h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is akin to our dear president giving the treasury back 2 per cent of his salary while cutting our only national pension scheme Social Security. It is a big laugh when the 1 per centers make a 'sacrifice' while a whole bunch of children in this country are in danger of being malnourished (or at the very least suffer 'food insecurity'). There are a heck a lot of working poor people in this country and the politicians are just worried about the national debt and gun control.

Both of those of course are valid worries, but balancing the debt control with making sure that people have enough money right here and now is a challenge our lot seem to be ignoring. The big prob our politicians seem not to have grasped is that they talk of 'tough cuts' and say 'we're all in this together' when everyone knows perfectly well that a a large number of them have far too much money to worry about the cost of central heating.

I had a moment of profound moment sadness and also felt quite scared yesterday when I went shopping.

Sorry if this goes on a bit but here is the whole story

Hiccup and I were writing out a list and meal planning, as you do. We debated getting a brochelli or a cauliflower, this was to do with meal planning. A brochelli is too much for us to get through, so some goes to waste which we don't like so decided on a cauli which stores for longer

I was going to make a cauli cheese for me and Hiccup would have plain cauli with some meals.

Cheese is also a treat, thanks Spiller for the slab of cheddar he had left me

Cauli cost between 75p and 95p generally. Not now, £1.98 *eyes watered* so scrapped that idea.

There were signs up saying that due to the extreme weather prices had risen and also they couldn't garentee that they would always be able to stock the full range of fruit and veg.

It took me quite some time to choose what meat to buy, my smart washing powder has gone up by a third, I ummed and arghhed if I could manage the outlay for some buying in bulk which would save me a £1 over a couple of weeks. Pulled my hair out in frustration at the way they price items to make it more complicated to determine best value

A double whammy for the majority, the devasting effects of austerity policies and the impact of extreme weather

I won't even get started on the bar stewards that speculatively buy wheat and food stuffs on the markets to make profits

So that was me yesterday, stood by the caulis, eyes watering, with indignation and sadness at the choices that people are having to make and feeling scared

Sorry again for the length of post and going on about a cauli

Peanut

smart price washing powder and broccoli, my spelling was so bad spell check couldn't sort it

No probs Peanut, it was a good and insightful account and you've made another good point in that what you can afford one week isn't necessarily the same price next week. Your ref to milk recalls Terry Pratchett's 'boots' theory of socio-economic unfairness.

ah the boots theory I can relate to that.

Thanks for listening Benjamin,it is appreciated,

You're welcome peanut, any time. Are you familiar with the boots theory?

I wasn't off the top of my head, so I looked it up.

Pratchett is an excellent read, would I be right in guessing you are a fan?

Yup. A few years ago my wife managed to get him to sign a copy of Night Watch for me. I was bloody livid that I missed him.

oh dear, I shouldn't but I had this picture in my mind of you hopping mad and her clocking you with Night Watch for not saying a thank you for the autograph.

You're not that far off actually.

*ouch*

Not the same but I did a five hour round trip because I thought I was going to get to meet Ray Mears ( I have a bit of a crush on him ) and do some fun workshops forest school and play sessions as this was the type of thing I was doing with children in the community.

When I got there, no Ray Mears, the person who read the bumf read it wrong ad all the fun workshops were full so I got a day of health and safety, funding and insurance, statistics, the joy