http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7609036.stm
While I was at University and working in a part-time job, I once joked with my fretful bank manager that my wages were so low that I could only afford a champagne at breakfast, one day a week. ‘What am I to do for the other six days?’, I asked.
Now this evening I was reading about the Labour Government’s announced measures, designed to pacify those demanding help for the ‘poor’ this winter who can’t afford to pay their energy bills and are as a consequence, purportedly facing dire hardship.
I came across a video at the bottom of the article which was of a young(ish) lady, a single mother of a boy who has a cold, who had a bit of debt with British Gas and struggled to pay (that’s bene ‘sorted’ now).
She said she’d switched off the heating because she can’t afford the gas bill. She has instead dressed her son in a jumper to keep him warm.
A few things struck me, so I thought I’d share them with you.
Firstly, her hair and dress were immaculate and included, I believe, a dyed hairstyle. I’ve recently been informed the cost of women’s haircuts. OK, she may be talented or have a friend who might have helped with hairstyle and even the dye. Perhaps she got the dress in the sale or even made it herself. I do realise she was appearing on the BBC and would have wanted to look her best. Who knows… Putting that initial thought aside a moment…
What’s wrong with wearing a jumper if it’s cold instead of putting the heating on!?
I have often visited poorer members of my family, forever on the breadline, who are sat in the swealtering heat all winter but insist on always wearing next-to-nothing.
Being warm through dressing properly is not a travesty – it’s sensible, simple and perfectly healthy.
My father keeps the heating and hot water in house off unless absolutely needed, even going so far as to boil a kettle to wash dishes.
I’m not for a moment suggesting she adopt that approach – you can’t sit in the cold all winter with just a jumper, but certainly it helps.
Further, it’s not been cold enough so far this year, I feel, to have the heating on. I haven’t put my heating on whatsoever since moving here and spend most of my evenings in just PJs and a t-shirt quite comfotably until the sun goes down and after that I put something warmer on.
I even remember students who used to visit the library / stay in bed when it was seriously cold to avoid using the heating. (So that they could afford to go out drinking instead)
All sensible, it seems to me.
Next the camera moved to watch her typing away at her laptop, which was a Windows Vista machine. Astonished, I paused the video to check and yes, there on the laptop there was the windows vista compatibility logo. That means she’s had a brand new laptop and paid a premium to have the latest OS within the last 18 months, tops. Mightn’t she have been better off if she’d bought a laptop on eBay / some other second hand source / bought a cheap laptop without vista … or went to her local library and used the internet for free there?
Finally, the icing on the cake for me came when I noticed a bottle on the table. No, not a bottle of warm milk for her baby. No, not a bottle of water for herself. Neither was it a bottle of cheap and cheerful red wine to help herself to occasionally this winter…
…it was a bottle of Moet et Chandon, rosé champagne!
What in the name of god is that woman complaining about!?
The life of luxury that many of us have become accustomed to might just have to be adjusted and it’s unlikely to be has heartbreakingly difficult as the tabloids might have us believe.
To my manager, who is often talking about how short of cash he and his partner are, I point-blank asked why he’s always broke. He said his outgoings were £1700 per month. He lives in a two bedroom council flat, has one child and a partner who also works full time.
He really couldn’t tell me why he was forever broke but I did hear him later talking, on his personal blackberry mobile phone about his new laptop, new car, his heavy drinking weekends and gambling on the sun newspaper’s website. Another mystry to file under ‘case-solved’ I think…
I for one am glad that Brown hasn’t introduced a windfall tax. That’s not to say that I’m glad about the obscene profits that the energy companies make, but I do think that would have been a mistake. Not doing so, I think, is the best decision he’s made so far in his Premiership.