When you get down to the #deliveroo driver's shelter in Victoria Park #Bristol, you'll appreciate what the #gigeconomy's exploration of #workers looks like....
Once you've read this I'm sure you will not begrudge me using the term #classwar!
The crisis of state #enforcedpoverty (prev. the #costoflivingcrisis) has a very clear #health & #nutrition element... a new report suggests around 15% of UK households are experiencing period of hunger... which is having health effects (being picked up by the #NHS).
And yet, #JeremyHunt is 'considering' further #austerity including #benefits cuts.... it now longer seems extreme or exaggerated to see #Tory politics of the last decade as an extended #classwar!
As regulated lending increasingly becomes the preserve of the stable & well-off, with sub-prime lending declining by more than a 1/3 in the last five years, for the vulnerable & financially insecure, credit options have become more difficult.
Caught between a continuing period of state #enforcedpoverty & tightened regulations, the vulnerable are turning to unregulated Buy Now Pay Later loans or even loan sharks.
Insecure lives are being further damaged by aggressive loan 'recovery'.
The British Retail Consortium's quick data on January #retail sales confirms that as sales growth (of 1.2%) continues to lag #inflation (4%) we continue to see a squeeze/decline on sales volumes;
as this indicates, the #costofloivingcrisis (or as I prefer the crisis of #enforcedpoverty) is still driving down actual spending power for individuals.
We are still buying less, although spending more on what we do buy.
For consumers, this is what #recession looks like, whatever the formal GDP data
First the #Tories cut council budgets & demanded efficiency gains... so councils sought #charities that could offer services more cheaply (as they were partly funded by donations & over grants).... then local provision became more & more dependent on these groups stretching their budgets.
Now further council budget cuts & declining fundraising from elsewhere (during the crisis of #enforcedpoverty) leave these charities teetering on the edge of failure.
The #IMF has warned #JeremyHunt against #taxcuts & suggested he needs to rebuild the devastated (my word not theirs) #publicsector... but before you get all warm & fuzzy about the IMF, they also agree the BoE should maintain its #interestrates policy... so don't be confusing a pragmatic desire to see the public sector 'repaired' with any notion they're on the side of #workers struggling with high interest rates & #enforcedpoverty!
The financial crisis in Englands local government is (of course) multi-faceted but four areas particularly contribute to the budget pressures on councils trying to find ways to fund their statuary responsibilities:
I think Eva Wiseman (Observer) is right, the term (and # here) #costoflivingcrisis has lost much of its meaning through our continual (if understandable) use... so can I suggest we might move to one of these alternatives: