In a popular market in northeast London, the challenge of shopping without breaking the bank reminds us that the rising cost of living did not let up during the mourning and farewell of Queen Elizabeth II.
Britain’s falling purchasing power was high on the media and political agenda ahead of the Queen’s death on 8 September, just hours after Prime Minister Liz Truss announced a freeze on electricity prices.
Political life, already suspended all summer due to the election of the new prime minister after the resignation of Boris Johnson, is once again paralyzed.
On Thursday morning, Aslam Jan’s computer and money transfer shop in Walthamstow, a neighborhood with a large migrant population, was empty, and not because of tributes to the Queen.
“You see in the market, people don’t spend like they used to,” the trader tells AFP. “Many people who used to send money to their family abroad can no longer do so.”
The reason is the 9.9% year-on-year inflation in the UK and in particular the energy bills which have soared since last winter.
In addition to the fruit and vegetable and clothing stalls, the shopping street has two cheap supermarkets from the same German chain, thrift stores and other low-cost stores, which attract people with limited resources.
Rumi Dimitrova, a 47-year-old Bulgarian cleaning lady, comes here “because the stores are cheaper,” she says, as she leaves a second-hand clothing store empty-handed.
“Since Covid it was already difficult, but now it is even more difficult”, she laments, adding that, luckily, her son, who lives in London, helps her a little.
“Life reality”
“Of course,” the queen’s death “is very sad, a lot of people respected her, but the reality of life hasn’t changed,” recalls Gary Nash, founder of Eat or Heat food banks for the needy.
His organization, created during the 2008 financial crisis, has several food distribution centers, including one near Walthamstow Market, helping “hundreds of people” every month.
They are mostly people “who work full-time, but can’t pay their bills,” he describes.
Salary readjustments in some sectors are far from offsetting inflation, which may rise even further in the coming months.
“The average real wage has been falling for seven months,” and a decline is feared “twice as sharp as during the 2008 financial crisis,” says Lalitha Try, an inequality researcher at the Resolution Foundation.
As recession threatens the country, the Resolution Foundation expects 3 million people to fall into poverty, although measures announced by the government could limit the damage.
Since the queen’s death, and at least until her funeral on Monday, political debate, which until now has been very virulent over the cost-of-living crisis, has come to a sudden halt.
Labor MPs were instructed by the party leadership to speak to the media only to pay tribute to the Queen, according to an internal note revealed by The Guardian.
Amid the chorus of tributes to Elizabeth II, some rare voices lamented that government forces were focused exclusively on organizing her grandiose funeral and that Parliament was in recess despite the urgency of the crisis.
Economy Minister Kwasi Kwarteng is due to make a budget statement on Friday to detail the support measures announced by Truss, which are expected to reach more than 100 billion pounds ($115 billion).
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