Does anyone else feel the UK is heading towards a crisis?

[whatnextt]

Price rises not coming down, cost of living gone mad, car crashes, heatwave after heat wave, wild fires.
NHS is falling, NHS dentist is like winning the loto, threats from russia.
Bills cost more than anything.
Benefit bill is out of control.
People getting attacked.

I may have missed a few things, but it feels like the UK is just building up to something big gonna kick off.
Im sure it won't but life is just crap right now.
Not to mention we are gonna get a hell of a winter with this EL nion predicted.

I feel like saying lets have a full war and end this crap then re start again( figure of speech), not living just surviving.
And the cost of being a parent now is unreal.

Rant over.

This is true. People need to ‘see’ what sort of ideologies are being brought across and regarded as ‘diverse’ . No, they have NO place in our society - NONE

Can you back up those stats?

@MatLeave You really do have to be clear on your terminology.

Asylum seekers make up 0.16% of the population of England.

Migrants (they really are different categories), make up 16.8% of the population of England and Wales.

“In the year to March 2026, about 93,500 people claimed asylum in the UK. The UK population is roughly 69 million.
If you did the completely unrealistic calculation that 93,500 asylum seekers were added every single year forever, nobody ever left, nobody died, nobody was refused, nobody else in the UK had children, and the existing population stayed frozen, it would take roughly:
69,000,000 ÷ 93,500 ≈ 738 years”

From ChatGPT

Well, that’s clearly a load of bollocks. I wonder if the same people who make these statements are also the people who berate the Labour governments for raising welfare benefits. Starmer removed the Conservative’s two child benefit cap. This meant that the families of the 4.5 million children living in poverty had more money. Almost 3/4 of those families have at least one working parent. These are the very people who you claim are being ignored by left wing governments, how does that work?

What has actually happened is, for decades governments of all colours have ignored “working class” people because they generally vote in lower numbers. This means they have been able to make poor people the enemy of the taxpayer. This has allowed them to target welfare, introduce “austerity” measures, cut services, which has made the life of low paid workers much harder, whilst the rich got richer, and also allowed them to retain a voter base and keep being elected. There is a reason pensioners have been triple locked financially for decades and nobody has dared change that. Look what happened with WFP, the suggestion that wealthy pensioners shouldn’t get handouts was the start of Starmer’s downfall. They don’t keep throwing money at pensioners whilst cutting all other welfare benefits because they care about whether wee Jeannie can keep her heating on, it’s to make sure she still votes for them.

Now what is happening is, the factions of that “putative” right wing who were very right wing, saw the collapse of conservatism and defected to the further right wing parties, picking up a whole load of voters, a significant number of whom have never voted before, by giving them a villain to blame for all the things they themselves had been blamed for.

The reality of the situation is that very wealthy individuals benefit from presenting a scapegoat to the general public. It means we don’t look so hard at them and where their money is coming from. They will work with governments and make themselves popular with the right wing, even becoming the “champion” of those people and brick by brick they build the narrative that leads to where we are today.

How can we be so sure about any of this? Go back through history and track the rise of far right wing politics. It always comes after a period of deep recession or depression where poor people are suffering. It’s easy to blame “others”. Right now it’s immigrants and disabled people who are taking all the lovely money. People are willing to swallow that lie because they aren’t part of that group. Twas ever thus.

Well - what planet let alone country are you living in. You must be blind, and to be ignorant of what is happening right in front of you. Throwing around statements that anyone with contrary viewpoint is a racist just shows that you have no argument other than playground mentality of attempting to subdue those you disagree with. I am afraid this kind of ignorance will just accelerate the problem in hand. It is all about values and culture and not all are compatible with what a a safe society should aspire to be. A country where women let alone our daughters are not subjected to intimidation and abuse. Emmeline Pankhurst's fight all those years should not be given away to a culture that inherently does not believe in equality. So perhaps rather than to resorting to an accusation of racism perhaps a more of "support our women and daughters" would be better placed.

thank you for your AI comment. Hide behind these fans numbers and better find out which direction is Mecca. you will need it.

I live in England, and as it happens, get my eyes checked at Specsavers every 12 months.

Good for you :)
perhaps change optician or just open your eyes.

Honestly, do yourself a favour and stop being both gullible and facetious. My eyes are wide open, I am fully aware of the problems in the UK but I don't continually try to point the finger of blame in one direction.

Well said. Just to put things into perspective…I have daughter due to return to Uni next month and one of her worries isn’t about her course, friends, finances but how she can feel safe in the university library when there are groups of older some middle aged men likely Middle Eastern men hanging around outside smoking, chatting and uncomfortably leering at her as she enters/exits the building most days. Our lovely f diverse universities who are likely financially on their knees are allowing this with more prayer rooms and selective buildings to encourage those with such ideals to infiltrate our country. Unbelievable and makes my blood boil. I will say it how it is - we are throwing all we fought for, away - freedom. Where is our strong government? Where is our strong King? Where are all our strong men?

You’ve just illustrated my point. Asylum seekers, migrants and Muslims are three different categories.

”Over 10%” is not the asylum seeker figure, and your Mecca comment proves that you’re conflating immigration status with religion. But it really doesn’t matter to you does it?

You can argue for lower immigration without ignoring factual categories and figures.

Well someone has swallowed some clever dictionary. Good big words with no meaning. Check your data and do not rely on AI generated information. If the only argument you bring to the table is that we all should categorise everyone into these three groups then you are part of the problem by not recognising that these numbers are all manipulated to fit your agenda. United we stand and divided we fall. At what stage are you waking up to add all these separate (well according to you at least) groups and realise that the UK has changed beyond recognition. No one was asked whether we would be happy with such a fundamental change in our society. Do not muddy the water with statistics that clearly do not reflect reality. I do not have to read about what it should be when I open my eyes and see what is happening for real. I suppose the real question is whether it matters to you and by your comments it clearly does not. So yes I am aware of the issue at hand but I do not bury my head in sand and hide behind numbers that do not reflect reality.

(Also in response to @NeelyOHara)

On the contrary, I work with numbers on a daily basis. This one starts with the number of people who claimed asylum in 2025. That’s 100,625. From there it’s a simple percentage calculation against the population in 2025 and a multiplier to have the figures reach half the population.

It’s ironic you would claim maths isn’t my strong point when you seem unable to understand the most basic of statistics. The number of refugees/asylum seekers. currently living in the U.K. is 515, 677. That number represents anyone who has ever come to the U.K. looking for asylum and is still alive and living here. That is less than 1% of the current population.

Hard to say exactly where your 10% figure comes from (I suspect it is from a social media post) but looking at who makes up 10% of U.K. population, the most two most likely figures that is quoting from the ONS are 9.3% in England and Wales who note their ethnicity as Asian; or the 9.9% who hold a non-U.K. passport. This number includes those living here with dual citizenship, like, Boris Johnson, Richard E Grant, Colin Firth, Peter Capaldi, and the almost 200,000 Irish/British nationals living here. 3.5 million of the non-U.K. passports are EU residents. None of this substantiates the claim that asylum seekers make up 10% of the population.

Hopefully this puts to bed the claim I can’t do maths.

Beyond recognition from what?

Also, which of the “good big words with no meaning” do you need help with?

Give us an example?

I am absolutely speechless about your ignorance and level of denial. Your binary approach to politics shows an utter lack of understanding of what is truly at stake and that this situation cannot go on. Keep riding this wave ...

thank you Prof Hawkins. I can rest at ease that you can do maths

So perhaps rather than to resorting to an accusation of racism perhaps a more of "support our women and daughters" would be better placed.

Can you give an example of any thread/post you have commented on about VAWG committed by white British men, in order to support our women and daughters?

thank you for offer of assistance. It just shows what a great person you are and I just bow to your absolutely superior knowledge and understanding of this. I can sleep soundly knowing that the numbers are correct and I do not need to worry about my daughter walking in the UK without the fear of being molested or attacked. You are so right the numbers do not lie and we follow obediently our illustrious leaders blindly. After all they only have our best interest at heart.

Only one?! 😆

Don’t honestly waste your time - people like these aren’t able ‘see’ either because they don’t have capability or they are too frightened to to

You keep talking about ignorance and levels of denial, and yet when actual statistics (from recognised sources) that do not support your opinion are given, you have no response other than to make rude personal remarks. If you want to change my opinion and have me fight your cause, you need to give me actual facts and figures that prove me wrong. I’m happy to be proven wrong, I’m happy to join your fight or rid our shores of anyone or anything that will improve the current state of political and public discourse. The reason I’m happy to do that, is exactly because I know what is at stake. We’ve seen it before over and over again. It means a lot of innocent people are going to be killed or injured fighting a war against an oppression which won’t just be happening to the “others” you seek to blame for all your problems. All these British young men currently throwing stones at hotels may be conscripted to pick up a gun to fight for their leaders and win or lose, the casualties will be immense and the only people who will really benefit from it are the rich people who kicked it off.

If you have information that will “open my eyes” to something which means this will not be the case, I’m all ears and ready to join the fight.

Yes. One will do.

So you've got to earn around £75k to get that mortgage, that is way above average. What you aren't getting is our generation could buy houses, often on one wage. My Uncle was a London bus driver and bought a four bedroom, semi detached house in Bletchley. My Grandad was a grocer and bought a house in Acton. Even, here in Liverpool, it's difficult because you are competing with builders, who buy, to flip. People working full time are having difficulty even getting approved for shared ownership.

it is not my job to open your eyes; use all your senses and you will know what is right. I do not hide behind numbers and statistics as they do not show reality. I do not accept your numbers you quote and in a free society you are entitled to believe what you want. Your problem is that you rely on so called recognised sources and ... actually what is the point to discuss. We are clearly in opposite corners and you will always only see what you want to see.