Prices here [as in most places] are rising rapidly.

I noticed on my last oil bill that it was almost double what I had paid a year ago. Petrol, food and power are all going through the roof. Naturally, a hell of a lot of people are finding it very tough going. It can be a simple choice of paying the electricity bill or eating, but not both.

Our Glorious Gubmint are of course aware of this. They are “taking measures” to help us out, but they won’t say what those measures are or when they’ll arrive. The only thing they will say is that there will be no change in tax or VAT [Value Added Tax]. A huge chunk of our fuel bills are VAT or tax.

One of our Great Masters – a Minister of State at the Department of Finance, which means he’s not the Minister for Finance but gets a massive salary anyway – was on the radio yesterday. He was full of blow about how the gubmint was going to help us [without saying how or when] and hadn’t they already given us an extra €5 a week [which in my case came out at around €2.50 a week – I’m so happy with that!].

He then proceeded to tell us that basically it’s our own fault we’re broke. You see, we should be shopping around. We’re to switch our electricity suppliers and our gas suppliers. We must shop around for cheaper house and car insurance. And when we do our weekly shop we should shop around and go to different supermarkets. I’m just amazed he never mentioned shopping around for a cheaper golf club or country club.

Here is the little cunt in all his glory expounding his brilliant plan –

So there you have it. Those of us on a fixed income just have to shop around. All I have to do is shop in Aldi or Lidl or Dunnes or Tesco or Supervalu for my groceries. Except that I would have to drive God knows how many miles to visit them all, using petrol which, incidentally, I can’t shop around for as all the companies charge much the same [approaching €2 a litre]. He is right of course that I could save a few bob on various insurance policies but that won’t put bread on the table this week or next. And what about the elderly with no broadband and little technical knowledge? Apparently they can freeze or starve.

The little cunt is completely out of touch with reality. But then he’s a Minister of State, isn’t he? A grand a week net? And I bet that grand is after he’s paid all his overheads and bills. The little fuck has no idea what it’s like to live on a state pension and never will.

He apologised today. He’s sorry he said that. He didn’t mean to insult the poor.

But he’s still on over €1000 a week.