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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To panic about the dire state of the UK?

999 replies

moveblues · 25/09/2021 20:39

So... all things considered... aren't we up sh-t creek?
-gas and electricity prices
-covid (masks? Pfft completed Covid mate (in England))
-council tax hikes
-inflation
-food shortages
-Brexit
-petrol

Sounds like something out of a dystopian nightmare. I'm worried dear reader, and 'keep calm and carry on' doesn't help.

OP posts:
Theworldisfullofgs · 26/09/2021 10:17

Gosh @clavinova I'm so sorry it doesn't meet your standards. But then I would have quite liked to have been able to get some food to feed my family without having to use all the petrol in my car driving to 3 different shops. I wasn't thinking about how professional my photography was when I took a picture to send my DH.

bendmeoverbackwards · 26/09/2021 10:19

I’m a natural worrier but I’m not panicking just yet.

Yes things are bad but look back to the 70s/80s - 3 day week, strikes, mass unemployment. And not all under a Tory government either.

What makes everyone think things will improve under Labour? These politicians are all as bad as each other and it’s easy to blame the current government.

Other countries have their problems too, the grass is not always greener.

Pumperthepumper · 26/09/2021 10:19

@FreeBritnee

I can hear ‘race to the bottom’ ringing in my ears. Hence not posting last night.

Still glad to live here!!! If everyone threw their problems into the air you’d be glad to catch your own.

Absolutely. Except normally we aim to improve our lot, not let it roll away from us because it’s worse elsewhere.
Bumpsadaisie · 26/09/2021 10:20

@moveblues

So... all things considered... aren't we up sh-t creek? -gas and electricity prices -covid (masks? Pfft completed Covid mate (in England)) -council tax hikes -inflation -food shortages -Brexit -petrol

Sounds like something out of a dystopian nightmare. I'm worried dear reader, and 'keep calm and carry on' doesn't help.

Well we still have free education, NHS treatment, we don't generally fear extreme weather events, we live in a liberal democracy and for all its faults I don't think any of us live in fear of a knock on the dot from the secret police in the night, we are not at war not being invaded y zone superpower.

Life is very difficult for some people who are unwell or disabled, struggling to work and reliant on food banks and the crap benefits system and inadequate mental health support. There is definitely room for improvement.

But overall we are not in too bad a place.

SophieHMS · 26/09/2021 10:22

One major difference between 1970s and today is the amount of stuff we have been indoctrinated to "need". The last 40 years have been one long paeon to consumerism. Resulting in expectations being far far higher now.

"We" (not me) voted again and again for Thatcher, on the promise of personal financial gain as she sold off utilities, social housing stock, - the lot. Many of you will have parents who directly benefited from the right to buy scheme.

We've collectively bought into capitalism and now we are reaping the rewards. An NHS that cannot cope. Workers who turn down manual Labour quite rightly because the pay and conditions cannot sustain life, and quite wrongly because manual work has lost any "value" and is seen as undignified and failure by those brought up with social media. Many of you have repeatedly voted for a party set on dismantling union power and now moan about your helplessness in the face of tyrannical employers.

The fact is that wages across the UK have stayed the same as in the 1980s while cost of living has doubled? Trebbled? Yet you keep voting tory.

Hesperatum · 26/09/2021 10:22

Blame Boris, the Tories and Brexit. I knew it would be bad but am still surprised at the complacency and total incompetence of this appalling government.

OhWhyNot · 26/09/2021 10:23

We are in for a difficult time

Like the 70’s I don’t agree the poverty was far far worse it was normal to many of us to live in poverty that we didn’t recognise how poor we were until we compare standards now

I work with many colleagues from Eastern Europe (nhs) they all think we are spoilt here. Also family and close friends from many poorer countries struggle to understand how we can’t see how life is on the whole easier here. That is why they live here so many are desperate to go home but life is easier here

We have had it good that going into a time where things won’t be as easy is causing panic

bendmeoverbackwards · 26/09/2021 10:23

@marieantoinehairnet

We do need a new government

This one is shit at everything

On their watch

This will happen if Labour get in next time - the country will feel positive about the change and hopeful things will improve. Within a year, we’ll either have the same problems, or some new ones. Everyone will then be complaining about the government 🤷‍♀️
Dazedandconfused28 · 26/09/2021 10:23

@MyPatronusIsACat

Anyone who thinks any other Government would have done better, with Brexit, Covid, lack of lorry drivers, NHS crisis, food shortages, and petrol issues blah blah blah, is utterly deluded.

No other Government would have done any better. Just thank your lucky stars that Jeremy Corbyn lost the election, or you'd have had HIM running the show. Shock THEN you'd have good reason to panic!!!

Another government would have held a stupid referendum
wellards · 26/09/2021 10:24

Be kind- as a woman - my choice - I also think being kind happens to be non binary. Thanks

Don't tell others to be kind then, it's not a kind thing to do.

Tabitha005 · 26/09/2021 10:27

@MyPatronusIsACat

Anyone who thinks any other Government would have done better, with Brexit, Covid, lack of lorry drivers, NHS crisis, food shortages, and petrol issues blah blah blah, is utterly deluded.

No other Government would have done any better. Just thank your lucky stars that Jeremy Corbyn lost the election, or you'd have had HIM running the show. Shock THEN you'd have good reason to panic!!!

Well, isn't that helpful? It always amazes me how people have such incredible insight into what might have been during times when 'what we hoped wouldn't happen' is actually happening.
DdraigGoch · 26/09/2021 10:27

[quote Pumperthepumper]@Evesgarden why do you believe it’s a great place to live? Because it’s not Afghanistan, or are their actual positive reasons for your beliefs?[/quote]
I only have to look out of my window this morning to feel contentment. It's a beautiful day (so much for the legendary Welsh rain), I've got a wonderful view (despite a colleague ranting about wind turbines, you can barely see them), next month I will jump on a train for a couple of weeks camping in the Alps, I've got some bread rising on the windowsill, Alexa is in the kitchen playing music from Swan Lake, the washing is drying on the line and I'll pop out in a bit to get some gardening done.

Even last night's drunks didn't give me too much trouble at work. Especially considering that it was a race day. Despite having got home after midnight from my shift, I actually woke up reasonably well rested.

It must be really tiring to live in such a pessimistic state. Life is too short for constant doom-mongering. Put the Internet down and get outside to enjoy the good things.

Schulte · 26/09/2021 10:28

@Hesperatum

Blame Boris, the Tories and Brexit. I knew it would be bad but am still surprised at the complacency and total incompetence of this appalling government.
Yup. It’s been an absolute shit show and it will go on like this. Boris and his mates are utterly incompetent.
BoredZelda · 26/09/2021 10:28

Scotland met 90+% of its energy needs through renewables and given that

This is very misleading. We produced 90%, of the equivalent of our electrical need. This does not mean 90% of the electricity we used in Scotland was renewable. The grid isn’t capable of distributing that in a way that guarantees power when it’s needed. Our heat requirements were met largely by fossil fuels so any gas crisis would still affect us.

Scotland contains 96% of the UKs oil resource and 65% of it's natural gas resource, and 25% of EUROPE'S offshore energy capacity

It isn’t Scotland’s oil. Never was, never will be.

Pumperthepumper · 26/09/2021 10:32

@DdraigGoch so you’re ok, phew! What about people who didn’t get such a good sleep, or can’t afford food?

Another poster complaining, on mumsnet, that people spend too much time complaining on mumsnet.

Kendodd · 26/09/2021 10:33

Blame Boris, the Tories and Brexit. I knew it would be bad but am still surprised at the complacency and total incompetence of this appalling government.

The public love them though.
The Tories know they can do whatever they want then just point the finger somewhere else and the voters will lap it up.

DdraigGoch · 26/09/2021 10:35

@Greygreenblue

For those of you who think it is like that everywhere… your fooling yourselves. While it is true that every country has its problems, even ignoring what’s in the international media, just from the threads I am seeing on this site, your country is on the brink.
@Greygreenblue you're taking threads on Mumsnet as representative of real life?
Pumperthepumper · 26/09/2021 10:37

@Kendodd

Blame Boris, the Tories and Brexit. I knew it would be bad but am still surprised at the complacency and total incompetence of this appalling government.

The public love them though.
The Tories know they can do whatever they want then just point the finger somewhere else and the voters will lap it up.

Actually, I don’t think that’s true - I think the issue is they hate labour more. And I can understand it, if you’re very well off, any lean to the left might mean a massive loss of the terms you’ve prospered under, and for the very poor, Labour have totally lost touch with the average single-parent-on-benefits because they’ve spent the last decade pointing out what the Tories are doing wrong rather than providing any kind of opposition.

Labour relies on people like me voting out of loyalty rather than because of any actual push towards change.

LakieLady · 26/09/2021 10:38

Where would you like to live? what Utopia exists please tell me!

Sweden or Denmark, but they're a bit chilly.

FrankieStein403 · 26/09/2021 10:39

The pantomime chatter about it being better/worse elsewhere, "but Corbyn..." is irrelevant.

11 years of Conservative government have taken us to a place where our children will be worse off than their parents, that is inexcusable.

OhWhyNot · 26/09/2021 10:41

Well Labour need to get their act together. Ffs we have rent a gob Rayner as deputy and she is getting a lot of media attention which she absolutely plays into by getting more mouthy. She is an embarrassment

Rayner is only there to appease the left of the party, there is no need for this. Starmer needs to show more authority over the party for people to believe that he is PM material

No one is in any doubt that Boris Johnson is absolutely ruthless and people feel confidence in a leader who is

Coffeepants · 26/09/2021 10:42

How could it have been worse? Pandemic has been handled so poorly, lies upon lies, incompetence, corruption, Brexit, plans to privatize the NHS. Need I go on?

ichundich · 26/09/2021 10:42

@FreeBritnee

And yet they are still risking their lives to come here. Weird innit?!
Which EU citizens are risking their life to come here? Have I missed something? Or is it a Brexiter mixing up EU immigrants and asylum seekers again?
TrampolineForMrKite · 26/09/2021 10:43

To the poster who said that Corbyn would have been a terrible PM because he might have listened to his brother.... my auntie is a Jehovahs Witness. She believes some mad shit. My mum- her sister- and we- her nieces and nephews- think she’s batshit crazy. We aren’t likely to be swayed by her beliefs of a paradise for 144,000 because it’s bonkers and I highly suspect that JC feels similarly about his brothers anti-vax stuff.

As JCs son Tommy said when questioned about his uncle: “....Piers Corbyn speaks for Piers Corbyn and only Piers Corbyn....Every family has a Piers I'm sure.”

HarrisonStickle · 26/09/2021 10:43

@containsnuts

Here in Scotland our health service is struggeling to the extent that we've got the army driving ambulances like a war zone. Rationed medical care, sparce supermarket shelves and talk of the army driving trucks of food and medicines from abroad is realy starting spook me. We're sleepwalking into a third-world style disaster while most people seem oblivious and are busy celebrating life getting 'back to normal'.
England has been utilising the army to drive ambulances for months. In fact, the whole of the UK uses the army in this way. Scotland's late to the party in this comparatively speaking.