[kreuzberger]

As the inevitable horror-shows laps ever closer to our previously bountiful shores, I am doing my bit. The beer and the wine are now on a subscription delivery order which saves a fortune on both boot leather and scooter gas, but the Kreuzette is taking us a stage further.

Stand by lights are now strictly verboten. It might be the general piggy-bank mentality of Bavaria or, well. that ingrained attitude to lights at night during troubling times. It could also be down toe her long-term Green membership but it's hard to tell. All I know is that these feckers are to be done with.

I have worked out the cost of these evil illuminations to be at least 3.6¢ a week (or maybe a year) but I still can work out a fail-safe way of of shedding this burden.

The LED's are inaccessible from inside so I am considering attacking them with a drill bit or a finely-calibrated firearm.

We still have several of these in the hoose;



What do I need to do to rebalance the budget?

[Spoonman]

Not aiming to be a smart arse here, but the device you have pictured is for "NEMA 5" plugs/sockets that are used in North America - you'd need the "Schuko" equivalent in Germany.

[kreuzberger]

Aye, that was a demonstration of any old on/off switch because I couldn't be arsed to resize an image for uploading here. Here is is anyway.

DSC_1705 copy.jpg (59.89 KiB) Viewed 2770 times

The question is really whether the bulbs can be destroyed without breaking the whole thing.

As much as anything else, it is symbolic because we are very frugal with our power anyway which happens to be 100% renewable. Nonetheless, it has also gone up by over 30% - zip compared to the UK - although our heating gas is billed annually. That's going to be relatively nasty if we actually have any gas to burn. That is far from guaranteed.

We also have a couple of leccy wall panels precisely because they consume the sustainable source, but they could prove to be a godsend, however unwittingly invested in.

Rumour has it that we are about to get solar panels for the roof terrace which is south- and west-oriented, and which will fuel the upstairs shower.

[AOB]

People on £45,000 could struggle with bills, says chancellor

I've no doubt some will. But before worrying about them, there are people on less than half that but not on Universal Credit or don't satisfy any of the other benefit recipient criteria which enables those who do to qualify for the £650 help. There's a whole group of low earners who've been forgotten in all this because they don't qualify for those benefits or have kids. But yeah, let's worry about those on £3k net a month first.

[kreuzberger]

I am not sure that a couple, way below being on the average wage, should be feeling the pinch just as acutely as they clearly are. JAMS, as May called them, will be over the edge as each bill impacted either directly or indirectly by energy prices - "everything" as we call it in Luton - rises stratospherically.

In fairness, "everything" is the Biggest Lie in history. At least the water companies aren't doubling their bills for filling the seas and rivers with shit. Yet.

[mattomac]

The day before his handy advice was to put on an extra layers

[AOB]

Johnson said there will be more financial help announced in September. Remains to be seen whether it is targeted or for everyone. Targeted costs them less money and gets them media brownie points. Everyone getting it means nobody slips through the net. Knocking a further £400 off every energy bill is what I'd do if I was PM, but I wouldn't have let it get this far in the first place. I'd have frozen the cap and made the bastards use their obscene profits to cover the cost. Windfall taxed the shit out of them.

[Youngian]

I'd have frozen the cap and made the bastards use their obscene profits to cover the cost. Windfall taxed the shit out of them.

That risks collapsing the share price and the government having to buy the electricity companies in a fire sale. Win-win.

[MisterMuncher]

In fairness, those wee indicator lamps, as the Electronic engineer brother puts it, "will run on the fuckin' smell of electric". I've had more than one incident when an isolator has been completely shot to bits but the lamp stays resolutely operational. Usually the isolators for electric showers, which are a fucking pox and should be eliminated.

[MisterMuncher]

Tiny and quite lovely things:

Got the obligatory emails from the kids' school regarding starting again this week. Bear in mind that this area is pretty affluent (on average), as in there's a few houses for sale at the minute in the seven figure range. Tucked amongst it:
Kids can go to school in pretty much anything as long as they have a school jumper of some kind.
Gifts to teachers are completely verboten
School will open at 0845 and afterschools/homework club for the first three years is now free so no multiple pickups/drop offs for people with multiple kids in the school.

[kreuzberger]

It dawned on me this morning that something might have changed.

The way that general markets work: you charge as much as you can for your product or service, knowing that your customer can afford it and that it will not be any more expensive than visible, available competitor offers.

But what if there is an informal, entirely spontaneous cartel? Almost everywhere and particularly the one that operates within the sector of this morning's regular tinned tomatoes?

Last year, they were priced at around 40¢ a pop. They now can't be touched for less than 70¢. Virtually nothing has changed in their production cost as there is little or no heating when they are grown on Italy hillsides. Workers' rewards haven't increased. Granted, the manufacture in the cannery will be impacted upon by the post-Covid disruption in raw materials markets.

Funnily enough, the price of posh brands like "Mutti" has barely shifted. They are still sitting at around 1.30 € a can.

This tells me that the mood might have changed. What happens if entire markets passively but collectively decide, "fuck it lads, let's ramp up the price and see what we can get away with"?

Without a doubt, the Brexit impact on the island is a major factor but it still doesn't justify the massive shelf-edge increases. You can also drop as much ordnance on Ukraine as you like but you'll never get to the 5-fold increase in UK energy prices.

My conclusion is simply that market participants are taking the piss.

[Spoonman]

Last year, they were priced at around 40¢ a pop. They now can't be touched for less than 70¢. Virtually nothing has changed in their production cost as there is little or no heating when they are grown on Italy hillsides. Workers' rewards haven't increased. Granted, the manufacture in the cannery will be impacted upon by the post-Covid disruption in raw materials markets.

While I doubt they'd account for the whole 30c, additional transport costs?

[Oboogie]

Last year, they were priced at around 40¢ a pop. They now can't be touched for less than 70¢. Virtually nothing has changed in their production cost as there is little or no heating when they are grown on Italy hillsides. Workers' rewards haven't increased. Granted, the manufacture in the cannery will be impacted upon by the post-Covid disruption in raw materials markets.

While I doubt they'd account for the whole 30c, additional transport costs?

Also additional storage costs due to the precarious post-Brexit supply chain.

[Yug]

People living in social housing in England could see rent increases capped below inflation next year, the government has said.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62732367

While private landlords are free to charge whatever the fuck they like.


I'm glad someone's on my side

Labour's shadow levelling up, housing and communities secretary Lisa Nandy said families in social housing already face "impossible choices" between heating and eating.

She said: "This announcement is therefore welcome clarity that social renters shouldn't be facing rent rises of 11% or more in just a few months' time.

"But we urgently need clarity on how the shortfall will be funded because social landlords, including hard-pressed local councils, can't be expected to take the hit.

"There is also a huge hole in this plan to address the hundreds of thousands in the private rented sector who face a cost of living crisis."

[Yug]

A local Tory Party chairman sPeKes his BrANeS

A local Conservative Party chairman in a Red Wall parliamentary constituency has claimed that many households using food banks during the escalating cost-of-living crisis do not need to do so, insisting that rising costs are being “overplayed”.

Graham Hutton, chairman of the Newcastle-under-Lyme Conservative Association told i: “An awful lot of people who use food banks do because it’s free food and they wouldn’t pass on something free.”

Mr Hutton, who is 71 and a director of a management consultancy company, also said that people should “put on another jumper” this winter to save on heating bills, and questioned why those people between the ages 50 and 65 who had retired were “not in work”.

Mr Hutton added that the next Prime Minister – who is heavily tipped to be the current Foreign Secretary Liz Truss – should announce policies to help with rising costs immediately after entering Downing Street next Monday. However, his focus would be to help small businesses survive.

“I agree that she [Ms Truss] has to reduce energy costs,” he said. “But the reason I think she has to reduce energy costs isn’t for the average person. It’s actually for the small businesses, the backbone of this country...

The local Tory chairman, who is also a Staffordshire County Councillor, added that there were “loads of websites” to help people budget and cook their own meals but that “people aren’t interested” and that “they want everything on a plate put in front of them, rather than work out how to budget their money”.

“We can’t bankrupt the country because people won’t put jumpers on. In Ukraine they’re dying. So, while people are dying, I think we complain a little bit too much about the consequences of that [war]. Let Putin win or wear a jumper.”...

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/tory- ... ee-1821709

Ah. Apparently it isn't quite that simple

Samantha Stapley, chief operations officer at the food bank charity Trussell Trust, said: “Hunger in the UK isn’t about food – it’s about not having enough income. People need food banks when there isn’t enough money coming in to cover essential costs. On average, households at food banks in our network have under £60 a week left after housing. It doesn’t matter how good at budgeting you are if there isn’t enough money to budget with in the first place.

And we'll finish with this little gem

Mr Hutton also said that he believes those who had retired early and are struggling to afford the rises in the cost of living should consider returning to work.

“I’m quite shocked at the number of people between the ages of 50 and 65 who are not in work,” he said. “They’re not on a great income. They’re probably having to go for Universal Credit. You just think why have you stopped work?”

What fucking planet are these cunts on?

[Youngian]

Graham Hutton Consultancy Ltd doesn’t appear to even have a website or any evidence of clients. Fellow directors are also called Hutton.

[Bones McCoy]

[AOB]

Graham Hutton Consultancy Ltd doesn’t appear to even have a website or any evidence of clients. Fellow directors are also called Hutton.

And a quick bit of Googling indicates he did have a Twitter account but it no longer exists. Using the same manner of his ignorant, lazy generalisations I reckon 71 year old Tory councillors from Staffordshire with the surname Hutton are probably nonces who need their hard drives checking.

[Yug]

Another fine upstanding member of the Cuntservative Party.

Well-fed Tory councillor with "Healthy Lives" remit doesn't believe people can't afford to eat.

A Conservative county councillor has been urged to resign after he said he found it "hard to believe" parents were skipping meals to feed their children.

In a video talking to Guardian columnist Owen Jones, Jeff Watson said people were "not starving".

Wansbeck's Labour MP Ian Lavery said his comments were a "disgrace" and he should resign.

Mr Watson, Northumberland's cabinet member for healthy lives, has been approached for comment...

...Mr Watson, who represents Amble West with Warkworth, is heard denying the UK had issues with malnutrition, adding he did not see "people dying on the streets" in his area.

Told by Mr Jones that three million people were at risk of malnutrition in Britain, Mr Watson said: "I don't see it. I don't see it in my home town, I don't see people dying on the streets of malnutrition."

Asked whether that meant he lived in a bubble, he replied: "No I don't think so, because I live in Northumberland and the south east of Northumberland is one of the most deprived parts of the country.

"Yes they have got some difficulties but they're not starving. People aren't starving in the streets, they haven't got rickets."...


...Mr Jones said many charities had reported cases of parents skipping meals in order to feed their children, and asked Mr Watson if he believed those reports.

The councillor replied: "I find it hard to believe."...


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-63233023

Because people aren't actually dying on the streets it's not a problem.

[Andy McDandy]

Besides, Warkworth is about the poshest of the posh. Northumberland, once you're outside Newcastle, generally is.