This is expected to go up to around £3.5k in Oct.

 

[ska invita]

If you study the history of actual disorder (UK) and revolutions (most other places) they almost always kick off once things start getting better. Not as things are getting worse.

not in the arab spring....was the yellow vest movement a result of things getting better? Poll tax riots? 2011 riots? Student fees actions of 2010? Brixton uprising 1981?

im not sure what revolutionary moments you are thinking of, but there are no doubt lots of historical moments of public rage in response to immediate suffering.

 

[cesare]

Stock up on candles then

I'm never without candles!

 

[bimble]

Why can’t this stupid country do what they did in France? Why did they manage it (4% max increase on everyone’s energy bills think it was) . It’s just insane these reports that everyone should expect to pay 3 times more than they did last year, people are going to freeze and starve and we have this ridiculous election show instead of any even attempt to deal with what is coming.

 

[Pickman's model]

not in the arab spring....was the yellow vest movement a result of things getting better? Poll tax riots? 2011 riots? Student fees actions of 2010? Brixton uprising 1981?

im not sure what revolutionary moments you are thinking of, but there are no doubt lots of historical moments of public rage in response to immediate suffering.

I think what was left out was things getting better but the benefits of this not being passed on. For example the Russian economy was booming in 1917. But the benefits of this not being passed down to the wealth creators.

 

[A380]

not in the arab spring....was the yellow vest movement a result of things getting better? Poll tax riots? 2011 riots? Student fees actions of 2010? Brixton uprising 1981?

im not sure what revolutionary moments you are thinking of, but there are no doubt lots of historical moments of public rage in response to immediate suffering.

Yep all of those, there are exceptions, as ever, but none of your examples are. Map them against actual food and fuel prices and cultural changes. Read actual history and the long bits of Marx about making clothes.

 

[pinkmonkey]

We’re in a mining town, during the mining strike, because there was so little money going into the local economy it almost totally collapsed, my dad was never a miner, but most of his invoices went unpaid, many folks were made redundant, businesses closed, the local supermarket stopped stacking the shelves and just plonked a few paletts of flour, sugar, cans of beans and white bread in the entrance. If the fucking Tories don’t sort this out I predict a similar situation.

 

[bimble]

not in the arab spring....was the yellow vest movement a result of things getting better? Poll tax riots? 2011 riots? Student fees actions of 2010? Brixton uprising 1981?

im not sure what revolutionary moments you are thinking of, but there are no doubt lots of historical moments of public rage in response to immediate suffering.

Yep. Just recently Sri Lanka & Lebanon, it ‘ kicks off’ when you can’t feed your children anymore because wild inflation etc. no doubt another thing afterwards, more organised or whatever, when people can eat and turn the lights on.

 

[planetgeli]

If you study the history of actual disorder (UK) and revolutions (most other places) they almost always kick off once things start getting better. Not as things are getting worse.

No reason it has to be that way though. Or that riots only happen in summer.

 

[A380]

Why can’t this stupid country do what they did in France? Why did they manage it (4% max increase on everyone’s energy bills think it was) . It’s just insane these reports that everyone should expect to pay 3 times more than they did last year, people are going to freeze and starve and we have this ridiculous election show instead of any even attempt to deal with what is coming.

The French are better at centralised action than us. Also they've got loads of nukes providing baseload. A situation they are in because they are better at centralised action than us...

 

[ska invita]

Yep all of those, there are exceptions, as ever, but none of your examples are. Map them against actual food and fuel prices and cultural changes. Read actual history and the long bits of Marx about making clothes.

Actual history lol

 

[A380]

Actual history lol

Yep. As opposed to the Ladybird Big book of revolutionary stories...

I mean no disrespect (actually a thats a fib, I do). I'm obviously a wanky reformist, but there are many revolutionary posters on here (socialist, communist, anarchist or perm "-" of those) on here who are interesting to debate with, argue against, and often to learn from, however most of them actually know their history, economics and , yes, theory. You ain't one...

 

[JimW]

Yep all of those, there are exceptions, as ever, but none of your examples are. Map them against actual food and fuel prices and cultural changes. Read actual history and the long bits of Marx about making clothes.

It's the insecurity as much, that was behind the social movement of 89 in China; people might have had generally higher material standards than during preceding post-49 decades but inflation and the first bites of reform to social security guarantees made for widespread discontent.