The Winter of Discontent #2 Food, energy, transport, jobs, housing etc

[WilmaHun]

When I was in Asda at the weekend there really wasn't a lot of variety of crisps so some sort of panic struck in me and I felt the need to buy a 18 pack of hula hoops, 24 pack of walkers and a multipack of wotsits. Even at the till as I was scanning them I thought "you are the problem Wilma" but clearly when I was stood in that aisle I just couldn't bear the thought of not being able to buy crisps in a while so stocked up

 

[dancingqueen5678]

I think our supermarkets are a disgrace. do we need two isles of sweets, two for crips another two for soft drinks.. another two for bread and cakes So much goes to waste not even all the food banks and larders can use it all.

I hate trying to shop, way too much choice. it's overwhelming at times.

It really is outrageous. They often all come from the same place anyway or are made the exact same way but just a different company label.

Also to go off on a tangent about supermarket aisles of food and I hate to be one of those annoying health freaks, but if you really strip down a supermarket, about 5-10% is whole/fresh foods and the other 90-95% is essentially processed food. Not saying ALL processed food is bad obviously but we have far more aisles of and are eating far more ultra processed food than ever before.

 

[Saddlesoap]

On a tangent but one of the highest rates of suicide amongst degree educated professionals is amongst vets. It's connected to treating animals in pain, difficulty communicating with patients and a large number of your patients being euthanasised.

Hmm, no. One of the main reasons for the high suicide rate is verbal and physical abuse and demands from the public. We get slated every day for being money grabbing, threatened with being sued, and slandered all over social media.

Yes euthanasing animals is difficult, but 90% of them are sick and we are putting their welfare and quality of life first.

*Sorry for going off topic

 

[NeverEnough]

Thats not fair- my partner is a farmer and the animals are well looked after and are killed in the most humane way possible for food. Farmers are human and killing animals for absolutely no reason is upsetting.

So the pig is killed, dismembered and eaten in the most gentle, most humane, most understanding way possible.

I’m sure the pig will be eternally grateful.

 

[GobShyte64]

Having a look at the news and I've seen an article about panic buying toilet roll etc. Has nothing been learnt by the media? Why do they do this knowing it will create panic and people will then go out and buy it all when in reality there's no need to do that. Infuriates me. Prices are rising and people are stressed enough without the added 'we might run out of toilet roll'

The media is owned by the rich. Thats why they do it. If people panic buy it pushes prices up & they get to reap the profits. The people that panic buy are absolute idiots and play into their hands every time! Like when they panic bought all the fuel then had the cheek to complain on facebook & the like when stations put the prices up. A lot of the time people panic buy, because they see other people panic buying. Some people man, dumb fucks!

 

[that1]

Oh yeah it has definitely always been around. All the hymns back then were about the poor being poor because God chose it. I was more talking about the modern reality TV side of it - endless programmes and people watching out of some weird curiosity. We had a chance for attitudes to change but sadly it has steadily got worse.

For centuries, people in Europe felt that God decided your station in life. Poor peasant? It was gods will and shouldn’t be questioned. king of England? God had chosen you and so you are special. Divine right to rule is still the basis of the royal family. That motto all over the royal family’s coat of arms? In court rooms, letter boxes etc “Dieu et Mon Droit” literally means God and My Right. It’s probably the basis of why the victorians linked poverty to being immoral.

a very convenient way for the elite to justify being the elite, and to make sure the poor stayed where they wanted them - in abject poverty.

As a modern society we like to think we’ve risen above all that, but we haven’t. That motto and what it stands for is still everywhere. We still have an unelected monarchy and an old boys club in positions of power. We still deride the poor for being poor, and begrudge them financial help while the richest in the country cheat and lie (Pandora papers) with impunity.

times have moved on and yet they really haven’t

 

[gingerteacup]

I’m catching up from the previous thread and it’s good to know I’m not the only one feeling really worried about this winter. Does anyone else feel like the government are massively in denial in order to prevent us from panicking? Especially given the petrol situation?

what do we genuinely believe will happen in the next few months? I’m glad I’ve got lots of candles and warm clothes to prevent me from needing toturn on heating / as a supply in case supply is down.

 

[Tatooine_legend1]

When I was sheltering from a storm in a Tesco Express, I watched a man attempt to walk out with a basket of goods before being stopped by a security guard.

Thing is, all that he had in that basket (full to the brim) was ready-to-eat mackerel fillets.

I'm still confused to this day.

It does seem fishy

 

[heretoreaditall2019]

I know I'm luckier than a lot of people, and don't worry about being able to afford the basics - but I really feel like between these Economic/Brexit woes and Corona Lockdowns (which I appreciate are all deeply interrelated) that I'm left wondering when/if I will be able to actually get a life and not feel like I'm waiting for things to start.

I moved back with my parents in Feb 2020, as we were all moving to a new area and I was starting a job so it made sense to start with them and maybe save a bit to get my own place. But two years later, I'm still going to be here. Still mostly WFH and don't have many friends as it's been difficult to get out and meet people; the same with relationships. My life isn't awful, but it feels a bit constricted and disappointing sometimes. I just wish I knew when it was all going to end. I would like to have a family of my own and I just wonder how on earth I'm supposed to contemplate doing that in such a chaotic world where it's also so difficult to meet people!

I absolutely appreciate others have it worse, but you have to wonder what the long term consequences will be for lots of us - educationally, socially, romantically - that will persist long after any virus might have been conquored.

Agree completely. Really disclose this rant is hugely privileged and verging on Mumsnet I am sorry

In a different stage of life to you but nodded along and sending love.

This morning said to my husband how it feels even more pointless to live in London now we’ve got more of this shit happening. We bought our home 3 years ago and did a complete #reno on it spending a fair amount and lots of stress and now I don’t even want to be here to enjoy it. We have no family nearby.

I had my LO in the pandemic, got pregnant late 2019 so absolutely wasn’t expecting this, I had a very lonely maternity leave (honestly thank god for tattle it was a life line during that time) and didn’t have the opportunity to establish a lovely local likeminded mum group and instead only know a few absolutely vile ones (sorry this makes me sound vile but the sort that ask immediately what ur husband does /the road you live on and are into £££) so have the guilt that my daughter won’t fit in with them because I can’t bear to be near them. I have other health stuff but I don’t want a second child (husband does) and I think a large part of it was down to how horrible being stranded in the various lockdowns were.

Last Christmas (baby’s first) our plans were pulled from under us (we only found out about the under one bubble after - don’t think it was v spoken about?) and I remember sobbing for days after that announcement. It’s now happening again after I’ve paid out for my sister to come join us, I said to her I don’t care anymore just come down. The news had people at the stations who just admitted they don’t give a fuck. I feel bad and know it’s selfish but how much more can we miss out on? My sister shouldn’t have to spend her Christmas in a tiny flat by herself (she’s also skint) I’m sorry I’ve been looking forward to this for months now.

But yeah definitely experiencing a heavy emotional hangover at the idea of this shit happening again & yet more isolation for our family. I acknowledge how privileged I am to have my own family btw, my baby is my wonderful miracle girl so I can’t be too upset as I’ve been given a life beyond my wildest dreams with her!!

 

[dancingqueen5678]

There is one more thing I want to add:

Before the referendum it was all about: "we give money to the EU that could have gone to the NHS!"
Where is all of this money now and why doesn't it go to the NHS now?
Now it is: the NI increase is necessary to save the NHS.

I think we all need to do ourselves a favour in uk and acknowledge that the tories are not paying any more money to the NHS.
They should. However, they won't.

 

[that1]

potentially controversial here but I find the mentality in regards to the war in this country really bizarre. Everyone's always like "we were okay in the war/everyone these days is too soft/the people today would never have lived through the war/our war hero ancestors would be laughing at us, they all just got on with it". But that's subjective. If you were a kid evacuee who ended up with an abusive family, if someone you loved went off to fight and died or just never came back you would be suffering. I'm sure there were plenty of people during the war years who struggled, and whinged. In the same vain, that Germans under the Nazi's actually faired quite well, in particular, women, they got paid a decent amount of money providing they had lots of kids and followed the 3 C's (now fully aware that this isn't okay but if you consider it in 1930s context, that's what women were expected to do anyway.) Jews, on the other hand, would have a very different story about how world war Germany was for them.

Michael Caine spoke about his experience as an evacuee - he and his brother were abused and treated awfully.

I dont think the war generation was braver. I think they were traumatised so chose not to talk about it, and it manifested in other ways.

My great grandfather came back with severe PTSD after fighting in WWII, by the sounds of it. My grandfather told me he’d wake up screaming and started drinking heavily. He died in his early 60s because of it. Zero mental health support or awareness. He just had to suffer for the rest of his life. It shaped how he parented my grandfather, who was very harsh on his children and of course, that impacted how they then chose to parent me. easily WWII has impacted 3 or 4 generations with that unprocessed trauma.

Personally I think it’s much braver to vocalise your feelings and to address trauma, as opposed to the stiff upper lip approach previous generations had. I don’t think the stiff upper lip is brave or commendable.

I think they do care.

Think about your daily work - if you would work hard on something and it would then just be binned wouldn't you mind either?

Why dont you think farmers dont care about their animals? Because they are being killed to be eaten? They can still care about them and want them to live as good as possible and for their lives to have had a purpose

I dated a farmer, or rather the son of one. Some of the stories he told me were chilling.

I think it’s the opposite. They become desentisied to animals. They see them as their livelihood and income, not a bunch of cute animals and beings, capable of fear or pain. They are objects. A lot of them are treated really, really badly.

 

[Mimble]

As an aside please can this not turn into yet another conspiracy and "are the 'Powers That Be' causing doom and panic on purpose???" thread, I just want a place to moan about current shit goings on

 

[Mark81]

I think every one of us also has a responsibility to stop visiting news sites that are out right stoking the fire (e.g daily mail). Their behaviour is appaling, the mail even has its current headline as 'let the stockpiling begin'.

For those who have watched tomorrow never dies, the media is literally all led by elliot carvers

 

[heretoreaditall2019]

Cheese section at my local sainsbury's.

View attachment 831887

Omg drawing the curtain makes it look so dramatic too

 

[Tatooine_legend1]

Electric blanket is a game changer for warming up sheets.

We have ours on a smart plug so we can put it on for 10 minutes or so before we get in bed and it's lovely. Feels like getting back into bed after going fir a night time wee or similar

It just makes me realise how fortunate we are to live in this era. I'm 33 and never experienced the hard times that a person the same age as me would have experienced 50 years ago. My dad (75) told me about the family having to wash in the sink or heat up the water and put in a bucket to wash.

My aunt's husband mentioned how he used to often take cold showers. I feel fortunate to have only ever known warm showers and baths. My nan would have washed her clothes with soap and water, scrub them down, then just hang out to dry. Nowadays we have washing machines, dryers, heated dryer, all those fancy detergents etc. I feel sad thinking about how my ancestors lived.

 

[ClockworkDolly]

It appears that most people who become MP’s in the Tory party (although the Labour Party is not immune to this either) have either a silver-spoon background, went to private school, have friends in very high places and have no connection to a world outside of their inner circle. I think the majority of them should never become Members of Parliament, never mind becoming the PM! They simply do not have an idea of how people are forced to live. Forget all of the trotting round nursing homes and council estates for photo opportunities, we can all see through that shite. For the most part, they are patronising and in my opinion, very few have any brains at all. Most of them certainly lack compassion.

Yes, we know there are people who take the piss in life, don’t pay any tax and work on the side of their benefits, but most of them do it to make up the shortfall, to feed their families. It’s the same piss-taking, on a smaller scale, that the wealthy company directors do to avoid paying huge sums of tax. They are able to dress it up better, to make it look as though they are not at fault.

When Tony Blair was PM, he was on his own gravy train. He amassed a wealthy property portfolio, so anyone saying he was a socialist, well, that’s a load of shite. He feathered his own nest and played a blinder really. His Government built very few council houses, yet he seemed to accrue quite a few houses of his own, whilst raking in his salary and enjoying all the benefits of being a PM.

Frankly, they are all as bad as each other. I don’t vote for any of them, they’re all shite. The only one I possibly would vote for is Keir Starmer, or Angela Rayner.

This country is corrupt.

 

[Piff paff puff]

Well casting my vote in a generation election was short lived.
Once.
I won't vote again until there's a party to vote for, sadly that may be never.
There is no one who would do better and no one who could do worse.
They're all career politicians and lie, bully, dictate and hypocrite and dumb down because they think the British public are dumb. The embarrassing publicity stunts, empty promises. I'm out

 

[dancingqueen5678]

I agree, but I think they also had a sense of perspective. The pandemic has shown how comfortable people have become in their lives and take a lot for granted. Most people alive today have never really known a life changing event, one that changes the world we live in. Everything we have and take for granted could be gone over night, just look at history. People say 'it's 2021 not 1940', but that again implies certain things shouldn't happen now and that life has somehow plateued, where in actual fact anything could happen.

Of course not everyone enjoyed the war, my nan wrote her story down from her time during the war and it wasn't pleasant, but she also found good times amongst the bad. They literally just had to get on with it because what was the alternative. Just sitting around moaning g it's not fair won't really get people very far.

but I'm sure they took time to adjust to changes then as well and they probably had a culture shock when it first started. There were probably things they took for granted before the war, like not having to ration or being able to keep their lights on after 8pm or whenever the cut off was. I refuse to believe there weren't people bitching about having to sit in the dark. They just didn't have social media to broadcast it to everyone, for example, another difference between then and now is that we have more access and faster access to news which lead to panic buying and people being more scared as they had more information than they would have had during the war and we can now get information in real time 24/7 instead of having to wait for the tea time radio show. There were a lot less ways to report then.
People in 2020 found good among the bad too. So many people have come out since restrictions have lifted and said that they are changing careers, moving out of cities to the country, reduced working hours, people are cycling more now instead of using their cars, cooking more, going out walking, spending less money on frivolous shite. I don't think we are a complete lost cause.

 

[Tatooine_legend1]

Seriously, is it any surprise if people want to leave the country. For me it isn't. For those that can, it will likely be worth considering. Under this government, it's just incompetence and corruption, and doing naff all about the issues at hand. Really sad and anger inducing how fast this country has gone downhill.

I understand covid didn't help, but there is more this government could have done to protect people from the virus spreading as much as it did, I'm sure of that. Brexit certainly hasn't helped either, but it's an easy scapegoat when the Tories have been in power for just over a decade and things haven't improved. From Industrial revolution to industrial devolution.

 

[Saddlesoap]

Really, vets are being mistreated? I am completely surprised, I thought being a vet is on of the most loved professions.

Oh my gosh. You have no idea. The nice people are wonderful. But the nasty ones are awful. As with so much COVID has brought out the worst in people. The demand put upon us is crazy. Burnout is ridiculously high.

That's understandable and there are more layers to it. My above comment was based on a PhD researcher that was looking in depth into the topic.

It can't be an easy job but any vet that has dealt with my animals has been professional and compassionate, especially with end of life care (whilst I've been a sobbing mess but that's a different story).

There's lots of layers to it. But speaking from personal experience, the part of the job that makes me cry at the end of the day is threatening owners making up lies about me and my colleagues. Happened just last week.

I cry about some of my patients after we loose them, but it's a different emotion.

***
To keep of topic I'm off to buy new bedding, draught excluders and fleece blankets this morning. Oh and probably some new slippers. Mine were lost to the puppy