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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

#71

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.

Europe is going to come out strong out of this whole mess.

The political unity so quickly after the start of the war was unexpected (and admirable).

Ten years from now, Europeans will drive electric (if they'll drive at all), solar panels will be everywhere, and the continued flex-work-from-home revolution will have created an enormous amount of extra time for everybody. They'll be comfy in their sustainable homes and healthy cities, those few years of inflation a memory only.

It's a tough transition, that eventually every country needs to make, but Europe will be ahead of the rest of the world by miles.

And in the US, 10 years from now, the next gas price spike will again have people start to whine (yet again), we'll still be coughing on fumes when dropping our kids of at their school, the energy grid will continue to be unreliable in face of every minor or major natural disaster, and we'll wonder why nothing really materially has changed (and then blame the government).

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

#72
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.

I'm sorry but I don't understand the comment.

First, I'm not in Manchester, considerably more northern, so why try to compare?

Secondly, Manchester's average temperature in August is close to 16C (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester#Climate).

Thirdly what is strange about the temperature on a given day being higher than the average?

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

#73

I've been whining about how unjust and non-meritocratic the current economy has been for the last 5 years and look at that... These insane inflation numbers are proving me right. I'm quite sure the inflation will continue too. My detractors were in fact gaslighting me the whole time, as I suspected. The people at the top today are incompetent and lack principles. No better than the corrupt dictators of uncivilized na…

Why are these numbers proving you right? Those people that made an decision to transition to a sustainable lifestyle by:

- Isolate their house and/or live in a small, well isolated apartment

- Buy solar panels and a heatpump.

- Save gas by wearing an extra sweater and setting the thermostat a bit lower.

are affected far less by this massive inflation.

Of course, for the 37% in the UK that do not own a house (probably because they cannot afford it) and/or convince their landlord to isolate their property, it is unjust.

Since more people own their house than rent it seems that this particular inflation wave makes the economy more just rather than less just, given that the biggest polluters are hit the the hardest.

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

#76

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…

Yes, this matches how I feel.

The world was just very different pre-2020. It's all just gone phone call nonsense. Everyone is slacking off, productivity is through the floor, endless queues for everything, shortages, public transport use way down, etc.

I haven't even had a proper full time job since then because as far as I can tell literally 0 work from office jobs exist any more. They just went extinct.

The idea of even using an indicator like inflation to capture this is weird because there's been a qualitiative, not quantitative, change in what life is. It's not just "before but a different % of things".

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

#79

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.

Since this is also related to higher energy prices, do you think the invasion on Ukraine is also a contributing factor? Although if that were the case, we’d also see as high of inflation in other European countries?

It's definitely a contributing factor. The thing is, other nations just have to deal with high gas prices. The UK has to deal with high prices AND:

* being reliant on gas for both heat and power

* a collapsing pound driving prices higher in local currency

* no supply guarantee since we left the EU (we are now "at the end of the pipe")

* some of the most energy inefficient housing in Europe after decades of not investing or taking climate change seriously

* very high taxes, very low spending on poor people and a big deficit (so we have no room to bail out users)

* no domestic storage so we are just constantly exposed to spot prices

And that's just the issue around Russian gas. We also have dozens of other economic chickens coming home to roost...

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

#80

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…

Yes, this matches how I feel. The world was just very different pre-2020. It's all just gone phone call nonsense. Everyone is slacking off, productivity is through the floor, endless queues for everything, shortages, public transport use way down, etc. I haven't even had a proper full time job since then because as far as I can tell literally 0 work from office jobs exist any more. They just went extinct. The idea of…

Explain why you think people is slacking, please?
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