Cost of living crisis.

[foxes1988]

2 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

It really isn't.  It might be time to start producing shale gas though.

In hindsight wed be in a better position now if we were already producing it but it wont even really help short term with the time it takes to get that set up wont stop the energy prices increasing this year or next year really.  Might as well take a longer term view and kill two birds with one stone and build more renewable options so we are not held hostage to whole sale energy prices.

Edited 21 March 2022 by foxes1988

[Shane]

19 hours ago, FoxyPV said:

Relying on govt to survive a poverty crisis. What could possibly go wrong. 

Maybe it’s a good time to re-start our Grandmothers and Grandfathers Victory Gardens, become more self reliant and share what you can with the local community. Even if you don’t have outdoor space you can still grow things indoors.

[leicsmac]

5 minutes ago, Shane said:

Relying on govt to survive a poverty crisis. What could possibly go wrong. 

Maybe it’s a good time to re-start our Grandmothers and Grandfathers Victory Gardens, become more self reliant and share what you can with the local community. Even if you don’t have outdoor space you can still grow things indoors.

That may be a solution.

 

But it raises a question: what on Earth has all of our progress, technologically and societally, come to, when a supposedly frontline OECD country has to resort to such a throwback?

[Greg2607]

4 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

That may be a solution.

 

But it raises a question: what on Earth has all of our progress, technologically and societally, come to, when a supposedly frontline OECD country has to resort to such a throwback?

That's not a bad thing necessarily is it.   The first Covid lockdown showed us all how the vast majority of us don't have a buffer if things change / go wrong.  We moved house last Feb and we have a plan to put a veg garden in place in our new back garden.  It's great to be able to grow your own stuff and ultimately, it reduces the carbon footprint of our food doesn't it. 

 

Modern society is almost entirely predicated on the basis of having everything immediately, regardless of where it comes from. environmental impact etc.    Clearly, it doesn't eradicate your food costs, but it would certainly help to reduce them. 

 

plus it's fun and rewarding. (i think... clearly, i haven't actually done it yet!! - i may be massively disappointed with my results!)

[leicsmac]

16 minutes ago, Greg2607 said:

That's not a bad thing necessarily is it.   The first Covid lockdown showed us all how the vast majority of us don't have a buffer if things change / go wrong.  We moved house last Feb and we have a plan to put a veg garden in place in our new back garden.  It's great to be able to grow your own stuff and ultimately, it reduces the carbon footprint of our food doesn't it. 

 

Modern society is almost entirely predicated on the basis of having everything immediately, regardless of where it comes from. environmental impact etc.    Clearly, it doesn't eradicate your food costs, but it would certainly help to reduce them. 

 

plus it's fun and rewarding. (i think... clearly, i haven't actually done it yet!! - i may be massively disappointed with my results!)

I think having such a contingency plan can never be a bad thing, as you say. More localised sourcing of resources will be helpful in a variety of ways, too

.

I guess I'm just lamenting that such solutions really should, in this day and age, be the preserve of modern-age tech that makes them much easier to do, rather than each family having to "dig in the dirt", as it were.

 

[ealingfox]

Can you imagine what would be going on in this country if 3 years into a Corbyn government they were telling people to wear jumpers at home because energy bills were rocketing and to grow their own fruit and vegetables?

[Shane]

4 minutes ago, Greg2607 said:

That's not a bad thing necessarily is it.   The first Covid lockdown showed us all how the vast majority of us don't have a buffer if things change / go wrong.  We moved house last Feb and we have a plan to put a veg garden in place in our new back garden.  It's great to be able to grow your own stuff and ultimately, it reduces the carbon footprint of our food doesn't it. 

 

Modern society is almost entirely predicated on the basis of having everything immediately, regardless of where it comes from. environmental impact etc.    Clearly, it doesn't eradicate your food costs, but it would certainly help to reduce them. 

 

plus it's fun and rewarding. (i think... clearly, i haven't actually done it yet!! - i may be massively disappointed with my results!)

It is very rewarding when you harvest a vegetable you have grown and taken care of. 
 

But its certainly not easy. Anybody who has a small allotment for example, will tell you its hard work and the results at the beginning are likely to be disappointing. 
 

But better late than never! Good luck 

 

14 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

That may be a solution.

 

But it raises a question: what on Earth has all of our progress, technologically and societally, come to, when a supposedly frontline OECD country has to resort to such a throwback?

 

Probably due to our reliance on the global chain. The UK imports over 50% of foods consumed last time I checked, which was never really going to be sustainable, especially from an environmental perspective.

[kenny]

4 minutes ago, ealingfox said:

Can you imagine what would be going on in this country if 3 years into a Corbyn government they were telling people to wear jumpers at home because energy bills were rocketing and to grow their own fruit and vegetables?

I would be fuming. I do that anyway as I am tight.

 

I claim its because I love the environment though.

[leicsmac]

9 minutes ago, Shane said:

Probably due to our reliance on the global chain. The UK imports over 50% of foods consumed last time I checked, which was never really going to be sustainable, especially from an environmental perspective.

Right.

 

Globalisation has this one wrong. The solution isn't worldwide supply links so that resources can be delivered worldwide, it's less difficult localised generation of required resources that is then implemented worldwide.

 

Of course, that's hardly as easy as it sounds, but it needs to be the goal.

[Innovindil]

1 hour ago, ealingfox said:

Can you imagine what would be going on in this country if 3 years into a Corbyn government they were telling people to wear jumpers at home because energy bills were rocketing and to grow their own fruit and vegetables?

Honestly don't know. Probably the same as what's happening now. What do you think would have been going on? 

[blabyboy]

5 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

It really isn't.  It might be time to start producing shale gas though.

Nope. The time to market would still be years, even if they shortened some of the consultations and activities to override NIMBY style objections and push it through. The only real value when it came in would be to reduce the local price and reduce distance to delivery which would be a positive CC message. But. You may as well just pump from North Sea because it is already established so its just increasing volume, is close so again your distance to delivery is much smaller and you can affect local price quickly.

[ealingfox]

36 minutes ago, Innovindil said:

Honestly don't know. Probably the same as what's happening now. What do you think would have been going on? 

 

Well I think the tone of the press would be different, and by that I mean rabid almost to the point of encouraging insurrection. And I think people that spent their time telling us Labour would be taking us back to the 70s would have plenty of comment - although to be fair we've had that anyway given we've had 'this is what life would be like under Corbyn' accompanying pictures of what life actually was then over the last 3 years.

 

Just my opinion like.

[Innovindil]

25 minutes ago, ealingfox said:

 

Well I think the tone of the press would be different, and by that I mean rabid almost to the point of encouraging insurrection. And I think people that spent their time telling us Labour would be taking us back to the 70s would have plenty of comment - although to be fair we've had that anyway given we've had 'this is what life would be like under Corbyn' accompanying pictures of what life actually was then over the last 3 years.

 

Just my opinion like.

Interesting. Cheers for the reply. 

[FoxyPV]

3 hours ago, Shane said:

Relying on govt to survive a poverty crisis. What could possibly go wrong. 

Maybe it’s a good time to re-start our Grandmothers and Grandfathers Victory Gardens, become more self reliant and share what you can with the local community. Even if you don’t have outdoor space you can still grow things indoors.

The govt has brought us head first into this crisis, through the clusterfvck of Brexit, their inept handling of COVID and their blatant corruption.

 

As Daggers, stated France made the energy companies take the hit. The Tories are happy for us to be ground down as them and their cronies can then hoover up the foreclosures etc 

[Greg2607]

 

• 5 million people will be unable to afford their energy bill when prices rise in April.

• 14.5 million will be unable to afford their energy bills from October.

Aren't they just horrendous numbers of people. 

 

Recession is guaranteed now, there is no avoiding it. 

 

layer on the NI increase and cost of Food and Fuel, it's going to be a grim 18 months. 

[Dahnsouff]

On 21/03/2022 at 13:36, FoxyPV said:

The govt has brought us head first into this crisis, through the clusterfvck of Brexit, their inept handling of COVID and their blatant corruption.

 

As Daggers, stated France made the energy companies take the hit. The Tories are happy for us to be ground down as them and their cronies can then hoover up the foreclosures etc 

EDF/GDF are nationalised aren't they? Not sure what you are suggesting here  

 

The public voted the Tories in, and for Brexit, the Tories avarice and chronyism is bang on though.

[Greg2607]

I find it "relatively" amusing that people are calling now for the nationalisation of the Energy Companies, but were also calling Corbyn a communist for suggesting the same at the General Election. 

 

I don't think i'm a communist (at least last time I checked I wasn't) but I do think there is "some" merit in having really key industries under national ownership.  Those that protect the populace or are key infrastructure type sectors. 

 

arguably, Water, Energy and Travel. 

 

there's never a perfect solution clearly, and I accept that private ownership can also drive innovation.  By the same token, imagine how much better our national coffers would look if profits from energy were re-invested into the NHS, or improving the rail network. 

 

 

 

 

Edited 22 March 2022 by Greg2607

[Dahnsouff]

20 minutes ago, Greg2607 said:

I find it "relatively" amusing that people are calling now for the nationalisation of the Energy Companies, but were also calling Corbyn a communist for suggesting the same at the General Election. 

 

I don't think i'm a communist (at least last time I checked I wasn't) but I do think there is "some" merit in having really key industries under national ownership.  Those that protect the populace or are key infrastructure type sectors. 

 

arguably, Water, Energy and Travel. 

 

there's never a perfect solution clearly, and I accept that private ownership can also drive innovation.  By the same token, imagine how much better our national coffers would look if profits from energy were re-invested into the NHS, or improving the rail network. 

Don`t worry, certainly don`t feel you need to be a communist to see the benefit of nationilising critical infrastructure  

 

Energy and water yes, travel, assume you mean rail, I am not so sure!!

[leicsmac]

I think energy and water certainly.

 

Transportation might benefit from a "best of both worlds" approach like they have over here - it seems to work.

[Greg2607]

Rail yes, but also Bus for local services. 

 

I moved to a village years ago, that had regular bus services into Leicester and it meant I could catch the bus to and from work.  Invariably, there weren't many people on there, and inevitably, the service got cut to one bus running in the morning (which would get me to work) and one bus in the evening which left St Margaret's at 17:02... which meant I couldn't catch it home!! therefore, i had no choice but to drive. 

 

Commercial viability is only ever going to be the consideration for a private enterprise on these sorts of things, so i totally understand it. But a nationalised travel network would remove "some" of the need to mothball routes. 

 

I'd love rail to be nationalised (albeit, i'm too young to really remember British Rail and how bad it might have been) there is no way I could justify £130 return each day to London, but a nationalised service may reduce travel costs if it serves a greater good around national growth and moving workers (or tourists) from point A to point B at a reasonable cost. 

 

I may even one day get to realise the dream of being able to catch a train from Ashby to just outside the King Power.  I could then enjoy more than one beer and remove my 25 minute walk from the car park that I currently use when I do go to games. 

Edited 22 March 2022 by Greg2607

[blabyboy]

For me, whilst nationalisation sounds nice, we often forget the downside of maintenance costs - it's part of the reason MT wanted to offload them, as well as the pension liabilities. I'd welcome a fully costed review of each sector so we can truly understand what we'd be taking on. Someone has to pay to fix the pipes, lay the cables and manage the rolling stock.

[kenny]

46 minutes ago, blabyboy said:

For me, whilst nationalisation sounds nice, we often forget the downside of maintenance costs - it's part of the reason MT wanted to offload them, as well as the pension liabilities. I'd welcome a fully costed review of each sector so we can truly understand what we'd be taking on. Someone has to pay to fix the pipes, lay the cables and manage the rolling stock.

Don't forget the unions too.

 

There was a reason nationalisation went, generally it's because the service was shit and it was hoped privatisation would improve that.

[Dahnsouff]

9 minutes ago, kenny said:

Don't forget the unions too.

 

There was a reason nationalisation went, generally it's because the service was shit and it was hoped privatisation would improve that.

Hard to disagree in part, as both my father and grandfather were very down on the unions when I was growing up, but perhaps now is the time to try for a more responsible nationalised industry profile.  Nationalised industries are certainly not a panacea for perceived moral shortfalls in the private sector, but they could give a level of protection for the more vulnerable in the cost of living crisis.

[kenny]

1 minute ago, Dahnsouff said:

Hard to disagree in part, as both my father and grandfather were very down on the unions when I was growing up, but perhaps now is the time to try for a more responsible nationalised industry profile.  Nationalised industries are certainly not a panacea for perceived moral shortfalls in the private sector, but they could give a level of protection for the more vulnerable in the cost of living crisis.

I am always surprised that the contracts given to private companies are so bad that they can take the piss. The example with the bus services further up shouldn't happen as the offered contract at tender should prevent it being cancelled.

 

If a private company was subcontracting work to another private company I doubt the majority of issues would occur.

[Greg2607]

2 hours ago, kenny said:

Don't forget the unions too.

 

There was a reason nationalisation went, generally it's because the service was shit and it was hoped privatisation would improve that.

Has it though??