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....

Asylum seekers are a tiny percentage of immigrants. What is the bigger cost is locals in low GDP producing regions like the north who qualify for benefits even when working simply because most local jobs are zero hours contracts. Plenty of immigrants have children who go onto be higher rate taxpayers. There are parts of the north which are poorer than Bulgaria and have been so since thatcher closed the mines. Truss believes this btw. That's why her government will liberalise immigration and also boost London and the SE (productive regions of the country). Reward the richer regions while making sure the poorer regions get as little money as possible to cut down on costs.

Essentially, the UK is living from hand to mouth on money that is increasingly expensive to borrow.

Are you talking about the Government or the inhabitants ?

@eucalyptustea what are you going on about?

the whole of the U.K. is not in London

Where did I say it was? London does tend to have more 1/2nd gen immigrants though.

I don't know any dual citizens.

Just because you are a 1/2nd gen immigrant it doesn't mean you have dual citizenship though. Plus they do exist even if you don't know any

They allow dual citizenship but not for locals to be disadvantaged.

what? I was born in London, am I not a local?

If you up-skill &/or become rich you can buy citizenship to other countries.

Why are we talking about immigrants? Immigration has precisely nothing to do with why we are in such a shit state. Actually, take some of that back. Lack of immigration is a reason some of our key jobs aren't getting done at the moment and employers are struggling.

But we can't mention that because so many people hated the idea of immigration. Better to pretend all is good with less of it.

@BirmaBrite The question asked was "will Labour take us back to the EU?" If that is one of their aims then why would the voters who voted for Brexit vote for Labour? It's not how they will win their voters back.

@icelolly12 Its another 2 years until the next planned GE, which will mean it will have been 8 years since the referendum. 8 days is a lifetime politically, 8 years is another century ! I think the Conservatives will struggle to flog a horse that is not only dead but has been turned into glue !
I doubt Labour will campaign at this GE to return to the EU, if they are sensible and pragmatic, they will look at ways of increasing trade with our nearest and biggest trading partner, using whatever means to facilitate that.

@AdamRyan it's all their fault 🤷🏻‍♀️

Some of the problems that people are on about such as the NHS. Well the NHS would be vastly improved if we looked after our elderly - I think people want a decent NHS but know that part of the problem is they not looking after relatives and/or the relatives not spending the money needed for good care such as 30,000 a year for a private carer.
So blame the Gov but we know it's not that simple.
Round here most with severe poverty problems have drug or drink problems - again not the Gov's fault (I'm in Scotland) or Gov could fix it but not without huge tax hikes. And we don't want that or to give more benefits to 'druggies'.
Cost of living rises - difficult for families but evern since lockdown it has been impossible to get tradesmen round here - they are rushed off their feet. I think much is people wfh, moving to a bigger house - but that is not a sign of poverty, I'd say most people employing all these tradesmen must be doing ok thanks.

Goodness knows if Truss's plans will work but I am feeling slightly hopeful - at least it is better than 10 years of whingeing and bleating - Scottish Ref in 2014, Brxit in 2016, Failure to Brexit 2018, Covid for 2years.

I don't want to generalise but all the elderly people I know including family think they have already paid their way & shouldn't be footing the bill. The problem isn't them but NHS mis management, benefit scroungers, too many immigrants. The issue is we have too many old people but no infrastructure to support them.

I think the attitudes of that generation are definitely a problem.
I hear a lot of "we had interest rates at 15%, we survived" and general "I worked hard for my money, that's why I have a big house, younger generation are lazy"

I don't think the pandemic helped as many shut themselves away with only the daily mail for company

Sorry, is it you who thinks the problem are caused by NHS mismanagement, benefit scroungers and immigrants or the old people you know?

As for them having paid their way, I remember Radio 4 More or Less once looking into the claim that the average babyboomer had received £200,000 more in services and benefits over their lifetime than they had paid in. They found it to be largely true.

The public sector in this country, including the NHS, needs a MASSIVE overhaul, as we pay far too much for the level of service that we get. There are too many people that have been working there for far too long, making far too much money for doing very little. The whole "job for life" and "get a pay rise every year just for being there" culture needs to go. Not to mention that are far in excess of the average private sector pension. And the very generous sick pay and ridiculous amount of people who abuse it. It should be if you don't work, you don't get paid.

The amount if money spent per person in the U.K. is way lower than what other EU countries spend fur the NHS though.
we have the lowest number if beds, doctors etc….
On the other side, the NHS organised the whole if the vaccination process, multiplied the number if beds in ICU by 3 during peak covid etc…. Hardly the work of an organisation that isn’t agile and able to adapt to crises etc…

so are you sure we are paying too much for the service we get?

@Kendodd certainly not I was parroting the DM brigade

As for them having paid their way, I remember Radio 4 More or Less once looking into the claim that the average babyboomer had received £200,000 more in services and benefits over their lifetime than they had paid in. They found it to be largely true

If you started a thread about this it would go down like a lead balloon & probably get deleted!

They'll have had a chance to see brexit has been a complete disaster by then and may well switch back to labour, maybe without admitting it to anyone as nobody wants to admit they were wrong. Although I know a number of brexiteers who regret it.

Lack of immigration has nothing to do with jobs not being done. Employers not being prepared to pay the going rate has everything to do with jobs not being done. There are no "jobs British people don't want to do" and there never was, it was all propaganda. Pay enough money and you will find a British person willing to do it. For ANY job.

Have you got evidence for that? Because in my industry anyway, there just aren't candidates applying, regardless of whether employers can afford to pay high rates.

There is record employment and a high number of unfilled vacancies. Which suggests to me not enough workers.

Plus a lot of people are choosing not to continue in high stress jobs (NHS,teaching etc) and increasing salary won't help - it needs a change of working conditions.

Itsvery simplistic to think you can solve every problem by throwing money at it.

Anyway. Immigration is not what's causing this country to go to the dogs. In my opinion it's government corruption and incompetence over the past 3 years.

Only 3 years? I'd say much longer.

@rockyg

I get that you were parroting the DM crew, but I've always been at a loss to understand why people don't grasp that their contributions paid for their parents' pensions. Seriously worrying that people can't wrap their heads round that.

Secondly, another thing I've never 'got' is people desperately avoiding the best possible care for an elderly relative because it will eat into 'their' inheritance. I call people like that unsavoury (at best) or abusive (at worst).

Finally, I'm loving all these adverts encouraging elderly people to release equity to enjoy themselves rather than hoard it for grasping offspring. I can hear heads exploding in the Shires every time those adverts air!!

@Florenz that simply isn't true and it's far more complicated than that . There is a whole bunch of jobs that you could pay £20 an hour and people still don't want- there are a whole bunch of people who are quite happy 'getting by' on benefits or part time work and benefit too ups- I know as I've employed them in the past-. There are a whole ton of decent businesses who would also simply go out of business if they can't attract people at£10 to £15 an hour and could only attract if they paid £25 an hour - and in all honesty why should a warehouse worker or HGV driver as an example earn considerably more than a nurse etc!!

What I don't really understand is if we keep having people come in from very poor countries how can we stand a chance of sorting things out. It must be very expensive to keep constantly propping up people that aren't working and are already quite poor and untrained. I wish we could help everyone but I do think everyone in the U.K. has to suffer in order to achieve that? Also if we have the poor arriving on our doorstep everyday poverty levels will of course increase surely?

It's actually the very rich who don't pay their share of taxes and have moved their money out of the UK who are sucking the NHS, the education system, and the welfare system dry.

Out of sight, out of mind.

www.ft.com/content/00e7a52d-d85e-467c-b287-5d592b37035c

Are you talking about the Government or the inhabitants ?

I'm talking about the government,@BirmaBrite .

Oh yea, this is amazing news!

I despair about what’s happening. No access to GPS. You literally have to be on the phone for ages and beg just to get a telephone appointment. If you can spare 45 minutes and then have to go through a receptionist.

No NHS dentists.
A NHS that’s falling apart.
High energy bills
Shortage of public sector staff
High inflation
High house prices
Massive government borrowing

Even older people that have mortgages paid off might find it harder to sell to down size due to people not being able to afford to buy.

When will things get better? Can anyone cheer me up ?