A phrase one Yes voter called “overblown” and meaningless was rejected by an overwhelming margin: No won by 188 votes to 12. The striking feature was not merely the scale of the verdict, but its anxiety; the chamber treated lower inflation as no proof that ordinary pressures had eased.
The floor’s most-respected No cases looked beyond the headline rate. One warned that drought, fragile infrastructure and geopolitical risk would make “food, fuel, utilities and defence more expensive”; another saw “big money for big corporations and big firms” and the beginnings of an AI takeover. Other No voices pointed to rising utilities, rents and council tax, shrinking supermarket products and wages that had failed to keep pace, while arguments about debt, weak small businesses and looming “diesel flation” widened the sense of danger.
The Yes side was smaller and quieter, but its case was not simply that everything was fine. One voter argued that the phrase falsely suggests an acute episode that will pass, while another said the UK was “just a relatively poor country” after long stagnation and that the answer was to “increase productivity”. That was a different argument from the No case: not that hardship had vanished, but that the label obscures a deeper economic failure.
The No arguments themselves disagreed about causes. Some blamed monetary policy and debt, others government choices, taxes, energy and investment; one voice even pointed to booming takeaways and new cars as evidence that the crisis was overstated, while another invoked the IMF and living beyond one’s means. But they converged on persistence, not diagnosis.
The inflation rate may have fallen; in this room, the burden had merely changed shape.
8 Opinions
'cost of living crisis' makes it sound like an acute temporary crisis that we just need to wait out like covid but the truth is after two decades of stagnation we are just a relatively poor country and so wages don't stretch very far, the only way out of this is to increase productivity
Not even close to cost of living crisis, takeaways booming mobile phones selling like mad new cars outside houses. Wait until IMF takes over when we go bankrupt. Then people might have to actually live within their means
Will get worse. Covid Scam moved c.£700 Billion from you & I to elite. UK has £3Trillion debt & £5/6 Trillion unfunded Public Sector liabilities. The govt actively drives wealthy from UK reducing tax base. Not one of Labour’s policies will create growth, Socialism slowly crushes innovation & investment. No energy, farms can’t produce food because of taxes & solar, fertiliser is taxed industry destroyed, yet £Billions for Ukraine NGOs migrants & foreign aid. One World Govt…
We have just had the hottest driest summer on record and yields are down across Europe & beyond. Our utilities under pressure - esp water and power - battling lack of investment in infrastructure. There is world war 3 brewing now Korea is bombing Ukraine too. The middle east is a tinderbox. All these things will make food, fuel, utilities and defence more expensive.
It's all a farce to make big money for big corporations and big firms, also it is the start of the AI takeover
So call "the cost of living crisis" is simply inflation, not the official but real one. Salaries and wages are not keeping up with it, hence people have problem with costs of living. Will not end soon as both public and the state love living on the debt. Why inflation, too much empty (not work out) money on the market. Creation of money as debt is one of the most ill thought financial mechanisms - but this is story for another fererendum.
Whilst families are still struggling to pay bills the answer is NO. Utility prices keep rising. Shopping trolly prices keep rising and/or product sizes keep shrinking. Rents have increased. Council taxes have risen. Whilst wages at best have remained stagnant. All things leading to a cost of living crisis for some. The retired, home owners, no dependent kids, in a position to downsize are OK Young people & families just starting out are still struggling to make ends meet
I honestly think the whole thing is overblown and a phrase that means nothing at this point