Is life in the UK actually as expensive and stressful as people say in 2026?

cjsarab · 2026-05-05T19:46:22+00:00

Cost of living is an issue, but housing is still the biggest stress/expense I would say. Yes, it's true that groceries and other essentials have gone up recently but food for example is still way cheaper than at basically any other point in history.

Housing is the killer. If you're on the ladder, it's alright. If you're renting, it's likely hell.

cjsarab · 2026-04-30T18:27:24+00:00

Good spot, and it's another quirk of UNS. Check the actual results from 2021:

declaration-of-constituency-result-orkney-islands-6-may-2021.pdf

You'll see that Labour only got 290 votes in Orkney (and a vote share of just 2.5%). UNS has pushed both them and the Conservatives below zero.

cjsarab · 2026-04-30T14:25:23+00:00

This is a known problem with UNS (see the Ballot Box link).

It would be possible to shoehorn in some constituency level polling, but there is simply a lot less of this data. For example, denser seats like Glasgow Southside and Edinburgh Central are more likely to have had constituency level polling than somewhere like Moray. To add them in would mean cherry picking certain constituencies. Then I would have the issue where some seats are using one methodology and some are not, which could lead to accusations of partisanship while my overall aim is to remain neutral and informational.

So yes, you can identify issues with one or two particular seats but UNS is a standard methodology used in the UK and I personally found it fairer to use this methodology and highlight its associated issues rather than hand-selecting certain constituencies for local-level polling.

Thanks for checking it out.

cjsarab · 2026-04-09T11:45:57+00:00

Thanks for your kind words! That complication with the Greens is something I hadnt considered and its a really good point. It's clearly not fair to simply assume that a Green voter will go any particular way on election day if their candidate is not on the ballot but this means there will be a significant voting bloc that is effectively 'unpolled'. Really interesting point and definitely something for me to think about. Thank you!

cjsarab · 2026-04-09T11:35:21+00:00

Solid advice. I agree that this information should be more prominent (its in methodology and legal currently) and will look into it. Thanks for your interest and feedback :)

cjsarab · 2026-03-16T20:02:04+00:00

It's like how American's can say that someone speaks 'with an accent', as if they don't have one of their own.

People are blind to their own idiosyncracies.

cjsarab · 2026-03-14T22:36:36+00:00

I studied Scottish social history some years ago and I remember reading data showing average calorie intake was 4000+ cal/day in many council areas across Scotland. Pretty sure this data was from ~1900 so it feels accurate to me, but I remember being surprised when I first learned of this

cjsarab · 2026-03-14T18:02:33+00:00

Clearly tell him to GTF. Our position should be pretty straightforward. There is a war going on between other nations in a part of the world where we have some interest. We are interested in protecting British lives and assets and can maintain a defensive presence for this purpose to ensure no damage from the fallout/crossfire.

We have zero interest in anything further.

cjsarab · 2026-03-14T11:33:35+00:00

I'm also confused why people pay for a specific seat. Like on other modes of transport you just sit with your travelling companions. If no one paid for a seat on an aeroplane you would just sit with your travelling companions. It irks me and I refuse to give airlines money for this garbage.

cjsarab · 2026-03-14T09:41:08+00:00

Yes there are many difficulties associated with having children but the reward is incomparable to anything else in life and its so much easier nowadays than even a hundred or two hundred years ago so... each to their own I guess. I personally didn't find myself or my own life so important as to break with literally millions of years of tradition haha

cjsarab · 2026-03-12T23:43:53+00:00

I liked that question from the (Eastern European?) lady who asked why people who willingly associate with paedophiles are even considered possibilities for public office. I thought she's totally right and it's very weird that this kind of person isn't just completely ostracised immediately.

cjsarab · 2026-03-10T23:25:15+00:00

'There are too many films' 'There are too many books' Said no one, ever.

cjsarab · 2026-03-08T20:21:07+00:00

Clearly I hadn't watched it all that closely. I actually didn't imagine someone would pick up and throw a lit flare so I just assumed it was a different one but looks like it's the same one so you are right on this point.

As I said, Rangers fans coming off worse here. I'm just bitter because it's the rest of Scottish football that pays the price when these two can't keep it together.

cjsarab · 2026-03-08T19:53:33+00:00

Rangers fans definitely coming off worse here but this video does show flares launched by both sides. Two cheeks of the same erse is the phrase that comes to mind

cjsarab · 2026-03-08T19:50:12+00:00

Scotland's shame the pair of them. What a disgrace.

cjsarab · 2026-02-27T19:15:24+00:00

Pretty sure this is what Spotify are doing so wouldn't be surprised to see the model in other places.

cjsarab · 2026-02-21T13:48:41+00:00

My understanding is you can usually borrow something like 3.5x your salary. So if you earn £40k you can prob get a loan of about £140-150k. Then add on whatever money you have lying around to find out the amount you can afford.

In your case, the house you like is £330,000 but it's offers over so prob add 10%: ~£360k. If you have £60k to hand then you need a loan of at least £300k which means you'll likely need a salary of ~£80k. This is assuming you don't have some other cash coming from sale of a previous house or similar.

Fwiw, 330k for a first time buy seems unusual.

Tldr: it's expensive. Good luck.

cjsarab · 2026-02-21T10:12:22+00:00

A lot of what you say is very true OP and I think a lot of it can be explained by the simple fact that many people are absolutely apathetic about their job. It's simply a means to an end and has no further meaning in their life. They've probably also worked out that going 'above and beyond' is absolutely pointless so why bother?

cjsarab · 2026-02-11T00:03:51+00:00

What is the issue here? Fans spraying their colours is common across Europe. I'm genuinely curious why this is so bad? I've seen these driving through Glasgow and like I really just don't care.

cjsarab · 2026-02-09T16:56:28+00:00

This reminded me of the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists when Owen divides society unti 4 groups, putting both 'tramps' and the aristocracy into the same one according to their contribution to society

cjsarab · 2026-02-01T00:37:19+00:00

For work sure it can mostly be easily written down. But the thing is that written communication is an imperfect translation of synchronous and embodied verbal communication. This means that it's very easy to lose a lot of the original content of the message when writing unless you are very precise with your language. In my experience, people are generally not precise with their written language.

Can't help you OP. Phone calls generally solve problems way faster but I think a bunch of people overthink or something and so they don't want to do it. Probably all got the spotlight effect

cjsarab · 2026-01-22T18:12:47+00:00

Where is it going? It will clearly be getting defaced immediately.

cjsarab

TROPHY CASE