To worry that Britain is screwed financially

[Edenspirits]

There is a dispatches on Channel 4 on Monday that I am keen to watch called ‘Britain’s 400 billion covid bill’.

But it’s got me thinking about it and wondering what it’s going to be like when it all has to be paid back. Tax rises? Austerity? Interest rate rises? So many industries will continue to need bailouts and then there is the Brexit shit show on top which is already looking like an absolute disaster.

Aibu to worry that it’s going to take years to sort this mess out? And that it’s our kids that will pay ultimately. I worry for my kids future.
I am trying to be positive but no government can borrow the amounts that we are talking & not see real trouble ahead.

I don’t think a lot of people in the country have the faintest idea of how bad Brexit is either- it’s been hidden in the news pretty much due to covid. Come April when the ports have to do actual proper checks, it’s going to be even worse and it’s bad now. Trade exports down 68% - no country can stand that kind of export drop. It’s hundreds of thousands of jobs 😬 As you can see, it’s the kind of thing that keeps me awake in my perimenopausal state!!!

@TableFlowerss

To add- people thought it was difficult to get on the property ladder previously? I can only feel pitty for those people moving forward. Owning a house for many youngsters these days will be nothing more than a pipe dream.

Interest rates are really really low, won't that help people looking for a mortgage?

Yes it's going be horrific
People surely are alive to this? Or maybe not

I think we're going to see a period of social upheaval. Once people see how easily the status quo can change when there's a compelling reason, a lot more seems possible. Then there's a countervailing pressure from the establishment, we're seeing this from the Tories' 'war on woke' which is one step away from fascism.

Add to that all the massive catastrofuck of brexit and covid finance and it's going to be a bumpy ride. They'll end up having to tax well-off boomer darlings because they're the only ones with any money that isn't in tax havens.

It's doubly worrying that Saint Boris and his merry men are keeping so silent about it. They'll tell us to do a massive "spend out to help out" so that we forget the hard times of lockdown, and they'll quietly shuffle off into the sunset with a lot of resignations, leaving somebody else to deal with their mess; somebody less eager to be liked than Saint Boris, who will have no problem at all handing out punishing tax rises.

Come on, Boris, stop the self-congratulation about the vaccine, and talk to us about how you are going to help us deal with the recession, unemployment, ruined education, depression among CHILDREN, suicides, and mental health on the floor, all caused by YOUR looooooooooooong and multiple lockdowns; then some of us might take you and your merry men more seriously.

I bet that they won't tell us when the right to protest is reinstated (if it ever is). Because there will be marches every day, the way things are going.

@wanderings

I bet that they won't tell us when the right to protest is reinstated (if it ever is). Because there will be marches every day, the way things are going.

People will march anyway and riot. It has to happen now We were told vaccinations would end restrictions. Lies

@Edenspirits I agree and am also worried. You ask if the future will involve austerity, tax rises, inflation. All three I should think.

What is most terrible is the slashing of opportunities for our children’s generation. I find it most unlikely that there will be a functioning NHS, welfare state and pension provision when they need it. I fear we have spent their future.

The welfare bill is going explode with people claiming disability through long covid (hate typing that anyone would think post viral syndrome was new )

Yeah it's going to be uphill for decades. The problem is we are such an entitled nation we always want our cake and eat it.
Brexit We want the good bits and off load the bad bits

Covid we want it gone but don't want restictions

Vaccine purchases were the best decisions UK govt made.

The logic on massive debt (90% of GDP?) is that low interest rates will make it sustainable.

Yes but didn’t you get the memo...nothing matters but covid

@OnlyFoolsnMothers

Yes but didn’t you get the memo...nothing matters but covid

And long covid

I thought we were pretty screwed pre covid hence why we were stuck with low interest rates 🤷‍♀️

I didn't expect to see a state pension or a "free" NHS when i'm 30/40 yrs older. I definitely don't now!

Our kids are going to pay for it for a long fucking time

I was paying for the Second World War for a good part of my career.

This isn't the only generation of children ever to have had a crisis to deal with - each decade comes with its own challenges. Young people were told in the 80's that they had no future opportunities too. In the 90's many of those children were then graduating from university into a recession. Same in 2008.....and then the last 10 years of austerity.

It's how we, as a country and adults handle it that matters. Telling young people that their lives are going to be shit, that there are no jobs for them, that their education is fucked (rather than concentrate on supporting a different type of education) is it useful.

Of course the most useful thing adults can do for young people is to vote in a govt who actually cares about improving their life chances.....

China with its surplus will tend to be where most borrowing will come from. It will be interesting to see if the who investigation may lead to compensations. If countries have borrowed from china I can imagine a situation where states may choose not to pay it back but then I dont know what that leads too.

Young people were told in the 80's that they had no future opportunities too. In the 90's many of those children were then graduating from university into a recession. Same in 2008.....and then the last 10 years of austerity.

But the younger generations have found it much more difficult to get on the property ladder, save for decent pensions, earn a good wage despite a decade of wage stagnation.

And obviously we have fewer younger people because people are having fewer dc & having them later. And we don't like immigration so where does all the future tax come from?

But the younger generations have found it much more difficult to get on the property ladder, save for decent pensions, earn a good wage despite a decade of wage stagnation.

As did many people in the 70's, 80's and 90's. We only hear about the boomers who paid 2s6d for a house now worth millions. Loads of people in all generations have never been able to afford a house - it wasn't a problem until we lost so much of our social housing stock. Many, many people who scrimped and saved to get on the housing ladder in the 80's then lost their house after the interest rates increased overnight and they couldn't afford the mortgage. Many many older people who were young in the 60's and 70's ever had an occupational pension and are now dependent on state pension. The same will be happening with those on very low wages or unemployed for the 80's.

Before the NMW came in people were working for £1 am hour.

What pisses me off is that the money was there to be found and to be borrowed when it came to offering their cronies multi million deals that they could never fulfill, yet there was no money there for those in need over previous years - for schools, disabled people, social care.

Is it not still less than the bank bailout cost? I thought it was £450 bn

Sounds like the Government is damned if it does and damned if it doesn't.

The people wanted lockdown as to do otherwise was murder apparently. The people got lockdown, now we are all moaning about recession.

The people wanted Brexit so we got it; of course that will affect trade until we engineer deals and processes become simplified. The Government couldn't ignore Brexit as it had been voted for in a referendum; most mumsnetters seemed to believe that because most working class Northern people had voted for it, we could just ignore the result. I personally blame that twat David Cameron for instigating a referendum in the first place. What on earth was he thinking of?

I'm 50 and have lived through a number of recessions and subsequent booms. We will be OK.

But the younger generations have found it much more difficult to get on the property ladder, save for decent pensions, earn a good wage despite a decade of wage stagnation

Whilst it is more difficult I do think younger people nowadays just don’t have the same savings ethic as my parents generation did. My parents went without so much so that they could afford to buy a house. When they first married they lived in a studio flat (obviously called a bedside then !) and had to go to the local public baths for a bath. We never went on holiday (unless you count going to stay with grandparents). My parents never had evenings out. Going to a restaurant was a genuine rarity. They budgeted for every penny. They also made sure they planned for retirement so would probably say they are better off now they are retired than they have ever been.

I contrast that with the conversations I have with some of my young team members now (pre covid). They eat out every weekend, often socialising in the week too. Several trips abroad a year. Take ubers everywhere. Yet they’re amazed they can’t get a deposit together.

I appreciate this isn’t the same for everyone.

@RedcurrantPuff

Is it not still less than the bank bailout cost? I thought it was £450 bn

Not sure of the figures but a lot of the banks bailout funds were repaid by the banks selling off assets. Not sure we’ve got a lot of public assets left to sell!