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

[HotesTilaire]

My shopping delivery didn’t turn up. I managed to reorder from a different supermarket and the delivery was missing a quarter of the items!

 

[Renegadedancer]

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.

The NHS have millions of pounds of funding every year. Too many people not paying and constantly taking out. Badly managed and wasteful areas of the NHS and the departments that really need the funds not getting anywhere near enough. It’s not just about money it’s a much bigger problem. But that’s a whole other thread!

 

[dancingqueen5678]

The thing is, there are definitely people who can afford to shop for higher priced clothes but go to Primark instead. I think it's fine to go to Primark and charity shops if they can't afford to buy higher quality clothes, but people have to look towards higher quality and stuff that will last. A lot of the time, cheap clothes will last a couple months then become useless, which then means they need replacing.

Most people probably don't even think about going to get shoes repaired, but instead opt to buy brand new ones and throw the damaged ones away. I know people like this and it does bug me that they just throw away £100-150 trainers/shoes, then buy new ones for similar prices.

I do agree but I think the issue isn't what we buy but how much of it. Buying sustainably is amazing but if you're buying sustainably in excess then we've still got the same problem as it is still increasing demand, and still means things end up in landfill.

It's better to buy from primark once a year and look after that stuff than buy from sustainable fashion brands every day or every week

 

[avisina78]

Asda near me had very little in terms of crisps, funny to see people like myself just stood in the crisps section contemplating life...

 

[Renegadedancer]

It seems crisps are the new petrol/diesel

 

[JoeBloggs]

The thing is, even though someone on minimum wage in this country may be in the top 10% in the world, in this country the high standard of living kind of offsets that.

I'd say it's probably equally as bad in this country on min wage as it would be in a poor part of Africa or Asia, especially for those living on their own or have kids.

I do think that is a bit extreme, in a poor part of Africa there are some that live in shanty huts, waste in their drinking water and find food in refuse sites. I appreciate life is hard here on the lowest ages but I don’t think it’s comparable.

 

[Wackie Jeaver]

And Mr and Mrs Johnson have arrived in Barbados, to a luxury villa, to get some sunshine in before things get even worse here.

 

[prozacprincess]

We have power cuts fairly regularly that last hours at a time … not great if you built a smart house Even though our boiler is oil it still uses electric to ignite so no electric means no heating. Luckily we also put wood burners in our living rooms too. Growing up poor no electric was pretty common … anyone else remember putting 50p’s in the meter ? And I always knew if we’d run out of money when it was bread and jam for dinner

The only thing I’ve ever worried about running out of is pet food. I could live off the contents of my pantry for about a month but my girls are picky little felines so I confess I’ve bought an extra massive bag of their food. I buy my rabbits food by the sack anyway and they could live quite happily off the lawns alone

I think it all comes down to perspective. Yes, I’ve noticed there is less choice in the supermarkets these days, but did we really need 15 different types of pizza anyway ??

 

[lasttime]

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'

 

[eSsExBiRd]

One thing I will never sacrifice is microwave rice

 

[eSsExBiRd]

Sadly cost doesn't always equal quality , sometimes you are paying for a name . It's disappointing when something that has cost a lot doesn't last ( in general) .

I agree! I bought a pair of Levi’s (approx £90 here in the UK) after 6 months the fabric wore where my thighs rub. My £10 ASDA skinnies are still going strong after 3 years.

 

[Jc456]

“there”

Cuntry

 

[Saddlesoap]

I've succumbed. I brought extra tinned stuff and pasta on my last shop. I've put it away in a cupboard upstairs. I feel a little crazy for doing so but honestly I am getting a little worried

 

[Tyla73]

I went to Morrisons in the week (I have a pick of supermarkets near me so I don't go to the same one every time) and they had a big rack of pre-packed bags for the food bank filled with various items for different amounts. You can add them to your trolley and pay for them at the till and then put them in the food bank boxes on your way out - I though it was a great idea as I always have the best of intentions to buy things for the food bank when I do my shopping but I don't always remember but that made sure I did.

 

[Tublet83]

travelled across the country today into various WH Smith’s. Can confirm crisps everywhere

 

[Cheapseats]

I think what was being inferred was perhaps we should stop fighting each other leave/remain or whatever and look at who is at fault.
The govt for not handling Brexit nor covid well. Industry for the hgv drivers pay and working conditions, aging workforce and failing to plan ahead when they had years from brexit vote to it happening and the workforce aging all the while. The cost of hgv licence usually met by drivers instead of industry training in past. Etc etc
While we all fight with each other they are all off the hook as per

 

[Tatooine_legend1]

Not sure if it's true but you often hear that reduced calories or some kind of intermittent fasting is good for longevity and the national diet was at peak health during the war. Of course it wasn't warm and fuzzy as it was a war and people were foraging for food to survive.

They do think life expectancy peaked during the war generation and is now going down with the baby boomers.

BBC - WW2 People's War - Eating acorns, and jam tarts

One day he had to take a boat around from Cardiff — he was a navigator, trained — took a boat ...

www.bbc.co.uk

Yeah without a doubt people will be sicker at a younger age due to the food these days. There is so much junk food around now, it's ridiculous.

 

[Doctor_Wibble]

Morrison’s have restricted crisp purchases to 4 packs in my local store. It’s still only crisps that I’m seeing a lack of, everything else is plentiful.

A sign of things to come
We'll be on ration books soon, and those taste terrible!

 

[Purrrrrrr]

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.

They also had communities where everyone knew everyone. I was born in 58. all my grandparents, great-grandparents aunties, uncles, cousins all grew up in the same small area of London. we all lived less than 5 mins walk from each other, There was not this huge divide between us in those days. no one really had a pot to piss in. Now everyone is divided in every way it's possible to be divided in. I see so many falling for this huge illusion that the boomers had it all, that the young are selfish and want everything, everyone wants a label or to label everything

Traditional places where people got together to discuss the world, to plan revolutions have gradually been phased out.
consumerism keeps us buying things we don't need, TV keeps us busy and stops us from really thinking about things.
We did see a glimpse of community at the start of covid, everyone was worried everyone did their bit and everyone felt closer. Then came covid grassers, finger-pointing mask wearer v non-mask wearer and within a few weeks, everyone was back to being divided.

I seriously looked into relocating to Canada last year.



What's this about pigs?

Apparently, they don't have the gas for the stun guns to kill humanly for the food chain so they are culling them inhumanly to go to waste. Another thing that doesn't make sense.

 

[whathastheworldcometo]

Few points I would like to add.
The HGV drivers is not down to brexit, people don’t want the shit jobs. Maybe employers should renegotiate hours/salary for these jobs and people might apply. Most company’s treat workers like dogs

But the lorry driver shortage at the moment is to a fairly large extend due to Brexit.
Many drivers from Eastern Europe would need visas but they can get permanent jobs in other European countries so they prefer to work there.
And the problems end of last year, the long queues for example, didn't help.

The fact that trade got more expensive due to tariffs is also down to Brexit.

It is now more expensive to ship tomatoes from Spain so they will cost more. If they cannot be shipped to the UK they will be sold to other European countries.

No EU country had shortages of any kind in the last few weeks.