#brexitreality

This time last year, the cheapest pasta in my local supermarket (one of the Big Four), was 29p for 500g. Today it’s 70p. That’s a 141% price increase as it hits the poorest and most vulnerable households.

This time last year, the cheapest rice at the same supermarket was 45p for a kilogram bag. Today it’s £1 for 500g. That’s a 344% price increase as it hits the poorest and most vulnerable households.

Baked beans: were 22p, now 32p. A 45% price increase year on year.

Canned spaghetti. Was 13p, now 35p. A price increase of 169%.

Bread. Was 45p, now 58p. A price increase of 29%.

Curry sauce. Was 30p, now 89p. A price increase of 196%.

A bag of small apples. Was 59p, now 89p (and the apples are even smaller!) A price increase of 51%.

Mushrooms were 59p for 400g. They’re now 57p for 250g. A price increase of 56%. (This practise, of making products smaller while keeping them the same price, is known in the retail industry as ‘shrinkflation’ and its insidious as hell because it’s harder to immediately spot.)

Peanut butter. Was 62p, now £1.50. A price increase of 142%.

These are just the ones that I know off the top of my head - there will be many many more examples! When I started writing my recipe blog ten years ago, I could feed myself and my son on £10 a week. (I’ll find the original shopping list later and price it up for today’s prices.)

The system by which we measure the impact of inflation is fundamentally flawed - it completely ignores the reality and the REAL price rises for people on minimum wages, zero hour contracts, food bank clients, and millions more.

But I guess when the vast majority of our media were privately educated and came from the same handful of elite universities, nobody thinks to actually check in with anyone out here in the world to see how we’re doing. (Fucking terribly, thanks for asking.)

Every time there’s a news bulletin on the rising cost of living, I hope that today might be the day that that some real journalism happens, and someone stops to consider those of us outside of the bubble. Maybe today might finally be that day.

(But seeing I’ve been banging on about this for a decade now, it’s probably not going to be. Thanks for reading anyway, I appreciate it.)

And just to add:

- an upmarket ready meal range was £7.50 ten years ago, and is still £7.50 today.

- a high-end stores ‘Dine In For Two For £10’ has been £10 for as long as I can remember.

- my local supermarket had 400+ items in their value range, it’s now 91 (and counting down)

The margins are always, always calculated to squeeze the belts of those who can least afford it, and massage the profits of those who have money to spare. And nothing demonstrates that inequality quite so starkly as tracking the prices of ‘luxury’ food vs ‘actual essentials’. 😤

To return to the luxury ready meal example, if the price of that had risen at the same rate as the cheapest rice in the supermarket, that £7.50 lasagne would now cost £25.80.

Dine In For £10 would be £34.40.

We’re either all in this together, or we aren’t.

(Spoiler: we aren’t)

Now, picture if you will, the demographic of the voter who has kept the current Party in power for the last 11 years. Imagine the Chancellor having to explain to them that their precious microwave dinner now cost almost four times what it did yesterday.

Yeah, didn’t think so.

I mean of all the things, the Prime Minister claiming that he's cutting the cost of living while the price of basic food products shoot up by THREE

The problem is energy is priced at the cost of the most expensive unit sold. As a result, Russia can push up gas prices and create an economic crisis in the UK. If we had a nationalised energy system that supplied our energy at the average price we could avoid this.

Instead of our energy being priced at the cost of the most expensive source available we’d instead pay the price set by a basket of energy sources. We’d see nothing like the proposed cost increase as a result, and the crisis for families across the UK could have been avoided.

This, though, would require the government to admit three things. First, the energy market does not work so, second, energy privatisation was a mistake and, third, the state could and should do this job because it can do so better than any market system.

Our government is not going to admit that. So, instead energy companies are going to be allowed to profit, 5 million households are going to be in fuel poverty and a wholly inappropriate and unfocused support system is going to deliver a bizarre package of support.

In that case there is one conclusion to reach. Because the government prefers its pro-market dogma to helping deliver what’s best for the people of the UK we’re going to have a massive cost of living crisis from which profits will flow to a few, inevitably.

I believe in markets when they're the right mechanism to use. When they are they can work to benefit us all. But artificial markets for energy that deliver worst possible outcomes for people and best possible outcomes for companies are just wrong, and that is what we have.

The right response to our energy crisis is not to keep existing structures going. It is to accept that the energy market is failing and to bring the state licenced profiteering to an end and rebuild an energy system run in the interests of people and not profits.

(These are specific examples, and both things that I did more than once, but by no means are they the only examples of the lengths that desperately hungry people will go to in order to fool themselves for just one momentthat they aren't desperately hungry)

If you’ve never used a sock as a sanitary towel, or the free newspaper from outside the train station, if you’ve never cried at a checkout because the 6p price rise on a jar of jam meant you and your kid were having dry toast all week, sit down and listen to those of who have.

Sitting opposite a child who is pushing their meagre dinner around hoping they leave enough for you to mop up with a piece of bread after they finish so your stomach just stops HURTING. Stealing a half eaten Big Mac out of a bin. God how many times do I have to relive this shit

Checking your bank balance before walking into the supermarket. Taking your last tenner out in cash before a bill grabs it meaning you won’t be able to eat that week. Asking the foodbank staff to put six sugars in your tea because that’s all the calories you’ll have that day.

Yes I’ve written about so much of this over the last ten years, but there’s so much of it I haven’t written about too. I’m lucky enough to have food in my cupboard now, but I STILL hold my breath when I put my PIN in to pay for it. I STILL shop with a calculator and a notepad.