I think a lot of people might worry about losing some quality of life, but a much smaller number of people in the UK are in a position where they will actually struggle to eat.
That might sound callous, but it’s important to understand the difference in mindset between the working class and middle class on these issues.
A cost of living crisis will drive lots of people to blame individuals for their problems, rather than the assumption it might unify us all.
It will also kill enthusiasm to spend what is necessary to combat climate change – a strong anti-green agenda is forming and being offered up as an easy solution to energy inflation.
Historically, societies have been shown to lurch rightwards politically when times get tough.
I’m pissed off about milk going from 90p for two pints to 99p. I swear, last week, no, the week before, it was 90p. Food is going up and at the rate we’re going, people will not even be able to afford to eat at all.
Yeah. I spend each week cringing at the price rises on my one bag of essential shopping – then go to work where we sell a burger for £16. Watch my weekly shop spent on one meal. Feel stuck in a paradox.
Wow, typical no shock news story from the Guardian. Unless you are wealthy, everybody is going to be concerned about rising food prices, fuel prices, etc etc
And they call themselves a newspaper, laughable.
Personally bills going up are a much bigger concern as the gas+electric increase is practically more than my food budget anyway.
There is certainly an air of “How much worse can it get?” around. Those who are struggling have been feeling this for years but many who were getting by are now aware of what that is like too. Along with energy prices, it will be the key issue at the next election and it could easily be the deciding policy for many people if it gets much worse.
I was at the Coop yesterday and realized that the prices had gone up so much that a lot of people living in the social housing estate opposite would no longer be able to shop there (and it’s not like it was amazingly cheap before).
We’ve already cut our food shop down by getting budget label and reduced items, shopping in Lidl and farmfoods and freezing as much as we can.
That got the monthly food shop down by £40. £40 isn’t an insignificant amount until you factor in that’s eaten by the £60 a month our energy bills have gone up by, and will go up again by another £30 when we switch to a fixed tariff at the end of this month to defend against the next price cap rise.
And it’s not like we’re poor either, I dread to think how this feels for the people in worse positions.
Is it a coincidence that 75% of Britons are overweight?
10 comments
I think a lot of people might worry about losing some quality of life, but a much smaller number of people in the UK are in a position where they will actually struggle to eat.
That might sound callous, but it’s important to understand the difference in mindset between the working class and middle class on these issues.
A cost of living crisis will drive lots of people to blame individuals for their problems, rather than the assumption it might unify us all.
It will also kill enthusiasm to spend what is necessary to combat climate change – a strong anti-green agenda is forming and being offered up as an easy solution to energy inflation.
Historically, societies have been shown to lurch rightwards politically when times get tough.
I’m pissed off about milk going from 90p for two pints to 99p. I swear, last week, no, the week before, it was 90p. Food is going up and at the rate we’re going, people will not even be able to afford to eat at all.
Yeah. I spend each week cringing at the price rises on my one bag of essential shopping – then go to work where we sell a burger for £16. Watch my weekly shop spent on one meal. Feel stuck in a paradox.
Wow, typical no shock news story from the Guardian. Unless you are wealthy, everybody is going to be concerned about rising food prices, fuel prices, etc etc
And they call themselves a newspaper, laughable.
Personally bills going up are a much bigger concern as the gas+electric increase is practically more than my food budget anyway.
There is certainly an air of “How much worse can it get?” around. Those who are struggling have been feeling this for years but many who were getting by are now aware of what that is like too. Along with energy prices, it will be the key issue at the next election and it could easily be the deciding policy for many people if it gets much worse.
I was at the Coop yesterday and realized that the prices had gone up so much that a lot of people living in the social housing estate opposite would no longer be able to shop there (and it’s not like it was amazingly cheap before).
We’ve already cut our food shop down by getting budget label and reduced items, shopping in Lidl and farmfoods and freezing as much as we can.
That got the monthly food shop down by £40. £40 isn’t an insignificant amount until you factor in that’s eaten by the £60 a month our energy bills have gone up by, and will go up again by another £30 when we switch to a fixed tariff at the end of this month to defend against the next price cap rise.
And it’s not like we’re poor either, I dread to think how this feels for the people in worse positions.
Is it a coincidence that 75% of Britons are overweight?