From Watts Up With That?
Essay by Eric Worrall
The mainstream media are failing us, not asking obvious questions, like “how can we prevent energy prices spiralling out of control?”.
As the UK falls into a recession that could soon swallow Europe, this town offers clues on England’s cost-of-living nightmare
By Lucia Stein
While much of the world anxiously waits to see if their economies will tip into a recession next year, the United Kingdom may already be in the midst of one.
The economy shrank 0.3 per cent between July and September, in what Bank of England forecasts say is the start of a “prolonged period” of negative growth that will last throughout 2023.
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“Why is Britain set to be the first country into recession and the last country out?” Labour leader Keir Starmer asked in parliament last month.
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“The UK has effectively become a poorer country, not just poorer than we expected to be, actually just poorer,” Institute for Fiscal Studies senior research economist Ben Zaranko said.
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With expectations that about 710,000 households across the UK will struggle to pay for warm clothing, heating and food this winter, residents in Burnley have resorted to cutting back on electricity use as much as possible.
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Basically, the price of imported goods — such as energy, fuel, gas, and food — are rising at a faster rate than the price of the UK’s exported goods, resulting in a yawning current account deficit.
The following is the UK Opposition Leader asking why the UK is at the bottom of the league when it comes to economic hardship. But the opposition leader doesn’t have any solutions.
Everyone knows what the solution is – drill for more petroleum. The UK has enormous gas and oil reserves which are currently not be exploited, which could be used to bring down prices. All the UK has to do is issue a few fracking permits.
But people keep skirting around this obvious solution, including the author of the MSN article above.
Even if you don’t think the UK has enough frackable gas to make a difference, why stand in the way of people trying?
We have moved from being a free society, to a society of social pressure to avoid discussing forbidden topics.
Suppressing discussion also suppresses public efforts to marshal support for finding solutions. Britain is teetering on the brink of a severe recession and millions of people are suffering needlessly, because too many people no longer feel free to discuss major problems and possible solutions in public.
Lucia Stein, you wanted to be a journalist so much you made it your career. I assume you wanted to help people when you chose journalism as your profession. So how can you and your fellow journalists live with yourselves, how can you keep silent and keep avoiding the obvious, when there is so much more you and your fellow journalists could do to help alleviate the suffering of millions of people?
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