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UK food price inflation hit 16.2% in October – cost of food basics surging
- truth777 4y ago
- the_mitsuhiko 4y agoI’m quite curious how this will end in the UK. Regardless of how much Brexit has to do with this, I think the lack of actual Brexit opportunities and the contribution it has to core inflation is at one point going to change the political landscape.
- mnd999 4y agoSome stuff in the media today about a Swiss style deal with the EU.
- detaro 4y agoafter all this the UK is seriously proposing free movement of people (among a pile of other things) again?!
- de_keyboard 4y agoHard brexit was not grounded in reality so ultimately this has to happen. The Conservatives should've stuck with May's compromise - now Labour are likely to take power.
- squidbeak 4y agoA Labour Party that in most respects doesn't sound any different to their opponents.
- ClumsyPilot 4y agoIndeed, this labour party does not support strikes, supports clamping down on protest, etc. and when Labour parry was appreciably different, it was piloried in the press.
- gghhzzgghhzz 4y agoTories did end up supporting May's compromise, even some members of the ERG. It was blocked by Labour and other parties. It would have been the most practical way forward at the time. It would have been softer and better planned and with a better working relationship with the EU. It would also have meant that Labour would have been in partial control of parliament for another 3 years as May's majority relied on people who hated her and was never going to last for every vote. Then we would have had another election this year not in 2019. I honestly don't know what people were thinking at the time. It was obvious that not compromising would end in chaos.
- phatfish 4y agoWe swapped ~300 million EU citizen with similar (often greater) workplace rights and living standards for a soon-to-be trade deal with India that will only happen with the mass migration of far poorer Indians to the UK. Indians which are used to much fewer workplace rights. The working visas that are created for this will remove the rights UK citizens have to make the visa holders "more attractive" to employers. Good luck to native workers in the UK competing with an Indian on a work visa that has no working time regulations, holiday allowance, etc. and very little leverage to complain in case their visa gets revoked.
- kaashif 4y ago> Good luck to native workers in the UK competing with an Indian on a work visa that has no working time regulations, holiday allowance, etc. There's an important point to highlight here: low paid workers from India working long hours with no holiday will not actually be able to compete with either highly skilled Indian workers who can already get visas, or highly skilled native workers or workers from other developed countries, even if they demand holiday, high pay, etc. Indeed, this migration report [1] suggests that immigration decreases wages for low paid workers, but increases wages for medium and high paid workers. Immigration doesn't just boost labour supply, it boosts demand too, but not always in the same jobs, so the effects on wages can be uneven. If it were that simple to replace highly paid workers, we'd have all already been offshored, but that never seems to materialise. 1: https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/the-labour-market-effects-of-immigration/ https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/th...
- bbojan 4y agoSwiss type deal isn't working for the Swiss anymore. EU was putting pressure on the Swiss to accept a comprehensive deal to replace the dozens of agreements that they have. When the Swiss refused, the EU simple lets one by one pass without renewing them. This has e.g. happened with the Horizon Europe research program which Switzerland is no longer part of.
- chrisseaton 4y ago> This has e.g. happened with the Horizon Europe research program which Switzerland is no longer part of. That’s so self-destructive - surely the EU needs Switzerland’s powerful universities more than Switzerland needs Horizon?
- throw827474737 4y agoThe other way round..
- chrisseaton 4y agoDon’t you think the Swiss out more into Horizon than they got out?
- bigbillheck 4y agoMy understanding was that the EU has many universities.
- chrisseaton 4y agoThey’re not anywhere near where the Swiss universities are if you look at the rankings.
- the_mitsuhiko 4y agoThat is true, but I believe this to be irrelevant for what is happening. Switzerland is not funding the shortfall which means that for researchers the game has changed as a result that topic is hot in Switzerland still, in the EU not.
- mFixman 4y agoThis is 100% the government testing the waters to see how such news would be received by the public.
- blibble 4y agothe government have stated they don't recognise any of the discussions reported on https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/nov/20/hardline-brexiters-voice-fears-over-reports-of-swiss-style-eu-deal https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/nov/20/hardline-br... wishful thinking by journalists...
- mnd999 4y agoAs someone else mentioned, this was the government floating the idea to see how it went down. This has been their MO for some time.
- blibble 4y agono doubt that government leaks to test policy but this one's such a huge vote loser even the opposition refuse to discuss it it's some journo that's got wind of part of some second hand discussion and has turned it into a scoop
- rjsw 4y agoBrexit has removed one way to keep wages down - import more people. I don't think that the central bank solution of putting up interest rates to reduce the number of jobs is going to help, people still need to eat.
- CommanderData 4y agoBrexit has caused immigration from non-EU countries to increase. According to the government's own statistics we've seen massive increases from countries like India despite the anti-immigration rhetoric displayed by the Tories. We've also got a partnership with India that helps fill in the gaps. Not to mention the record study visa's issued to India. "India first again. I’m delighted that Indian nationals were issued the largest number of UK study, work and visitor visas in the year ending June 2022. More strength to the unique living bridge that connects our people." Alex Ellis, British High Commissioner to India [2] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/bulletins/internationalmigrationenglandandwales/census2021#:~:text=Top%2010%20non%2DUK%20countries%20of%20birth%20in%202021%2C%20with%202011%20figures%20for%20comparison%2C%20England%20and%20Wales https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populati... [2] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/india-receives-largest-share-of-uk-study-work-and-visit-visas https://www.gov.uk/government/news/india-receives-largest-sh... https://fullfact.org/immigration/eu-migration-and-uk/ https://fullfact.org/immigration/eu-migration-and-uk/
- enqk 4y agoIncrease in total numbers or in proportion? Edit: the link above shows that in raw numbers, non-EU migration increased while EU decreased. Appears to not be a complete 1:1 replacement, though. I asked because if you only give the proportion, it can still increase if just the EU migration numbers go down. Also relevant to reading the graph, the campaign/referendum on brexit started in 2015.
- COGlory 4y agoOk, but net migration is still way down: >An estimated 202,000 citizens from other EU countries immigrated to the UK in the year to September 2018, and about 145,000 emigrated abroad. So EU ‘net migration’ was around 57,000—roughly the lowest level recorded since 2009. >In the year before the referendum, net EU migration was estimated at 189,000, so there’s been a large fall following the vote. Obviously other countries are going to make up a higher percentage of those immigrating, but the total amount of immigrants is down according to that article.
- rwmj 4y agoWe're all curious about it. It probably has to start with the main opposition actually acknowledging that Brexit is harmful. At the moment they've all been ordered to shut up about it.
- vnchr 4y agoThis seems to coincide with inflation of food prices in the US where there was no Brexit.
- squidbeak 4y agoHow full are supermarket shelves in the US? Whole product lines are missing in supermarkets in the UK.
- jen20 4y agoThere are effectively zero shortages of critical goods, and food price inflation in the parts of the US I live and spend significant time in (TX, CA, NY) is certainly not at the levels seen in the UK (where I am from), though there is some which is undoubtedly painful for those on fixed or low incomes even at the levels seen here. The idea that this is a "global problem" is convenient for the UK government and Brexit supporters, but not based in reality.
- pessimizer 4y ago> but not based in reality. I don't know about reality, but what you've done is delivered anecdotes when we know that prices in the US have gone up about 10% and prices in the UK have gone up 15%. There's no need for anecdotes, especially for another round of calling Brexiteers deluded.
- blibble 4y ago> Whole product lines are missing in supermarkets in the UK. where does this rumour keep coming from? bar during covid I haven't observed this in any supermarket (unless you go at 9pm on a Saturday night or something, where they haven't restocked yet)
- mytailorisrich 4y agoTo compete after Brexit the UK needed to break with the status quo and that most likely meant, as many Brexiteers suggested, going for low tax low regs. Indeed, if the level of taxes and regulations in the UK is the same as in the EU then why setup a business in the UK rather than in the EU? We see that the current government is unwilling to go down that path, although Covid did throw a major spanner in the works of public finance, so the country is almost guaranteed a slow (or not so slow) decline. This is not about whether I think Brexit is good or bad, but it did happen and that changes what the country can and should do in order to prosper under those new conditions.
- rwmj 4y agoAny attempt to do that would be political suicide, as indeed Liz Truss recently demonstrated.
- mytailorisrich 4y agoLiz Truss made big mistakes in implementation: they did not discuss their plans with key stakeholders and they they did not prioritise measures (why abolish the 45p rate now?) but they did get that growth must be much higher priority, if not highest priority. Again, the level of debts is really weighing on things: without Covid debts Liz Truss's budget would have been well received. And of course even many in her own party were out to kill her, which did not help.
- gghhzzgghhzz 4y agoDebt being an issue is mostly a self imposed limitation / political tactic. Parties were saying exactly the same thing about debt in 2010 when debt / GDP ratio was lower in order to win an election and implement austerity. Covid Debt in the UK was all QE anyway, so is effectively money we owe to ourselves. I do agree that Truss could have done all the things she wanted to do if she had just been smarter about presentation.
- mytailorisrich 4y ago
- bambataa 4y agoI’m very skeptical that Brexit’s negative consequences will ever be so unambiguous that people admit them. There will always be some non-Brexit excuse. Equally, remainers are too keen to blame everything on Brexit. Reading the UK personal finance subreddit is really sobering. Most people’s idea of a high salary (even in good industries) is less than a mediocre junior dev salary in the US. I feel extremely fortunate to have moved into tech when I did, but even there only American companies offer top tier wages. Are there any British companies competing with FAANGs on salary? On the plus side, maybe inflation is good for indebtedness?
- HDThoreaun 4y agoThere are effectively no non-American corporations competing with FAANGs on salary. Not at any real scale.
- _benedict 4y agoFAANG in London are competing with finance, and there are plenty of non-American firms in finance paying high salaries.
- ProZsolt 4y agoFAANG in London pay way less than finance
- _benedict 4y agoThat would only seem to confirm my point. There are plenty of non-US firms competing with FAANG comp in London.
- HDThoreaun 4y agoSure, I was thinking about software engineer salaries, but finance definitely has positions that pay FAANG wages. Those companies aren't really competing with FAANG though since they're looking for different people.
- recuter 4y agoProposed Scottish independence is 12 months away. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposed_second_Scottish_independence_referendum#2023_proposed_referendum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposed_second_Scottish_indep... > In July 2022, the Scottish Greens announced that, if a referendum were blocked, they would fight the next general election as a referendum instead General elections are 25 months away. Labour is up 30 points in the polls or something like that. Brexit probably didn't help the UK economy but the economical ramifications of the Ukraine war haven't even begun to unfurl yet. Hard to take polls two years out seriously no matter how huge the margin is and yet if these things don't somehow resolve that will be a general election for the history books. The UK will simply never be the same again. I don't have a horse in this race but it is pretty clear that Labour surfing such a populistic wave, given their current rhetoric, will turn the place into an actual banana republic. (People no doubt will get bent out of shape about this because of political ideologies but the observation is simply about populism) Much as it pains me to say it, the French will become the new UK. And England will become like Italy.
- blibble 4y ago> Proposed Scottish independence is 12 months away. the SNP have been saying this since the first vote in 2014
- recuter 4y agoA broken clock is right twice a day and all that. But the key point is 'if a referendum were blocked, they would fight the next general election as a referendum instead'. If an actual referendum was allowed and held today it would perhaps be a toss up. But two harsh winters from now if the economy is still spiraling it will be a foregone conclusion. Point being why would anyone invest in Scotland or the rest of the UK during such tumultuous times? And this political instability is set to continue for years and years now.
- blibble 4y ago> A broken clock is right twice a day and all that. But the key point is 'if a referendum were blocked, they would fight the next general election as a referendum instead'. to what end? with no agreement from the UK government nothing will happen > Point being why would anyone invest in Scotland or the rest of the UK during such tumultuous times? there's no doubt it hurts investment in Scotland however its economic impact on leaving the UK would be more or less a non-event for the rest of the UK (Scotland's share of UK GDP being less than the UK's share of EU GDP)
- jeffbee 4y agoGeez the influence of Joe Biden is wider than I imagined.
- nemo44x 4y agoThe UK Pound collapsed for awhile there and only just now stabilized. But it is still far weaker than it has been for the last 20 years. So of course things cost more Sterling to purchase. Mix in global inflationary pressure and you have the situation as it is today.
- HPsquared 4y agoIt's a long-term trend. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=WBkx https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=WBkx
- racktash 4y agoI genuinely fear for the UK. It's going to be a very different country in ten years, and I fear it will be a weaker, poorer and more divided one. I don't know for sure what the main cause of our current problems is, but I know that it's not a single issue. Brexit, Covid-19 and the war with Russia – not one of these issues alone is the cause of our problems. My hope for the country rests in the fact that it still has wonderful, tough, resourceful people in it, and that it has survived worse catastrophes than this in the past, and come out okay.
- IMTDb 4y ago> I know that it's not a single issue. Brexit, Covid-19 and the war with Russia – not one of these issues alone is the cause of our problems. Only one of these issue is UK specific tho; so either your fears extend to the rest of Europe and/or the western world, or you can pinpoint the cause of your anxiety.
- hn_throwaway_99 4y agoExactly. All of Europe, and the world really, has had to deal with the pain (both economic and in lives) of Covid and the war in Ukraine. But the severity of UK's problems are solely of their own making and are pretty much entirely due to Brexit, and the fallout from Brexit that caused by a string of ill-prepared "leaders". That said, one reason I'm hopeful about the UK is that, compared to US politics, there is much less "tribalism", much more fluidity among how people will vote, and more willingness in your parties to vote for pragmatic policies when strict ideology fails. In the US most voters couldn't conceive of voting for the opposite party, such that most elections in the US come down to turnout and a small sliver of maybe 10ish percent of "swing voters". In the UK, by comparison, after the sheer idiocy of Liz Truss, she was quickly canned, a much more realistic/pragmatic PM was installed (even if one disagrees with his overall political stance), and policies quickly changed. Also, at least in polling, there were huge swings in sentiment against Conservatives and towards Labour because Conservatives were (correctly in my opinion) being blamed for their massive fuckup. I can't see the equivalent happening in the US.
- 4y ago
- bsnnkv 4y agoI left the UK for the US in 2019. My I-485 was approved this week. I haven't been able to travel back to the UK since 2019 first because of Covid and then because of the pending I-485 petition. I'll be going back for the first time once my card is delivered. Reading about what has been happening over the past years in the UK while sitting in the US is really strange. Sometimes it feels like reading about a cartoonish banana republic in a novel aimed at young teenagers.
- Aachen 4y agoNot sure everyone here speaks UK form numbers. An I-what?
- themihai 4y agoMedia always exaggerates. UK will be fine even if it has lost its shine.
- dazc 4y agoThis likely applies to most countries - there are two versions of the UK, a media-controlled whiny, everything is terrible version and another version where most people go out in the morning and just get on with it. I have lived in countries that are so corrupt and incompetent where I wonder how anything ever works at all and yet I never read how terrible these places are in the media?
- jl6 4y agoThe UK government is pulling financial levers as if this is a financial problem. But while there are several contributing factors, this is overwhelmingly an energy problem. The UK is 20 years behind where it needs to be in terms of nuclear, renewable and storage capacity. There is no silver bullet. It’s going to take 20 years to resolve, and that’s assuming they start today with an Apollo-program-level investment in energy production.
- gsatic 4y agoI think the plan has always been - let London grow and let everything else wither away and die.
- mjburgess 4y agoSure, and people have been saying this for quite literally 1000 years. The country has been geographically "unbalanced" for most of its history, and if you understand preferential attachment, you'll see why. There's been nothing one can do to "rebalance the UK" for several hundred years at least. 20% of the population lives in london, and it often has ~1/3 of the people in the country in the area -- as tourists, travelling in, etc. No one in a millenium has done anything to "plan" this
- DrBazza 4y agoThis is a point that seems to be completely missed. This is cost push inflation, but the UK government is trying to use the usual tactics to control it - tax and interest rates. To be fair, it's what current economic theory prescribes for inflation, either cost push or demand pull. Tax and interest rates certain work for demand pull inflation. Cost push though? Everyone gets poorer, lower standard of living (whatever that mean...), but the government can be happy it has some part of inflation under control. Even if the UK had more energy generation, just the existence of an international energy market means public UK companies would buy and sell that energy on that market and I doubt we'd be much better off. The UK, and all of the West to be fair, is in the middle of "weak men, hard times" part of the cycle. It's no surprise that Putin invaded Ukraine when he did. One final thing I'd add is that it feels to me as if the Government has been influenced by the mainstream media, and even social media, far, far, too much over the last decade or so.
- Proven 4y ago[dead]
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- physicsguy 4y agoIt’s worth noting that for a long time, food prices in the UK have been significantly lower than in comparable countries in Europe. I go to France and Germany quite regularly, and to do a supermarket shop in either is significantly more expensive. My wife and I do online shops at Waitrose (which is probably the most expensive supermarket) and at a local butchers and don’t particularly try and save money on food. We spend about £100 a week on average including the delivery cost. Where I’ve noticed increases this year it’s been on milk, butter and some basic vegetables like potatoes. But at the same time - there’s been articles about how dairy farmers were under such competitive pressure in the UK that they’re closing and going out of business in the last couple of years, so to some extent, price rises in that area were inevitable.
- Scoundreller 4y agoFarming is another industry where almost everything can be securitized. A dairy farm may own or rent the acreage for growing its feed and related equipment or may buy it on the spot or futures market. May own, mortgage or rent its milking equipment. Every country’s subsidies work differently, and it’s a bit opaque since everyone claims they’re hardworking and don’t get/need subsidies, but sometimes they’re even securitized and bought/sold. So as each farmer makes its own bets/hedges, there are winners and losers when interest rates go up or down, feed goes up or down, land value goes up or down. So the story of the “farmers going bankrupt, we need more subsidies” will never end. In Canada, becoming a new dairy farmer requires you to buy $$$ “quota” from an existing farmer. Possibly they grow organically as demand grows too.
- tdeck 4y agoThis is very noticeable if you watch grocery budget challenge videos on YouTube. British people are finding cans of food for something like 20p. Even at a 2:1 ratio, there's almost nothing you could buy for 40 cents in a US supermarket. A can of beans is like 65 cents here on a good day.
- klelatti 4y agoIt might not seem like the biggest issue at the moment but the departure from fact based economics seems to me to underly lots of UK’s current issues. One example. They have to find Brexit benefits so we have pointless plans to depart from eu rules. Result is higher costs for businesses and uncertainty for anyone trying to plan. This allowed someone like Truss to get into power with a fantasy economic plan. You can want Brexit for lots of reasons but the denial of its real economic impact has poisoned the discourse about how to manage the U.K. economy.
- slt2021 4y agoThe whole Brexit was "Mess around & find out" thing. And looks like UK is in the "The more you mess around, the more you find out" stage, with every day they are finding out new things
- Silverback_VII 4y agoIt's the war in Ukraine and not Brexit in my opinion.
- jahnu 4y ago“Getting Brexit Done”, a terrible, debilitating disease. One of the worst symptoms has been “trade agreements at any cost” https://davidallengreen.com/2022/11/getting-any-quick-international-trade-deal-is-easy-if-you-give-in-to-the-other-side/ https://davidallengreen.com/2022/11/getting-any-quick-intern... “ All you have to do is turn up to the negotiation, ask what the other side’s negotiators want, give it to them, and – Hey Peston! – the United Kingdom has a trade agreement.”
- 77pt77 4y agoWhich is the opposite of what Brexit proponents claimed. They claimed the UK was so essential that it could dictate its own terms with both the EU and other trade partners.
- 4y ago
- Animats 4y agoIs that an annualized rate?
- HL33tibCe7 4y agoThe UK is declining, and people are starting to notice it. People are blaming the government, and clamouring for more support and money, but unfortunately I suspect it’s not that simple. The elephant in the room, in my opinion, is that we simply don’t have the money to maintain the standard of living we once enjoyed. Almost all political conversations here are contingent on this fact, but this underlying problem is rarely discussed. It’s not clear to me _why_ this has happened, I’m not an economist, but it’s clear to me that this is the case. We’ve seen what happens when the government tries to go on a spending spree. Even Labour agree that we need to go into a period of (effective) austerity at this point.
- mjburgess 4y ago2008 "should" have been a severe global depression for 2 years, hitting the UK very hard. It was an extremely drawn out, perhaps decade-long, recession masked by zero/negative interest rates. The UK's performance wrt the growing west became uncorrelated in 2008, and negatively correlated since Brexit came into effect 2020ish+. The UK was, in many ways, ground-zero for one of the most severe financial crises in modern history. It has never really addressed that, nor does it have an answer for a version of the UK which can exist "in the shadow of that event". The UK's "best future" from 2008 was an significant pivot to "boring tech", a pivot to the EU, and a rationalised financial system which could support both goals. Instead, it redoubled on relatively pathological elements of the financial industry and away from the EU.
- m00dy 4y agoWell, it is just because the middle class in China, mainly in Shanghai and nearby, has almost replaced the middle class in the west. It has been like this for the past +15 years or so. Money is a relative term. Every government can print and use money. I think the more important one is purchasing power for goods and services. In other words, someone needs to produce goods and services, and then you buy with your money and start to feel happy after all. I think there are two critical things to say on the production side. 1-) China is not producing goods as before the pandemic. Another one is China's zero-covid policy, like bringing down the entire city for just one covid case. 2-) Europe's energy problem. I'm not an expert on this, but Europe's reliance on Russia's cheap gas could be Europe's competitive advantage in the markets. So, when it is gone, I might expect purchasing power could drop significantly for Europeans.
- tupac_speedrap 4y agoJesus, I think reddit is leaking. Lots of whiners in this thread, if you guys spoke French or German you would know the UK isn't that bad.
- satysin 4y agoI’m not so sure of that. I am British but live in [redacted]. Pretty much all of my friends, family and old colleagues speak of problems in the UK while asking me if I am experiencing the same here. Obviously [redacted] isn’t perfect but I haven’t had anything like my parents and sister have had with electricity price increases as just one example. My worry is the UK will continue on a self-destructive path still. This was my worry when I originally planned leaving the UK back in 2016 (moving to [redacted] in 2018) however I did not predict it would be quite this bad.
- PestoDiRucola 4y agoWhat problems do France and Germany have that make the UK seem better by comparison?
- hankchinaski 4y agoCan confirm. My coffee pods went from £2.50 to £3.00 a 20% jump in a matter of month even with coffee wholesale price plummeting over the past year. Why is that?
- gizajob 4y agoPrice gouging
- alkonaut 4y agoWhat was the expected cost of Brexit in terms of wage stagnation and inflation relative to EU? Sure, now the cost is added on top of the global average, but the UK economy would be suffering regardless, now it’s just suffering more. But this was a deliberate choice. The Brexit was about “are you willing to pay X to get Brexit?”. Even low estimates of X were pretty bad.
- crisdux 4y agoThe fears of brexit causing inflation never panned out. How do you justifying your suggestion that brexit has had a meaningful impact on recent inflation? The UK inflation rate has maxed out at around 2.5% for the last decade until mid/end of 2021. It's growth is line with the rest of the developed world.
- alkonaut 4y agoAny Brexit impact on UK inflation would be due to weakened pound more than anything. But whatever economic impact Brexit will have is mostly yet to be seen, it’s still hidden by the pandemic and the war (especially supply driven inflation).
- basicoperation 4y agoCurrent top post on HN is a Raspberry Pi project: rpi is a British invention. Second is a paper from UCL, based in London. In the top few is a paper by DeepMind, also in London. Yet HN likes to go absolutely nuts about how the UK is “done” at every opportunity.
- kaashif 4y agoThe UK is far from done, but the considerable number of good universities and good companies aren't, for whatever reason, translating into rising living standards. The current crisis can be blamed on energy, but the post 2008 period of wage stagnation and low growth wasn't exactly great and wasn't due to energy.
- physicsguy 4y agoI'd say there's a fair chunk of NIMBYism and lack of investment outside of London causing some of that. Cambridge and Oxford basically have no lab space and are surrounded by greenbelt, and neither has enough housing, but rather than for e.g. dump a ton of investment in new labs into Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, etc. and try and build the equivalent of Max Planck Institutes in Germany, the government sticks more in Oxbridge and in central London. Why would you put a 'Turing Institute' to lead AI research somewhere where your Postdocs aren't going to be able to afford to live? Oh, because it's easy for politicians to nip there for a photo op.
- asdadsdad 4y agoI don't know if it's because HN is American-centric, but lol this is so on point.
- hiven 4y agoI think it’s too easy (and tempting) for other countries to sit and poke and hypothesise that a country is falling apart. That was a just a case of sensationalising and far from the truth. As someone presently living in the U.K. it is the same beautiful country full of incredible views, kind people and exciting opportunity that it has always been. Pick any other country, America, France, Brazil, Germany, Australia etc and allow me to also tell you how it is falling apart.
- kentrado 4y agoHow is Germany falling apart?
- hiven 4y agoMigrants, energy crisis, inflation, extremism, climate change, export-driven strategy etc. Google “Germany falling apart”, sort by last month, see the absolute dire commentary.
- PestoDiRucola 4y agoAll of these are true for the UK as well, with the added problem of Brexit and possible future Scottish independence.
- hiven 4y agoExactly. I’m not saying other countries have different problems, I’m saying generally they have the same problems. People like to downplay their own problems and relish in other peoples to feel good about themselves. You can search for any country and find incredibly downbeat views on their situation. <Insert Country Here> problems.
- bArray 4y agoI think one thing to remember is the following: > The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said it was hitting poorer households hardest, as they spent around half of their income on food and energy, compared to about a third for those on middle incomes. The branded foods that middle-income families eat would likely try to absorb as much of the inflation as possible. It's the "no-brand" food that will rise in cost the most, the food that the poorest families eat. For example, Tesco (a popular supermarket in the UK) used to have a brand named "Tesco value" which would sell very cheap items, even at a loss sometimes. See the following examples: https://youtube.com/watch?v=wZCcuiS0his https://youtube.com/watch?v=wZCcuiS0his This brand has since been wiped out almost entirely, replaced with "Stockwell", a much more expensive alternative. There is no longer any 'cheap' alternative. You used to be able to buy a tin of beans for 9p about 10 years ago, in the shop the other day I couldn't find any less than 40p. This wouldn't be a problem if wages also raised at the same rate, but they have been locked as they are in most Countries. The only time we see the wages raise is when then minimum wage legal requirement increases. But this problem is much worse. The government will increase the payments to the non-working due to the increased cost of living, but as a result they will also increase taxes on those who do work. The increased taxes will move even more families into poverty. You have families where both parents work reasonable jobs above minimal wage, barely paying their bills. Not to worry though, the ONS are going to redefine troublesome terms such as 'growth' [1] and 'recession' [2]. [1] https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2022/11/11/inclusive-measures-of-growth-how-ons-is-moving-beyond-gdp/ https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2022/11/11/inclusive-measures-of-gro... [2] https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2022/11/11/uncertainty-and-the-r-word-what-exactly-is-a-recession/ https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2022/11/11/uncertainty-and-the-r-wor...