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UK food price inflation hit 16.2% in October – cost of food basics surging

bbc.co.uk

51–60 of 364 posts

Re: UK food price inflation hit 16.2% in October – cost of food basics surging

#51

I genuinely fear for the UK. It's going to be a very different country in ten years, and I fear it will be a weaker, poorer and more divided one. I don't know for sure what the main cause of our current problems is, but I know that it's not a single issue. Brexit, Covid-19 and the war with Russia – not one of these issues alone is the cause of our problems. My hope for the country rests in the fact that it still has…

It will be ok in the long term. It has the resources to overcome its current issues (most of them self-inflicted).

However, the next decade or two might be quite difficult. To be fair, there is some justice in it. You (collectively, as a country, not you personally) cannot keep voting for the same failed ideologies and then complain when the consequences come. This needs to be the end of Toryism as it currently exists. Conservatism in itself is fine, but the combination of chumocracy, alternative realities, and rabid nationalism is toxic and destabilising more than the UK.

[edit] just look at the peerage thing, or the way prime ministers have been chosen by party members. This just cannot go on for long if you want to keep the pretence of a democracy.

Re: UK food price inflation hit 16.2% in October – cost of food basics surging

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering that the US is much lower regs than the UK and has domestic tax havens, and that I doubt this is a problem for China, I think you exaggerate. It's the EU that is worried of being undercut and that's why they are trying to tie market access to EU rules.

The US would not allow their financial sector to migrate from NY to London. China is even more controlling than the US. London used to be the center of finance in Europe and now the EU sees an opportunity to grab that revenue / power. Where does this leave London? And the UK as a whole is heavily dependent on London.

> London used to be the center of finance in Europe

I think you'll find it still is, by quite a long way

> now the EU sees an opportunity to grab that revenue / power.

the EU hasn't even managed to pry Euro clearing out of London (despite trying extremely hard)

Re: UK food price inflation hit 16.2% in October – cost of food basics surging

#53
The UK government is pulling financial levers as if this is a financial problem. But while there are several contributing factors, this is overwhelmingly an energy problem.

The UK is 20 years behind where it needs to be in terms of nuclear, renewable and storage capacity.

There is no silver bullet.

It’s going to take 20 years to resolve, and that’s assuming they start today with an Apollo-program-level investment in energy production.

Re: UK food price inflation hit 16.2% in October – cost of food basics surging

#54
post #30

I left the UK for the US in 2019. My I-485 was approved this week. I haven't been able to travel back to the UK since 2019 first because of Covid and then because of the pending I-485 petition. I'll be going back for the first time once my card is delivered. Reading about what has been happening over the past years in the UK while sitting in the US is really strange. Sometimes it feels like reading about a cartoonish…

So you traded our bananas republic for a gun toting corporatocracy with low employment protection and comedy healthcare and no food standards.

I'm not sure who's worse off.

Re: UK food price inflation hit 16.2% in October – cost of food basics surging

#55
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems to coincide with inflation of food prices in the US where there was no Brexit.

How full are supermarket shelves in the US? Whole product lines are missing in supermarkets in the UK.

> Whole product lines are missing in supermarkets in the UK.

where does this rumour keep coming from?

bar during covid I haven't observed this in any supermarket (unless you go at 9pm on a Saturday night or something, where they haven't restocked yet)

Re: UK food price inflation hit 16.2% in October – cost of food basics surging

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering that the US is much lower regs than the UK and has domestic tax havens, and that I doubt this is a problem for China, I think you exaggerate. It's the EU that is worried of being undercut and that's why they are trying to tie market access to EU rules.

The US would not allow their financial sector to migrate from NY to London. China is even more controlling than the US. London used to be the center of finance in Europe and now the EU sees an opportunity to grab that revenue / power. Where does this leave London? And the UK as a whole is heavily dependent on London.

The UK is a major global financial centre and globally competitive. What it has lost, which is not that much, is due to EU regulations which mandate that some activities have to be in the EU.

China is not relevant.

You're not making a convincing point, IMHO.

Re: UK food price inflation hit 16.2% in October – cost of food basics surging

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This has e.g. happened with the Horizon Europe research program which Switzerland is no longer part of. That’s so self-destructive - surely the EU needs Switzerland’s powerful universities more than Switzerland needs Horizon?

My understanding was that the EU has many universities.

They’re not anywhere near where the Swiss universities are if you look at the rankings.

Re: UK food price inflation hit 16.2% in October – cost of food basics surging

#59
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US would not allow their financial sector to migrate from NY to London. China is even more controlling than the US. London used to be the center of finance in Europe and now the EU sees an opportunity to grab that revenue / power. Where does this leave London? And the UK as a whole is heavily dependent on London.

> London used to be the center of finance in Europe I think you'll find it still is, by quite a long way > now the EU sees an opportunity to grab that revenue / power. the EU hasn't even managed to pry Euro clearing out of London (despite trying extremely hard)

This is scheduled to leave in 2025.

Re: UK food price inflation hit 16.2% in October – cost of food basics surging

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Liz Truss made big mistakes in implementation: they did not discuss their plans with key stakeholders and they they did not prioritise measures (why abolish the 45p rate now?) but they did get that growth must be much higher priority, if not highest priority. Again, the level of debts is really weighing on things: without Covid debts Liz Truss's budget would have been well received. And of course even many in her own…

Debt being an issue is mostly a self imposed limitation / political tactic. Parties were saying exactly the same thing about debt in 2010 when debt / GDP ratio was lower in order to win an election and implement austerity. Covid Debt in the UK was all QE anyway, so is effectively money we owe to ourselves. I do agree that Truss could have done all the things she wanted to do if she had just been smarter about present…

Government spent massively during Covid through borrowing, that's not QE.

Edit: Level of QE does not imply that the government did not take on massive debts as well. It's not one or the other.

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