Is the UK heading for an apocalypse?

[BleakWinter]

Hello dear Mimsnetters. I wonder if anyone can lift me out of this dreadful feeling I have of impending doom? With the oncoming energy hikes, rent increases, mortgage rate hikes and increased interest rates, I honestly feel a bit hopeless about everything and powerless to do anything about it. I'm just reading about how most countries, despite having their own particular difficulties, are starting to bounce back after Covid. They are starting to trade again, unlike us apparently. I feel like we're not Global Britain, we're Little Britain and we're falling further and further behind other countries. I feel desperately sorry for our youngsters and those in their early 20's. How are they going to afford to house themselves or run a car? I honestly love this country ( by which I mean the UK so not strictly a country but you know what I mean.) and I think this is why I feel so worried. The government has gone completely AWOL and neither of the 2 new PM candidates fill me with much confidence. I feel like we're in the worst possible position with a non existent government. Is there anyone out there who feels things might start getting better? I know things are cyclical...but the fact that things have been horribly difficult before doesn't really make me feel any better. How can I stay positive and not get overwhelmed?

OP - I often feel like this, but combat it by reading about the 1970s when things were much, much worse.

Strangely enough, I grew up in that era (I'm 55) and somehow my parents got through it. I wasn't too aware and as a child you tend to remember the good stuff.

Read about 1970s, or Post War years and you'll see that things aren't as bad. Try to remember that in the 1930s people didn't have gas central heating... imagine pre-electricity when it was all done by candlelight. Today we have excellent solar powered camping lights that can be charge in a window during the day if things get too bad! Make do & mend :)

There truly will be an apocalypse if folk get frothy about capital letters.

For most? We’ll muddle through. Folk do.

We're certainly not the only country going through this. I am currently in the NLs with family who assure me things are bad here. Fuel here is €2.08/ L so pretty much the same if not more than ours. Many are struggling with the cost of living and no wage increases. America is looking very similar to us. I think the crux of the problem is that it's a global effect of war rather than post covid exclusively.

Yes we are teetering on a recession, but not anything more than that. We all need to tighten our purse strings.

Not in isolation. If there is nuclear war there will an apocalypse but it will affect the whole world, not just the UK. I'm not even sure if it's possible for a single country to have an apocalypse.

But it hopefully probably won't happen and if it does there's nothing you can do about so not to worry, hey.

But it hopefully probably won't happen and if it does there's nothing you can do about so not to worry, hey.

I've read The Road. You need to run a bath for water and grab yourself a shopping trolley and stay away from basements.

I've read The Road too. Stay away from roads and don't light fires.

I'm not convinced it was worse in the 70's to be honest!

Certainly business will be more affected by power cuts now than they were in the 1970's due to the fact that most business need Wi-Fi & computers/electronics now.
More people had coal /wood fires in the 70's so could at least burn stuff to keep warm.
Relatively benefits were higher in the 1970's too!

Does anyone remember Raymond Briggs' When the Wind Blows?

I'd def. prefer to be fried and not to survive a nuclear attack...

I do Indeed

There was a spate of them . Threads, The Day After and Testament (I broke my heart at Testament even though the blast itself was unseen) .
When the Wind Blows was very sad as well .
They terrified us .

No, I hit my peak animation trauma with Watership Down. I know my limits.

Not another doom-mongering thread 🙄

Or you need to be The One Who Has a Basement....

🤣

Time for:

(Hope my use of caps there didn't frighten anyone btw)

Yeah it’s going to be shit OP. I think we’re in dire straits, & moreover, there’s not going to be a captain with any real moral compass at the helm. Economically we are fucked, and things are going to get hard, very hard. There is no point pretending otherwise. The ordinary family on average wages paying mortgages, food shopping for a family, paying sky-high energy bills & so forth; yes it is going to be rotten

It's going to be worse than anything we remember and many counrires are feeling it too not just UK. It will be a economical collapse and it will change everyone. Its coming. As with everything things will get better too

I think there will be a few more strikes in the lead up to winter and as fuel increases by predicted price increases then they'll be even more unrest.

People will not have enough money to do the things they used to do, the coffee shops, hairdressers, etc will be cut back on spending for some. Other will reduce car usage, eating out less often, people will find it hard in the middles of winter with gas and electric hitting £500 a month rather than £250 last year

not sure whether people will protest or not against the inflation rises, mortgage rates increasing, food bills getting ridiculous

I'm not convinced it was worse in the 70's to be honest!

neither am i
a third of renters were in council homes, now thats around 15% in affordable rental properties. House prices were rising during the 1970s but not disproportionately to wages.

It’s going to be a shitshow.

if you are ill/ elderly/ disabled / poor you are fucked & the Govt does not care. You are only useful if you are working and earning everyone else is an unnecessary expense that the Govt doesn’t want to fund.

Eat the bugs, get your boosters and try not to think too much.

If anyone is interest in reading about how everyday people in Britain managed after the WWII then Our Hidden Lives: The Remarkable Diaries of Postwar Britain by Simon Garfield is an absolutely riveting, very fascinating and enjoyable read:

In 1936 anthropologist Tom Harrison, poet and journalist Charles Madge, and documentary filmmaker Humphrey Jennings set up the Mass Observation Project. The idea was simple: ordinary people would record, in diary form, the events of their everyday lives. An estimated one million pages eventually found their way to the archive - and it soon became clear this was more than anyone could digest. Today, the diaries are stored at the University of Sussex, where remarkably most remain unread.

In Our Hidden Lives, Simon Garfield has skilfully woven a tapestry of diary entries in the rarely discussed but pivotal period of 1945 to 1948. The result is a moving, intriguing, funny, at times heartbreaking book - unashamedly populist in the spirit of Forgotten Voices or indeed Margaret Forster's Diary of an Ordinary Woman.

It's quite quotidian and very MN and surprisingly people haven't changed that much. I read it a few years ago but still remember the diary entry of when someone brought a banana to the office and the excitement as one hadn't been seen for years. The woman who wrote the diary entry took her tiny piece home with her so she could share it with her family.

Rated highly and dozens of reviews on Amazon.

I've been meaning to read Nella Last's diaries from Mass Observation, maybe I'll do that during the recession to give me fortitude.

Don't be daft.

We are the 5th wealthiest country in the world and our gdp per person is the 3rd highest in the G7 wealthy nations club.

So whilst yes, we are dropping back against France and Germany and yes our government is a bunch of venal incompetents on balance we are well placed to weather the storm, though it will be painful for many.

What a load of rubbish, the country completely shut down putting everyones life on hold in order to safeguard the ill/elderly/ disable only 2 1/2 years ago.

@ThinkAboutItTomorrow

Don’t be daft.

This is a very inflammatory response to genuine fear felt by ordinary working families. Most people working minimum wage jobs are, like, properly crapping themselves right now, or perhaps you don’t earn minimum wage & don’t have a young family to feed.

Perhaps you’re not at all worried about paying £500 + per month for energy alone. I guess you’re feeling ok & that’s great; but it’s be good to know what your situation is so we can make a fair comparison & get a measure of where that dismissive comment is coming from