Contemplating the current dire apocalypse (but isn't the weather lovely?!), a rather troubling thought occurred to me: As the energy bills and other household costs continue to soar, the first thing people are going to cut down on to try and make ends meet is social and leisure activities that cost money, e.g., going to cafés, restaurants, pubs, clubs, cinemas, and so on, in favour of staying in and studying screens (although even bloomin' Netflix is getting extortionate these days. I mean, really - military grade psy-ops to control the population should be kept as affordable as possible!).

Needless to say, this will be advised by "the experts", too - that one should cut down on "non-essentials" like going out and socialising,  in order to pay for "essentials", like food and bills. Well, what does that remind you of? What event in our very recent history insisted only "essential" venues were allowed to open, and all "non-essential" ones were forced shut?

Now, while it's obviously true that eating and drinking out are not essential from the point of view of the consumer, they are essential for the tens of thousands of people employed by the hospitality industry - an industry which was already struggling before lockdown, and took a real kicking thereafter. There's so many boarded up restaurants and pubs in our town centre now, like in every town centre, including previously thriving family businesses that had been there for generations. We don't know what's happened to the people who used to run them.

So if - as "essential" costs continue to spiral and the nation stops utilising "non-essential" hospitality venues in order to meet them - what happens next? What happens is that we have lockdown by stealth, because 1) everyone is staying home - not to "stay safe" this time, but to save money, and 2) this dramatic decrease in patronage will cause many already struggling venues to collapse altogether, and never re-open, so there will be another reason to stay at home - there's nowhere left to go.

It has always been abundantly clear that one of the major targets for the overlords in their quest to destroy society (and "6uild 6ack 6etter") is restaurants, pubs, bars and other places people go to socialise. This is because the ruthless social architects in the process of irreparably destroying our culture are desperate to isolate us from each other - as we saw with "social" distancing, bans on entering other people's homes, work from home, and other such sinister initiatives. The overlords do this as they know - as any good abuser does - that the best way to control someone is to completely isolate them.

There's also the fact that socialising is too powerful a health tonic and predictor of longevity for any self-respecting ardent depopulationist to continue to allow it: social bonds and being around other people are so powerful and restorative (it being known that loneliness and isolation are as bad or worse as smoking, a poor diet, or taking no exercise), that they appear to account for the "alcohol paradox" - that being, that heavy drinkers live longer than teetotallers. No, you didn't misread that. While studies show light drinking is the optimal approach to alcohol (rather than abstaining completely or drinking excessively), nevertheless, heavy drinkers are statistically likely to outlive non-drinkers, and this appears to be because heavy drinking is associated with a tendency to be more social - with committed drinkers more likely to go out to pubs, parties, and so on. In effect, socialising is so powerful that it appears to be able to override some of the negative health implications associated with high alcohol consumption.

Please do not misinterpret me here: heavy drinking isn't in itself healthy, and can lead to all sorts of health, financial, and social problems. The point is that socialising is SO good for you, it can act to counter some of these negative effects. And that is precisely why the 'elite' are so determined to crush it and the highly social culture of Britain's pubs and bars - socialising keeps us too healthy and too long-lived, even if some of our other lifestyle habits are poor.

We must remember that the ruling classes' envisaged future for us nuisance useless eaters (or is that bug eaters now?) is that we all subsist alone in our SMART pods (maybe with a robo-pet or virtual child for company), staring at screens all day. The one thing they are hellbent on stamping out is bustling, vibrant real life and real human connection.

So, having exhausted Plague! The Pantomime (for now), this appears to be how they will attempt to destroy real life next. Make "essential" items (mortgage, energy bills, food) so expensive that we can no longer afford "non-essentials" (out-of-the-house socialising). This, realistically, is lockdown in all but name. 

Also, consider this - as undesirable as a life with no out-of-the-house social life would be, if the hospitality industry collapses, the main casualties will not be the patrons - the "conspiracy theorists" amongst us learned how to devise creative alternatives for socialising in lockdown - but the staff, who are mainly young and underprivileged, living paycheque to paycheque. What alternate industry is going to appear to employ all these people, once the hospitality industry collapses? This industry is sprawling and vast. There is no alternate industry that could take on all it employs, and therefore such a collapse would create an immediate and urgent unemployment crisis.

So what happens then?

It would be another opportunity for the government to swoop in and "save" all said workers with UBI - just like they're going to attempt to "save" the rest of us who can't afford our soaring energy bills - and that seems to be the ultimate goal of the Don't Pay UK scam: if everyone stops paying their bills, it will destroy their credit rating, thereby rendering them ineligible to either buy or rent a home, since rental agreements now require credit checks too. 

If millions of people can neither buy nor rent, this is another desperate and urgent crisis the government will need to intervene to "save" us from. Classic problem-reaction-solution. Can you imagine the hideous implications if neither buying nor renting is an option and you are 100% dependent on the government to house you? This must be avoided at all costs, and we must retain our independence to choose where and how we live. So we cannot risk a total destruction of credit rating by paying the energy companies nothing, as is advised by the deeply shady, and still entirely anonymous, Don't Pay (an outfit which instantly blocks anyone who questions or criticises them). 

My advice on the energy bills situation remains the same - if you can't afford the rise (or find it unethical), then do what my household is doing: cancel your DD, set up a standing order, and pay what you can / a reasonable amount, as - were the energy company to chase a deficit up and take you to court - this is all a judge would order you to do anyway.

This strategy might eventually result in the energy company fitting a prepayment meter, but not necessarily (and getting to that point would likely take a long time). The energy companies have limited manpower and cannot chase up every single household that is in arrears, so my feeling is that they will "triage" the situation and concentrate on the worst offenders - those that are paying nothing at all (as Don't Pay UK advises) and those who have been paying nothing at all for a long time (as dubious "common law" / "Magna Carta" advocates advise - I know so many who have been burnt by this). Those who are showing goodwill by paying something - and have always paid something - are, in my opinion, likely to be the lowest down on the list for punitive action, if they are on it at all.

Tedious disclaimer that I'm not a debt lawyer (and even they can get it wrong), and I can't promise my advice is right - but simply by using logic and evidence, this seems to me the best possible strategy with the least possible negative consequences. I've looked into the "raising a complaint" option, but this appears to be a red herring / dead end, as apparently, the ombudsman will only follow up valid complaints, and complaining that you think the bills are too high is not judged as a valid complaint, so it will just be dismissed. However, if anyone has alternative intelligence on this, please do let me know in the comments.   

So, taking the above into account - the soaring energy bills and struggling hospitality industry - I think the best possible thing we can all do this winter, rather than sitting in our homes funnelling more money to the energy companies, is go to the pub! No, seriously, hear me out...

Most these days have free WiFi, they have heating, and you can charge your devices. Buy a drink or two, and you then help support that much more in-need industry, rather than further inflating the already bloated coffers of the energy companies - since, in my opinion and no doubt yours too, it's more "essential" that the struggling young student or single mum gets to keep their minimum wage pub job, than it is the slimy CEO of Exxtortion Energy makes another few billion.

Quite frankly, the way things are going, then pretty soon, sitting in a pub all day is going to be markedly cheaper than sitting on your sofa - if it's not already. You can be warm, charge your devices, have WiFi, all for the price of a cup of coffee - and you get to be around actual other people, rather than just pixels, too. Now that's rebellion... 

Especially for those of us who work from home, it's real-world action we can take to support other workers, and to support independence through employment rather than being forced to seek government "assistance" (as will immediately happen to tens of thousands of people if all the pubs, cafes, etc. shut). We save on our own energy costs whilst we're using that of the venue, so it's win-win. 

I was really pleased to see one of my own local hostilleries capitalise on this idea recently, with the launch of their "pub desk" initiative. For £10, they will reserve you a quiet table by a plug socket, give you unlimited hot drinks (and cold soft drinks), and throw in a sandwich or burger lunch. Of course, you don't need to pay the £10, you can just get a drink and stay there as long as you want anyway, but it's a good promo, and other pubs and cafes should launch similar schemes - to attract both the WFH crowd, as well as people that aren't working, but would just like to get out of the house more and support independent businesses.

Imagine if everyone who works from home currently, committed to spending one day a week working at a pub or café instead - the collective impact would be huge, and would send a powerful message to the malevolent social architects determined to destroy our social and leisure opportunities, telling them that we value our hospitality industry, and those it employs, and we will support them to keep going. 

I imagine men up and down the country emailing this article to their significant others this weekend, with the P. S. "... And so, you see, we must go to the pub tonight, darling, It's essential subversive and revolutionary economical and political activism..."

And it is! 🤩🍻

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