We moved into our newly built house in June and immediately contacted Sainsbury’s Energy because I wanted to switch our gas and electricity. We were told the process would be completed within 21 days. The electricity supply was successfully switched, but not the gas. Sainsbury’s told me to contact my existing gas supplier, Ecotricity, and…
Almost 50 years ago, the American philosopher John Rawls published a celebrated account of what fairness looks like in a liberal democracy. Though scrupulous in its safeguarding of individual freedoms, Rawls’s groundbreaking A Theory of Justice incorporated an important rider. His so-called “difference principle” stipulated that resulting inequalities were justified only if they benefited the…
My only income is a state pension but we pensioners don’t need urging to donate to charity (Letters, 13 December). I give my £100 share of the winter fuel allowance to charity (divided between the Guardian and Waitrose/John Lewis this year). As a treat, I spend my £10 Christmas bonus on a slightly more expensive…
Long-distance train tickets have been bought in advance, flights arranged, hotels booked, restaurant reservations made and even turkeys reserved at the local butchers. Although the government in England says the Christmas meet-up rules are not changing – legally three households can bubble together over up to five days (two in Wales) – Boris Johnson is…
Eccles, on the west side of Manchester, has been named as the property hot spot of 2020, with prices rising faster than anywhere else in Britain, according to the property website Rightmove. Centred around Monton Road, the once nondescript suburb has been transformed into an urban village thanks in part to improved Metrolink tram connections…
If in January of this train wreck of a year you told me I would be purchasing a house at the ripe age of 25, I would have laughed in your face. How could I, a millennial working in the not-so-lucrative field of journalism, afford a home? My generation has been spat the narrative that…
