Al's Festival fringe receives cut

I love talking about the old days as a kid growing up. Whether it was playing monopoly or later on going to bands. Standing outside the Astoria when the Only Ones were playing for 50p and I'm the wrong age or enjoying the stage at La Sorbonne in the Cowgate before heading along to the Hoochie Coochie. I didn't earn much when I was at school but by 17 I could go out for a session in Coppers and then back home via the Avon. Nowadays its the Monopoly money that makes me chuckle. I remember to make the game fairer we'd give the loser an extra £100 for the next game. It grew arms and legs until a game where we gave the player who drew the boot £2000 to start the game off and we had to see who would last the longest before going bankrupt. We didn't know we teaching ourselves about finite resources, asset acquisition and the money supply. We were rolling a dice. Nowadays everyone who has a kid is rolling a dice. Whenever they go to the ballot box, they're rolling the dice. What they dont know is how loaded it is. The growth in poverty has been inversely matched by the concentration of wealth.

Its not just the food banks that have seen growth in the last 15 years. Property rentals and prices in the city during the fringe have spiralled. The higher they go the lower the turnouts. Student accomodation continues to appear the biggest housebuilder and asset managers are the jobs of the future. Venues however and the town are showing a calming of the waters. We still get loads of sell out tours, like Oasis and Kanpur1857 to name but two. For many of us though, its the free fringe. Enjoy a £7 pint in the white Hart or £6 in the Auld Hundred, then listen to the vibe, its not all North American nor is it locals nowadays. Hear about what the visitors and up to even if you cant make the shows and support them. Its a shame but if you've only got £1000 for your trip to the Fringe it cant compete with those on loftier budgets. If you're on the bus coming through for the day its hard to keep it under £100 just ask anyone who live's in the town its still an expensive business. The biggest plus in Edinburgh is outdoor drinking doesn't need to involve a £7 pint. You can sit, jakey style, in the meadows with a £1 bottle, or if you like, on a hot day, a £2 bottle. You can sit in the meadows, on the steps of George square, in Princes Street gardens or along the Water of Leith listening to Oasis. I'm often asked why its so expensive and where does the money go. I think I wrote during COVID that Edinburgh University buildings are an asset that the Finance dept sweat. They need the money to support what they do. Whether its £30-£40million I dont konw but its a sizeable amount. The Council will also get some favourable sums from allowing permits for this that and the other. No idea how much that's worth, I really wouldn't want to start thinking about it. All of it adds up to most acts dont make money and we all just throw a whole lot into the kitty and get badly poured pints in plastic glasses. Tasteless overpriced food from average kiosks. Poor students trying to make enough money to be able to go for some shows after their shift. Its a circular economy and all the moeny earned goes back into providing pals with free tickets and good times. Free pints and the odd pizza. Its not the Fringe or the performers that are pricing it out, its just the expected weight of cash generation. This is available to fewer people, unlike 50p to see the Only Ones. At the time 50p would get you a pint. Now you nearly get two pints for £12. I dont need to equate it to paper rounds or house prices. Inflation is not a problem when we all do it together. Wages, pensions, pints and printing Deadbeats. The problem as I found with charging 10p is that shops took 2p or 3p so if I didn't double it to 20p I couldnt afford to do it. I think the same of the Fringe sadly. They need to double the prices of drink, shows and accomodation, but I'm not sure I can afford to pay. Luckily I can still wander around and enjoy the buzz, oh and the buzz cut, only £15. Glad my hair's sorted, it really was irritatingly hot and sweaty. PS Inflation explained Many people think inflation is a one of increase but its the rate at which everything continues to go up. What's worth is it's the basket of goods you randomly choose to represent inflation. We all have our own inflation. Home owners regard house price inflation as good if its their last large house purchase. THereafter if you're downsizing its a good thing if house double in price over 5 or 6 years. Similarly, but opposite, those who rent have no great interest in the house price other than hoping for a crash so they can afford one. If prices continue to go up they will have to seek to live in another location, or even country. If housing costs exceed half your income then you must leave. Chronic shortages make the NHS weaker as the lower paid staff cant afford to live and work in the NHS, particularly in cities like Edinburgh. While house prices and rents are the major expenditure for the majority of people their impact on the inflation figures can often not be as significant owing to vast parts of the country where there is still very low house price inflation, even deflation. Run down areas have lower rents and trailer parks can drag the UK average away from the reality. In presenting statistics there is explanation and caveats. If you cant understand the distribution its easy to arrive at a conclusion of your choosing. I like the pension statistic for UK average of claimants. In short how long will everyone life to claim their UK pension. All those who die before reaching pension age will not apply for a pension, leaving more for the rest. All those women who got their telegram from the Queen got 40 years of pension. At that stage the men got 35 years. The laugh being, the split was about 80/20 when I went down this rabbit hole during covid. The problem with understanding statistics is you have to immerse yourself in the data to draw conclusions. Most people dont want that, they want a glib, binary, yes or no answer. It would for example be easy to have a battle of the sexes debate over pensions where people load up their guns with various aspects of the statistics they like. What policy makers need to do is undersyand it but, of course, they like to win debates, which means ignore the data. Ah, I've done my circular argument, time for the allotment.