The average salary in the UK is 27k , so for the average person the price of a bottle of plonk is no big deal.... Unfortunately average is not a good measure for a skew distribution, as it does include the CEOs ,the Medical consultants and footballers. Cleaners, Waitresses, Bar staff , Shop assistants will be sitting at the 8k mark. These people still need to buy shoes, take buses , eat, so the 5 quid would be a big chunk of disposable income.
Brexit, for once some facts.
- Thread starter flecc
- Start date
Perhaps the Food Standards Agency can help
"Food Standards Agency (FSA) research suggests some poor people miss meals or do without healthy food due to financial pressure. One third of unemployed people have cut out meals or reduced the quality of their diet due to lack of cash. 8% of respondents to a survey have low or very low food security, implying just under four million adults regularly struggle to get enough to eat.
Or this Institute of Fiscal Studies report
"IFS analysis showed a “clear threat” to working people’s living standards, while the Liberal Democrats said that the “savage cuts” would make millions of households poorer. Projected benefit cuts will lead to the poorest working-age households losing between 4% and 10% of their income a year, according to the IFS.[54] Fewer than one in ten British people believe all work is fair and decent, and 75% think more should be done to make work fairer. Many British people suffer insecure work with zero hours contracts.[55] Nearly half of workers are anxious over basic household expenses like food, transport and energy. One in six workers had left the heating off despite it being cold to save on fuel bills, and similar numbers had pawned possessions in the previous year because they were short of money.[56] Rents are rising and housing benefit is not rising to match this. Families are forced into increasing poverty, some facing a daily struggle to pay their rent and put food on their table. Some risk homelessness. Families with children are most affected and two thirds of affected families are in work.[57] Homelessness has risen over the last six years and the National Audit Office thinks welfare reforms and a freeze in housing benefit are a likely cause.
And this is just a tiny sample of the sort of reports no one chooses to believe
So yes unless 4 million can be described as "Not a lot" I do think there are lots of people who can't afford wine. and having been born during the war and brought up on Rationing, i know what hungry people look and how they feel too
I meant to say that a lot of brexiters think we live in a rich country but when actually coming down to purchasing power, we are not much better off than the average Southern EU citizens. We drink cheap plonk like they do. We should realise that Thatcherism brought us a false sense of feeling wealthy. After spending a life working all hours, all we have to show is our house whose value has been greatly inflated.
That's weird and somewhat irrational. The only viable way to produce the hydrogen at present is using electricity, an inefficient energy conversion. Having hydrogen trains instead of electric would be very silly indeed. Hydrogen used in transport is mainly for fuel cells to produce electricity, making the argument a circular one. Might as well just use the electricity in the first place.
.
I did say the yellow vests have support from all sorts of people. They mean hydrogen can be produced alongside petroleum products in the same cracking process.
or from coal.
Have you no humanity in you? Perhaps you have just rocketed in from the planet Zog or somewhere but you seem to be, or pretend to be, ignorant of life for the people at the bottom of the heap in the UK.
It really doesn't matter how you quantify 'a lot'; whether it's a thousand, a million or 10 million isn't the point - there are many, many people who can't afford food and clothing, let alone booze.
Tom
Very well said, and many of course don't even own a home at all:
"For 25- to 34-year-olds earning between £22,200 and £30,600 per year, home ownership fell to just 27% in 2016 from 65% two decades ago."
.
Even worse some people have lost the ability to see what is happening to others who are less fortunate or live in a depressed area, or on a basic pension
And as for your pound of mince, that typically as a value 870 calories and is 30% fat, divide that between 8 people and you end up with less than 200 calories each.
They would be better off going to McDonalds where a Cheeseburget at 98 pence yields 360 calories, and that is why so many people do exactly that.
And of course it is cooked for them at no cost and served in warm surroundings.
Patronising the poor as being inadequate in some way is a popular way of turning a blind eye to people who have a struggle to survive
I blame the food banks, supplying food without wine is thoughtless.
.
Based on your extensive sample 'Woosh', I'm with the demonstrators!
As some of my ancestors were French and had to emigrate to the UK (or die!), I hope the protestors gain some social and economic improvements for ordinary people. If they should succeed, perhaps I should think or returning to the land of my forefathers as the way things are panning out in the UK, it looks as though it's all going to be downhill from here on.
Tom
I think perhaps, 'Demonising' would be a more accurate term in this instance OG.
Tom
Ha. So this is funny. Before anybody has responded to this question - one person (God knows who) - clicked on 'disagree' making the 'disagree' icon show up red with a tick.
How can one 'disagree' with a question?
I have much to learn about being here.
Sure. 'Ordinary' people. One of their demands is for minimum pensions of..... wait for it.......... 1200 Euros a month!!!!
As Thatcher said - 'Socialism is great until you run out of other people's money'.
Sounds like Hull "Back O' the Market" on a Saturday night!"
Which is how come even if it has to come from zillions of miles away it still works out cheaper than stuff from France.
Once out of the EU we'll be able to get WAY cheaper stuff from the US and Chile and NZ and all sorts of places. If we ever leave I should say. Which I now seriously doubt what with that idiot woman's 'deal'. Not that she is going to win the vote. We just don't know what's going to happen AFTER she loses that vote.
Weasel words, the correct saying is "Capitalism is great till you run out of other people's money, unless of course you succeed in ruining the planet first."
This may sound odd,but I expressed a belief that somehow her plan will get accepted.
I'm basing that on the notion that parliament is terrified of the alternatives, which carry the approbrium of personal responsibility it things turn badly wrong