@Dovefromabove I agree, so many are already making difficult decisions, I remember the days when there wasn’t enough in the meter to cook a meal and iron school uniform. Now add the pressure of increases in petrol prices and many who were at breaking point will be broken. It’s easy to forget the sheer hard work of trying to make ends meet when the string isn’t long enough. I felt exhausted all of the time. My heart goes out to all of those struggling now. Many of them are not in a position to absorb any more pain.
Going back a bit, I am still having trouble with OVO energy, they are only billing my standing charges not for what we have used. I can't get through on the phone have had several on line "chats" and email exchanges they are supposed to be looking into it. I got a good fixed deal last July just before all the price hikes. My concern is they are going to try and clobber us with the higher prices once they do finally sort it. I am paying a fixed direct debit so the account is hundreds in credit.
I have said before I could have told anyone 40 years ago diesel was a filthy fuel, (I used to commute by motorcycle). Lots of people started buying them because it was cheaper than petrol and you got more mpg on a long run. Then the fuel companies raised the prices above that for standard petrol so now they are loosing out. In my mind diesel should have been restricted to HGV and commercial use only, using a diesel for the school run or any journey of much less than 10 miles when it never warms up properly was always a bad idea.
Yeah, but if they don't like the government, people with means can move elsewhere, so they're still fine.
We do have alternative fuels, we could, technically, make life much easier for those struggling with fuel price increases and the knock on costs. It's capital investment in those alternatives that we lack. We can find whole forests of magic money trees when we decide we need them. But this crisis, which lots of people foresaw a long time - 30 or 40 years - ago, has been coming up on us very slowly, so it was always 'not today's problem'. Suddenly it is today's problem, so will they act?
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
We are not rich but have enough to manage energy price increases for now. I do realise, @Dovefromabove, that there are people who have much less and aren't managing but that's a problem that could be resolved with some decent social (not Socialist) policies, better investment in social housing and infrastructure plus energy price caps and/or levies on profiteering companies.
We left the UK because OH's job moved abroad. I had to give up mine. We've stayed because his job evolved over here and we liked the life - good social care and cohesion, good transport, good health care and good friends. We did not live in an ex-pat enclave as so many do but integrated with locals. I have no time for short-sighted self-serving politicians of any flavour or nationality.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
There was at least a passably good social housing policy here ... until Thatcher decimated it. It's now totally unfit for purpose ... and she did it.
an election bribe for which the rest of us have been paying for ever since, via housing benefit for those who can't afford the punitive rents. My daughter rented an ex council , one bed flat in Brixton and it cost here £1,350 a month.
I agree - selling off council housing without allowing more to be built was a stupid mistake with some dreadful consequences for the poor and she was naive about what a de-regulated City of London would do. However, she was followed by many years of Labour govt who did nothing to redress the housing situation nor improve infrastructure.
Nowt to choose between them.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Posts
I have said before I could have told anyone 40 years ago diesel was a filthy fuel, (I used to commute by motorcycle). Lots of people started buying them because it was cheaper than petrol and you got more mpg on a long run. Then the fuel companies raised the prices above that for standard petrol so now they are loosing out. In my mind diesel should have been restricted to HGV and commercial use only, using a diesel for the school run or any journey of much less than 10 miles when it never warms up properly was always a bad idea.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
We do have alternative fuels, we could, technically, make life much easier for those struggling with fuel price increases and the knock on costs. It's capital investment in those alternatives that we lack. We can find whole forests of magic money trees when we decide we need them. But this crisis, which lots of people foresaw a long time - 30 or 40 years - ago, has been coming up on us very slowly, so it was always 'not today's problem'. Suddenly it is today's problem, so will they act?
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
https://twitter.com/ByDonkeys/status/1499766468610863106?s=20&t=FRhhjbnfwe90mnqTpBTydA&fbclid=IwAR3LxLXAn4iCg06Sv9bwwHksWWzyJW_2wRrA-UbTLkmzuJr8UW-9NeoTVgs
We left the UK because OH's job moved abroad. I had to give up mine. We've stayed because his job evolved over here and we liked the life - good social care and cohesion, good transport, good health care and good friends. We did not live in an ex-pat enclave as so many do but integrated with locals. I have no time for short-sighted self-serving politicians of any flavour or nationality.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
My daughter rented an ex council , one bed flat in Brixton and it cost here £1,350 a month.
Nowt to choose between them.