The belated departure of Boris Johnson is a moment the vast majority of UK citizens will celebrate with glee. A man who conned the North whilst directing resources to the South,. A man whose moral compass was never calibrated to magnetic North. He showed us the jeopardy of electing junk politicians.
He was also the PM from 2019 to 2022 when we suffered the greatest decline in the quality of life in my lifetime. I have just examined how my spending patterns changed in the Johnson years. A hard Brexit, a slow and flawed Covid response and now the cost of living crisis resulting from a failure to control energy prices have dramatically altered our patterns of living. The differences are remarkable but even with a secure company pension and no mortgage, there have had to be been significant reductions in spending.
On food, we became vegetarians just before Covid struck and whilst initially saving a great deal of expenditure in recent months the price of fruit, vegetables and dairy produce has increased rapidly. We have become more careful about what we buy, visiting Aldi and seeking out special offers on products we would usually buy without a second thought.
Our energy costs in a new house are comparatively low: triple glazing, solar panels, air source heating, low energy lighting and newish appliances have all made a huge difference. Nevertheless, total energy costs have already risen from £1200pa to £2100pa with a further £600 likely next month
The cost of motoring has rocketed. My annual mileage in the car has dropped by 23% but the total fuel cost has risen by 37%, meaning I am spending about £300 more per annum to do a far smaller mileage. This has positive benefits for the planet and not just because of fuel savings. I would normally replace a car every four or five years but the carbon footprint of manufacturing a new car is huge. The increase in car prices as the value of the pound has plummeted in the last 18 months has made the purchase of a new car an exercise in burning money, even more so when buying an electric car. The depreciation on an average car is now about £5000 per annum, and the depreciation on my 9-year-old car is about £1000 a year. I have also stopped using the car dealership, where servicing prices were reaching stratospheric levels and now use the local garage saving about 50% of the cost of repairs and servicing.
Buying an electric car is a strong intention but with a 9-month waiting list, a 15% premium over an equivalent petrol car and the cost of recharging now almost as much as buying fuel, there is little justification or incentive for replacing the car. I would need to keep it for about 15 years to break even on my carbon footprint when the impact of manufacturing as well as the fuel is taken into account. Will I still be here or still driving by then?
We used to eat out an average of once a week at lunchtime and once a fortnight in the evening. Prices have gone up at our local cafe by 18% at lunchtime and the chef has left so the menu is more restricted. We have been only twice so far this year. Eating out in the evening seems to be far more expensive and we have had some pretty awful meals since the lockdown ended. We have only eaten out in the evening on five occasions in the first 30 weeks of this year and only twice has it been a good experience. Beer has gone up hugely from £3.30 to about £4.50 a pint and as a result, I have only had half a dozen pints all year, usually with a meal. I can only recall going for a drink in a pub on one occasion.
We used to go out to events more regularly, to the cinema about half a dozen times a year and to music or play about six or seven times a year. So far this year, I have been once to the cinema, once to a play and to one music/dance event.
We used to go to see our daughters in London 6 or 7 times a year. Since Covid we have been once in 33 months, meaning less flying and far fewer train trips. We have seen far less of our brothers and sisters and close friends. Even local train and bus trips have stalled, I have made just 2 train trips each to Edinburgh and Glasgow since the start of Covid and only two bus trips to catch a train.
We would go on a holiday abroad maybe twice a year, one a city break in Europe and one a trip to France or occasionally to Italy or Greece. We have had only one holiday abroad in the last three years. The price was more expensive mainly because of the declining buying power of the pound against the Euro and the cost of hiring a car abroad. Travel insurance has escalated by over 100% but that is partly age-related, once you are over 70, you are penalised heavily for having the audacity to travel.
The cost of getting a tradesman to the house for electrical, plumbing or other work has spiralled way beyond the inflation rate. It cost £120 to fix a burglar alarm that had gone off and needed to be reset, It took about twenty minutes. I now try to do our own repairs with the help of YouTube.
Apart from socks and shorts, I have bought no new clothes. My recreational interests have been running and hill walking. The lockdown stopped me from running for 3 months and then I got injured when we were let out and I lost another 4 months. My mileage is now a quarter of what I was running pre-lockdown. I would have bought new shoes once or twice a year. They have almost doubled in price, and I now use my cache of old shoes that were stashed in a cupboard. I bought a new rucksack the other day because it was on a half-price offer at a price similar to what it was at a full price three years ago. All other outdoor equipment has rocketed in price so again I simply reproof and repair to extend the life of the gear.
As a result of inflation and the need to live within a budget, I am spending about the same as before. We just get far fewer services or outings for our money. And this is before the significant rise in energy costs. The consequence for the economy is that I am far less likely to spend on hospitality, tradesmen, rail and air travel or household goods than before. These businesses are under great pressure with the inflation in food and energy prices, and a shortage of workers given that many have retired, whilst many workers from Europe have returned home. Meanwhile, the financial sector is up to its old tricks, not passing on interest rate hikes to savers, increasing fixed charges, and promoting lending at rates that give them ever higher profit margins.
It is a vicious circle with devastating consequences for businesses and a loss of living standards for the majority of households. It is no consolation to hear that other developed economies are going through the same issues, they are at least recovering, and the UK is still performing less well than before we left the EU and screwed up our Covid response. Even the cost of living has gone up faster in the UK than in most other developed countries. I would be lying if I said that all of this is down to Boris but most of it is and that's the nemesis for Boris Johnson.
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