How the fuck are single people on minimum wage in the UK expected to actually survive on their own?
The maths just doesn’t work anymore.
A full-time 37.5-hour week (because nowhere wants to pay you for breaks anymore) brings in around £1,700 a month after tax, National Insurance and pension.
Then you’ve got rent at the lower end of the market at roughly £800 if you’re lucky, £120 council tax, around £350 for utilities, and at least £70 a week just on food.
By the time the essentials are paid, you’re left with maybe £150 for the entire month and that’s before transport, emergencies, or anything unexpected.
Minimum wage doesn’t even come close to covering basic living costs anymore.
@AmazonUK what is the point of delivery instructions & safe places if they are consistently ignored? Door never knocked, parcel left on display on front step, generic answers to the complaint which will never be acted upon. And you need to tweet something to get a response
If people genuinely believe Burnham won’t receive the exact same media onslaught, they’ve not been paying attention.
Starmer is not, objectively, bad. This idea that he is somehow the worst PM in British history is frankly laughable.
Liz truss lasted 49 days, crashed the pound and was laughed out of Downing Street.
Since Labour took office, Keir Starmer’s government has:
• Scrapped the two-child benefit limit, lifting hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty and putting money back into some of the hardest-pressed households in the country.
• Expanded free school meals, cutting costs for families and making sure more children get a proper meal during the school day.
• Expanded funded childcare, reducing one of the biggest monthly costs facing working parents and making it easier for people to stay in work.
• Raised the National Living Wage, increasing pay for millions of low-paid workers.
• Strengthened workers’ rights, giving people greater protection against insecure work and bad employers.
• Introduced statutory sick pay from the first day of illness, so workers are less likely to choose between their health and their wages.
• Ended no-fault evictions, giving renters more security in their homes.
• Brought rail operators back into public ownership, taking key services out of failed private hands and giving the public a stronger stake in how they are run.
• Cut NHS waiting lists from their post-pandemic peak, meaning more patients are being seen sooner.
• Raised the state pension through the triple lock, protecting pensioners’ incomes against rising costs.
• Scrapped the old non-dom tax regime, making some of the wealthiest people in the country pay more fairly.
• Added VAT to private school fees, raising money from those most able to contribute.
• Removed business rates relief from private schools, ending an unjustified tax break.
• Increased neighbourhood policing, putting more officers and PCSOs back into communities.
• Helped bring knife crime down, meaning fewer families face the devastation of serious violence.
• Recorded the lowest homicide rate since the 1970s, a material improvement in public safety.
• Created Great British Energy, giving Britain a publicly owned clean energy company.
• Created the National Wealth Fund, backing investment in industry, infrastructure and clean energy.
• Passed planning reforms aimed at getting homes and major projects built faster.
• Improved relations with the EU, reducing diplomatic hostility and rebuilding practical cooperation.
• Agreed a UK-EU security partnership, strengthening cooperation on defence and European security.
• Signed a long-term partnership with Ukraine, reinforcing Britain’s support against Putin’s invasion.
• Secured new trade agreements, opening up markets for British businesses.
• Helped restore seriousness to government after years of scandal, chaos and decline.
People do not have to like Starmer. They do not have to vote Labour. But pretending this is the record of the worst Prime Minister in British history is absurd.
The UK economy basically works like this:
Get paid £2,000.
Give £900 to a landlord. Give £200 to the council. Give £150 to energy companies. Give £300 to supermarkets. Give £300 to car insurance and fuel.
Spend the rest surviving until next payday.
Then get lectured by someone who bought their house for £37,000 in 1988 about how you need to stop buying coffees and cancel subscriptions.
When one of the most respected referees in world football is refused entry by the host nation, because they don't like his home country, the correct response of the other referees should be to boycott the tournament unless he is allowed to do his job. Sadly, that won't happen.
I was at a restaurant yesterday and there was a couple sitting near me with two small kids.
The mom spent the entire meal:
cutting food,
cleaning spills,
taking one kid to the bathroom,
keeping the baby from screaming,
asking the waiter for extra napkins every five minutes…
Meanwhile the dad sat there scrolling sports highlights on his phone.
At one point the little girl asked her mom,
“Why don’t you ever eat with us?”
The woman laughed and said,
“Mommies eat later.”
Then the husband looked up from his phone and goes,
“See? She likes staying busy. I’d be stressed doing all that.”
A few people around them laughed politely.
She laughed too.
But she still hadn’t touched her food.
And honestly I think that’s how a lot of women disappear slowly.
Not all at once.
Just piece by piece while everyone around them calls it “being a good mom.”
I imagine I'm very late to this game, but the 90s really are returning. @Microsoft have brought back #clippy just in a faceless form. Now there isn't even an annoying face to yell at when it gets in the way, asks useless questions, and generally makes things more difficult!
@UKParliament
To all MPs resigning:
You can't fix something if you're not involved.
You're paid to work for your constituencies.
Get on with your job.
Stop fussing about who's at the top. The electorate doesn't trust any of you, so it doesn't matter.
We're fed up with infighting.