The price crisis unleashes the summer of discontent in the United Kingdom: energy poverty and food clubs for the middle class

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When a kilo of butter reaches 10 pounds (12 euros) and filling the gas tank costs you 100 pounds (120 euros), when they tell you that electricity and heating will cost you up to 3,244 pounds a year (3,800 euros ), and more and more people find themselves in the dilemma between eating or paying the bills,

.

As the spotlight shines on the race to succeed Boris Johnson, millions of Britons feel the double stalk of food and energy poverty as soon as winter arrives.

The average household in the UK will experience

this year , according to estimates by the Center for Economics and Business Research (CEPR), which attributes half the drop to the war in Ukraine.

Inflation has already reached 9.4% and it is feared that it could reach 12% in the fall, and the Bank of England

.

The social unrest is worse this summer than the discontent marked by train strikes, protest caravans against gasoline prices and initiatives such as bread and butter clubs to alleviate the burden carried by citizens in in the midst of the biggest "squeeze" since the postwar period.

'Go slow'

Inspired by the

and the Canadian

, hundreds of motorists, truckers and farmers have joined caravans protesting against the price of petrol on British motorways.

Two groups created on Facebook lit the fuse since last July 4, with protests on the London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Cardiff ring roads.

"

[2.2 euros per litre] and that our country is also the one that has reduced taxes the least, with a ridiculous five pence per litre," laments Jamie Wiseman, one of the drivers of the movement.

The police arrested dozens of protesters during the month of July for driving at less than 50 kilometers per hour and causing "

" to the general population.

The organizers of the Go Slow marches insist, however, that theirs is a peaceful way of putting pressure on the government and the multinationals.

The UK has also been one of the latest countries to pass a 25% tax on windfall profits from energy companies in the face of

.

Shell made profits of 13.6 billion euros in the second quarter of 2022 and BP tripled theirs.

The gas company Centrica also rounded off its profits by 1,500 million in the first half of the year.

energy poverty

«

.

That is the dilemma that millions of British people fear facing this winter due to the increase in the energy bill to 3,800 euros.

That is the ceiling price that Ofgem, the energy regulator, will foreseeably establish in October, given the popular clamor for the insufficient aid measures from the Government.

Electricity and gas bills are the biggest contributors to the cost of living crisis.

According to

, energy can take 25% of the income of a family with more than four members and with few resources.

In the hotel industry, the electricity bill can even be equated to rental prices.

“It is clear that urgent measures will be necessary at the end of the summer,” predicts Richard Neudegg, an analyst at Unswitch.com.

"Consumers are facing an extremely difficult winter and

."

During a television interview, on the eve of the turbulent political summer, Boris Johnson was brought up the case of Elsie, a 77-year-old retiree who ate only once a day, and spent hours traveling with her free pass on the bus "

" because the pension did not give him enough to pay for the heating.

food poverty

Despite being the sixth richest country in the world, the UK has one of the highest rates of food poverty in Europe.

It is estimated that 7.3 million adults and 2.6 million children have experienced serious difficulties in accessing food.

, according to data from the Food Foundation, and more than two million regularly turn to one of the 2,500 food banks that doubled across the country after the austerity policies of the Cameron era.

The rise in prices in supermarkets has made some staple foods unaffordable for many: skimmed milk has increased by 26% in one year, butter by 21%, flour by 19% and olive oil by 18%.

Bread and butter

In Manchester, meanwhile, the so-called bread and butter clubs ('

') have sprung up.

"The idea is to cover the pothole of the food crisis and supermarket prices," explains founder and CEO Mark Game, who launched the peculiar organization in the midst of a pandemic, with the idea of ​​making it cheaper up to five times (from 35 to £7.50) weekly shopping basket.

Unlike food banks, you don't have to prove you're in dire financial straits to be a member of a TBBT club.

"We feed on supermarket surpluses,

but still safe to eat," explains Game.

"We fulfill a social and ecological function at the same time, as we use up to 100 tons of food a week."

There are already 70 clubs operating, mainly in the north of the country, with 400 volunteers distributing food and 1,700 new members every month.

"

," confesses Jeremy Burton, a high school teacher who punctually picks up his basket every week at St. Peter's Church.

"A sense of solidarity is created between us: you realize that there are people who have to choose between eating and paying the bills," he adds.

'Fish & chips'

The perfect storm threatens

, the typically British dish Cod has risen 75%, sunflower oil 60% and flour 40%, according to data from Company Debt.

Andrew Crook, president of the National Federation of Fish Fryers, sounded the alarm over the possible disappearance of up to a third of the more than 1,200

establishments .

"

" said Crook, who has had to increase the price of the ration for the fourth time so far this year, reaching 8.60 pounds (about ten euros).

His restaurant, Skippers of Euxton, is left alone in the face of danger in the town of Chorley: "Hardest hit are the takeaway stalls, which used to be cheaper but can no longer hide rising prices" .

The lace has been put by the economic sanctions on Russia, which have resulted in 35% tariffs for the purchase of white fish -mainly cod and haddock- that came from the Barents Sea.

'cheeseburger'

ad

has disappeared from London bus stops.

For 14 years, the 99 pence withstood the onslaught of pandemics and financial crises, but could not withstand the impact of the war in Ukraine.

“

to the products most affected by inflation,” announced the CEO of McDonald's for the United Kingdom, Alistair Macrow.

The

thus went to 1.19 pounds (1.42 euros) to the astonishment of regular customers at the 1,300 establishments of the chain in the country.

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