Including PM & Chancellor
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George Monbiot in todayâs Guardian:
The only public services not facing a major shortfall are defence (whose budget Truss intends greatly to raise) and roads. Thereâs a reason why the government spends so much on roads while strangling the rest of the public sector: they are among the few public services used by the very rich.
As, of course, is defenceâŚ
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Poly Toynbee today:
Shocking news pours in at an accelerating pace. One dayâs inbox can scarcely contain the avalanche of reports on failing public services and households stricken by debt.
As I write â ping! â here comes the Office for National Statistics reporting repossessions by county court bailiffs increased 1,611% between April and June. Expect many more now that Covid restrictions on bailiffs have been lifted. Meanwhile YouGov has found that 54% of people think itâs unlikely they will be able to afford their energy bills this winter.
Or should I choose Andy Cooke, the chief inspector of constabulary, who has pointed to the abject failure of the police? âDire charge ratesâ show that a suspect is charged in only 4% of thefts and 3.7% of house burglaries. People will remember those cuts that reduced the number of police officers by 20,000.
The disgrace of private childrenâs homes making a fortune out of misery is again exposed by the BBC, with companies charging anything they want due to the acute shortage. Ofstedâs chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, warns: âWe have companies now in the market who really donât have very much interest in childcare.â
Feeling hot? More than 60 public swimming pools closed in the last three years, finds another report today.
Ping again! Literally, as I wrote the above sentence, in comes the latest NHS waiting list figures, risen to an unthinkable 6.73m. While two-year waits went down, one-year waits rose. Squeeze one bit of this service and it bursts out elsewhere, after an austerity decade of falling per-patient funding â and no future workforce plan.
The Health Service Journal and Newsnight this week revealed leaked figures showing that published statistics undercount the true number of cancer patients waiting for treatment. The number waiting beyond 104 days, the crucial three months after which they risk âpotential harmâ, has doubled to more than 10,000. Donât mention ambulances. Or that even the inadequate NHS pay package is underfunded, so that the NHS will need to cut another ÂŁ2bn to pay for it.
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add to that - the worst performing economy in the G7 despite what de Pfeffle claimsâŚ
Dire, dire, dire - and Dizzy Lizzy has no plan so expect worse to come.
You can add to Polyâs list - Ambulance Service waiting times up for Stroke and Heart Attack patients to above pre-pandemic levels and Iâm sure there is much more.
I feel so sorry for those unfortunates trapped on plague island.
As for her commentary on repossessions⌠how is the protest group on not paying energy bills this autumn going?
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Not only did the police suffer horrendous cuts themselves, (ignore the hype, the much boasted about twenty thousand new officers wonât take numbers back to what they were before the cut backs ) They have been left picking up the pieces from other services that were also cut ie mental health, social services etc
Is it worth the risk to not pay your bills to be honest? In the present,people will rely on others to do the same but it wonât stop the law coming after you eventually and we have all seen those bailiff programmes where they literally chuck you out on the street whilst taking your belongings for what pittance they might get and what you probably wonât be able to afford to replace. The UK litigation system works slowly but I would never dare do that here, they work extremely fast to reclaim money owed. The utilities can easily stop supplies if the need arises and as someone who has just spent a month living with no electricity and running water because the builder forgot to submit the paperwork, its no joke - took 4L just to flush a WC.Thankfully I was treated as an emergency and got connected and a water meter installed quickly after ignoring internet and phone assistance and going direct to the agencies.
for over a million people at the same time?
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Like any strike Shiba itâs a numbers game - the Donât Pay UK campaign will only go ahead if they get over a million pledges - and if they do reach those numbers it almost certainly wonât go ahead anyway, because the government and suppliers will act.
And if by any chance it did go ahead nobody need worry - there is no way the already-collapsing UK legal system could cope, or the suppliers or government could handle the bad publicity and public reaction resulting from any debt action.
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As far as Iâm aware the intention is to cancel DDâs and then dispute the bill, so itâs not a simple case of not paying but complaining. The companies have to resolve matter within a given time frame or risk fines, so you drag it out & take it to the ombudsman. Thereâs a bit more to it than that but I think theyâre saying they canât cut you off if your in dispute rather than refusing to pay. Wether it works or not is to be seen but it might just wake someone up to the unrest that is building up.
A bit more schadenfreude eh, Geof.
I see the point of social media forums like this one as discussing issues of current interest, advising on difficulties, etc - not discussing each other.
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Just in case anyone is any doubt as to why UK energy consumers are angry at the non-response by the current (no pun intended) UK Government inaction
The government seems hell bent on protecting suppliersâ profits and not a fig about consumers 
Has anyone actually got the figures on how much of fuel cost increases is actually the increase in the cost of the raw fuel itself, and what is the explanation for the remainder of the increases?
profiteering, plain and simple 
HMG suggests it is the war in Ukraine, of course⌠some of that might be true with Russia demanding payment for gas in Rubbles IIRC and skewing market forces but doesnât explain why the UK is +215% when other EU countries are significantly lower. I think we know and understand why the uplift in France is significantly lower against other EU States in spite of challenges with ageing nuclear power stations.
Yes of course I suspect this.
But has the increase in price been broken down into its component parts?
Surely an increase in the price of the incoming raw fuel is determined by a world price. So pretty much uncontrollable, for now.
Whatâs the rest?
Surely if prices are going up nearly 3x the public has a right to know.
Or, has a journalist or a scientist not provided an analysis of what exactly is the price rise made up of.
youâd expect so, but we are talking about the independent republic of the kingdom of de Pfeffle here
Given that most of the press is under Tory control, besides being nobbled, they are probably under notice that if they spill the beans, their licences will be revoked - Dozy Dorries is prbably already on the caseâŚ
So itâs all just hysteria? Why is it all over the media for months then and no facts as to the makeup of the increases come out
I am puzzled why the price of wind and solar energy has increased.