There are more catering establishments than McDonald’s

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On Saturday, Britain was as big as it ever was for once. The world watches as the island nation celebrates itself with its new king, 74. However, there has been little cause for celebration in recent years.

Things are not looking good for the former world power. Double-digit inflation is sending food, energy and rent prices skyrocketing. Many pubs, shops and office spaces are boarded up, closed forever. More than seven million people are waiting for a doctor’s appointment. Hardly a week goes by without a major strike.

A cold winter was followed by a gloomy spring: the International Monetary Fund has predicted that no other developed country will grow less than Britain this year. Even the Russian economy is doing better.

The gap between rich and poor is widening

The only thing growing in the UK right now is inequality: there are more billionaires than ever before, but at the same time there have never been so many Britons living in poverty. There are now more “food banks” in the country, donating food for the needy, than branches of McDonald’s. Every fourth family in the country has too little to eat. A year ago that was only every eighth.

It is the small and medium-sized businesses that can no longer afford their electricity bills, that are losing their homes and relying on food donations. It does not affect the edges of the kingdom, which have always been structurally weak regions. The new poverty is visible even in the center, in London, tourist magnet, international financial metropolis and national pride.

Zina Alfa (30) has a master’s degree in economics and politics and a job in the financial sector. But a few weeks ago, she moved back to her parents in London’s Grove Park neighborhood. Young people are particularly hard hit: they can hardly afford a property due to the ongoing crisis and are more or less at the mercy of their landlords. The rent on Alfa’s East London apartment has almost doubled in a year, from £700 to £1,300.

She tells it in a cafe. The pub across the road has recently closed. A homeless person has to be supported by the police on the sidewalk in front of the café. Money falls out of another man’s pocket, he curses, groans in pain as he bends down, but picks up every one or two pence coin.

“I love London, it’s my home,” says Zina Alfa. “But it has changed.” The crisis is a topical theme. There’s even a separate word for the “cost of living crisis” now: Alfa and her friends speak of the “cozzie livs” when, instead of meeting, they stay home to save money.

The landlord has scammed her money, she says. When she went to the police, she was sent to the city council, and from there to the police again: “No one feels responsible, no one feels responsible. Everyone is on target.”

What frustrates her: “We are not seen or heard and certainly not supported,” she says. “How come we pay six times more for our energy when Shell and BP report record profits? Or that the salary is still the same as when I started studying in 2011?»

Two worlds

The anger “about those above”, an elite who only care about their own wealth, runs deep. It seems bizarre when Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (42), a near-billionaire, expands the electricity supply for his 12-metre swimming pool at the North Yorkshire holiday resort – while hundreds of thousands live in cold houses. Or when the head of the Bank of England complains that the British “have now to accept that they are poorer” – while he himself rakes in £190,000 a year.

“Those up there” are also the royal family. Charlotte Proudman, 34, a well-known women’s rights activist, tweeted this week: “£100 million of our money is being spent on the King’s coronation when there is now no money for free school meals, food banks, the justice system, women’s shelters. Let’s get the 99, Put 9 percent first, not 0.1 percent.”

In the vicarage near Finsbury Park, Carla Maurer (42), Swiss-British minister of the Swiss Church in London, talks about the butter, which suddenly costs five pounds instead of two and a half as before. And that the teachers went on strike this week for the fourth time in two months. She and her husband now shop at Aldi instead of Waitrose – it’s cheaper. Go on vacation two more times instead of three. “We have leeway, but many miss it. And then it gets tough,” says Maurer.

Every Tuesday, the Swiss church organizes a breakfast, in which about 60 needy people participate, considerably more than before. In the meantime, there are occasional arguments between the participants about who is more needy. The hairdresser, who cuts hair for free once a month, is so popular that a second has now been hired.

Hopeless search for apartment

Rose Campbell has moved twice in two years. She only gets leases for one year: if they are renewed, the landlords immediately raise the prices. The 29-year-old works in the fashion industry. Her flat is now £200 more expensive. She did get a raise, but only £40 more a month.

Finding a place to live in London has never been easier, says Campbell. In the last two years it has become almost impossible. For the money you used to get an entire apartment for, you can still only get one room. “And there are 30 others applying with you.”

When you find shelter, it’s usually in a desolate state: in the old apartment, a kitchen cabinet came loose from the wall and fell on your friend. The landlady only responded after three weeks and repeated insistence. There is no money during the crisis for other things, such as heating. “In winter it was so cold in the apartment that we could see our breath.” She hopes it will get better, but, “It doesn’t look good. It feels like it will stay that way.”

In the evening, a young man in a skirt in Piccadilly Circus plays British folk songs on the bagpipes. In the background, Union Jacks blow in the gentle spring breeze. The houses around the musician are heavy with culture and history. Tourists gossip, throw coins in the suitcase. Here, surrounded by hundreds of years of culture and grandeur, in the square that was considered the center of the world in the days of the British Empire, the ‘Great Nation’ that the island nation once was is briefly revived. Great Britain, the postcard idyll.

But the young man plays for the England of yesteryear. Real Brits now save themselves the bus ticket to the city centre.

Source: Blick