Anyone else scared of what the future holds for this country?

[AdamRyan]

Trigger warning I guess for news avoiders.

I've been feeling very uneasy since the Brexit vote but it's now tipped into outright terror that a huge catastrophe is coming and I can't see how we can avoid it! Hopefully people can make me feel better....

So:
*energy bills going up and government borrowing obscene amounts of money to cap it

• also paying for the proxy war on Russia
• also still paying off covid costs
• companies struggling as not enough staff, lots appear to be on the bare bones and I suspect we'll see bankruptcies soon as they can't meet contractual obligations and have to pay out
• No plans for fixing staff shortages
• medicine shortages
• empty shelves in shops
• pound is tanking
• everyone striking as staff can't afford cost of living
• basic public services (transport, NHS, rubbish, roads etc) unreliable
• power insufficient - risk of black and brown outs
• inflation going up so interest rates rising too - increasing pressures on households
• more people using food banks and more homeless
• No trade deal with USA, out of EU so not benefitting from preferential energy deals they are negotiating with e.g. Norway
• Then to top it all off, climate change, droughts, storms, flooding getting increasingly more severe

At the same time, despite spending as if there is a magic money tree, the government is cutting taxes primarily on rich people and refusing to publish the maths so we don't know how much their actions are costing!

I'm genuinely fearful for the future of the country as well as the world! Cheer me up please....

Sigh !.

The support for Ukraine is a lot, though 3% of GDP on defence spending overall is small compared to the amount being given away in tax cuts today.

Considering many millions of people think the UK is going to Hell in a handcart, what do you suppose will happen if they all leave? All those jobs not being filled, all that tax not being paid, businesses closing down and moved abroad. Not really though that argument through have you?

Australia has been the top destination long before anybody dreamt up the European Experiment.

You don't genuinely think that this is any kind of option for most people. That it's really as simple hopping on a plane heading in a certain direction.
Few people will be in the position to move county..what about those of us just scraping by, sinking into poverty? Those living hand to mouth with no savings? What about people living on benefits? Or people with a disability that prevents them from working? Mental health issues?
So the few who are lucky enough to up sticks just fuck off and leave the rest of us to wallow? Not really a solution is it...at least not one that's going to help people.

The Uk is overpopulated as it is so there would be less stress on the NHS, easing of the housing shortage. High wages. Less pollution. More automation.

The new legislation on demonstrations (including a one person demonstration) makes it much more difficult and riskier to protest. It's clearly designed to stop people from protesting (including peacefully).

You can be scared for what the future holds for the UK without wanting to live somewhere else. Personally I'd like to live in the best version of the UK that it can be.

I'm not so worried about short term things like gaps in supermarket shelves; I'm more concerned about what the country will look like in 10 or 20 years. I'm not too sure what that will be, but m hoping it's not too grim.

You seem to be assuming that the people who emigrate will be the least productive members of society and those who are a burden on the NHS. The truth is obviously the opposite of that.

I've been hearing "the Tories are going to privatise the NHS" for over 40 of my voting years.

Change the bloody record. It's never going to happen on their watch. Just a lazy Labour trope.

But when you leave a poor country (which the UK is going to be) for greener pastures, that is going to be a very different experience from a Norwegian or a Canadian electing to move to Tokyo or Hongkong

Genuine question - why will anyone moving to Tokyo or Hing Kong from UK have a very different experience from a Norwegian or Canadian?
Also, do people really want to move to Hong Kong and live under an increasingly authoritarian regime?

Yes, I'm terrified of it all and genuinely feel quite depressed. We have no say in any of what is going on.

My ex-boss just moved back to Bulgaria. She got married last year and wants to start a family but their wages just don 't allow them a decent standard of living here.

i also know two Romanians who moved back to Romania this year.

A Kurdish couple I know lost.their takeaway business recently - energy bills are now too high to make it feasible. They are going back to Turkey, despite the issues there at the moment.

Let's face it - most of Britain is a dump, especially the ex-industrial areas. It's a third world hole. The only thing keeping the whole horrible mess going is our corrupt -as fuck-financial centre known as The City of London.

overpopulated, unable to feed, warm or house ourselves in a climate that destroys your immune system - what could possibly go wrong?

Well I'd love to argue with you but I have to go to work now. Hopefully, I'll get my break at 3 am.

Maybe that’s why re budget. Keep them here. The poorest will want to leave more but try to keep the top

To the pp who suggested it, what would demonstrating achieve? Has it ever achieved anything in the UK, as in really swayed politicians to make different choices? I feel like there have been countless demos and they're all ignored. But I'd genuinely like to be contradicted if I'm just being apathetic.

This is a projection into the future when UK is a much poorer country than it is now or at least large swathes of it is.

I did have a friend who moved to Hongkong for a few years. She was a state school teacher in London, and she did not like the political situation there, but the HK private school paid her so well she could afford to hire a nanny when she moved back to London. As she and her partner saved up so much money that they could afford this and she said she would never have been able to afford a child without that expat salary.

And she moved in 2016 when the outlook for the UK was genuinely more optimistic. We think of the UK now as a rich country now. It might not be the same forever. Certainly I would not have dreamt in the past that the average family in UK would be poorer than the average family in Poland (which btw has a far right government too) in 2024. But it looks like its going to happen. And thats average in the whole of the UK, not average in the northeast. What does this mean? It may mean the average person in the UK may not have access to things that other residents of first world countries take for granted- income for holidays, disposable income for a rainy day fund and a pension, having difficulty affording foreign goods (esp as the pound slides), no money to maintain housing or to pay council tax to maintain the roads and local infrastructure, difficulties paying rent or mortgage. This is the case for the bottom 20% of the population in the UK now but I predict that it would soon become 70% of the population. This may be quite good for the richer people; lots of poor people and no benefits may mean lots of desperate women willing to be childminders, maids or prostitutes.

The situation politically is bad in Hongkong yes, but if it was a choice between poverty and moving to a less democratic country, what would people choose? After all, its not your country so you are less likely to have strong political opinions either way.

Hopefully? Are you short staffed so don't get a break sometimes? If that's the case perhaps you should have a think as to why.

Tbh, UK is one of the better place to live regarding climate change. At least we haven't suffered extensive heatwaves or draught etc, yet. On the other hand, other countries are experiencing a lot of severe weather etc. recently. So, I am concerned, but at least we aren't as bad as other places.
Many countries are experiencing uncertainty. So we all just have to go through with it and be positive as much as we can, imo.

I work in ICU too but am a nurse (probably unlike @Pyewhacket). We are insulated on here and can in no way compare working in ICU/theatre with the horrendous conditions on general wards or A/E. Being short staffed on a ward of 20 or 30 patients is nowhere near as 'chushy' as even the busiest day on ITU. I suspect he/she is completely out of touch.

@BMW6 but it is being slowly sold off ?

Life for the poor in 2022 is panning out pretty much the same way as in the early 80s. The UK is a wealthy country, but with this government asset stripping it won't be for very long.

We have been here before, many are probably too young to remember it, but the poor were very poor, unemployment was huge which is different to the current position I know, but youth became disenfranchised and we had riots on the streets. I don't see the position we are in now as being terribly different to then. We got Thatcher out eventually and we will get this right wing Tory shit show out too. It just takes time and votes.

Once tax increases are brought in by a future government it should improve for the very poor.

We will look forward to hearing your answer in the morning then🙄

1. I do protest
2. I didn't vote for brexit
3. I didn't vote for this utter shambolic government
4. in fact I actively campaign against them at election time
5. it's had precisely no impact on anything which is why I feel so scared.

@Pyewhacket If the UK is so shit then leave. There are plenty of trains and aeroplanes heading in all directions.

I doubt many people think the UK is shit, its actually a fantastic place. Criticising the effects of shit Government policies on the vast majority of the UK's inhabitants, doesn't mean you are criticising the UK. You don't have to worship one to love the other