Next Prime Minister must get their big economic calls correct as Brits face ‘eating or heating’ dilemma

Don’t bottle it

POLITICIANS have long been asked the price of a pint of milk as a “gotcha” interview question to expose how out of touch they are with voters’ daily lives.

But now a pint has astonishingly zoomed past the £1 landmark at some branches of Sainsbury’s, they’ve got no excuse for forgetting — at least until it probably goes up again by next month.

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Milk doubling or more in price in just one year is one of the most powerful symbols of the squeeze on food budgets.

This relentless ballooning of the cost of our grocery shop is forming a ruinous pincer movement with energy bills that is driving up inflation and making us all noticeably poorer.

The “eating or heating” dilemma households are tipped to face this winter gets repeated so often now that it sounds trite, but that won’t make the horrifying reality any easier to bear.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, ominously predicts the number of deaths caused by fuel poverty will this year be “massively higher” than the already shocking 10,000 that occur in a normal year.

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Tory leadership hopefuls Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak must privately be daunted by the scale of the challenge they face.

Rarely can it have been more crucial for a new Prime Minister to get their big economic calls correct.

Ban bad fans

THE scenes of rampaging Three Lions fans at Wembley for England’s Euros final last year were a shameful stain on our game that most decent supporters hoped had been consigned to the history books.

Sadly, that was wishful thinking, with violence towards players, pitch invasions and smoke flares — buttock-clenched or otherwise — inexplicably back in vogue.

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So Home Secretary Priti Patel is right to warn England and Wales fans who indulge in such behaviour that they will be banned from travelling to this winter’s World Cup in Qatar.

However, we can’t help wondering whether it could be a better long-term strategy to ENCOURAGE these cretins to go, and see how the notoriously merciless authorities there deal with them.

Then we might not have to worry about them bringing our national sport into further disrepute for a very long time.

A Keir cut case

AT last, one cut that even Labour diehards will cheer: Keir Starmer will drastically shorten his speech to next month’s party conference, after last year’s 90-minute boreathon.

But any insomniacs who were planning to tune in for a helping hand from Sir Keir’s policy-light, fence-sitting platitudes needn’t fret.

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If he spends any more than five minutes at the lectern, you’re still pretty much guaranteed a ticket to the Land of Nod.