CONTINUOUS reporting of impending crises over the last few years has left many despondent and depressed.

The current energy crisis dominating the headlines is extremely concerning but the rhetoric around it makes it even worse.

Since the start of the new millennium, the harbingers of doom have kept us all out of kilter, from the non-existent ‘millennium bug’, the ‘financial crash’, the ‘end of the free world’ to the ‘once-in-a-lifetime pandemic’ (now mooted as the first of many).

The language of fear has become the norm. It’s almost as if the worse-case scenarios that are given primetime discussion keep us addicted to bad news and under the control of the powers that be.

Words like ‘tsunami,’ ‘nuclear’ and ‘Armageddon’ are used to describe situations that are far from their true meaning. It’s no wonder so many of us don’t sleep at night.

The approaching inflation and energy crisis, in the main caused by the pandemic and the attack on Ukraine, surely in time can and will be mitigated by governments and business who have the powers and the motivation to manage it. Every household has our part to play too as we look at how we use our energy and become more sustainable.

Those of us in the working population have no choice but to get up and get on with our responsibilities, trying our best to put the worrying news to one side.

For those whose wages are currently outpaced by the rising cost of living, being classed as the new ‘working poor’ only adds insult to injury. The phrase itself defines the injustice of their situation.

If the work they do makes them poor and pushes them into debt, they are not being paid enough. The schoolchildren being offered free lunches under this category are given a message that work means poverty.

Our elected politicians must urgently put fair policies and tax systems in place to avoid impoverishing our workforce. The status quo is unacceptable.