#inflation uk

[moviemuncherao3]

It's been a little bit of time now since Rishi Sunak's speech in which he spouts off his transphobia, and I was waiting to see the response more than anything because I don't put much stock in conservatives or what they say anyway, but I do worry about their ability to sway the population, it's why they won the last few elections after all.

I am utterly, utterly disheartened. A multi-layered kind of disappointed.

We have had people commenting that finally Sunak says something that makes sense etc and that he's got their vote which is utterly absurd. Let's face facts here, transgenderism isn't something to be refuted, it exists and trans people deserve the same love and respect you would grant anybody else. Except, Tories aren't good at that either. Replace transgender with women, black, Asian, gay, foreign, poor, you'll see the pattern.

He is using them as a scapegoat and a smokescreen so can continue to fuck up our country without consequence.

People are so quick to indulge in their hatred that they've completely forgotten what the Tories have done in the past 4 years alone, never mind what they've done since coming in to power.

Partygate, Hancock affair, rocketing inflation (don't forget Sunak promised to halve inflation in January 2023), the persecution of immigrants and transgender people, their lacksadaisical approach to COVID-19 lockdowns and treatment which saw us seeing 27k+ deaths a day at its peak and hundred of millions of quid wasted on contracts for their old rich chums. They support Suella Braverman, a notoriously self-hating bigot who all but cackled with glee when they painted over the mural at the children's asylum centre alongside Robert Jenrick.

If you choose to forget that so you can stick it to around 0.05% (2021, census results for England and Wales- gender identity not matching sex at birth poll result) of the population then I very, very sincerely hope that it comes back to bite you in the arse. You are despicable, you are despisable, and I have nothing more to say to transphobes. Fuck all the way off.

As for the other layer of disappointment, all this sympathy seeking online where they'll stick a young Tory in front of a camera and this 18-25 year old still sucking on their platinum dummy will complain about losing friends because they revealed they were a conservative.

"Why can't we be friends if our politics are different? So much for the tolerant left 🙄".

I don't know about you, but I base my politics around my moral beliefs, so I will vote for a party that best represents those when elections come so long as I can do so tactically. So far I have only voted Labour to my chagrin as they are not any better, especially under Starmer (Tory-lite), but I live in a Labour stronghold where the competition is the Tories, and there's no chance I'm wasting my vote to shorten the gap between them.

Back to my original point, I cannot be friends with you if you support a party that is perfectly fine with its citizens starving and freezing to death whilst blaming everything on LGBT+ and "wokeness". I'd rather be woke than fast a fucking sleep you delusional, priviledged pricks. You don't get to turn around and cry about it because you cannot be bothered to give a rat's arse about anyone beyond yourself and the poor little rich people who might actually have to pay their share in taxes.

My heart bleeds for you (extremely caustic sarcasm here if you cannot tell), you can't make and keep friends but my transgender friend can't leave the house without fearing for their safety and even their life.

I'm not the tolerant left, I will very happily tell you to get lost and get fucked.

Final note, I'm not interested in hearing you defend yourself so don't bother. Just leave my blog and don't let the door hit you on the way out.

[oifaaa]

It's official general election in the UK on the 4th of July

[codes-and-stuffs]

TRAIN TICKET PRICES SUCK 😥

[londonedge]

A floating yellow zeppelin!

Actually this is a inflatable theatre on a barge

[tradermade]

#UKInflation stuck at 2%, but $GBP unsure of its next move. Explore: https://markets.tradermade.com/breaking/sterling-muted-post-uk-inflation. Core inflation remains high, keeping the Bank of England on hold. Will rate cuts or strong inflation pressures win?

[eaglesnick]

Food For Thought

Only a few weeks ago we were reading headlines like these:

“Why are UK supermarkets facing fresh food shortages?”  (Guardian: 22/02/23)

“Tesco has followed Aldi, Asda and Morrisons in introducing customer limits on certain fresh fruit and vegetables as shelves are stripped bare at supermarkets across the UK.”  (Mirror: 22/02/23)

And more recently we have this

”Supermarket shelves face more fruit and veg shortages"  (Retail Gazette: 02/05/23)

What is our government doing to help alleviate this problem? Absolutely nothing!  Rishi Sunak is always telling us that our priorities are his priorities but his government has ABANDONED the horticultural sector of our economy, and with it the guaranteed supply of fruit, vegetables and salad.

Last June the government promised to come up with a strategy to help British fruit and vegetable growers with "sky-high" input costs and labour shortages, which were pricing home growers out of the market. This week, the government went back on its word leading to the “Farmers Weekly" leading with this headline:

“Ditching of English horticulture strategy ‘beggars belief’ (Farmers Weekly: 03/05/23)

What this means for the hard-pressed British consumer, as home grown fruit and vegetable production falls, is higher prices and the increased likelihood of fruit and vegetable shortages as we become more reliant upon overseas suppliers.

Common sense tells us that food security should be one of the top priorities of any government, yet Sunak’s government is so intent on controlling migrants that they wont allow enough seasonal workers into Britain to harvest our fruit and vegetable crops. Nor will they adequately compensate for the additional costs in energy, preferring instead to give tax breaks to their wealthy friends. Consequently, many growers are simply giving up their businesses, thereby making the UK more reliant upon foreign imports.

We saw what happened when rising energy costs and bad weather affected the production of European fruit, vegetables and salad products during the winter months. Unlike Sunak’s government, European governments put their citizens first, so when there were shortages over the winter, supplies stayed in the EU prompting headlines like this:

“Europeans mock UK shoppers with photos of supermarket shelves full of fresh fruit and veg." (Mirror: 22/02/23)

Not only can we expect more headlines like that if we don’t secure our own home-grown food supplies but we can can also expect the food-price inflation to continue to rise.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

In February US company LanzaJet, which produces sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from ethanol, announced that it intended to build a second, larger plant on US soil.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was a "big influence", says Jimmy Samartzis, its chief executive.

The second plant would add to its facility in Soperton, Georgia - the world's first commercial scale ethanol-to-SAF plant.

"We have a global landscape that we are pursuing…[but] we have doubled down on building here in the United States because of the tax credits in the IRA, and because of the overall support system that the US government has put in place."

Signed into law by President Biden in August 2022, the IRA, along with the so-called Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) enacted in November 2021, are intended, amongst other things, to funnel billions of federal dollars into developing clean energy.

The aim is to lower greenhouse gas emissions, and incentivise private investment, to encourage the growth of green industries and jobs: a new foundation for the US economy.

With a 10-year lifespan, and a cost originally estimated at $391bn (£310bn) but now predicted to reach over $1tn - the final figure is unknown - the IRA offers new and juicer tax credits, as well as loans and loan guarantees for the deployment of emissions reducing technology.

The tax credits are available to companies for either domestically producing clean energy, or domestically manufacturing the equipment needed for the energy transition, including electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries.

Consumers can also receive tax credits, for example for buying an EV or installing a heat pump. The tax credit for SAF producers like LanzaJet is new in the IRA and, offers between $1.25 to $1.75 per gallon of SAF (though it only lasts five years).

Complementary is the BIL, which runs for five years and provides direct investment largely in the form of government grants for research and development and capital projects. Under the BIL, about $77bn (£61bn) will go to clean energy technology projects, according to the Brookings Institution which monitors the law.

One company to benefit so far is EV battery recycling company Ascend Elements.

It has won BIL grants totalling $480m (£380m), which it is matching a similar amount in private investment to build its second commercial facility in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

"[The IRA and BIL] are massive investments… larger than the infrastructure related provisions in the New Deal," says Adie Tromer from the Brookings. "There is a clear sense that America has become more serious about transitioning to a cleaner economy."

While rules for some tax credits are still being finalized, tens of billions in actual public spending is flowing into the economy, says Trevor Houser at the Rhodium Group, an independent research provider. Rhodium, together with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, runs the Clean Investment Monitor (CIM) to track US clean technology investments.

According to recently updated CIM data, in the 2023 fiscal year, the federal government invested approximately $34bn (£27bn) into clean energy, the vast majority through tax credits.

The extent to which the policy instruments are so far spurring not just announcements - of which there are plenty - but real extra private investment is harder to know: clean energy investment has been on a general upward trend anyway and the IRA hasn't been around long. But experts believe it is rising.

Total clean energy investment in the US in the 2023 calendar year including from both private and government sources reached a record $239bn (£190bn), up 38% from 2022 according to the CIM data.

Clean energy investment in the US, as a share of total private investment, rose from 3.7% in the fourth quarter of 2022 to 5% in the fourth quarter of 2023.

The IRA has had two main positive effects thus far, says Mr. Houser.

It has "supercharged" private investment in more mature technologies which were already growing very rapidly like solar, EVs and batteries.

It has also, combined with the BIL, led to a "dramatic growth" in investment in emerging climate technologies like clean hydrogen, carbon dioxide capture and removal and SAF. While the total magnitude of those investments are still relatively small compared to the more mature technologies, "the IRA fundamentally changed the economics" says Mr. Houser.

But the IRA is failing to reach some parts of the green economy: so far it hasn't lifted investment in more mature technologies which have been falling like wind and heat pumps, though Mr. Houser notes things may have fallen further without the IRA.

On the industry's mind is the fate of the laws, particularly the longer-to-run IRA, should there be a change of government in the US November elections.

Repealing or amending the IRA (or BIL) would require Republican control of the Presidency, Senate and House - though wholesale repeal would likely face meaningful opposition from within. The rub is many of the projects that the IRA is incentivising are being or will be built in Republican states or counties.

Yet a Republican president alone could potentially frustrate things for example by slowing or deferring loans or grants, or amending the rules which serve the laws. "A Trump presidency would definitely chill the atmosphere and possibly more," says Ashur Nissan of Kaya Partners, a climate policy advice firm.

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank and purveyor of hard-right ideas for the next conservative President, advocates repeal for both the IRA and BIL. For the organization's Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a former Trump administration official, it is fiscally irresponsible for the US, with its vast deficit and debt, to be spending like this.

It is also time, she says, that renewable energy such as solar and wind, into which subsidies have been poured for years, stood on their own feet.

Yet others argue the US can't afford not to do take this path. And the point of the loans program is to take risks to help unlock new solutions that scale. "It would be failing if there weren't any so called 'failures' within it," says Richard Youngman, of Cleantech Group, a research and consulting firm.

Meanwhile, the US's approach is putting competitive pressure on Europe to do more.

Some European clean energy manufacturing companies are now building facilities in the US to take advantage of the tax credits that otherwise would have been built in Europe including solar panel maker Meyer Burger and electrolyser manufacturers Nel and John Cockerill.

"The US wasn't a market for some of these companies in the past because Europe was more active," says Brandon Hurlbut, of Boundary Stone Partners, a clean energy advisory firm.

The EU's Net Zero Industrial Act (NZIA) is expected to enter into force this year. It doesn't involve new money, but seeks to coordinate existing financing and introduces domestic favourability for the first time - putting in place a non-binding target for the bloc to locally manufacture 40% of its clean energy equipment needs by 2030.

In the UK, chancellor Jeremy Hunt has made clear he isn't interested, nor can the UK afford to copy the IRA's approach in some "distortive global subsidy race" and will stick to other ways of helping. The Labour party recently scrapped its $28bn green investment plan seen as a stab at leaning into an IRA style policy.

A global audience will be watching as the US's clean energy juggernaut unfolds. And if it leads others to ask what more they can do to produce clean energy products - even if just for reasons of economic opportunity - it will be good for humanity's sake, says Mr. Hurlbut.

[changing-my-username]

Heard a Sky news reporter say that the government is aiming to get inflation down to 2% by the end of the year. This is bollocks. Jeremy Cunt and Runner up Rishi have repeatedly said that their aim is to halve inflation by the end of the year. Considering inflation has been running at over 10% for many months, their aim is to get it down to 5%.

[theinconvenientlifestyle]

Supermarkets to be quizzed over rising food costs | UK cost of living crisis | The Guardian

While average inflation for food and non-alcoholic drinks rose by 18.4% in the year to May, the executives are likely to be challenged on why some meat products and vegetables have almost doubled in price.

[baronessblixen]

A lot of people actually criticize her new gspot drinking stuff or whatever the hell it is as well as the fact that she’s doing more influencing than acting currently, but they still will purchase the drinks. That’s what I don’t understand lol…

To each their own, I suppose. I guess some people just want to try it out? I don't really get it either, anon.

According to the side - if you want to believe in any health benefits at all - you have to drink it daily and over a period of time. So I understand the critizing very well. And yeah, I miss her being in movies. For longer than like five minutes.

Like I said, to each their own, but it's all just a big red flag to me.

[reallyhardydraws]

For your full body commissions, when you say an additional character added would be +£25 extra, do you mean the price would be like… £80? or £135?

hi! yes, for example... two characters would be £80 in total (£55 + £25)

[eaglesnick]

The Rich Man In His Castle the Poor Man At His Gate

Today it was announced that food inflation in Britain is running at 19.1%. Everyone is affected by this massive rise in food prices, the poor more so than the rest of us, as they spend a greater proportion of their income on feeding themselves and their families

At the beginning of the year multi-millionaire Rishi Sunak said to the British people

“I guarantee that your priorities will be my priorities." (Sunak:04/01/23)

Given this promise you would expect his government to be devising strategies and policies to bring down the cost of food. Not so.

Multi-millionaire Jeremy Hunt, Sunak’s Chancellor, responded by telling us that food inflation was a “common problem” around the world and that German consumers had it worse than UK shoppers, as food inflation there was 20%.

I’m sorry Mr Hunt but that’s like saying to a struggling working family who are forced to use food banks because of inadequate wages that they should be grateful they don’t live in Afghanistan, because poverty there is twice as bad as in Britain.  It is a callous response to a very real problem, a response totally lacking in sympathy or understanding. Worse still, it does nothing to alleviate the problem.

The country deserves better.

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

Harry's Genetic Pain:

Meghan Markle is Harry's Genetic Pain

A few Trauma Bonds Strategically Created by Meghan Markle to victimize Prince Harry:

Tig (TIGger the boy's beloved lost dog + TIGgy the boy's beloved abandoned nanny)*

ARCHIE+ARCHewell (MonARCHy)

Lilibet Diana (Queen/Grandmother Elizabeth LILIBET + Future Queen, Princess & unprotected dead Mother DIANA)

Not to mention: Diana's perfume, clothing style, poses, tank watch, etc.

*The wine Tignanello is actually pronounced /teen/ NOT tig. It is produced from Tenuta di Tignanello.

Lingering questions about Harry's parentage and now there will always be questions about the parentage of Harry's kids.

[tomorrowusa]

The annual rate of inflation is down to 8.2% in September from 9.1% in June in the US.

After a slight decline for one month, the inflation rate is headed back up in the UK according to UK - Office for National Statistics.

Blame neo-Thatcherite policies of the Conservative Party and their counterproductive fixation on Brexit. Highly nationalistic policies are just not that great for the economy. Growth does not happen in a vacuum.

Russia is the second largest oil producer in the world after the US. Putin has been trying to help Trump Republicans by getting OPEC+ to reduce production in order to raise gas prices in the United States. Putin thinks that by having Trump vassal Kevin McCarthy as House speaker he can slow down US aide to Ukraine.

So don’t fall for Putin at the pump. Carbon-friendly alternatives will eventually undermine dictators like Putin and the Saudi theocracy who rely on income from fossil fuels to remain in power and oppress their populations. Reducing use of carbon-based fuels is good for the climate and good for democracy.

You want inflation to come down more? Elect a Congress which will end all the Trump tax breaks for the filthy rich and invest that money in climate-friendly technologies in the US.

[alethiometry]

every year love island will cast the most basic, default middle-sliders-in-a-character-customization-screen white man and these absolutely divinely gorgeous women will fall over themselves trying to get with him like ????? girlie you can do SO much better ??????