Government handling of the cost of living crisis, for me and for thee
Me (ie. the govenment):
Restaurants and bars in the House of Commons cut prices for MPs, as they were bailed out by taxpayers to the tune of £17 million
The House of Lords has spent £8m of taxpayers' money subsidising its own bars and restaurants in the last three years, openDemocracy can reveal.
Thee (ie. everyone else):
1. Learn how to cook/budget
According to Lee Anderson, if you’re facing food poverty and having to rely on food banks, it’s probably because you don’t know how to cook.
“I think you’ll see first-hand that there’s not this massive use for food banks in this country.
“You’ve got generation after generation who cannot cook properly. They can’t cook a meal from scratch. They cannot budget.”
2. Work more hours or get a better-paid job
Safeguarding minister Rachel Maclean has cracked the cost of living crisis.
The solution, Maclean says, is to earn more. Easy! Why are people wasting time choosing between heating and eating, when they could just take on more hours or better yet, get a higher-paying job?
“Over the long term, we need to have a plan to grow the economy and make sure that people are able to protect themselves better, whether that is by taking on more hours or moving to a better-paid job,” she told Sky News.
Simple enough. Maclean would know, before becoming an MP, she worked in Hong Kong, Sydney and Tokyo with HSBC, then set up Packt Publishing Ltd with her husband. The IT publishing company reportedly recorded £1.8m operating profits in 2020.
3. Put the name-brand products down
When Sky News asked the environment secretary, George Eustice what advice he would give to people who want to have a family Sunday roast with a chicken but can’t afford it, Eustice suggested that shoppers should buy supermarket own-brand products.
“Generally speaking, what people find is by going for some of the value brands rather than own-branded products – they can actually contain and manage their household budget.”
4. Rent out your granny annexe
Tory MP Jackie Doyle-Price, thinks we should all make use of our granny annexes, the self-contained flats we all have just off of our main homes.
Speaking in the Queen’s Speech debate, Doyle-Price told MPs that the government should be “encouraging people to make better use of their housing asset for the whole of their family”.
“We can incentivise granny annexes, we can make sure that young people have got some hope by having greater access to the wealth in their parents’ home.
“And I tell you, if we can do that, we will actually save money in the health service because unnecessary hospital stays are much more expensive than dealing with the little inheritance tax problem, which might unlock some investment.”
And, if you don’t have a granny annexe, don’t worry, just move to a house that has one.
