This just cannot continue, surely?

[Doon frae Troon]

Maggie wanted everyone to own their own house so they would vote Tory.

Trouble is now that the bubble has burst savers/ investors/ pension funds are suffering very poor interest rates as governments spend trillions propping up the mortgage rates. Many folk would have been much better off renting a council house instead of buying as they would have ended up with a reasonable state pension. As in France.
An economy based on property is one built on shifting sands.

 

[Khamelion]

I remember the days when people had money, once upon a time.

Going back a few years Newcastle used to be jumping all week, you could go out any week night and be in a pub and other people would be there to, as it got towards Thursday all the bars, pubs and clubs would be jumping, the quayside would be alive from around 17:00hrs onwards, not these days.

Was out for a few beers and curry with a couple of mates just before Christmas, met up 19:00hrs, quayside was dead, it wasn't until around 23:00hrs when us auld fellas were heading home that the place came to life.

People still go out, they just prefer to drink in the house where's it's cheaper than to pay the exhorbitant prices the bars now charge, then go out later straight to the club.

The point is, fuel (Domestic and vehicular), food, clothes, everything has increased in price, but people salaries have not, I've not had a pay rise in 7 years, other people I know have not had pay rises in getting close to 10 years. Very soon it's going to be unsustainable, work will go back to the collery communities, where people live close to where they are employed so they can walk to work, allotments will become more popular as people grow their own and all but the most well off will start to lose the luxuries, second cars will go the journey, sky and virgin subscriptions will be binned, expensive memberships will be cancelled in order to save money.

The other side of this is that peoples debt will increase as they try to make ends meet. It's all very sad when people are hoping their weekly lotto ticket is their escape tunnel.

 

[chrisd]

Maggie wanted everyone to own their own house so they would vote Tory.

I think she sold the housing stock in order to raise a huge sum of money and also to save the cost that replacement and maintenance of housing was adding to treasury expenditure

 

[Hacker Khan]

I would like to be able to buy gas.
Our fairly remote wee village is not on the circuit.
Costs me about £1500 pa just to heat the house with oil.

Testify sister. I'm the same.

And the oil companies are rob dogs as well. As when I signed up on Direct Debit with them to spread the cost (but also they have got you hooked in) the cost of a litre of oil suddenly shoots up. So they tried to charge myself as an existing customer on DD about 15% more than any new customer, or the going rate on boiler juice.

I know phone and broadband companies are notorious for doing this, but I did point out that surely the price of a litre of oil is the price, it's not variable depending on your circumstances. Eventually they did back down, but I am about to order some more, and I expect the same great level of customer service from them.

So I dream of getting ripped off from gas suppliers.....