Getting Down to Basics

It looks as if Jack Monroe was right. She has maintained, for some time, that the food price increases have greater impact on the UK's poorest, than the 9% 'headline' figure for 'the cost of living crisis' suggests (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/30/pasta-bread-and-crisps-among-biggest-uk-food-price-increases). The Office for National Statistics (ONS) collected data on the lowest cost, everyday food products from 7 large UK supermarket chains. The ONS found that, in a year, the cost of pasta had increased by 50%, crisps by 17%, bread and minced beef by 16% and rice by 15%. Some foods like potatoes and pizzas (expensive to cook?) have actually reduced in price over the same period. People patronisingly claim that the poor don't know how to budget or to cook cheap, healthy meals. That's appears to be hardly the point, when many can neither afford to buy the food items nor to pay for the energy to cook it.