The Great Squeeze: Cost of Living Crisis 2022

[Funcone]

Clearly some of this is a global issue, although Brexit has perhaps made things worse than in some other countries. Other countries are also putting in windfall taxes on their oil and gas companies. But every time the government says they have to cut this or that, you do have to remind yourself that they’re spending £250 million on a new Royal Yacht. Or that we couldn’t afford to maintain the £20 uplift in universal credit, but we give over £80 million a year to the Royal Family for their annual grant. Or that we pay the vice chancellors of our universities about £600,000 a year. Or that the prime minister was happy to spend £53 million on designing a garden bridge that never got built. It isn’t completely true that there isn’t any money. It does partly come down to how the government chooses to spend it.

For a lot of poor people, a big part of the problem is how much they’re spending on housing. When house prices stalled recently, the government chose to introduce a stamp duty holiday, because they wanted to carry on heating up the housing market. When the EU outlawed zero hour contracts, our government chose not to. Some of this has been caused by global issues, but a lot of it has come down to choices.

 

[Matt.GC]

Clearly some of this is a global issue, although Brexit has perhaps made things worse than in some other countries. Other countries are also putting in windfall taxes on their oil and gas companies. But every time the government says they have to cut this or that, you do have to remind yourself that they’re spending £250 million on a new Royal Yacht. Or that we couldn’t afford to maintain the £20 uplift in universal credit, but we give over £80 million a year to the Royal Family for their annual grant. Or that we pay the vice chancellors of our universities about £600,000 a year. Or that the prime minister was happy to spend £53 million on designing a garden bridge that never got built. It isn’t completely true that there isn’t any money. It does partly come down to how the government chooses to spend it.

For a lot of poor people, a big part of the problem is how much they’re spending on housing. When house prices stalled recently, the government chose to introduce a stamp duty holiday, because they wanted to carry on heating up the housing market. When the EU outlawed zero hour contracts, our government chose not to. Some of this has been caused by global issues, but a lot of it has come down to choices.

You're 100% right, it's all down to choices. The government chose to introduce stamp duty holidays and so called 'help to buy", not to help people buy houses but to keep the housing market as hot as fire so that the 'haves' (who vote Tory) carry on profiteering. To avoid any comebacks on that, I've benefited personally from such policies. I feel extremely sorry for the people who earn less or are younger than me not on the ladder who will continue to suffer from such short sited government policy.

The government has decided not to impose a windfall on energy companies like our European neighbours by choice.

The government has decided to not outlaw zero hours contacts like our European neighbours have by choice.

The government has decided we are to be the only nation in western Europe to increase taxes at this time through choice.

The government has decided not to means test pensioner benefits by choice.

The Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer decided to engage in a number of shindigs in Downing Street whilst the rest of us didn't see our loved ones by choice.

But at the next election, people will still vote for them anyway. The rich will because they'll carry on implementing policies to keep them rich. The poor will because they "got Brexit done" (whatever that means) and threw a pathetic few million quid at the North of England to pretend they're "levelling up" by tarting up a few railways here and there.

 

[Jb85]

You're 100% right, it's all down to choices. The government chose to introduce stamp duty holidays and so called 'help to buy", not to help people buy houses but to keep the housing market as hot as fire so that the 'haves' (who vote Tory) carry on profiteering. To avoid any comebacks on that, I've benefited personally from such policies. I feel extremely sorry for the people who earn less or are younger than me not on the ladder who will continue to suffer from such short sited government policy.

The government has decided not to impose a windfall on energy companies like our European neighbours by choice.

The government has decided to not outlaw zero hours contacts like our European neighbours have by choice.

The government has decided we are to be the only nation in western Europe to increase taxes at this time through choice.

The government has decided not to means test pensioner benefits by choice.

The Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer decided to engage in a number of shindigs in Downing Street whilst the rest of us didn't see our loved ones by choice.

But at the next election, people will still vote for them anyway. The rich will because they'll carry on implementing policies to keep them rich. The poor will because they "got Brexit done" (whatever that means) and threw a pathetic few million quid at the North of England to pretend they're "levelling up" by tarting up a few railways here and there.

I agree with your post totally

But your right they will get back in as we don’t have a valid alternative….

 

[Matt.GC]

they will get back in as we don’t have a valid alternative….

I concur. It's a testament to just how pathetically inept, convictionless and poorly led the opposition parties are. My criticism of them would be far stronger than it is for the government in fact. The government of the day will always do what they are allowed to do. Unless you live in Scotland, who the hell is there to vote for?

 

[WillPS]

Ed Miliband made what is probably now considered a mistake in that he announced policies way in advance of the 2015 General Election. As an example, he announced the energy price cap in their 2013 autumn conference, and it was initially quite popular. By Spring 2015 though it had basically no cut through as it had featured so heavily in all their comms in the time between - in fact it had been so long that Lynton Crosby had managed to turn the tables with narratives about such a thing being overtly marxist (which funnily enough was all forgotten when Theresa May put a less good version of the same policy in her manifesto in 2017!).

The 2017 Labour manifesto was thought to cut through relatively well in part because the Conservative one was so poor but also because there was some real surprises in there which had cut through. Fast forward to 2019, the key Brexit part of that manifesto was screwed by subsequent events and the rest was stale.

I'm not saying I'm down with it; I find it deeply frustrating as somebody interested in politics desperate to know what an alternative government would be doing about the cost of living crisis etc - but I do see the logic in holding back until the general election campaign can begin.

Another consideration - the next 2 years are going to be hella rough and are likely to throw up events we can't really foresee but opposition can totally blame on the party who've held power for the last 12-14 years. Why risk announcing a policy which could be weaponised by the government if it could be argued it would have made something worse? Leave it unannounced and it can be tweaked as much as is needed between now and the election campaign.

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

The biggest problem was Boris was brought in to get us the best Brexit deal then he was throw in the deep end with everything else that’s happened over the past 2 years. It was the same with Labour when Gordon Brown took over the sinking ship Tony Blair left behind.
Like after this Party gate cover up where most of the uk stuck by the rules set by the government I don’t want to vote for Torres at the next election but I don’t trust Labour enough to do a better job and it be a wasted vote if I vote for any of the other parties.

 

[BarryZola]

The Tories have probably put tax/nat insurance up now so that they can remove it as a pledge at the next general election. It'll be "We are the party that listens, so we will be reducing national insurance" etc etc. I can literally see the weird legged Sunak saying it now. They'll be leaving themselves wiggle room for some giveaways in their manifesto, that's why they're tightening their belts a bit at the moment. I do think Labour can win the next general election. I voted Tory last time to get Brexit through but they've managed almost everything so badly since and been so corrupt that there's no chance of me voting for them for many many years. Will probably waste my vote or go Labour next time.

 

[Alsty]

I don't understand when people say Labour isn't a credible alternative or they couldn't do any better.

Do people really see the current government and think "we need five more years of that"?

 

[Benzin]

I don't understand when people say Labour isn't a credible alternative or they couldn't do any better.

Do people really see the current government and think "we need five more years of that"?

Presumably because the Tories keep blaming them for all the current issues when they've been in charge for over a decade.

Add in the media to that and its a perfect storm for them. For example:

The biggest problem was Boris was brought in to get us the best Brexit deal then he was throw in the deep end with everything else that’s happened over the past 2 years. It was the same with Labour when Gordon Brown took over the sinking ship Tony Blair left behind.

Whilst the contents of the "best" Brexit deal for the UK will never truly be agreed upon, there are many reasons as to why BJ "being thrown in the deep end" is a poor view of the pandemic and other issues that have come about.

His initial response to the pandemic (didn't go to Cobra meetings, contracted the thing because he went and did a meet and greet PR stunt in a Covid ward) was diabolical. Adding to the wastes of money beyond that in dodgy PPE contracts, mixed messaging to the public and the waste of the tracking system.

But he "did his best". Which is all that matters to some. He clapped for carers then voted against a pay rise for example. He (and many other Tories) will say one thing then vote against it (see the recent Trans conversion therapy nonsense going on).

That the reaction of many supporters is "well Labour wouldn't have done any better" is a daft rhetoric to avoid the notion that THEIR vote led to a vastly problematic situation across the board that could've been dealt with (and arguably has been in other countries) better.

The current opposition is split and divided across the parties. With FPTP in place that divide will always lead to a Tory win unless there's a massive left wing surge in the areas that flip flop. Ideally if the opposition want to get anywhere they should work together to get in (I.e. particular parties in tight areas don't stand, allowing another to in theory win), then push in a Proportional Representation voting scheme which allows a fair more fairer and accurate depiction of how the views of the country as a whole are presented.

Until that happens though. We're stuffed.

 

[Matt.GC]

I don't understand when people say Labour isn't a credible alternative or they couldn't do any better.

Do people really see the current government and think "we need five more years of that"?

Well one rather comical "justification" being banded about for his government staying in office at the moment seems to be that he's "got the big things right."

It's quicker if I list off the big things he has got right other than what he hasn't:

1. Right, errrrrrm. Uh, well he.... um....

Yeah, I can't think of anything.

 

[JAperson]

Well one rather comical "justification" being banded about for his government staying in office at the moment seems to be that he's "got the big things right."

It's quicker if I list off the big things he has got right other than what he hasn't:

1. Right, errrrrrm. Uh, well he.... um....

Yeah, I can't think of anything.

I can think of one thing and one thing only


How to lie and get away with it....

 

[Dave]

I concur. It's a testament to just how pathetically inept, convictionless and poorly led the opposition parties are. My criticism of them would be far stronger than it is for the government in fact. The government of the day will always do what they are allowed to do. Unless you live in Scotland, who the hell is there to vote for?

Just out of curiosity which exact aspects of the opposition do you have an issue with? Which policies do you disagree with that the Tory party offer such a bright alternative to?

 

[tayspru]

Let’s not try anything different, another 5 years of what we’ve had is perfect for us. The last 12 years have been wonderful and the public are reaping the benefits of austerity

 

[Matt.GC]

Just out of curiosity which exact aspects of the opposition do you have an issue with? Which policies do you disagree with that the Tory party offer such a bright alternative to?

Not sure why this is being caricatured as me thinking Tories have a "bright alternative" to anything. At a time when the government is failing the people so miserably, the main opposition parties should be cleaning up. Yet the latest Poll of Polls shows Labour an absolutely pathetic 6 points ahead.

Labour is still broken and disunited behind the scenes, has lost touch with its base and 2 years out from a GE it doesn't seem to be able to score through the open goal that is the state of the country at the moment. Starmer is seen as a boring establishment lawyer type, there's some guff about a windfall tax on energy companies and repeated calls for a stubborn Prime Minister to resign (he won't by the way) and little else. Just 6 points ahead! Woeful.

As for the Lib Dems, what are they doing? They've repeatedly defended the betrayal to prop a Tory government and it's failed policies up for 5 years despite spending decades stuffing leaflets through doors like mine pledging "vote Liberal Democrat to keep the Tories out". Then went into a wierd phase of just being the anti-Brexit party. The latest from them? Commissioning a poll that concluded those over or near retirement age will be worse off this winter in a silly attempt to win back the wealthy pensioners in the south west who used to vote for them.

2 years out from a GE with a broken country and a corrupt PM, it doesn't look like the winds of change are blowing to me. Certainly doesn't feel like 1995 right now.

 

[JAperson]

The reason for the poll lead is simple, Boris is a master at capturing the public, he's done it time and time again, he is starting to get away with partygate too as the excuse book comes out. Labour is far from perfect however it is in much better position than the tory party, which is still incredibly divided over several issues, it's just that the media don't focus on it.

People don't seem to get that if you don't want the tories out you have to start backing the opposition, Kier Starmer seems competant and stateman like two things Boris isn't. He has started doing an excellent job at the dispatch box, take a look at PMQ's yesterday and his statement after Boris' partygate stamement from Tuesday. Starmer isn't perfect and he needs to start conveying his policies better, he has got some but doesn't make them clear. If he can get the communication sorted he'd be much higher in the polls.

It is also true that the public don't trust Labour after Corbyn who did some serious damage to the party image, I think the only way for that to change is time, there is little Starmer can do directly. Hopefully we see a bigger swing in the actual election than the polls currently predict. The polls really aren't very reliable anyway, for starters people don't tend to engage with polls very much and will often just say whatever to get the pollster out of there face. It's common practise for polls this far before an election to be way off. Exit polls are often much more accurate as they ask people at polling stations after they have just put there ballot in.

 

[Alsty]

It doesn't help that the mainstream media and press are predominantly right wing and are happy to push the current government's agenda(s).

 

[JAperson]

It doesn't help that the mainstream media and press are predominantly right wing and are happy to push the current government's agenda(s).

Indeed, that is the main reason for the low polling, even people who say they aren't affected by the press are to a certain extent, if all you here day in day out is something you will start to believe it, even if only to a small level.

 

[jon81uk]

It doesn't help that the mainstream media and press are predominantly right wing and are happy to push the current government's agenda(s).

and this is also the main reason why people "hated" Jeremy Corbyn, the right wing papers told them not to trust him.
In reality many of his policies were reasonable and would have helped people with the current cost of living increase. Others such as nationalising railways is basically happening now anyway.

 

[Matt.GC]

Although polls have a margin for error that the last decade has shown us can be quite large, Labour should have a double digit lead right now if they are to be seen as being anything near effective enough an opposition. 6 points against the current back drop is pathetic whichever way you look at it.

Then you have to factor in the uphill battle they were already facing having lost Scotland to raving nationalists and not having the benefit of the Lib Dems holding back Tory seats for them in the south west.

Loathe or love them, where's the Paddy Ashdown, Nick Clegg, Charles Kennedy, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, John Smith, Margaret Thatcher etc types all gone? The SNP have one. Boris pretends to be one. Who's going to come out and appeal to swing voters? Who's going win over those who'll otherwise abstain from voting and leave us with a default Tory government for another decade or so? Who's going to come out with something fresh and original?

As someone who used to be a Labour party member who comes from a family of trade unionists, it pains me to say that even I was struggling to decide which box to put my cross in at the last election. Even though I disagreed with them and didn't want to give in to all the Derek Hatton types who infiltrated the party, at least Labour stood for something at the last election. Now we're back to the Zombie Labour Party of the early 2010's, who for all I can see are basically just the Not Tory Party. We're 3 years into the election cycle, surely Labour and the LD's should have some sort of vision by now other than just reinforcing what we already know about our current disrespectful, incompetent, dishonest, criminal inhabitant of number 10 - something which the media, Met and even members of his own party all already doing anyway.

Take the commons performance yesterday. Partygate won't be going away, it doesn't need the leader of the opposition to waste his questions again rinsing and repeating. At one point, it almost looked like Boris was going to start reeling off his own failures. Starmer even let Boris get away with saying he was going to carry on "delivering for the British people" completely unchallenged whilst the NHS is in chaos and 40% of the UK population will be in fuel poverty by the end of the year! This time in 1995, we already knew about policies such as the minimum wage and John Major went to every PMQ's bricking it.

 

[Dave]

Not sure why this is being caricatured as me thinking Tories have a "bright alternative" to anything. At a time when the government is failing the people so miserably, the main opposition parties should be cleaning up. Yet the latest Poll of Polls shows Labour an absolutely pathetic 6 points ahead.

Labour is still broken and disunited behind the scenes, has lost touch with its base and 2 years out from a GE it doesn't seem to be able to score through the open goal that is the state of the country at the moment. Starmer is seen as a boring establishment lawyer type, there's some guff about a windfall tax on energy companies and repeated calls for a stubborn Prime Minister to resign (he won't by the way) and little else. Just 6 points ahead! Woeful.

As for the Lib Dems, what are they doing? They've repeatedly defended the betrayal to prop a Tory government and it's failed policies up for 5 years despite spending decades stuffing leaflets through doors like mine pledging "vote Liberal Democrat to keep the Tories out". Then went into a wierd phase of just being the anti-Brexit party. The latest from them? Commissioning a poll that concluded those over or near retirement age will be worse off this winter in a silly attempt to win back the wealthy pensioners in the south west who used to vote for them.

2 years out from a GE with a broken country and a corrupt PM, it doesn't look like the winds of change are blowing to me. Certainly doesn't feel like 1995 right now.

You stated you had more criticism for the opposition than the government, I asked you to outline why.

As for polls in a multi-party picture such as the uk to get a double digit lead is almost impossible. Bear in mind the Tory’s won an 80 seat majority with an 8.6% higher vote share than labour, as it stands with the current polling the modelling suggests Labour would get 302 seats to the Tory’s 256 seats… obviously since the SNP took over labours Scottish vote they will always struggle to get an outright majority.

Anyway the point is national polling can give widely different majorities for small swings in percentage voting intention in a first past the post system with multiple parties in play.