I am writing this while panicking about how I am going to afford winter, never mind Christmas (Nearly a quarter of UK adults plan to keep heating off this winter, poll finds, 29 August). I have three disabled children and a husband with serious mental health issues, and our expenses are going up and up. I wake up each morning filled with a sick sense of doom about what the outlook is going to be. I cannot afford to take out a loan to cover costs as we would not be able to afford the repayments. We cannot say we will keep the heating off as we cannot allow our children to get cold due to their disabilities. Just how are we supposed to make ends meet?
The government is in a self-induced coma, detached from reality and ignoring the desperate pleas for help. How many of them are going to have to worry about heating their house or feeding their children? I try to keep a brave face for my children and my husband, but inside I am filled with an ever-increasing sense of dread. Am I going to be faced with having to tell my three-year-old that Santa just can’t afford it this year? How I can break his little heart like that and see the devastation on my children’s faces on Christmas morning when they think Santa didn’t care? It is a soul-destroying thought that children all over the UK are going to face this situation.
Name and address supplied
I am 83 and live alone. My house is double-glazed and has cavity-wall insulation; the loft is insulated. I have already turned down the thermostat by one degree, and noticed the reduced comfort. I do not heat two of the three bedrooms. I will turn off the radiators in the hall and kitchen. I will use the microwave where possible instead of the oven.
When the washing can’t be dried outside, I will drape it on a drier in the living room instead of using the tumble dryer. I do not leave electrical equipment on standby; I shower and haven’t used the bath for years; I have a water barrel (not much rainwater in it at the moment). I’m too wobbly to safely carry dishwater out to the garden. I pay utility bills by direct debit.
I have several warm garments and scarves that I can wear when I’m cold and a couple of fleece blankets. I’m thinking of buying a couple of rollneck sweaters. I have a hot water bottle. What else should I do to survive this winter?
Name and address supplied
We may need to look to history for ideas for the looming cold winter. In the severe 1941 winter, at a boarding school with no heating, we were encouraged to add a sweater and bedsocks to our pyjamas. Six years later, in another severe winter, it was dressing gown, sweaters, bedsocks and, if available, mittens. My top tip now is to invest in long johns, balls of Shetland wool and knitting needles.
Lyn Wilson
Cambridge
There can be no doubt that this is a national emergency of global proportions. Deaths are inevitable unless action is taken immediately. But the Conservative so-called government is paralysed and invisible. Its discredited ex-leader is on one holiday or another and glories in being a PM in name only. There is an occasional vague bleat by him from the wings that more has to be done; how much and by whom he can’t say, as he has lost his flock.
At the same time, the two potential successors continue to perform increasingly incredible somersaults on topics that have little or no bearing on reality, for the benefit of a small select audience of signed-up members of the party.
No Conservative at any level has been able to appreciate – let alone put a stop to – this circus of the absurd. There could be no clearer indication of what we can all expect from September onwards – high-wire antics with no safety net for the rest of us.
Michael Mansfield QC
London