The other side of this: younger daughter arrived in London today and got trapped at Heathrow. No trains! Eventually got into the centre by taxi, I doubt they got any change out of £100.
Two things. I hope this dispute is not the result of a govt that wants to use inflation as a means to achieve effective pay cuts for the waged and salaried. (I'm sure they would never do that, unless my medication needs increasing ... )
Given the government rhetoric about limiting pay increases to avoid stoking inflation it's rather difficult not to come to the conclusion that significant paycuts in real terms is a major aim.
Secondly, I also hope this doesn't mean that in the West we think we have an automatic entitlement to maintain our standard of living, come what may. Putin's war comes with a cost. The Ukrainians are paying with blood and treasure, and some developing countries face possible food shortages. A modest drop in purchasing power bears no comparison to this except maybe for the very poor.
Increases to benefits have been far short of inflation. This is before we allow for the fact that those on benefits spend far more of their meagre income on food and energy - which have been rising far quicker than the headline inflation rate. Do people have an "automatic entitlement" to access to adequate nutrition? (Something I also extend to those in developing countries, who can't afford the coming food price increases.)
It's also fair to point out that a cut in real terms to millions of people will have severe economic consequences, not least that we have a society that is deeply indebted, and relies on increasing that debt for growth. This is compounded by the fact that people are already cutting back on discretionary spending, which will inevitably result in significant job losses in our services orientated economy. We've yet to see the economic fallout of this.
