There are people Christmas shopping. I kid you not. It’s August. I’d heard about this stuff but I’d never seen it.
We were talking about this in the pub the other night, then someone told me that August – AUGUST – is late for this stuff now. Some people start in the spring. Incredible.
What do people buy? Presents, decorations, turkeys? How does it work?
It always feels a long way away does Christmas. I’ve always been a week-before merchant. One memorable year, the night before, after a failed delivery. Up and down a packed Oxford Street, desperately looking for gifts. Scarred me for life that did. Never again.
But surely people’s plans are changing now. What with, you know, what’s coming up. Hard Times.
Simon Clarke, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, picked up on this earlier in the year, saying that people shouldn’t end up in the mindset of buying today because things will be dearer later.
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I keep trying not to be doommongery in this column – I don’t want to ruin anyone’s Sunday or anything like that, put you off your cornflakes or spoil the football for you – and there’s no point banging on about what we already know.
But, you know, energy prices. Makes Christmas feel a long way off.
At this moment in time, we’re watching a country come to terms with itself. The strikes are 100% a product of that: people who were clapped during the pandemic, branded “key workers”, and assured they would be rewarded when it was all over.
Last time I looked, inflation is forecast to be 18%. The implications of this are terrifying for everyone.
Those energy bills. It’s just impossible to get past. Maybe some people will be able to manage. Inconvenienced but still not choosing – like millions – between heating or eating.
My colleague was out and about in the Norfolk constituency of Liz Truss (1/20 on to be our next PM) last week. And it’s brutal. People who were already struggling, going not just to be struggling more, going to be plunged into horrific levels of struggle.
People who were – remember the Theresa May thing? – Just About Managing are very quickly going to be Not Managing At All. Working people, people with children, people who are already using foodbanks.
One of the awful things – but a horrible truth – is that it’s very hard to get people to care about people who are really struggling.
We can hear about it, read about it, and think: “There but for the grace of God.”
But it’s coming for everyone now. And everyone needs help.
Check out the Government: “The civil service is also making the appropriate preparations in order to ensure that any additional support or commitments on cost of living can be delivered as quickly as possible when the new Prime Minister is in place.”
That’s just over a week. A long time in politics, a longer time when people are panicking.
Will it be any good when it comes? We’ll see. The talk in Westminster is that this is not a problem anyone has a solution to. Needs some new thinking, a real lightbulb moment.
Strange really, when no one can afford to switch one on.
