Social collapse imminent?

[AdultHumanFemale]

DP and I have just been listening to R4 PM, and the unfolding conflict surrounding tiered regional restrictions. DP reckons we are potentially 6 weeks away from some degree of escalating social collapse in the UK, and should take precautions to insulate ourselves from the impact.
Prudent or unnecessary?
What measures might those of you who may be thinking along the same lines be taking?

@ididitsocanyou

There won't be any massing of any kind because the country is too diverse. There are too many variations of views. For a 'revolution' or serious backlash to spark, there has to be common ground. Currently, we can't even agree what a woman is yet alone agree on an alternative to the government's response to Covid and brexit.

Aaaaand someone has to bring up trans people. Never change, Mumsnet. We’ve got the obligatory WW2/people today being snowflakes mention and the obligatory trans mention.

PhilSwagielka having read the whole thread, that was exactly what I thought too!

I am in an area going into tier 2 today and I know of precisely one person who’s taking these restrictions on board. Everyone else is saying it’s bollocks and they won’t do it. The mood is quite different to how it was in March. I do feel like we are on the edge of something.

@MostDisputesDieAndNoOneShoots

I am in an area going into tier 2 today and I know of precisely one person who’s taking these restrictions on board. Everyone else is saying it’s bollocks and they won’t do it. The mood is quite different to how it was in March. I do feel like we are on the edge of something.

That's my view I think the general mood has changed.

@MostDisputesDieAndNoOneShoots

I am in an area going into tier 2 today and I know of precisely one person who’s taking these restrictions on board. Everyone else is saying it’s bollocks and they won’t do it. The mood is quite different to how it was in March. I do feel like we are on the edge of something.

Are you in London out of interest?

I think those who have not done without in any form have underestimated the mood of the country where people who have lived under austerity and minimum wage struggling to feed their families and keep the roof over their heads despite working full time and having to use food banks as well will eventually snap. In March I witnessed a burly man snatch a chicken out of the hands of an elderly woman in Morrison's. It was the last chicken left and would have fed the old lady a few days. There had been a shortage in our area of quite a lot of food. Having witnessed that made me realise even then that in a society of me me me first that is today it isn't going to take much more to see that type of behaviour being commonplace when food shortages kick in in January.
I repeat also do not underestimate the people of the north. In fact don't underestimate any desperate people.
I conformed to 16 weeks lockup. I will never ever do that again. No matter the risk I will never be locked up and forgotten again. There are many people who feel the same as me. People are getting desperate. U may sit in comfort wfh and not realise the real world out there. But it is there getting restless. The divide is greater than ever. This country is not what it was. Society is not what it was. We do not have enough police or armed forces so do not look to them for complete control of mass disobedience.
And now I start my own rebellion! 😁

@LittleMissEngineer

"We are no longer all struggling together. There is a bigger than ever divide."

That's exactly what it feels like!

I am from the North and in London now and in both those areas the people have had enough. I was not in favour of the shut down in March - I wanted and still want a purely voluntary system. I have obeyed the rules and will continue to because for me it is easy to do so but I do hope the state realises the massive breaches of human rights have not been for the greater good and need to be disbanded now come what may, even if the UK's usual 600,000 a year death rate becomes 1.2m.

@wheresmymojo

The temporary closure of Park run = social collapse.

I have just hit peak Mumsnet.

🤣

The emergency services (mine at least) are ensuring their plans for civil disobedience etc are all up to date and they do feel the threat of this is much higher than normal.

It’s really hard to tell what will happen because, as PP have already said, we could never have imagined how this year would turn out - Brexit was the thing we thought would cause the immediate chaos and it’s been somewhat overshadowed. Adding it into the mix is going to be interesting at the very least. It will only take one area for a riot of sorts to spark up and that could be rapidly followed by other areas. There is lots to be angry about and I say that as someone who feels quite lucky at the moment, having a secure job and living in an area with minimal restrictions.

I wasn't claiming to have been there in WW2 However I have experienced poverty, lived in the north and know very well what it's like to 'do without'.

The temporary closure of Park run = social collapse

Exactly.

@Sarahandco

It occurs to me that it would be quite easy, using a forum like this, to convince a lot of people that something terrible is going to happen - like social collapse. If enough people start to believe it, could that contribute to it happening?

this. it goes out on twitter and fb so it must be true. some of these people are determined to stir up a frenzy and then cause the scenerio they want to avoid.

There are some people who have been fortunate in this pandemic, saving commuting costs, better life work balance.

And some who have lost their livelihoods ( musicians 😞) and as time goes by the gap will widen and there will be more of the latter.

Some kind of civil unrest is inevitable.

I believe civil unrest is inevitable too, I think the tipping point will be brexit on top of this shit.

People in the UK are to apathetic for "civil unrest", but yeah there will be more "anger" on social media and MN and many more people saying "I'm DONE with this now"

There are other ways of disobedience. As I said previous my rebellion already started. People gradually not bothering to comply with rules, more and more flouting of rules as people get more sick if restrictions us how it will start a sort of quiet revolution many individuals that eventually get noticed.

I will follow face mask space but no one will ever lock me up again. I'm going out and about making up for the misery of shielding.

I think if there was actually going to be social collapse, what we would see is more people talking about how they’re going to raid Tesco or take over their neighbour’s house or set up a sniper battalion or whatever.

A lot of people posting some variation on “my DH/mate/dad/etc thinks other people will do this and he’s awfully clever so he’s probably right” is not saying much.

Don't believe social collapse but social unrest and a gradual breaking down if law and order I think over a period of time. Don't visualise anything as drastic as yr suggestion goldenomber

In 1984 people didn't imagine a police officer (Keith Blakelock) would be killed trying to protect fire fighters in 1985. He was attacked with machetes and knives and had a knife buried in his neck up to the hilt. Earlier that year we had the riots in the mining areas.

I well remember organising van loads of officers to go to a riot and them killing themselves laughing about local fire fighters coming under attack, the fire fighters couldn't believe it, I mean everyone hated the police but fire fighters weren't used to the abuse.

I hope it won't happen but do I believe it is impossible? No sorry I don't.

Can see demos and sit ins especially if food is either very pricey or in dire shortage. But I never believed country would be in state that it now is in so anything possible I suppose.

Yes well this is it. No one sure what will be the last straw to break the camel's back really. But once unleashed it could turn nasty.

Jeez, there is some real doommongering on here. My parents would quickly point to other periods in recent history which were pretty crap at the time.

An article like this would be more useful to read than random opinions on this thread.

www.bbc.com/future/article/20190218-are-we-on-the-road-to-civilisation-collapse

Emmapeeler were your parents affected in anyway by the disturbances during the miners strike or the race riots in 1985? People do have a limit, we just don't know exactly where it is until we get there.

it will turn nasty on sm, 'we're going to do this and that blah,blah' yep, that really works but nothing much changes in reality. the world has supposedly ended countless times, i guess i've missed it because i was out. there might well be certain areas that will come under even more pressure but it won't be country wide, becaue brits are too polite to do much more that tut, rolltheir eyes and bitch on social media
you can demostrate and have sit ins as much as you want, politicians look at it as a day out for the peasants, they aren't bothered what the proles think and it's always been the same with all parties.