The True Cost of Living

Renewed talk on the cost of living crisis does, of course, make sense. Inflation hitting levels not seen since the 70’s, fuel prices rocketing, basic amenities such as food becoming increasingly out of reach for millions, and wages stagnant or, worse, not keeping up with inflation at all.

Never fear, though, for luckily the most senior members of our most glorious government have solutions! What do you mean policy changes? Balderdash! You need only shop for basic value items to eat. What do you mean you already do that? Get a better paying job then! You can’t? Well you’re clearly lazy and not trying hard enough! After all, all you need do is cancel that Netflix subscription and you’ll free up thousands, nay, MILLIONS a month!

Be in no doubt, the dismissive attitude of the Tories is very much on character for a party of their moral compass (what moral compass?). A crisis 12 years of government in the making, we are seeing the ripple effect of Brexit, incompetent governance, and exorbitant tax breaks to their big business buddies. The effects are catastrophic for so many in this country and has left millions without the most basic need: food.

The necessity for food is not one merely of a biological nature; not one merely for the purpose of survival. No, it is a necessity in that it gives its recipient an unfathomably powerful fuel: a fuel that allows growth, both physical and emotional. A fuel that creates strength. A fuel that grants opportunity and sparks innovation.

So it is, then, that a society built on the guarantee of food as an inalienable human right is one inevitably with a vital brick in the foundation of a more kind and equitable society. Should we just go along and accept millions to choose between a roof and a plate? The charlatans and oligarchs at the core of our government choose to keep shelves stocked and fridges empty. They choose to force the single mother to steal, the young couple to beg, and the elderly to shiver through the endless nights of winter. While 5 million people in the UK don’t have enough access to safe and nutritious food, they permit the banker, the oligarch and the CEOs to bathe in gluttony and caviar.

There can be no harmony while few have so much, and so many have so little.

Indeed, poverty has many faces. It appears to us in film and TV, on the streets, on the bus, at work, at school. It is the transparent blanket that covers society keeping no-one warm, hiding the true faces of millions of entrepreneurs, engineers, nurses, doctors, teachers, eager to provide for society; for you: people with dreams and aspirations tethered down by the cloak of hunger and destitution.

This is no mere hyperbolic tangent; this is the reality of Britain in the 21st century. It is the cost of the Conservatives.

So, then, we can see the self-fulfilling cycle the cronies in government are allowing to happen; dismissing the needs of the millions who so desperately needed only creates a far larger can down the road that they will not be able to kick any further.

What can we do? The power of the powerless is greater than one may think. We can organise, strike, vote, and send shockwaves through the heart of government with one key yet simple message. We deserve so much better; we WILL get so much better.