To think life in the UK feels meaner, sadder and more dangerous than it did two or three years ago?

@eurochick when did the economy recover from the crash?! That's the point we never recover from it

I have been around long enough to know these things come in waves. There was a high when the Blair government came in (with the theme of “things can only get better” and Cool Britannia). Then a low when the global financial crash hit. Then a high with the London Olympics and economic recovery. Now we are in another low.

I do feel that Brexit was a trigger point. It gave certain people confidence to say the quiet stuff out loud. And led to Reform’s popularity today. It was obviously followed by Covid which brought a huge economic burden and a lot of nastiness - neighbour snitching on neighbour, etc.

The UK doesn’t feel like a great place to be now, but I keep telling myself “this too shall pass”.

Yes! And that's definitely not something I ever wanted to say.

I agree too. One of the younger people at my work recently celebrated his birthday by getting together with his friends online.

Starmer is this, re gaslighting. But just a meaner version.

Jesus are you fucking kidding?

He was a selfish fucking idiot who wasn't remotely "funny" - wasn't it just hilarious how he constantly lied and gaslighted us all??

Yanbu. It has been a lowering of quality of life for the past few years and the current government seem intent on making it worse.

It's hard enough with rising prices, add in never ending freezing of tax bands and now likely more tax rises, people have had enough.

Yep at least there was positivity. Authoritarian and hammering the economy feels worse now.

Fair point

I get the nostalgia for Boris

It's probably more nostalgia for the low interest rates! The can was kicked down the road and unfortunately we have run out of road.

🤣🤣🤣

I get the nostalgia for Boris.

The man is a charlatan, obviously, but he had this aura of positivity/ invincibility.

There was always this sense that the country would bounce back once we got over whatever period of challenge was currently thwarting us. Obviously that was completely baseless, but he sold the feeling.

Labour was supposed to be the 'grown ups back in charge' and that's not inaccurate, but it turns out the grownups are hopelessly out of their depth and drowning in negativity and that feeling is very grim in comparison

We don't even have the floppy blond hair to laugh at any more.

But I think those reasons were there already, you just hadn't noticed them.

And while it definitely brought things to a head, at that moment, it would have happened anyway, sooner or later.

YANBU - this is free market capitalism eating itself. Public services being starved, relative pay down, costs up. And this is what you get.

I disagree. Im not young but it definitely wasn't as aggressive and nasty as it is now. Im not saying bad things didn't used to happen. Of course they did. But it's more pervasive now..

Yes I am a remainer but I think the Brexit campaign gave us new reasons to not like each other, both sides. It divided the country like never before and it’s never been the same since

We never recovered from the 08 crash, add Brexit & Covid and we are in a right state

Absolutely. Communication skills have deteriorated massively.

Don't be daft. Remember how much Boris f...everything up. He was useless.

Actually I’m 66 year old and can’t remember a time when people weren’t complaining about the exact same things. I think it’s just human nature to think the past was better

Definitely noticed that myself. I think it's been getting worse for the last 15 years, and very much worse since the pandemic. It's everything at once. A perfect storm. War in Ukraine, the middle east troubles, poverty here, kids getting screwed up by the Internet, aggression and more stabbings, and criminals just getting bolder generally, ridiculous levels of shoplifting, you name it. The Britisj used to be fairly nice but they have become less kind and helpful. Don't know why..Probably a range of factors.

Seriously? Boris Johnson wasn't fit to be PM which is the consensus of people far finer than me. He and his Government wreaked untold damage on the country, which is largely why everything is broken and shit! But I guess his (incredibly disingenuous) buffoon persona was all that mattered? I do agree that we need an injection of optimism but not by a shallow, self interested and unscrupulous man with zero substance to back it up. Dear me, people have very short memories

It started way before that. Brexit just brought the public dissatisfaction and mood to the forefront.

Nothing at all new in any of this. It also isn’t reflective of anything being terribly wrong in the U.K.

I think we have been through so much as a society in the past few years: Covid and the lockdowns, endless cost of living crisis, one rubbish government after another, over-reliance on social media, poor access to the NHS and social services, AI changing the workplace and now devision against immigrants being encouraged by the far right.

But yet we are just expected to always carry on and be ''productive'' to keep making a few wealthy individuals ever richer.

No wonder people are snapping.

Ultimately people are human beings and we need some hope and enjoyment back in our lives and a sense of fairness.

The current mess is just making everyone angrier and more and more miserable and our rubbish ''leaders'' are simply too incompetent and tone deaf to effectively address the state we are in as a nation.

We are not a happy or mentally/physically healthy society right now and it is showing...