This country😩Private Eye have got it right.

[ArseInTheCoOpWindow]

How many more ways to fuck up the country can this government invent?

I’m 58 and have never ever seen a government so full of lying, corrupt twats who just don’t give a shit.

And as l grew up under Thatchet l think that’s saying something! It’s like a horror show watching them.

"it's the inevitable outcome of him surrounding himself with "Yes, Boris" types rather than competent politicians"

Which is exactly what I was reading that Putin does. So there's little likelihood of anyone taking over.

It would seem that way. I go on Twitter every day to support those who are a disparate group of immunosuppressed people and their relatives, desperately trying to get someone to take notice of them and get Evusheld distributed. (It's not available privately either) Many of these people have had no immune response to 4 or even 5 vaccines. Everyone was so happy when it was approved, but I think it's quite possible it won't happen.

My Dh is a failed kidney transplant recipient and immunosuppressed. Hence my particular interest.

Decimated the north of England.😂😂

Open your own pit then, and see how many applicants you get.😂
People don't want to get darn pit. People don't even want to work in construction let alone underground, steel yard, or a sweat shop making clothes.
British industry was soundly thrashed by global competition. It moved on to other areas and specialized. We couldn't and cannot compete with the high volume, low wages of the far east. They just do it better than the UK.

Aww don't run down the country

People don't want to get darn pit. People don't even want to work in construction let alone underground, steel yard, or a sweat shop making clothes.

I can only speak for textiles personally, and I know that is rubbish. It need not have been a sweat shop - we could have invested in the most up to date machinery and training, and produced high quality goods. We chose not to.

But I would say that this was all happening a decade before Thatcher came to power, so we can blame both Heath and Wilson.

Open your own pit then, and see how many applicants you get.😂

My husbands family were miners. They didn’t want the pits to close. It destroyed the entire community. The same as in Nottingham and other places. I live in Sheffield. She destroyed the steel industry. She hated Liverpool.

We we’re thrashed by competition because Britain let it happen. I lived through it. The textile industry was destroyed through lack
of investment. And now people whine about wanting ‘Made in Britain’

And it was Thatcher who started it not Wilson or Heath. Computers weren’t widely used in the 70’s, but they were used much more widely in the 80’s in manufacturing.

I don’t understand why people see the Tory party as competent at handling the economy…objectively, they fail to come up with a decent industrial strategy, under invest or invest in the wrong industries, fail to invest in people or decent basic infrastructure. All they can seem to do is privatise everything they can regardless of whether it’s a good idea. That’s hardly a strategy.

The UK’s most profitable industries are STILL largely oil and gas. In a world that is recognising the climate crisis and is clamouring for green tech and with rich nations willing to pay for solutions. They were in a position to have helped the UK win a substantial stake in the global renewables market but instead they clobbered the nascent renewables industry, which was at the time was creating good quality jobs, had solid products that were improving all the time and had the potential to grow our exports as well as making us more resilient against oil price shocks. Their answer to the energy crisis is to invest in the stranded assets to be that are our local oil and gas extraction.

Through Brexit they took a wrecking ball to various industries and supporting institutions- research and development in our universities and SMEs, and created a brain drain. It’s just more of the same, continuing the wrecking work of Thatcher and crew, who wrecked UK manufacturing. They do it because they were obsessed with free market ideology and now they are corrupt as fuck too.

What we see now is the chickens coming home to roost. The cost of living crisis is more acute here than in other similar countries. I was recently in mainland Europe. The order and decades of investment compared to the UK was tangible. Clean streets, rapid and excellent quality social healthcare, no potholes, well maintained public areas, 5G and fast broadband in the most remote areas. Fast cheap subsidised public transport. Publicly owned energy infrastructure with no blackouts. Taxes for the ordinary person are approximately similar to what we pay in the UK. The tories are not competent to govern. I am not sure who is at the moment. A donkey in a fedora would probably do a better job. We deserve better.

And it was Thatcher who started it not Wilson or Heath.

No, the decline was happening before Thatcher, but she took a delight in taking a wrecking ball to industry.

Before we went into the EEC the UK was known as the sick man of Europe, which does suggest a lack of investment was already present.

Re us competing with Asia for textiles, didn't pretty little thing compete from here? Setting up a sweatshop in Birmingham?
Wasn't it rumbled during COVID.
They uncovered non English speakers being paid below the minimum wage and worked illegal Hours.

Elephant I don't believe for one second that the whole of the EU is running as you say!
In fact I remember a year of hideous potholes on the motorway outside Paris near Disney.

However, health care is definitely better. Again in Paris dd hurt herself and before we got treatment ( head injury) our details were taken, address and we were interviewed.
I'e the system was tight. Even with a small child vomiting we were being tied down for future payment. The bill duly arrived.

I think there is something wrong with our burocreacy and systems.

It's all flabby and wishy washy.

We urgently need our NHS updated.
We need smoother systems I can't see how when the civil service has an iron grip on everything.

You're not wrong OP, it's unbearable. Any offers for the newly vacant position of Ethics Adviser to Bozo? Good luck to whoever ends up with it.

I never said that the whole EU is running this way! There are wide disparities in governance across Europe. But my point is that we should expect better. As a country we have such low aspirations.

Remarkably (or not, depending on your estimation of the current PM's character), it seems as if Johnson believes his own ethics are of a high enough standard that he has no need of advisor.

Re us competing with Asia for textiles, didn't pretty little thing compete from here? Setting up a sweatshop in Birmingham?

Yes I am pretty sure that happened, but one rogue employer should not be used as the model. We could have retooled industry to a higher standard and made good quality goods. We are not going to be able to compete with countries with a large and relatively young population, producing cheaply in volume.

However, I am not shedding too many tears for gig economy employers who are now finding that workers are voting with their feet. They are reaping what they have sown.

PLT are part of the ‘black’ economy. U.K. sweatshops paying below national wage. There was a huge article about it a few years ago.

PLT, Missguided, Nastygal and also Boohoo l think. This is why New Look nearly went under a few years ago as they weren’t using the black economy. Not sure about ASOS, l don’t think they used it.

Hasn't Missguided just gone bankrupt?