Rachel Reeves Has Explained This Is Not Her Fault; My Direct Debit Has Different Views
From Bohiney and The London Prat.
By Lowri Griffiths | BigSmokeBroke.com
The Bill
My electricity bill increased again this month. The cause, reconstructed from government press releases and late-night economic journalism: the Iran conflict disrupted Middle Eastern oil supply, elevated global energy prices, passed through the UK energy pricing mechanism into my direct debit. This chain of causation spans three continents and terminates in my North London flat. I find this logistically impressive in a way that does not comfort me financially.
What Government Says
The government’s communications about energy prices follow the pattern of communications about problems that are real, structural, and require sustained policy response: acknowledgment, sympathy, assurance that management is ongoing, and specific policy measures that apply at the margin. The price cap has been adjusted. The relief payments have been issued to qualifying households. My bill has increased anyway. Both things are true simultaneously and this is apparently the condition of UK energy policy in 2026.
North London’s Response
North London has responded to the energy crisis in the way of a demographic that is economically comfortable enough to absorb the immediate cost while being politically engaged enough to be furious about it regardless. The pubs in my area have energy surcharge notes. The newsletters I subscribe to cover bills with the frequency of publications covering a national emergency. The emergency is real. The coverage is appropriate. The sense of helplessness beneath the coverage is also appropriate.
What I Have Done
The things that have materially helped with my energy bill: a better programmable thermostat, the insulation my landlord installed after I cited the legal requirement, and the specific habit of turning things off that I was meant to develop as a child. The things that have not helped: government announcements, price cap statements, and assurances that the situation is being managed. The management is ongoing. The bill reflects the management’s current progress, which is partial.
More: The Daily Mash.
London continues. The streets are the same streets they were yesterday and they are subtly different because the city keeps changing beneath the surfaces that stay the same. The journalism that covers London at this granular level — the blogs, the neighbourhood newsletters, the personal accounts of people who live in specific parts of the city and pay attention to what living there is like — serves the function of making the city legible to itself and to the visitors who want to understand it as something more than the postcard version. This is why this column exists. This is why it matters. The city is worth paying attention to. This column will keep paying attention.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
London remains. The city absorbs every political crisis, every energy bill increase, every theatre ticket price surge, every development application, and every wave of newcomers with the specific resilience of a place that has been doing all of this simultaneously since before most other cities existed. The journalism that documents this absorption — the personal accounts of people living in specific parts of the city, paying attention to what living there is actually like — serves a function that official reporting does not: it makes the city legible to itself at the scale of the street and the neighbourhood rather than the policy and the statistic. This column is that journalism. It continues because the city continues, and the city will continue longer than any of the problems it is currently managing. The next development application has already been submitted. The next good coffee shop is already open. The next political crisis is already developing. We will cover all of them.
London remains. The city absorbs every political crisis, every energy bill increase, every theatre ticket price surge, every development application, and every wave of newcomers with the specific resilience of a place that has been doing all of this simultaneously since before most other cities existed. The journalism that documents this absorption — the personal accounts of people living in specific parts of the city, paying attention to what living there is actually like — serves a function that official reporting does not: it makes the city legible to itself at the scale of the street and the neighbourhood rather than the policy and the statistic. This column is that journalism. It continues because the city continues, and the city will continue longer than any of the problems it is currently managing. The next development application has already been submitted. The next good coffee shop is already open. The next political crisis is already developing. We will cover all of them.
London remains. The city absorbs every political crisis, every energy bill increase, every theatre ticket price surge, every development application, and every wave of newcomers with the specific resilience of a place that has been doing all of this simultaneously since before most other cities existed. The journalism that documents this absorption — the personal accounts of people living in specific parts of the city, paying attention to what living there is actually like — serves a function that official reporting does not: it makes the city legible to itself at the scale of the street and the neighbourhood rather than the policy and the statistic. This column is that journalism. It continues because the city continues, and the city will continue longer than any of the problems it is currently managing. The next development application has already been submitted. The next good coffee shop is already open. The next political crisis is already developing. We will cover all of them.
