The English crisis, from the increase in the inflation rate to the cutoff of city water
According to CNN’s IRNA report on Monday, the sense of collapse in this country is still increasing. Health officials issued a dire warning of a “humanitarian crisis” on Friday, while no action has been taken yet to curb rising winter energy prices in England.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the Confederation of National Health Services for England, said in a statement: “Many people may be faced with a terrible choice between skipping meals to heat their homes and living in cold, wet and very uncomfortable conditions.” These events will happen just as the NHS is likely to experience its toughest winter yet.
The highly unusual combination of several challenges comes amid warnings of the worst cost-of-living crisis in the UK in the past few weeks. Inflation passed 10 percent last week, and households that were struggling to afford meat are now facing more restrictions. The UK is heading into recession and GDP is expected to continue to decline until the end of the year and beyond.
On top of these economic woes, transport workers went on strike and there are warnings of more strikes in the private and public sectors of England. Even some lawyers went on strike in criminal cases, which has led to disruptions in holding courts.
The biggest strike in the last 30 years in the British rail sector took place on Monday last week, causing the cancellation of trains for many hours of the week.
This is while Boris Johnson, the resigned Prime Minister of England, is on his second summer vacation. As for why Johnson is not returning to London to implement an urgent action plan, the British Prime Minister’s Office said the big, costly plans would have to be carried out by the next prime minister.
Johnson’s replacement, who is either current foreign minister Liz Truss or former finance minister Rishi Sonak, will not legally assume the position of prime minister until September 5. The next Prime Minister of England is not elected by the people (referring to the parliamentary system), but by members of the Conservative Party, which includes less than 200,000 of the 67 million population of England.
A UK government spokesman told CNN: “While funding decisions for the coming months will be in the hands of the next Prime Minister, we will continue to support people directly with financial support as part of the existing £37 billion package.”
But critics across the UK political spectrum believe this is insufficient and that more decisive action must now be taken.
Daniel Kawczynski, a Conservative MP who backs Liz Truss, believes the worsening situation means the party must end the race and appoint a new prime minister or give Johnson the go-ahead.
He told CNN: “The competition has been very long and now we need leadership.” Complacency is not a good thing when important decisions have to be made. So we must either give the current leader the authority to act or end the race. The British people rightly expect us to handle this crisis.