It’s not looking good is it?

[User15384]

Cost of living crisis
Choice between heating v eating
Pound dramatically falling
Higher interest rates
NHS on brink of collapse

And now the warning of a flu-covid “twindemic” this Winter

It’s all quite overwhelming and sad and seems to be never ending 😞

Here's the thing, we've had better times but we've also had worse. Turn off the telly. Put down the newspaper. Consider ways to make the best of this. We're not having a holiday next year which would normally be 2-2.5k for all of us. Instead, we've used some of the money on concert tickets and panto. For 1/5th cost we have something to look forward to once a month until February. £4/5 for a Costa coffee twice weekly - £55 for a coffee maker and beans and I can make whatever I like. In just over a month I've made my money back. I can't influence Ukraine/Russia or the energy prices. I can make a game out of who can save the most energy because frankly just because the government aren't fit to run a bath I won't allow my children to suffer.

On this thread we have people worrying about how on earth they are going to pay their mortgage and we have others who are telling them to just think fluffy thoughts and it will all be ok.

If only the power of positive thinking were enough to stop people from losing their homes and feeding their kids....

Who has said that are even implied that?

We'll all be focussed on ourselves. Saving money, not buying coffees or food out. What's going to happen to these businesses? It's all going to be very bleak when we do fancy going out to get a drink or food.

Ah sorry - daft PP said it!

A lot of people are struggling a lot more than you, and it is pretty offensive to just tell them to 'make the best of this'.

Some families are facing homelessness, many kids will be genuinely hungry.

It isn't a game for everyone.

I can make a game out of who can save the most energy because frankly just because the government aren't fit to run a bath I won't allow my children to suffer.

you “won’t allow it” 😂

It really is terrifying if you dwell on things too much.

when politicians who I never thought were running as jokes entered major office, I developed a mantra of “these 4 walls”. I repeat it when needed. What is inside my home is what really matters. I keep informed, but I try not to obsess. I focus on my family and making the best life possible for them. It had me in a good mental place for when Covid hit and at this point, I don’t expect to ever be able to let it go.

Don't really get it do you?

@threatmatrix

2026? You must be quite a visionary.

Source doesn't matter hugely since it's a matter of public record. All the charts are the same.

If you mean 2016, the low was 1.2124 on 11/10. My bank gave me 1.079 last week, which would have been slightly better than the mid-market rate at the moment, so not even as low as the real conversion.

Why would I bother commenting on the rest of your post if this part is apparently nonsense?

Made up shit. What a surprise in the world of tory apologia.

The onus has gone no lower than £1= $1.08 £1 = £1.11 Euro if you got less then you were ripped off. And no you can’t comment because I’m right. We can all use charts. The only mistake I made was meaning the Euro not the dollar. But the dollar wasn’t far off in 2016.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/619781

@threatmatrix Fair enough. As all the current news and discussion is framed in terms of pound vs dollar, I assumed you meant that.

You need to stop watching the news - it’s designed to give you the fear.

Yes, because if you don't actually watch the news obviously, none of it is happening.

That's not actually how these things work.

What was happening in concentration camps wasn't reported during the second world war. The lack of reporting didn't stop many millions being murdered though did it?

So if we all shut our eyes and block our ears life could be wonderful and carefree; what a way to live.

The point is to avoid anxiety over matters beyond your control, not to make out like they don't exist if out of sight. Contrary to what may be commonly put forward, people can't really change systems they're a part of, at least not easily.

This was going to happen regardless of which party was in power. The decline of the UK has been ongoing for decades from the fall of Singapore to the Suez crisis to the overinflating of the Sterling and the gutting of industry. It was not Brexit or that one PM on red/blue team that knackered everything. They could have made things less bad, maybe even temporarily good, but in the end, there is no real route out of what we're on course for. As a lot of other nations will find out soon too.

I don't begrudge someone from not wanting to read or hear about how shit everything is from, say, climate change and ecological collapse, even if it's far more important than the UK gov't torpedoing the economy below the waterline.

The lack of awareness is a bit worrisome.

So OK, we’re all going to hell in the proverbial handcart and, according to this thread, there’s nothing we can do about it. But if we try and grab whatever scraps of pleasure and happiness we can, we’re being selfish. If we try looking for the positives and shield ourselves from the doom and gloom, we’re in denial. So exactly what is the most constructive way to respond to this apparently hopeless situation? Mass suicide? Mass murder?

Please do NOT take the last few sentences seriously. I genuinely think that promoting such doomsday narratives on a mass scale is not only inaccurate and irresponsible, but dangerous.

Assuming the leaders of the world were clued in, which is still arguable, they wouldn't brazenly come out and level with us about things that are literally the antithesis to how our civilisation functions. Climate change is one thing, and yet that always comes with the caveat of "but we have years to turn this around and improve our future". Obviously a fatalistic approach isn't going to win many votes, even if the science and momentum of our way of life indicate nothing can be changed.

Thus, we pretend we don't know and they pretend they don't know we know. Or at least the people paying attention. The rest of the masses are watching The Masked Dancer.

And yes, I'm aware of the WEF and the "Great Reset", and yet that model still only envisions the same system carrying on regardless, just with the plebes perpetually leasing everything in their lives. It doesn't appreciate an end to the status quo, just a variation on it. Like direct carbon capture to climate change, or QE and debt to world finance, it is merely the latest rendition of wishful thinking in dealing with an impossible task.

The barbarians are now in government and Liz Truss as George Monbiot persuasively lays out in forensic detail is "The Oligarch's Prime Minister". They are as evil as they are incompetent - they are looting and destroying our society - and we are just cogs in their money machine. They are a weird and extreme cult who seek to impose their debauched values upon us.

@pigsDOfly the main stream media is designed to give you the fear but yes my comment was flippant. I’m not saying turn a blind eye, absolutely not, but maybe watch it and pick a small area where you can make a difference either locally or with activism in an area that matters to you. When you get involved in trying to change things it stops you feeling so helpless. Watching the main stream media repeat stuff over and over would make anyone anxious.

Times are very depressing indeed. I had all my covid jabs and side effects became worse with each one. The first, just a bit of a sore arm. The third, I hurt from head to toe and couldn't work for 3 days. All 3 were the Pfizer vaccine. On Thursday I had both Covid and Flu jabs. They were done at 9.30am. The Covid one was Moderna. By 9pm I was in hospital. Racing pulse, rapid heartbeat, hard to breathe, dehydrated.

I had Covid the first Christmas and was very ill, developing pneumonia. That's why I've been diligent in having the vaccines. I don't think I'll be having more.

The £/dollar rate was 1.47 in 2016 prior to the brexit vote and fell to 1.25 after the vote. In the last 10 years it has never been as low as it is now.