uziq wrote:
the energy costs are not 'much higher'. british people are now expected to spend 10–20% of their total salaries on energy bills.
increases are 'inevitable' but the fact is that france's rise this year is 4%. the UK, thanks to gutless regulators/politicians, have just seen a a triple rise in the energy cap price.
median salary in the UK is about £25k, depending on your source. energy bills are forecasted to be up to £3500 per year.
france's energy bills are NOT more expensive. that's just plain wrong. pointing out that energy sourced from nuclear has a higher cost per kW/hr than north sea oil is a total canard in this discussion. the price of energy is set by many more factors than the cost-of-production.
Historically France has used a lot of nuclear and not much gas, so when the gas price goes up it doesn't affect them too much.
That and the govt has put a temporary subsidy in place whereas Britain hasn't, this isn't complicated.
So median income is about what I was earning in my first salaried job? Crikey.
The UK is coming out of the blip and reverting to people spending 33% of their income on housing, 33% on energy, 33% on food.
Of course the rest they can spend as they please.
Here is some of the problem
The British economy is completely fucked at this point, years and years of unproductive spending and lack of forethought have put it there.
There's no magicking away 20-30 years of failure.