Cost of living crisis

April 2024 Forums General discussion Cost of living crisis

Viewing 15 posts - 91 through 105 (of 322 total)
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  • #233973
    Lizzie45
    Participant

    #233974
    ALB
    Keymaster

    Looks as if I should have gone to Kings Cross. It seems that Enough is Enough rather than Don’t Pay has won the franchise to organise these protests. Predictable, I suppose, as the unions are bigger and have more experience at organising these things than community activists.

    #233975
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    I think our problem is how to counter the swing to Labour in the belief that they have the magic remedy for our problems.

    Starmer by default has become the alternative prime minister even for his critics like Lynch and Graham. He is the lesser evil.

    The Labour Party conference from my understanding reinforced his position and from my survey of the media, his leadership is unchallenged.

    Can we actually pin him down to definite economic policies that we can expose as flawed and fated to fail?

    We do need to say that global events and the market do determine economics but the danger is we parrot Truss who is using the same excuse. We have to differentiate our reasoning and to make it clear Labour’s answer is not going to succeed.

    #233987
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Kuenssberg points out that if the predicted cost of funding the two-year energy freeze is around £120bn, the windfall tax is predicted to only raise £8bn.

    “We haven’t got any numbers from the government,” says Reeves. “But we think we can raise tens of billions from the windfall tax.”

    #234053
    Thomas_More
    Participant

    I’ve not been following this thread. Can I have, in a nutshell please, an SPGB analysis of why our bills are increasing, given that the UK doesn’t depend on Russian gas?

    #234054
    ALB
    Keymaster

    But it does depend on gas (mainly to burn to generate electricity) and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the retaliation by the Western bloc and Russia counter-retaliation have raised the international price of gas wherever you buy it from.

    #234058
    Thomas_More
    Participant

    Why are the French not having to pay exorbitantly?

    #234060
    DJP
    Participant

    “Why are the French not having to pay exorbitantly?”

    Because the state has subsidised the difference.

    #234061
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Another reason is perhaps that the French possess far more nuclear power stations

    #234084
    Lizzie45
    Participant

    Duplicate post

    #234086
    Lizzie45
    Participant

    “Why are the French not having to pay exorbitantly?”

    Reply given here (#232606) a month ago:

    https://theconversation.com/energy-crisis-why-french-households-are-largely-protected-from-soaring-costs-while-british-families-struggle-188417

    #234095
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    The cost of living is getting so high that in Argentina peoples are becoming vegetarian due to the high cost of beef, chicken and pork, and Argentina is a large producer of beef and porks.

    A friend sent me a message that she is only drinking water for dinner instead of wine because the price of wine is getting too expensive and they produce a lot of wine too

    https://www.pigprogress.net/world-of-pigs/country-focus/argentina-destined-to-become-a-major-pig-exporter/ Argentina destined to become a major pig exporter

    #234234
    Lizzie45
    Participant
    #234285
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster
    #234433
    ALB
    Keymaster

    I would expect more and more people in this country to come to realise what Patrick Cockburn says in today’s i paper (and which many in other European countries already have):

    “Liz Truss and her ministers keep saying that the worldwide cost of living crisis is the result of ‘Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine’. But it would be truer to say that the economic turmoil is the result of an ill-considered decision to wage economic war against Russia which was never likely to work”.

    In other words, we are suffering a cost of living crisis because of the West’s deliberate policy. We are collateral damage in the struggle between the capitalist West and capitalist Russia over into whose sphere of influence Ukraine should fall. The government thinks that this pain is worth us suffering so they can achieve their aim. And we are expected to put up with it.

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