As a brutal heatwave sweeps across Europe, the contrast between British stoicism and continental panic has never been sharper. While Parisians brace under a rare red alert, with officials urging them to stay indoors, in the UK the response has been characteristically pragmatic: chalk the windows, open them at night, and carry on.
Temperatures in London and the South East have hit 38°C, but the reaction is a far cry from the scenes in France, where emergency measures include opening public swimming pools for free and extending park hours. Here, it is more a matter of “we’ve seen worse” – perhaps a classic British blend of resilience and understatement.
For working families, the heatwave is not just a discomfort: it is an economic challenge. Those in poorly insulated flats – often the cheap rented homes at the sharp end of the housing crisis – are coping with no air conditioning, energy bills too high to run fans all day, and a kitchen that becomes a furnace. The cost of a cold meal versus a hot one is not just a matter of taste; it is a matter of survival when the weekly food budget is stretched.
The government has offered advice, but for many the real struggle is the price of staying cool. A Cracking Ice-cream consumption rises sharply, but so does the cost of electricity for fridges and freezers. The price of a bag of ice in major supermarkets has jumped 10% in the last fortnight, according to pricing data from the Office for National Statistics.
Meanwhile, the union Unite has called for emergency cash payments for workers in heat-affected sectors, such as construction and delivery, warning that the risk of heatstroke is a workplace danger that too many employers ignore. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has urged the government to make “excessive heat” a formal reason for workplace shutdowns.
In the North, where I was raised, the heatwave feels even more oppressive because so few homes have air conditioning. The high street in my hometown is quiet; the pubs are doing a good trade in cold lager, but the elderly are struggling to keep cool. The real economy is being tested: do you buy an expensive fan, or put up with the heat? Do you risk a trip to the supermarket, or pay delivery charges that have risen with demand?
The European heatwave is a reminder that climate change is not a distant threat: it is here, and it hits the poorest hardest. As French President Emmanuel Macron warns of a “climate emergency”, in Britain the response is more muted. But beneath the stiff upper lip, the strain is showing. The resilience we pride ourselves on is being tested not by a war, but by a thermometer.
For now, the advice is simple: chalk the windows, draw the curtains, and hope for a thunderstorm. But for millions, that is not enough. They need real help: a proper living wage, affordable housing that can keep cool, and a safety net that catches them when the mercury rises.
