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Well, hello. It’s time to get caught up for one final time this year.Winter doesn’t officially start in the northern hemisphere until Wednesday, the equinox, but you’d hardly know it from the frigid temperatures that have put Europe’s energy crisis back into focus. Rishi Sunak’s government has gone with the time-honored “put on an extra jumper” strategy, urging consumers to lower the temperature on home boilers and check for drafty windows and doors. Many people usually just grab a simple yoghurt or slice of toast for breakfast. That’s good, because the cost of a true English fry-up is rising even faster than broader food inflation. Bloomberg’s Breakfast Index — which tallies the prices of sausage, bacon, eggs, bread, butter, tomatoes, mushrooms, milk, tea and coffee — has jumped more than 21% from a year ago. Milk alone is up a staggering 49%.The cost of essentials is showing the biggest increase, said Lisa Hooker of PwC. That puts the heaviest burden on low- and fixed-income households.In that vein, UK nurses plan their most widespread strike ever in pursuit of higher pay as they struggle to afford basic living costs. As Bloomberg’s Eamon Akil Farhat reports, some are resorting to food banks to get by, while others are eating hospital food meant for patients to stagger to their next payday. “When I started nursing, you wouldn’t be rich but you’d get decent pay,” nurse Mary Smith said from a picket line in London. All this, less than two years after nurses were lauded as heroes at the frontline of the pandemic. The cost-of-living burden certainly doesn’t fall equally. Demand for high-end turkeys remains buoyant even with prices jumping after bird flu swept through the flock and feed costs soared as well. Celia Burgin and Kate Krader report that if turkeys are in short supply, buyers are opting for other luxury poultry, like geese, and that beef Wellington is enjoying “unprecedented demand.” Britons may simply want to go big on their first real Christmas celebrations in three years after two holidays lost to Covid lockdowns, social distancing and the omicron wave. London’s pubs and restaurants were certainly banking on a big season — but rail workers are keeping City workers at home, spoiling work celebrations as well as family outings. The trade body UKHospitality estimated the strikes will cost the sector £1.5 billion in lost revenue across the country. All of the above is terrible news for Sunak and the Tories, de facto owners of the UK’s recession-struck economy, yet with the next election not required until January 2025, they have time room to try to ride out the downturn. That’s lucky, since polling shows that if an election were held now, not only would the Conservatives lose in a landslide, but Sunak would lose his seat in Yorkshire, Alex Morales reports. In another by-election this week, Labour picked up 9 points in retaining a Greater Manchester seat. There is, finally, a glimmer of good news on inflation, says BOE Governor Andrew Bailey, as price increases ticked down from a 41-year high. Yet with the potential for a wage-price spiral, it’s too early to say the crisis is over. Bailey says the bigger risk is still that inflation is more sticky than anticipated.
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England’s Three Lions won’t be lacing it up this weekend after a Harry Kane penalty miss helped seal a 2-1 quarter-final loss to France. As the defending champs prepare to take on Argentina on Sunday afternoon for football’s biggest prize, Adidas is scrambling to keep up with demand for Lionel Messi jerseys ahead of what’s expected to be the 35-year-old superstar’s final World Cup match, Kim Bhasin reports. If you missed it, check out Olivia Kontoney-Ahulu’s Big Take on the reckoning at property firm Savills after one tweet during the football’s 2021 European Championships drew back the curtain on a racist subculture in the “pale, male and stale” high-end real estate company.Enjoy the rest of your day, and we’ll be back tomorrow with a look ahead to next week’s developments.
