I did my first self supported trip to the UK in 20 years last year, and yeah, prices have gone up here, but it's "reasonable". Was not the case in the UK. Really not. Even when you factor in exchanges rates etc.As an observation from someone who's visited in 2023, 2024, and 2025, in comparison to rising Australian prices, the cost of virtually everything in England and Wales seemed to have increased far more than 10 years ago, and particularly in 2025. 2025 may have been partly due to exchange rates though.
town planning type stuff told me the easiest way to work out how nice a neighbourhood is, was to go to the tesco express/sainsburys local and look at what had security tags on.
Interesting, I noticed the security tags when shopping in Brum. My local Aldi has no security tags on anything, no security guard and in quiet periods no-one on the till "y a quelqu'un !?"
My local Aldi has two security guards on at all times.Staff seem to be on high alert as well.
Could this be moved to the chat forum? I don't need real life intruding when I want a bike-shaped distraction.
My local Aldi has two security guards on at all times.Staff seem to be on high alert as well.
...that'll be to protect the mig-welders, not the Nordpak! 🙂
Aldi? You are a posh un and no mistakes.
Home Bargain and double security for some of us...
Yip, we're in a bad place when you come out of Aldi or Lidl and think that the trolley of shopping you have just bought is about a third more expensive than about a year ago...and that doesn't even cover the shrinkflation or watering down of the ingredients of the food stuff?
Our council tax has seen an increase of 19.9% over the last 2 years (Scotland, midlothian). We're lucky that we have solid jobs but we feel the differences and wonder how badly those with very little are being really squeezed!
^No need to wonder mate,just ask the shop staff how their self-defence training is coming along.
No security guard at our Aldi - just the nice Eastern European lady who helps with the self-scanning.
Not really cost of " living" ..but costs rising affecting my long riding.
Bike Packing or even extra long day rides are now so much more expensive even when you factor in JUST the calorie replacement..
If you add in overnight accommodation then it starts becoming a "cost fest."
An audax was always cheap to enter but when you factor in travel, food, the mandatory cafe stop etc .it's not a cheap day out esp if you choose the fancy snacks
I used to stare at the riders who ate home made sandwiches before going into the cafe for a coffee, but if you ride regularly its actually a smart idea and a big cost saving.
Rehydration tabs, snack bars etc I now ration out.
I used to have the odd Rehydration tab as a convenient top up to help hydration during a normal non cycling day as it made me drink more as well . But too expensive now to do regularly.
.
Bike Packing or even extra long day rides are now so much more expensive even when you factor in JUST the calorie replacement..
I used to do a couple of cafes stops on a long ride. You could do two lots of coffee and cake and it'd be a tenner.
Now it can be double that. I'm the same as you for snacks now, I take supermarket cereal bars rather than any fancy energy bars or on a ride I'll get a supermarket meal deal rather than a cafe stop.
Essential costs like electric, water, food, council tax, mobile contracts, broadband etc. have massively increased by % relative to wages since the worldwide covid pandemic began almost six years to the day.
Heck, remember the days when a premium road tyre like a GP4000 SII could be bought for under £30 each?
Every UK based company wants their profit numbers to keep increasing.
Brexit, covid and war have made the UK a very expensive place to live in recent years.
spend £500+ per month in order to be seen driving around in a top end car.
For reference a 3 year HP deal on a 5 year old family car will likely cost around £350 to £400/month + deposit (for £12-15k of HP). The upside is you will own it at the end and no-one cares about the mileage on the vehicle.
The downside is you pay for more scheduled maintenance and more unexpected random/age related/wear and tear breakages as the car ages.
Cambelt is £1000 on a lot of cars.
Gearbox oil change might be £500 on an auto.
Couple of suspension arms maybe £500?
Malfunctioning adaptive headlight £2500 (I think someone said on another thread)
That gap can shrink close to the lease cost fairly easily and even exceed it on a "Friday afternoon" car.
It's not all about "image" (although I'll grant it is likely important in some parts of the market). Leasing has become an easy entry point to reliable, pay monthly motoring with predictable costs and a warranty if you've got the income and credit to get a sensible deal.
I'm actually questioning having typed all that why I bought a 5 year old family car last year, the answer is I might have it another 2-3 years with only maintenance.
However the car companies and the finance companies absolutely rely on each other, it's the only way that either of them survive.
We don't make second hand cars and while the above might be true for some finance companies' profits (they're not all tied to manufacturers) it's even more true for the health of every layer of the second hand car market.
We have seen the impact in the real world of reduced new car supply with what happened to used car availability and pricing during COVID. The used stocks dried up fast and the quality went down while pricing went up.
You cannot have a healthy secondhand market without a strong new market. If you're not putting 3-5 year old ex lease cars in at the top there is no trickle down.
Just feels like at some point during or just after COVID the top 1% i.e energy companies, food suppliers etc found an excuse to put there prices up by a good margin and everyone else either said yeah we'll have some of that or had to put their prices up as a direct consequence. Obviously all this extra margin went directly to shareholders and bugger all to wages which is causing the issue.
Capitalism demands growth and once you've become so big that all the sneakier options are used you're just left with ramping prices up using whichever excuse you can find which is where I think we are
once you've become so big that all the sneakier options are used you're just left with ramping prices up using whichever excuse you can find which is where I think we are
I think that what we have now is nothing compared to what's coming. Oil prices will hit an all-time high alongside massively reduced supply. It'll make the 2008 financial crisis look tame in comparison.
I think recent events have overtaken this thread a bit and we can reason and see what's happening.
But I follow the sentiment that it's crazy the cost of living even before the current problems.
A recent and rare pub visit was a shock last week.
No rounds just alcohol free beer and a gin for two people 3 drinks each and £30 gone while having a chat.
How do people afford regular pub visits?
The heating oil issue is not rresolved either ,just some money thrown at it to tick a box.
Surely they can have rules for heating oil and gas prices to be online with what the supplier paid.
Things felt so much more affordable 20 years ago - what happened to evolution.
Things felt so much more affordable 20 years ago - what happened to evolution.
Just another step into the Great Filter
There is no such thing as a cheap break away now.
Scotland / UK national Parks etc are pricing themselves out of the home market for the general population in spring and summer..
So we tend to be forced to off season.
Even hostel prices are crazy. We used to be a fan of them. Some are do have good facilities and borderline worth it ,but sharing a dorm for £80+ grrrr .
Even cheap foreign holidays are not cheap now....how much to park the car at the airport ? Etc etc etc.
Yet some people seem to still go away alot and still drive a flashy car, I think it's all show tba!
Maybe they have the right idea, live for the moment.
Fortunately Rachel from Accounts has her Fifty million pounds widow to buy her clothing for her.I wouldn't want I see her suffer. Keir's son has a £15,000,000 study pad to help himalong.Thesefolks are well aware of our struggles.
Can we please stop the whole "Rachel from accounts" thing - it's not funny & is a bit misogynistic.
Ok were all struggling (except those at the top) but what do we do about it in the short term?
Fortunately Rachel from Accounts has her Fifty million pounds widow to buy her clothing for her.I wouldn't want I see her suffer. Keir's son has a £15,000,000 study pad to help himalong.Thesefolks are well aware of our struggles.
Can we please stop the whole "Rachel from accounts" thing - it's not funny & is a bit misogynistic.
Is that the person of non specific gender (happy now?) who showed themselves to be corrupt within a few days of being elected as the new broom that sweeps clean?
Fortunately Rachel from Accounts has her Fifty million pounds widow to buy her clothing for her.I wouldn't want I see her suffer. Keir's son has a £15,000,000 study pad to help himalong.Thesefolks are well aware of our struggles.
Can we please stop the whole "Rachel from accounts" thing - it's not funny & is a bit misogynistic.
No no, leave it in.
It means I can stop reading four words in as I know the rest of the post won't be worth my effort.
Scotland / UK national Parks etc are pricing themselves out of the home market for the general population in spring and summer..
You'd think so but here in Aviemore it's busier than ever for 8-9 months of the year and it's not all foreign visitors or folk from the "wealthy South". I guess that prices are still increasing everywhere so UK holidays can still be best for many. We've a new hotel and more holiday accommodation just approved too, so developers aren't seeing an end to it anytime soon.
Yet some people seem to still go away alot and still drive a flashy car, I think it's all show tba!
Possibly telling that you see so many with cheapest option tyres on them when the car isn't very old at all
or they're are leased.
The annoying thing is how much of this has been caused by moronic ****wittery - Brexit, Ukraine, Iran - all unnecessary and all hitting us in the pocket.
Obviously the latter two have had far worse consequences for those unfortunate enough to be involved directly.
It should bring home how important voting is. Brexit and Trump's second term could have been prevented if more apathetic people had made the effort to vote.
Let them eat cake or they get what they deserve. Unfortunately, some of it lands on us innocent/more discerning bystanders...
Can we please stop the whole "Rachel from accounts" thing - it's not funny & is a bit misogynistic.
Also, blaming it on Labour ignores the fact this is a global issue, even in countries with very different governments like the USA. Prices are going up everywhere.
Wealth inequality has increased hugely too. California is attempting to create a wealth tax on billionaires to fund public services but look at the push back. Sergey Brin has made donations of 45 million dollars to groups trying to stop it. He has a personal wealth of 250 billion or so?
As a result, public services get worse, tax increases, people get more angry and paying tax and demand lower taxes -> everything carries on getting worse.
Looking around at local parents at our kids school, the ones with large houses and fancy cars, they don't earn that much more than anyone else, a lot of it just comes from inheritance. Some of them don't have a mortgage, thats a lot more disposable income.
It's interesting to hear that about Aviemore, people will pay and go ( for a special treat). But if they feel it's not value/ a rip off will they return?
We have stayed a few times in the McDonald in Jan /Feb just of the High St.
First time in the plusher building a couple of other times in the shabbier buildings . Same prices.
We are now put off as the second time in the shabbier bit was not great especially the staffing etc.
I suppose the extra capacity will mean better deals off season! So a small win 🙂
or they're are leased.
Are leasing companies just chucking ditch-finders on to cover the maintenance part of the deal? (Genuine question, never leased)
Can we please stop the whole "Rachel from accounts" thing - it's not funny & is a bit misogynistic.
Also, blaming it on Labour ignores the fact this is a global issue, even in countries with very different governments like the USA. Prices are going up everywhere.
Wealth inequality has increased hugely too. California is attempting to create a wealth tax on billionaires to fund public services but look at the push back. Sergey Brin has made donations of 45 million dollars to groups trying to stop it. He has a personal wealth of 250 billion or so?
As a result, public services get worse, tax increases, people get more angry and paying tax and demand lower taxes -> everything carries on getting worse.
Looking around at local parents at our kids school, the ones with large houses and fancy cars, they don't earn that much more than anyone else, a lot of it just comes from inheritance. Some of them don't have a mortgage, thats a lot more disposable income.
Not sure you can blame personal corruption on Global forces but nice try...
Looking around at local parents at our kids school, the ones with large houses and fancy cars, they don't earn that much more than anyone else, a lot of it just comes from inheritance. Some of them don't have a mortgage, thats a lot more disposable income.
My mother passed away at the age of 62 when my daughter was 18 months old. The inheritance I got knocked approx ten years off my mortgage but I would far rather have has my mum around as I know her and my daughter would both have got so much joy from that shared time.
Anyway I agree with the other parts of your post.
If you add in overnight accommodation then it starts becoming a "cost fest."
I did a 3 day "Tour De Calderdale" last year, stayed in two pubs and an (admittedly nice) hotel on the last night, with food and one way train ticket it cost me about £400, the cost of accommodation alone this year - was looking at going t'other way around, is not shy of that already.
"Not sure you can blame personal corruption on Global forces but nice try..."
No idea what you're on about. Who's are you saying is corrupt? Trump? Reeves? Starmer? Farage? Me? Everyone?
"Anyway I agree with the other parts of your post."
I'm not saying they'd rather have their money than their parents being around, just trying to explain the apparent disparity in owning flashy cars/houses. Also, some of them its not inheritance, but gifts. It's getting more difficult to earn your way to riches is what I'm saying. (Note *more difficult* not impossible).
or they're are leased.
Not even leased, in some cases just on finance. As a general rule, the flashier the (new) car, the less likely it is to be paid for, and the outstanding finance on some of them is more than their price...
Looking around at local parents at our kids school, the ones with large houses and fancy cars, they don't earn that much more than anyone else, a lot of it just comes from inheritance.
For a lot of people now, that is literally the only way they'll ever get any real money.
But with people living longer, that trickle down takes ages to the extent that you can be near (or even in) retirement yourself before your own parents pass away.
But with people living longer, that trickle down takes ages to the extent that you can be near (or even in) retirement yourself before your own parents pass away.
My mother was only 22 when I was born.
Women live longer than men, plus I am fairly accident-prone. Decent chance she'll outlive me! More likely I could be into seventies before she passes
Can we please stop the whole "Rachel from accounts" thing - it's not funny & is a bit misogynistic
This sort of abuse has plenty of tolerance when it comes to Truss, Farage and Johnson. Did we all have a laugh at the lettuce?
Rachel Reeves has done much to drain the UKs chances btw.
Labour have carried on Tory style neoliberalism with a huge degree of incompetence. They could do much to improve the UKs chances.
No one should be that shocked at the cost of living crisis if you analyse the rubbish economic choices of Labour and the Tories before them.
Blame your governments for not doing the correct things. They have the tools.
It's better to give a poor person a job than a rich person a bung.
"Not sure you can blame personal corruption on Global forces but nice try..."
No idea what you're on about. Who's are you saying is corrupt? Trump? Reeves? Starmer? Farage? Me? Everyone?
Sorry, having a pop at our squeaky clean new broom. Not their performance (in an imperfect world) but their corrupt practices. Clothes? Glasses? Tickets? And everything else we haven't seen/don't know about.
I suppose it was naive to expect anything else...
Don't forget, 'Rachel from Accounts' was filching from her own employer.Then jumped ship and got a nice non job(MP) due to her honest mate Tony.
This vile hypocrite is also on record badmouthing the poorest of the poor who claim benefits. Don't defend this utterly vile individual
Its also worth mentioning you cannot have a good secondhand car market when spare parts are so expensive or parts cannot be repaired. Which where the evolution idea goes wrong, the throw away society.
Keeping stuff is costing so much now.
I remember my sister scrapping a mint car when the govt offered a scrap scheme!
That car could have helped a young person get to work or something!
The circular economy needs to work better.
This vile hypocrite is also on record badmouthing the poorest of the poor who claim benefits. Don't defend this utterly vile individual
Don't get me wrong, I don't have a high opinion of the Chancellor - but I will also call out misogny. It's the equvulent of being racist when criticising several Tory chancellors. That wouldn't be tolerated, neither should this.
Be better.
How do we get more women engaged in mointain biking & places like this? Start by not being misogynistic.
or they're are leased.
Are leasing companies just chucking ditch-finders on to cover the maintenance part of the deal? (Genuine question, never leased)
In my case with a salary sacrifice car they replaced one set of tyres with identical EV-specific Michelin Pilot Sport, and the second set with CrossClimates on my request. No issues with me grabbing windscreen wipers etc directly from the main dealer either.
Mortgage went up £400 a month in November, Though a chunk was equity release for renovations. Got nothing to moan about really, I'm on a decent salary but single parent family with a teenager is a balance of realities. Agree with above sentiments, life for those on modest incomes must be really tough. Radio 4 the other morning said UK had gone from top tier European standard for wealth equality to literally bottom in 2 generations 🙁 Not content with that, we're about to hand power to a bunch of grifters who'll defiinitively make that accelerate.
DIY Sprucing a wall up with some colour matched emulsion....wow paint prices are off the scale! Liquid gold! How did that happen?
Council tax bill arrived the other day close to £3k, I live in a small house and local services are crap, it feels like a total rip off for what you get in return.
I'll throw £7 toothpaste into the mix! Utterly ludicrous.
For me inheritance is a big problem. If my grandparents built 150k or wealth then my parents inherited it, they could pay that much more for a house. Let's say they added it to their mortgaged 300k and left me 450k. That means that when competing for a house I have that much more cash than someone who didn't get an inheritance or a gift. Given a large proportion of the population are getting inheritances, this must significantly drive housing costs up leaving young people whose parents aren't rich enough to gift significant cash stuck renting until their parents die and making things generally difficult for those who don't have any family property.
Aggressive inheritance and gift taxes would be one of the best things you could do for inequality and social mobility. Sure you can rave about the super rich, but they are essentially impossible to properly tax without global government.
it feels like a total rip off for what you get in return
Mostly you don't get anything directly in return, it's used to pay for adult and child social care. This is how we fund looking after people. Very little of it is spent on any services you'll use this year (assuming you're lucky and not in the care system).
[ source ]
bemoaned a 10% increase in utility bill fix for 2 years on Tuesday. Deal now gone and it’s a 30% increase…
I'll throw £7 toothpaste into the mix! Utterly ludicrous.
That'll be the non-Clubcard price!!
Even Waitrose sell toothpaste at £1.35...
https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/colgate-triple-action-toothpaste/886732-804622-804623
Council tax bill arrived the other day close to £3k, I live in a small house and local services are crap, it feels like a total rip off for what you get in return.
Councils got absolutely rinsed during austerity.
The first things to go were the in-house and back room functions. So stuff like highways repairs, care services etc all got cut and handed to outside contractors. They all then put their prices up and up so the council is now paying more (usually for a "bare minimum" service) for all of that than it ever did before.
Stuff like Legal, Procurement, Finance, HR all got cut to the bone so now everyone left is overworked, underpaid and burnt out.
There's nothing left to give, the only option now is "discretionary" charges. Green bin collection, bulky waste collection... People don't want to pay that so they dump it and then the council (or, contractors) have to go out and clear it up. Which costs more again.
It's a catch 22 of spiralling costs, worse service and the customer in the middle trying to dodge those costs.
My local Co-op just closed because they were getting so much stuff shoplifted.
But but, before we all feel sorry for local Councils, aren't they the most inefficient, cloth eared organisations since British Rail? Bit like the NHS. It doesn't matter how much money is thrown at them, they'll consume it and still be crap.
My local played a blinder recently and put themselves on a 4 day week cos they're so efficient they don't need 5. I can't be bothered to check if they're also reducing salaries & pens by 20% as I think I know the answer and can't bear the disappointment...
With both the NHS and councils the main problem is the same thing... an aging population and our blindness to the fact we need to be paying more to care and treat them. That and... back to the main topic of this thread... not only do they have to face and deal with the inflation faced by you and me, but inflation in health and care has been running at an even higher rate... everything they have to buy has gone up even more than everything you and I have to buy.
But but, before we all feel sorry for local Councils, aren't they the most inefficient, cloth eared organisations since British Rail? Bit like the NHS. It doesn't matter how much money is thrown at them, they'll consume it and still be crap.
Not really. Or not to the extent that the RW press would have us believe.
Some of it is inefficiency of course, you can never have a 100% efficient organisation, public or private. Some of it is "redundancies".
How much PPE or medication gets chucked out in the NHS when it's out of date? I have no idea by the way but the point is that you have all that stuff ready to go, not waiting around for a pandemic before discovering you don't have any and need to throw billions at scammers and grifters to get some.
Same in a council, you need that capability ready to go, not scraping around for resources last minute.
It's not wastage or inefficiency, it's resourcefulness. Although yes, it can easily be framed as wasteful if you want to claim you'll "cut costs" or "remove red tape".
Mebbies. However, I recall Blairski doubling funding to the NHS during his reign when productivity actually went down. It seems there was an explosion in middle management/PowerPoint operators/paper clip counters but effective delivery of MORE care? Not really. That coupled with the dodgy PFI funding for capital projects that have since massively increased costs and left organisations shorter in available funds to spend on plasters and Panadol than before the increase.
I don't buy that inefficiency is the sole cause of stockpiling/preparedness. Yes there's a cost associated with this and it should really be under 'insurance' in the P&L. I think this is (more often than not) used as a convenient excuse - see Covid. As the report is just out it seems timely to raise that the NHS didn't in fact do a great job. They survived by the skin of their teeth by not doing BAU stuff and largely concentrating on Covid thereby causing massive excess death in everything else. That's not being prepared, that's being reactive (badly).
Somewhat off topic though...😬
productivity actually went down
Depends how you measure productivity. Health results were up. Waiting times down. Patient satisfaction up.
A stretched service, where staff are burning the candle both ends and looking to go to Australia, where there is no contingency for a bad flu season, where people are waiting in corridors to be seen... could easily be declared to have "high productivity".
Somewhat off topic though..
Back on topic... health and care is facing high inflation. That makes things tighter for councils and the NHS. Even more so than for us. Some of that extra cost is being passed on to us in council tax rises (and fiscal drag when it comes to other taxes), which then makes things tighter for us.
There is no such thing as a cheap break away now.
Train booked in advance, walk into the hills, camp
but effective delivery of MORE care? Not really.
My bit of the NHS the improvements were noticeable and significant
My local played a blinder recently and put themselves on a 4 day week cos they're so efficient they don't need 5. I can't be bothered to check if they're also reducing salaries & pens by 20% as I think I know the answer and can't bear the disappointment...
I'm sure all the locals are up in arms about this - but many studies have found that people are more efficient on a 4 day week for the same pay...
It seems there was an explosion in middle management/PowerPoint operators/paper clip counters but effective delivery of MORE care? Not really. That coupled with the dodgy PFI funding for capital projects that have since massively increased costs and left organisations shorter in available funds to spend on plasters and Panadol than before the increase.
Having worked inside and outside the NHS for a couple of decades now there's probably nowhere else on the planet an organisation of equivalent size that manages on so few 'middle' managers. Certainly it's my experience that lots of managerial functions within depts are either senior nurses or doctors/consultants pushed into the role because they're either the most senior or the longest time-served, who frankly don't have the time, experience or know-how how to be managers and it's partly why the NHS is generally poor at managing its staff.
PFI funding at the beginning saw some pretty ropey contracts handed out when managers (see above) within the NHS didn't have a scooby about how to draw them. Towards the end they were some of the tightest. The overall spend on existing PFI contracts is currently about 2% of the overall NHS budget, so they don't generally leave Trusts or other NHS services short of funds - not least of which is that they are completely different budgets anyway. If you feel that you could manage a good portion of the NHS estates for less cash, I'm pretty sure Wes would love to hear from you.
Wot Nickc said - Its a very efficient service with too few and too poorly trained managers. Its a lovely trope to bash the NHS with the nonsense about too many middle managers and yes there are some stupid posts created that are wasteful but overall one of the key things to improve it would be to employ and train better managers.
enigmas
Having serious discussions with my partner over whether we want to have a kid, and how the heck we'd actually afford it.
You'll absolutely never afford kid/s but you will make it work if you accept it's a terrible idea from a financial perspective but there are so many other prospectives where it could come to define you and your partner's lives in a positive way.
I really, really didn't want children but 'nature finds a way' and now he's 28 and I can't imagine life without him or the 2 grandchildren.
Admittedly my 2 year old grandson, aka Patient Zero has tried to kill me again with whatever form of botulinum he currently has, that necessitated a pretty urgent dose of antibiotics for me.
I'm still here though Luca, I'm still here, you baby faced assassin.
If you feel that you could manage a good portion of the NHS estates for less cash, I'm pretty sure Wes would love to hear from you.
Predictably I'm too busy complaining and riding to actually DO anything productive...🙃
Our local PFI hospital had an entire floor shut (as in never opened) as it was budget constrained due to its provision via PFI. I know these are all little anecdotes or maybe even edge cases but there does seem to be a lot of them...
I've worked with the NHS a number of times (IT Consultancy) and they are joint first as the most impossible organisation to make any progress with. Mainly due to 'management' being in constant conflict with 'medics'. We couldn't even get two Trusts to agree on something(s) very, very basic when they were geographically right next door to each other. <sigh>
Not really. Or not to the extent that the RW press would have us believe.
Some of it is inefficiency of course, you can never have a 100% efficient organisation, public or private.
I have worked my whole career in private companies. Only one of them would I consider to be "well run" - it had a remarkably small number of middle and senior managers. The place I am at now seems to be *entirely* middle managers - I'm not sure I've bumped into anyone that actually designs or makes the widgets we sell.
My point is either a) all this stuff about the public sector being crap compared to the efficient private sector is rubbish or b) only badly run places are stupid enough to give me a job.
I'm not sure anyone has said one is good 100%, the other bad 100%.
Sadly public orgs are directly subject to the vagaries of the current Govt, its priorities and whatever it wants to appear to be all over this week. To some extent, you don't get this in private co's but obviously they are indirectly affected by today's Govt's whim and whimsy. They're also obviously affected by senior management's obsession with 'the city' and shareholders which often has a negative impact on the smooth sailing of the ship.
Often (not always) you do get the sort of employee who is happy to be institutionalised in public sector orgs. Often these are not of the human dynamo type and usually a RPIA to interface with as a 'service user' - gah!
Not trying to insult anyone here it's just my experience that public sector and specifically local govt workers would often find it difficult in the private sector.
Depends where in the private sector doesnt it. Most employees in private sector companies struggle if they end up somewhere very aggressive
Oh, and the UK has horrible productivity as there hasnt been enough reinvestment, so the economy is effectively running down. The austerity period post 2008 did a lot of damage. The fix is not very easy though as you need a lot of government intervention , but it has to happen as too much of the UK doesnt have the economic strength to support its desired standard of living.
Even Liz Truss recognised but her cure was the exact opposite of what works
If you want to reduce your food cost use farm foods if you have one nearby sell lots of branded stuff so many bargains to be had, butter for example last night 10 blocks of Graham's found everywhere in Scotland for £10 no security tags to be seen Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons must be ripping us off, I avoid Lidl now unless Im tempted for a croissant or two and Aldi I'd give them a swerve
a strange dichotomy. You want more care (however that is measured) whilst being better prepared for unpredictable 1 in 100 yrs scenarios. More care sounds like “more nurses” (etc) but it might actually by using the nurses (etc) you have more efficiently by having more appropriate managers dealing with management and clinical staff free to do patient care. Or even to entirely redesign some areas of service delivery - something which clinical staff should obviously be stakeholders in but are probably not good people to lead or deliver.Mebbies. However, I recall Blairski doubling funding to the NHS during his reign when productivity actually went down. It seems there was an explosion in middle management/PowerPoint operators/paper clip counters but effective delivery of MORE care? Not really. That coupled with the dodgy PFI funding for capital projects that have since massively increased costs and left organisations shorter in available funds to spend on plasters and Panadol than before the increase.
I don't buy that inefficiency is the sole cause of stockpiling/preparedness. Yes there's a cost associated with this and it should really be under 'insurance' in the P&L. I think this is (more often than not) used as a convenient excuse - see Covid. As the report is just out it seems timely to raise that the NHS didn't in fact do a great job. They survived by the skin of their teeth by not doing BAU stuff and largely concentrating on Covid thereby causing massive excess death in everything else. That's not being prepared, that's being reactive (badly).
Somewhat off topic though...😬
I’ve not read the Covid report but the headlines of “the NHS nearly collapsed” didn’t immediately sound like they were blaming the nhs (rather than the DHSC: the two are very different although the public may conflate them)
I was looking at the stats ( in the papers!) for the likely cost of a govt. handout to help with heating costs later in the year. ( I think it said £8 billion!)?
I would have thought the money would be better used to invest in energy projects to the benefit of all over the long term and into the future.
I would have thought the money would be better used to invest in energy projects to the benefit of all over the long term and into the future.
I said exactly that last time we had government handouts, when the thing in Ukraine kicked off. If they had spent that money on insulation/double glazing/wind farms/whatever rather than temporarily subsidising fossil fuels where would we be now?
Also, if you spend £8bn on solar farms or whatever how many jobs does that support? How many does an £8bn bung to the energy companies support?
After a recent storm we were cut of power for a while not the energy companies fault. A terrible storm and terrible conditions to carry out repairs as well. You could see them working day and night in freezing wet windy conditions. Working hard.
They did repair after a day or two and did the main priorities first as well.
Our local What's Ap groups were alive wiith how we could claim compensation , not a huge amount of money per household really ,but they were like leaches wanting to claim .
No wonder our bills go up.
What a society we have become.
We couldn't even get two Trusts to agree on something(s) very, very basic when they were geographically right next door to each other. <sigh>
They are often independent in a way that baffles me. Sometimes it feels like if one ICB or Trust does a thing one way, the neighbouring ICB/Trust will do it another way, just 'because' Example: In Warrington there's a pathway for "non-specific suspect cancer" which means that if you suspect but there's none or vague symptoms just want to check, there's a single point for referral within oncology for that. Doesn't exist in Manchester, literally next door...
ather than temporarily subsidising fossil fuels where would we be now?
Some folks would be dealing with CCJ's from energy companies, but with new double glazing fitted?