Honestly, this article understates the situation. Everyone is bricking it. I go to the barbers, the barber wants to talk about it. I go to get a burger, the server wants to talk about it. A really large chunk of the country is doing calculations and really not liking the results.<p>Small businesses and charities are already receiving their new contract quotes and deciding to shut down.<p>And our next Prime Minister shows exactly no sign of caring about or even understanding the seriousness of the situation.
Britain has for a long time neglected energy efficiency improvements and investment in renewable energy. The houses are the worst insulated in Europe [1].<p>UK has extremely good wind resources, very mild winters, bearable summers, a lot of capital available, a generally organized society. As a starting point, from energy point of view, it is extremely advantageous compared to say Finland or Germany.<p>Now vote someone who will act on it. Insulate the houses, build the windmills and nuclear plants. Stop complaining.<p>1: <a href="https://jannemkorhonen.files.wordpress.com/2022/08/image.png" rel="nofollow">https://jannemkorhonen.files.wordpress.com/2022/08/image.png</a>
I was thinking about this just the other day:<p>0. Secure food chains _now_. Nobody is talking about this yet. Droughts + fertilizer shortage + energy crisis + inflation = disaster. Name a single Country that got a good harvest this year. Personally I have begun to slowly store long-storage food items to get way ahead of panic buying.<p>1. Invest in nuclear power heavily. It's okay saying "people should change their lives to be more sustainable" - without ever giving details about exactly how that is supposed to be done. The people saying such things have _zero_ idea about how their Country actually works.<p>2. Reduce or remove green levies and stop subsidizing green energy initiatives. It is simply false to state that green energy is cheaper when it is heavily subsidized - if it was so affordable and cheap it should be able to fund itself, but it can't. If it needs growth and is such an amazing investment, allow for private investment. If the UK tax payer _must_ subsidize it, we want part ownership of it so we can set prices.<p>3. Stop pushing for electric cars when we don't have the energy infrastructure or raw materials. Fuel cars are likely to stay until 2050 or so. Hybrids also make more sense as the 'cheap' energy is likely to fluctuate.<p>4. If a war were to break out, it will likely happen very soon. Countries are on their back-foot, governments need a distraction and tensions easily rise over limited resources in contended locations. We need immediate preparations for defense and offense.
More UK cost of living information: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/cost-of-living-crisis" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/business/cost-of-living-crisis</a>
Okay this is a genuine question but why are the G7 not backing down when clearly their populations are the ones suffering?<p>It feels strange to me living in the UK that the sanctions have been spearheaded by the US when they are mostly shielded from Russia. Whereas for European countries, it is obvious that they are dependent on Russian gas and yet they are not willing to negotiate.<p>The average citizen cares about their energy bill and putting food on the table more than some idealistic notion of standing up to bullies.