Food poverty-the way out

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reohn2
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Re: Food poverty-the way out

Post by reohn2 »

Jdsk wrote: 26 May 2022, 4:16pm
simonineaston wrote: 26 May 2022, 4:12pm Arguably, the serious raincloud of Partygate may have prompted this silver lining... funny how things go.
I'd guess that the timing was related.

But there's a half-ironic joke doing the rounds about how much economic policy could be improved if only there were a few more unlawful gatherings...

Jonathan
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simonineaston
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Re: Food poverty-the way out

Post by simonineaston »

My concern is that the large proportion of foreign ownership of the so-called big six means that the profits from energy sales are directed to foreign investors. If that's the case, then it seems likely that little of that money sees its way back to improving our energy infrastructure or prices, in a way that most consumers fondly imagine is the case... !
picture of energy co ownerhip chart
picture of energy co ownerhip chart
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
reohn2
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Re: Food poverty-the way out

Post by reohn2 »

simonineaston wrote: 26 May 2022, 4:29pm My concern is that the large proportion of foreign ownership of the so-called big six means that the profits from energy sales are directed to foreign investors. If that's the case, then it seems likely that little of that money sees its way back to improving our energy infrastructure or prices, in a way that most consumers fondly imagine is the case... !Screenshot 2022-05-26 at 16.25.55.png
All done when Nude Labour* were in power :?

*read Tories in red ties and sharp suits
Last edited by reohn2 on 26 May 2022, 5:20pm, edited 1 time in total.
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al_yrpal
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Re: Food poverty-the way out

Post by al_yrpal »

Mick F wrote: 26 May 2022, 4:16pm
We as a couple, have never been so well off as we are now.
49years married this year, and met 50years ago January just gone.

Two OAPs, one Service Pension, one Cornwall County Council Pension, home paid for so no rent or mortgage, no bank loans, no debts.
Just short of thirty grand a year coming in.

We do much for charity. Until recently, we ran the local Poppy Appeal. We help out with the food bank, and raise money for the needy. Mrs Mick F has been out doing charity work in The Gambia since the end of February, home in the next few days.
Just lately we have been taking one lady with learning difficulties and another with mobility problems to Aldi with us. They both currently have to shop at nearby convenience stores so the noticeable Aldi savings make quite a difference to them. Every little helps!
Only been here a year and still looking for somewhere we can volunteer within our capabilities.

Al
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
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Mick F
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Re: Food poverty-the way out

Post by Mick F »

Just hearing on R4

Every household will receive £400 to help with winter energy, plus the OAPs will receive their Winter Fuel Payment.
£600 ??

Can I have £600 worth of anthracite please?
Or, maybe some of that to pay for petrol and maintenance for the chainsaw?

We don't have any gas supply, and we don't use much lecky at all. Heating is via anthracite and my efforts with felling trees and logging them up.
Mick F. Cornwall
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simonineaston
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Re: Food poverty-the way out

Post by simonineaston »

I'm not being funny Mick, but have you ever considered one of them ground pump jobbies? With your land, it could be an excellent medium / long term solution for you - thinking too of an earlier remark you made in another topic, with regard to the physical demands of wood cutting etc..
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al_yrpal
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Re: Food poverty-the way out

Post by al_yrpal »

Mick F wrote: 26 May 2022, 5:32pm Just hearing on R4

Every household will receive £400 to help with winter energy, plus the OAPs will receive their Winter Fuel Payment.
£600 ??

Can I have £600 worth of anthracite please?
Or, maybe some of that to pay for petrol and maintenance for the chainsaw?

We don't have any gas supply, and we don't use much lecky at all. Heating is via anthracite and my efforts with felling trees and logging them up.
£500 Mick, £200 existing and another £300

Al
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
reohn2
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Re: Food poverty-the way out

Post by reohn2 »

Mick F wrote: 26 May 2022, 5:32pm Just hearing on R4

Every household will receive £400 to help with winter energy, plus the OAPs will receive their Winter Fuel Payment.
£600 ??

Can I have £600 worth of anthracite please?
Or, maybe some of that to pay for petrol and maintenance for the chainsaw?

We don't have any gas supply, and we don't use much lecky at all. Heating is via anthracite and my efforts with felling trees and logging them up.
Are you not eligible for the winter fuel allowance?
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rjb
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Re: Food poverty-the way out

Post by rjb »

reohn2 wrote: 26 May 2022, 6:11pm
Mick F wrote: 26 May 2022, 5:32pm Just hearing on R4

Every household will receive £400 to help with winter energy, plus the OAPs will receive their Winter Fuel Payment.
£600 ??

Can I have £600 worth of anthracite please?
Or, maybe some of that to pay for petrol and maintenance for the chainsaw?

We don't have any gas supply, and we don't use much lecky at all. Heating is via anthracite and my efforts with felling trees and logging them up.
Are you not eligible for the winter fuel allowance?
And the £10 Xmas bonus, might buy you a couple of pints at the rising sun. :lol:
At the last count:- Peugeot 531 pro, Dawes Discovery Tandem, Dawes Kingpin X3, Raleigh 20 stowaway, 1965 Moulton deluxe, Falcon K2 MTB dropped bar tourer, Rudge Bi frame folder, Longstaff trike conversion on a Giant XTC 840 :D
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Mick F
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Re: Food poverty-the way out

Post by Mick F »

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

When we lived up the hill out of Gunnislake, we had a nice garden.
We bought a stainless steel spade and fork, and planted all sorts of stuff, plus had a lovely lawn.

Moved here in 1997, down in the valley, and in those 25years, the only tool that would dig the ground was a pickaxe.

Shillet? I think the expression is. Millions of flat small stones and some pale brown soil mixed together. Fertile yes, but dig a hole?
Ground pump?
We'd need a JCB or dynamite to dig even a small hole.

Yes, we're OAPs, so we still get the winter fuel payment as if we were one person.
Me and the doggie, Sailor, were out for a walk today, and we called in at the "Riser" and he had a bikkie and I had two pints! :D

As for these handouts to help the less well-off, that's good. We, as I said, aren't short of state payouts, but fine. We don't actually need these handouts, but we're happy to take them of course.
TBH, I wish they would be targeted rather than given out via blanket bombing.
Mick F. Cornwall
rjb
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Re: Food poverty-the way out

Post by rjb »

And when you reach 80 you get an age related pension increase of 25p :shock: I bet this won't even buy a dog biscuit. :(
At the last count:- Peugeot 531 pro, Dawes Discovery Tandem, Dawes Kingpin X3, Raleigh 20 stowaway, 1965 Moulton deluxe, Falcon K2 MTB dropped bar tourer, Rudge Bi frame folder, Longstaff trike conversion on a Giant XTC 840 :D
Carlton green
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Re: Food poverty-the way out

Post by Carlton green »

The funny thing about Devon and Cornwall is that folk think of it as a paradise. Perhaps in this modern age it is but a lot of the Southwest is difficult to farm, live in and travel across without much fossil fuel power. Where Mick lives would not be on my wish list of places to live in but, having said that, I very much like (nearby) Tavistock and would gladly move there. Tavy is much more level (if not flat and surrounded by hilly places). Perhaps I could have an allotment garden too, it’s a bit desperate when one grows because one needs to rather than for recreation.
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pete75
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Re: Food poverty-the way out

Post by pete75 »

reohn2 wrote: 26 May 2022, 4:33pm
simonineaston wrote: 26 May 2022, 4:29pm My concern is that the large proportion of foreign ownership of the so-called big six means that the profits from energy sales are directed to foreign investors. If that's the case, then it seems likely that little of that money sees its way back to improving our energy infrastructure or prices, in a way that most consumers fondly imagine is the case... !Screenshot 2022-05-26 at 16.25.55.png
All done when Nude Labour* were in power :?

*read Tories in red ties and sharp suits
No, I think state owned electricity and gas were both privatised under the Tories. Once a company's shares are traded on the stock exchange there's little or nothing the government can do to prevent a takeover bid. I can remember press articles at the time saying that after privatisation a lot of our utilities would end up in foreign ownership.
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Re: Food poverty-the way out

Post by rjb »

The state industries were privatised mainly during the Tory Thatcher years but they recognised the value of having some overall control and had retained golden shares in the business. Unfortunately the subsequent Labour government decided they had no value and redeemed them allowing the foreign owners to do as they wished, which led to the industry being carved up. :(
At the last count:- Peugeot 531 pro, Dawes Discovery Tandem, Dawes Kingpin X3, Raleigh 20 stowaway, 1965 Moulton deluxe, Falcon K2 MTB dropped bar tourer, Rudge Bi frame folder, Longstaff trike conversion on a Giant XTC 840 :D
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Re: Food poverty-the way out

Post by Vorpal »

Cugel wrote: 25 May 2022, 1:44pm
It's always relatively easy to identify the most proximate causes of any event, behaviour or practice. However, if these most-proximate causes are fiddled with by tweaks of the law, or some other mechanism that reduces or even eliminates them, the various root causes and other causes in a chain leading to that proximate cause merely find other routes to exert their effects.

In one sense, this is what not-my-pal is saying when he suggests that Britain reducing tax haven opportunities in areas it controls will result in havens elsewhere increasing their churn; or new havens popping up. So, how to avoid that?

No easy answers from me but perhaps any law-maker or other political agent looking for a more resilient way to deal with the sort of social ills being discussed here should at least try to deal with root causes rather than fiddling ineffectually with proximate causes?

For example, the root cause of high rents is the set of property laws that allows landlords to charge them. Once we had rent controls that operated with the notion of "a fair rent" at their core. "A fair rent" was not "a market rent" but an amount predicated on many other factors, many of which recognised that a renter's ability to pay without having to give up eating, heating or even the abode being rented should be of primary concern.

The root cause absolutely is property laws in the UK. And a lack of protection for renters. And and it will only get worse in a planning system that is ill-prepared for either modern mobility, recent changes in working culture, or the climate crisis.
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