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UK’s Laundry Poverty · Mark and Pete

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  UK's Laundry Poverty Welcome to Mark and Pete with a story that
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  sounds funny until it's not. If that sounds funny, until it
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  smells funny. Yes, this is Mark and Pete 2
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  blokes with half an opinion. Now here's our first thought.
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  Clean as a whistle, a washing machine can keep clothes clean
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  and ring them until they no longer hum.
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  With a spinning routine high on hygiene, it blows to the beat of
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  the drum. Well, that might be amusing for
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  most people, but the fact of cost of doing laundry from a
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  university perspective and students is so expensive.
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  The choosing between eating and washing your clothes is a
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  serious problem. Yes, University of York students
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  have said the washing and drying clothes in the university owned
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  by the accommodation costs have gone up to around £5.10 per
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  load. That is a lot of money,
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  especially if you're a student and you've got all these other
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  expenses on your course fees and many other things.
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  Mr. Pete, I know that students can be a little bit messy, and
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  in fact, it's maybe that sometimes prioritising the
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  Student Loans and some of the money that they have could be a
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  problem. But maybe not being able to
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  afford to wash your clothes, that raises a big stink.
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  Yes, indeed it does had a nice pun.
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  But you know, the, The thing is that this is 1 effect of the
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  dire straits that Britain is in due to.
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  I hate to put the blame on our, our government, but you know
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  the, the, the, the policies that have been put in place over the
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  years have meant that we can't afford things.
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  One of the main problems is energy policy and it, and it
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  just costs too much. Now, most, most people will use
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  warm or even hot water as part of the, the cleaning process.
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  Now I know some detergents don't require it, but that's just
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  generally the case. And it'd be it's.
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  And so therefore immediately you're going to have an
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  increasing and an increasing cost to do that.
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  And if you want to get them dried as well, you know, if
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  you're in rented accommodation, you've got no space to dry
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  things at home. You've got to actually pay for a
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  dryer. So you're not talking 5 lbs a
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  load as a student, you're talking 10 lbs a load, you know,
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  in the, you've then got to put it into a tumble dryer.
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  And actually in lots of places it's more than that.
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  That's maybe in especially student laundrettes that you
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  were talking about. I don't know.
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  But it can be far more than that.
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  And you don't always just want to do one load.
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  So, you know, it's getting very expensive.
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  You wouldn't be able to afford it because it all comes down, I
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  believe to energy costs. Because even if you're not
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  talking about the energy of actually heating used to heat up
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  the water and to run the machine, energy costs put up the
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  price of the detergent as well. So by by indirect means.
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  So it is down to a lack of understanding of economy.
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  Our own economy works. It needs cheap energy, it
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  doesn't need allegiance to spurious green energy claims and
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  it it certainly doesn't need kowtowing to some sort of
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  international orders, An idea of which we in Britain are meant to
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  not use the energy resources we have, like by fracking or taking
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  advantage of the oil in the North Sea.
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  We should do those things and what it it's, you know, just to
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  give the Christian angle as well to occasionally on Mark and
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  Pete. We as a society shouldn't have a
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  government that puts in play policies that grinds people down
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  so they can't live with dignity. And Mr. Mark looking at you, you
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  wearing smelly clothes isn't living with dignity.
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  Well, look, I I would just like to point out that my underpants
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  were fresh on three months ago, so.
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  I know what I was talking about, yes.
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  And then you turn to the massive side.
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  You have, you're absolutely right.
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  Is about dignity. Now I've got a suggestion here.
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  I, I, I have to go back that this, this is not a new thing.
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  I remember when I was a student 300 years ago.
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  And the fact of the matter is it was true that even then that it
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  was very expensive. Washing your clothes.
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  You would probably have to wait for a week to two weeks, build
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  it all up and then go to the laundrette.
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  The thing here is, Mr. Pete, do you think that really we should
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  be investing in our students? Why not offer this free?
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  Universities and colleges have many, you know, facilities
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  available. Now I understand that you might
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  have to charge for certain things, whether it be for the
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  pad or whatever, but paying £5.10 a load, that's a lot of
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  money. And what I'm concerned about is
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  when students decide to either wash their clothes or decide to
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  eat, it should be both. Now, what I think should happen
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  is that these things should just be mandatory.
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  They're just, they are there available to students who have
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  qualified, they've worked hard, they've gained their
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  qualifications, or they're about to get their qualifications.
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  They're trying to improve their education in a university degree
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  or a college course or somewhere like that.
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  To me, especially things like, you know, washing your clothes.
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  Those facilities should just be readily available, free.
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  Now, I know it has to be maintained.
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  Maybe you could work on a ticketing system.
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  I mean, so it's not abused. So basically, instead of putting
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  a coin in, you have put in a voucher.
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  And I know that that used to be done in some universes where you
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  were given a quota of tickets or, or coins.
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  And that way that means that you can manage it.
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  So that's the first thing that I say.
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  The second thing is, whatever it is, I would say to the students,
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  never compromise on either. I think that I know that when
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  you're looking at your budgeting, you have to
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  prioritise on your coursework, your materials, etcetera.
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  I know that these things are really tight, but this is tough.
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  As a as a student, you want to still be entertained.
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  You want to go to the cinema, you may want to buy sort of
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  luxury items, prioritise on on these types of things.
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  We can't change the government's policy today, although we wish
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  we could. And if Mark and Pete was running
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  the country, believe me, we would definitely be prioritising
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  on you. But the.
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  Fact is. It's coming.
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  I think that it's coming. But the fact of the matter is
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  that they definitely should not be thinking about either heat or
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  heat or. Wash.
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  Because to me really this just sets up a generation in the
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  wrong way. Do you agree?
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  Yes, you, you make good points for a short term, a short term
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  fix to it. And, and and it is important
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  that we, we don't discourage young people from going through
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  with their university or other training courses in long term.
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  Yeah, it it, it requires a bringing down of, of costs and
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  prices. So there's that two fold
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  approach would be, would be appropriate.
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  But it's not just them, of course.
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  Energy prices and washing clothes costs have gone up for
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  everyone and a, an overall policy to bring down energy
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  prices needs to be done urgently.
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  That's what I would say. I would say yes, but in short
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  term fixes that you suggest, which, yeah, excellent idea.
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  But just overall and long term, we've got to stop doing this.
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  We've got to stop being fooled. We've got to stop being useful
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  idiots to people in other countries and to international
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  conglomerates. We've got to stop having green
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  policy, which puts up the cost of fuel, which including not
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  bringing in our own fuel that we have access to from the North
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  Sea, for example. As I mentioned earlier, we've
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  got it's, it's, it's not just the clean clothes, but that
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  that's, it's, you know, the overall cost of living.
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  But that's where that's where it starts.
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  The lack of integrity, going around with dirty clothes just
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  because of the the your government doesn't care about
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  you. Time to change the government
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  and change policy. Well, I agree.
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  And as many of the students who were interviewed across
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  universities have basically summarised by saying no one
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  wants to go around stinking. Well that's true.
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  But the fact of the matter is, is that some of these things are
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  really basic services that I think should just be there
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  mandatory when you qualify for a course.
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  And so as far as my message to everyone in government and
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  universities, I think it's time to clean up your act.