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UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

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Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#61
post #56

A looming catastrophe in the UK and the government is doing nothing. I've seen some crazy stuff here over the last 12 years but this is next level.

> and the government is doing nothing. What do you think the government should do?

Tax those who can afford it to help those that can't.

At some point if the rich continue to demand sacrifice of the poor to prop up their gathering of wealth, it'll be guillotines in the streets. Historically Britain's upper class has been sensible at offering compromise to avoid extreme change, but it appears the current crop think their control of the media is enough to keep the population placid while they suffer.

So far, they appear to have been right. Who knows how long that'll continue as things get significantly harder for the average person.

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#62
post #18

I live in the north of England where temperature varies from 38F in Jan to 57F in August. It's pretty chilly for me, so I tend to spend a considerable amount of gas throughout the year. I'm renting a house, so deep work like insulation gets complicated. My point is that even with a comfortable salary, I will feel ~£600/month in energy. I can only fear for people that earn much less than me.

> I live in the north of England where temperature varies from 38F in Jan to 57F in August

38F = 3½C

57F = 14C

Not sure why you used Farenheit, but I live in the north too and it's colder and warmer than that. Currently 22C (61F) here in rainy Manchester.

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#63

A Mix of Brexit, an aging population, massive underinvestment in basically everything, covid mishandling and huge debt means the UK is around year 0 of a lost decade. I will leave if I can.

I understand where you're coming from, but try not to get too pessimistic. The UK has made i through much worse and come out the other end.

Past success is not a good predictor. Probably the Roman senators at the end of the Roman Empire also thought "oh well, we've been dragging our feet lately, but somehow things will work out".

I would say the most likely outcome is a further diminishing of the UKs international importance, together with some risk of Scotland breaking apart.

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#64
post #18

I live in the north of England where temperature varies from 38F in Jan to 57F in August. It's pretty chilly for me, so I tend to spend a considerable amount of gas throughout the year. I'm renting a house, so deep work like insulation gets complicated. My point is that even with a comfortable salary, I will feel ~£600/month in energy. I can only fear for people that earn much less than me.

Why have you converted the temperatures to Fahrenheit? It hasn't been used in BBC weather forecasts in Britain since the 1960s.

Probably for the convenience of the userbase here.

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#65
post #22

We have a corrupt government and media that itch each others back. There's still a complete lack of urgency. A potential new prime minister trying to defend profits of energy companies recently on TV just shows you the Modus operandi of the political class. It might push people to riots in the streets.

I don’t believe Brits are capable of revolting against this. They did hit the streets in anti-lockdown protests though, which is ironic because in the grand scheme of things that (lockdown) was temporary, but this inflation wave will be madly felt for quite long.

Imagine if French citizens were facing energy bills as high as the UK (£5,816, €6850). French citizens would never tolerate such levels.

From Reuters: "France has committed to capping an increase on regulated electricity costs at 4%. To help do this the government has ordered utility EDF (EDF.PA), which is 80% state owned, to sell more cheap nuclear power to rivals"

(Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/europes-efforts-shie...)

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#66

Hopefully the current energy crisis (in Europe) will further accelerate development in renewable energy. Seems much of Europe is still chained to LNG, and that demand is even wreaking havoc in countries which have been previously quite self-sustained, or really don't use LNG much themselves - with Norway being a good example.

The problem for europe is that solar panels, windfarms, and nuclear power plants don't produce natural gas. Electricity is great, but it's not a replacement for natural gas by itself. In Germany, only 25% of natgas usage is accounted for by electricity production.

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#67

A Mix of Brexit, an aging population, massive underinvestment in basically everything, covid mishandling and huge debt means the UK is around year 0 of a lost decade. I will leave if I can.

Honest question: Where would you go?

Peter Zeihan thinks that the US is in the best position to weather the coming years :-)

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#68

We should probably ban loads of our low paid workers from entering the country, print a load of money and give it to people, tell the remaining workers to stay at home, change all of our working practices so that they don't match our infrastructure, and unilaterally sever trade with partners that sell us energy. What could possibly go wrong?

"ban loads of our low paid workers"

wait until you learn how much lower people are getting paid now that they depend on a work visa. hint: a lot less than europeans coming in pre-brexit.

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#69
Inflation aside, does anyone think that they’ve really screwed with society with the lockdowns, the money printing, the vaccine mandates, and the work from home mandates?

Everything feels very broken. Nobody wants to work. Even people who have been asked to come to the office are screwing off at least 1-2 days of the week and no one is able to do a thing.

A massive group of people are essentially walking around with zero faith in their government. If they’re not hostile, they’re apathetic.

Money is still completely wonky. All older economic indicators have stopped meaning anything because money has stopped meaning all that much.

Healthcare feels even more broken than before. You’ve got more deaths than ever and chronic sufferers are the worst hit.

I feel very pessimistic when I look at the world right now. Everything feels very chaotic and I don’t see a way out of the disorder.

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