“Reality continues to ruin my life.”
― Bill Watterson, The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
I want to write about something that affects everyone, not mental health for a change, but about the cost of living crisis we are in at the moment. How does it affect us? What can we do to stop it? it’s a complex issue which is blamed on multiple things.
The COL started just before the Ukraine was invaded by Russia, then the markets slowly started losing hope and most things crashed. Before we knew it, 10%+ inflation on everything. Petrol was hit really hard with is almost reaching £2 a litre which is insane. The government took action but this is where I run into a problem. For all the work they are doing, why hasn’t it dropped yet, inflation I mean. I know they are probably stemming the tide of it but I’m getting sick of a weekly shop costing in excess of £100, where as it used to be well under £90. I know that doesn’t sound much but every little helps because the bugger of electric/gas bill is on its way,
On a separate note there are food shortages which I don’t think even gets a mention on the news anymore. Shops are stocking less because some products are hard to get hold of. Brexit must of had a big effect on lorrys coming over with goods. Then there is the egg problem due to avian flu. I miss having chickens, at least then we had a resource of our own. Dont think the neighbours would like it much if I built a coup out back.
People are starving. People are freezing, People don’t have eggs. For some reason this isn’t mentioned much on TV. Almost as if they are avoiding segments about it. Its a shame though. Unless you are on benefits you don’t get the extra payments. You feel guilty for putting on the heating. Since I work from home mostly I set it to 17c then increase it when the kids and D come home. Probably doesn’t help that I’m running a home lab for web dev.
To conclude; I think its a downside of living on a relatively small island who have voted themselves out of Europe, a war in Ukraine costing billions and avian flu. Not that I’m against helping ukraine but I think the people of this country need help as well. We are being forgotten.