UK poverty and inequality

[DCI Harry Batt]

As we've discussed a number of time here, life expectancy from birth isn't much of a useful measure here. Life expectancy at 65 in 1940 was around 11 years for men and 14 years for women. By 2010 that was more like 19 and 21.

And so what, tbh.

And yeah also poor people (i.e. people who work hard) don't live as long, at all ages.

[Balderdasha]

Poorer people also live a smaller proportion of their years in good health.

[DCI Harry Batt]

In Blackpool’s Bloomfield ward, in the shadow of the town’s football ground, the average life expectancy of men is just 67 years and three months - lower than the new proposed state pension age of 68

[Nefertiti2]

other forms of inequality

travel

https://twitter.com/beckymontacute/status/1618294966610186241?s=20&t=ZEpyr-bho-3HeAcyADLUbw

[Nefertiti2]

https://twitter.com/ShaunLintern/status/1618151245566607360?s=20&t=LInyg2r8CDxtiGqvmJHPWA

[Nefertiti2]

content warning... suicide

https://twitter.com/HarleyShah/status/1618251501876686848?s=20&t=SeonvN0q-lniTV-jKl1iWQ

[Patrick Thistle]

The Daily Express are trolling cunts


YOUR FUCKING POLITICS YOU CUNTING TROLLS. THATS FUCKING HOW.

[Nefertiti2]

The Daily Express are trolling cunts


YOUR FUCKING POLITICS YOU CUNTING TROLLS. THATS FUCKING HOW.

Like the Free FAMILY National Trust pass for every reader. I thought they were a horrendously woke organisation who were in the grip of the gays and the Commies

[Patrick Thistle]

The group that ran those homes reported a £12mn / 16% profit while these abuses were being committed. It's owned by a private equity firm. Looking after vulnerable children should not be a profit-making enterprise.

This is fucking outrageous. If there was a hell any fucker who pocketed a dime from this should burn for all eternity.

[Patrick Thistle]

Youse can probably all tell I'm feeling ebbs and flows of visceral rage tonight.

[Gangster Octopus]

The Daily Express are cunts

Just helping.

[Antepli Ejderha]

https://twitter.com/theroyaleditor/status/1618573967962345473?t=FBuZtKUhaJ5f3OotcbzMGw&s=19


More trolling, this time from the royals.

[Gangster Octopus]

Hmm, that link's not working.

[S. aureus]

It is for me.

[Nefertiti2]

https://twitter.com/theleaduk/status/1619257224794103808?s=20&t=Apygz7Lk-riS06D2YynJ5w

[Patrick Thistle]

https://twitter.com/theroyaleditor/status/1618573967962345473?t=FBuZtKUhaJ5f3OotcbzMGw&s=19


More trolling, this time from the royals.

Yep. Oh look the common folk are having a party.

[Nefertiti2]

https://twitter.com/pmorganbentley/status/1620836516292624386?s=20&t=-8TUlt94KnWpqTKqvXtVKg

[Antepli Ejderha]

https://twitter.com/premnsikka/status/1621939448127623169?t=ctmAnDECWpy04o8A8pjhDw&s=19

The scale of this is frightening. Prepaid meters are much more expensive, would that be another reason they want to install them?

[Antepli Ejderha]

https://twitter.com/premnsikka/status/1622594946715746305?t=eKUawoT12vV4gypTJzgU9A&s=19

This is a huge scandal. Another way in which the poorest and most vulnerable in society are targeted and exploited

[ursus arctos]

Excuse an ignorant foreigner, but were such warrants required for the old electricity meters that took coins?

[Balderdasha]

Excuse an ignorant foreigner, but were such warrants required for the old electricity meters that took coins?

I believe so, if a resident didn't voluntarily opt to have one installed. There's no good reason why you'd voluntarily want one installed as they're so much more expensive, but some people were persuaded that it would help them keep control / track of what they were spending.

Generally you can't go and install something in someone's house without their consent without a warrant.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Excuse an ignorant foreigner, but were such warrants required for the old electricity meters that took coins?

See my post on the 4th, waved through by judges not in the area.

[ursus arctos]

I was wondering if the system really had worked more equitably in the past, given what I understood to be the relative ubiquity of coin-operated meters.

Though Balders' post suggests that many of those were installed with consent.

[Balderdasha]

Another insidious trend is that people who are on smart meters can be switched to prepayment mode without the need for a warrant: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/ab...tizens-advice/

About 3.2 million people in the UK had their energy supply cut off in 2022 because they didn't have any prepayment credit.

[My Name Is Ian]

We had a prepayment meter in one of our old flats. When we got back from the hospital with my younger kid after he was born the electricity and gas had gone out (October 2017, this was) and they had to sit in the cold and dark while I borrowed some money off my boss to get it up and running for a few days. That's the one moment I particularly remember. We moved out of that place the following summer and the landlord let us put a proper meter in. It should be remembered that for those of us who have to rent, whether you'll even be allowed to get a normal meter installed isn't your choice, it's down to the landlord, and they certainly don't always say 'yes'.

But generally it was a nightmare, absolutely horrible. You could only pay cash in an actual shop for them - no app or anything to make people's lives an iota easier - and if it went off after ten at night it wouldn't disconnect, which would be fine for one night but would also mean that whatever it used overnight would come off what you put in the next day. I was spending £40-50 a week on it when we were already at our lowest financial ebb.

And the worry was constant. What if it starts beeping and I'm at my overdraft limit, or if I'm at work and my ex wife is at home with the kids? What if you don't hear the beeping the night before and it goes off the next morning without further warning? More than once I had to go home at ten in the morning because it had just gone out. Good job my employers were understanding. What if you put the key thing in and it just didn't register there was money on it? This happened two or three times and involved a whole palaver of dealing with a company who fundamentally didn't believe you, which with a newborn, a two year-old and a full time job, I seldom had the time for. I don't know how many nights I cried myself to sleep at night and the gas and electricity weren't the only cause of that, but they were in the top three or four.

I have rejected all attempts by the electricity company to put in a smart meter since - and I probably get two emails a week from them - precisely because they can disconnect it remotely, even though my bills are all paid up to date. That's the sort of fear it puts into you.