You might have been forgiven for not spotting one serious piece of news today that was not all about Johnson and Sunak. It was announced that inflation has risen to 7%, the highest rate in 30 years.
The rise was partially driven by the hike in petrol prices, which of course have a knock-on effect on the prices of all consumer goods, including food.
Ed Davey has been commenting on this to the media in between talking about partygate. He says:
Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak are too busy trying to save their own jobs rather than saving pensioners and families from spiralling prices.
These new inflation figures are frankly frightening. Every day the cost of living crisis worsens yet our law-breaking leaders simply don’t seem to care. This is no way to govern Britain.
This country needs a new Chancellor in place next week to deliver an emergency budget to protect households on the brink. Pensioners and hard pressed families need urgent help with their energy bill and unfair tax hikes to be immediately reversed. It is now or never to save Britain from this cost of living crisis, and it is clear this Government is not up to the job.
* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.
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5 Comments
One measure the Liberal Democ rats should campaign for is the updating of pensions and other state benefits in line with inflation every three months rather than just once per year. This would help address the issue that the purchasing power is now being eroded considerably over the cost of the year and, on today’s figures, purchasing power is being reduced to 92% of what it was worth a year earlier before any uprating takes place….and this problem will become more acute if the rate of inflation hits even higher levels.
A measure of (mostly) in work poverty is that demand at my local food bank (of which I used to be Chair) has risen by 104% since March 2021.
None of the clients, incidentally, had a USA green card or non Dom status, nor were they building a £ 250 k swimming pool and gym in their mansion. How the other half live !!
Sorry again for the typo when trying to avoid incorrect apostrophe in Democrats.
‘ It was announced that inflation has risen to 7%, the highest rate in 30 years.’
Germany 7.3% Spain 9.8% & USA 8.4% scary stuff.
Inflation bites into savings and discourages investment for retirement. It is a scourge and hopefully will not last. Dealing with it means some courage from our political leaders to make decisions for the long term, something I don’t entirely trust our present incumbents with.