Recently, I met a woman in my local shop who was having a panic attack. She couldn’t breathe properly, perspiration was visible across her face, she couldn’t stand up without support – she was scared.
The staff in this shop are kind. The woman was offered water and a chair. Importantly, everyone remained calm. I asked her if she had any support for stress. After saying that she’d be OK, she smiled wryly, and said she had two jobs and children, and she felt she’d just have to get on with it. “Money is tight”, was one of the reasons she gave for her fear.
Before the storm
If this is happening to families across the region now, future eye-watering energy prices are going to be devastating. Yet, we recently had Edwina Curry asking the money-saving guru, Martin Lewis, not to use the word ‘catastrophic’. The government’s approach to the energy price hike and the cost-of-living crisis has been similar to the previous government’s approach to the pandemic: do little or nothing until the disaster happens. Too little too late.
My MP’s approach
The local MP, Chloe Smith, recently appointed secretary of state for work and pensions, supported Liz Truss’s campaign to be party leader. It would be so wonderful to able to approach her and ask her why. Her constituents in Norwich North have a problem in contacting her. The Westminster phone number gives out a voicemail. Call Norwich North Conservatives and you receive the same response. I left her a voicemail.
I just want to talk to my MP – that’s all. Admittedly, she has put on her Twitter feed that she couldn’t attend the Liz Truss Norfolk hustings as a result of illness. If that’s the case, why couldn’t she just send out a message about how she understands why her constituents are going through hell? The local number gives a 14-day wait time for response. Crisis, what crisis?
The future
The woman whom I met in my local shop can’t do any more than she already is. Most can’t. Workers in hospitality are working 14-hour shifts – so are many others in other sectors. They have nothing left to give. Align this hardship with the pandemic grief and we have a truly fractured nation. We aren’t workshy, we’re stuck in a never-ending carousel of low wages, ridiculous energy company profits, and a total lack of hope. Now might be the time for our local MPs to look at the 19th-century Corn Law riots, before it’s too late. The government has power, and should use that power for the benefit of all. We need hope. Now.
