Brits are being crippled by inflation – the Tories must propose a solution NOW

PAY & DISMAY

WELL-off MPs may be able to absorb a three per cent fall in real-terms pay but for households already struggling to make ends meet, it is catastrophic, make no mistake.

Even more worryingly, the fastest fall in the value of wages since 1977 is unlikely to be the bottom of the grim economic log flume we’re all now on.

It IS worth remembering the UK is far from unique in the headwinds it’s battling — inflation is at a comparable level across Europe and in the US, and at an astonishing 71 per cent in Argentina — but that’s scant consolation to those already suffering here.

A year’s supply of groceries is up by £533 on last year, and yet the nation will be forced to wait several weeks more for a new Prime Minister to take charge. 

Now that Labour has finally cobbled together a policy on energy bills, however flawed, the vacuum of Tory leadership in No10 is being felt more keenly with every passing day.

MADHOUSE UK

THE UK is simply not equipped to put up 100,000 asylum-seekers, a milestone the Government predicts will be hit next year.

It’s bad news for taxpayers, who fork out £4.7million a day for almost half of the asylum-seekers to stay in hotels.

The numbers are being swollen by migrants making dangerous crossings from France in people-smugglers’ dinghies — many not fleeing war or persecution, but instead economic migrants from places such as Albania.

And yet people who genuinely deserve to come here, such as Afghan translators who worked side-by-side with our troops in perilous conditions, are left to languish in the clutches of the Taliban.

The response by the Home Office is to order councils to take asylum-seekers out of hotels and put them in houses.

Have these Einsteins not heard the country has a chronic housing shortage, not to mention the extra pressure on already-groaning public services?

It’s about time we renamed it the Lights-Are-On-But-No-One’s-Home Office.

A TRUE IDOL

NOT many people would have tipped Darius Campbell Danesh for success after he introduced himself to the nation on reality TV show Popstars in 2001 with a cringeworthy Britney Spears cover.

But whereas others might have let such mockery define them, the Scotsman harnessed his natural talent and reinvented himself on Pop Idol the following year, winning over sceptics.

After scoring a No1 single, he carved out a credible career as a dashing and handsome West End leading man.

His untimely death at just 41 is a tragedy for his family and fans.

RIP, Darius.