To panic about the dire state of the UK?

[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.

It's what "the people" voted for. All this (apart from covid!) was predicted in painful detail prior to 2016.

Oh so because there is crime in Sweden then there is no issue in the UK?

Ok then people.. nothing to see here. We had 124 murders in Sweden last year. The UK had 600 murders. To date you have had 119 stabbings in London alone. Yes there are a lot of gangs in malmo who shoot and kill one another. Everything that I said about Sweden still stands. We have crime as does every other nation.

Sweden isn’t a perfect bastion. Which I said before. I guess because we have crime then I should not say anything about problems I see?

This is what I mean! Any time I say anything about how you could possibly learn from Sweden. Not just Sweden.. look at the Danes or Norway. (Sweden is still the better of the nations 😀.. just a little joke between us) Look at Finland. Top rated happiness year after year. Maybe if you asked us and learned from how we govern our lands instead of telling us to shut up, you wouldn’t be in position you are in now.

Any time any Scandinavian says anything about our respective lands, the answer is always someone to pull out.. “oh but you had some gun crime there”. Is that the hill you want to die on?

But you’re right. Until we completely wipe out crime in Sweden then we have no business trying to advice the UK on how to have a functioning society where people actually can live a decent life. Your bare shelves and people in real fear of being cold and hungry in winter is not an issue at all. Us Swedish with our guns and running amok is the real issue! Carry on!

I wish people would put the energy into trying to do something about it that they do starting more and more MN threads though.

How @LukeEvansWife please tell me how?

Other than vote for a different party which makes no difference when the majority keep voting the Tories back in again ...

What, work at a food bank? I already do my bit helping the hours I can around a disabled child. But it changes nothing. Maybe on a micro level. That’s it though.

*As a fairly intelligent person with a degree in economics I genuinely don't believe that anyone should vote tory unless they -

Hate democracy, hate foreigners, hate ordinary people, want the rich to get richer, hate the environment.

or

They are in the top 0.1%, maybe 1% by income and wealth and literally don't give a fuck beyond that.*

A lot of people in red wall northern constituencies voted Tory cos they wanted to get Brexit done. Aren't the same people who drive cars (because there is non existent public transport in their towns), who work (NI raise), who are paying high council tax that is utterly disproportionate to their property value (council tax hike), who are unlikely to earn 100k and above (simply because there aren't that many 100k jobs in those areas). I wonder what they think of all this. Was this what they were envisioning when they voted Brexit? No one could have predicted covid but every other country has covid. I can't think of any other country that has people queuing up round the block for petrol, where there are so many empty shelves.

I wonder what they think of all this. Was this what they were envisioning when they voted Brexit?

They are probably busy waving their union jacks while chanting how they are making Britain great again.
Still it’s better than living in Afghanistan right now so all is ok. Deluded. Completely deluded.

@MarshmallowSwede

👏👏👏👏👏

But you can be sure, that most Northern European nations at least are doing fine. Thriving.. yet here you are with petrol shortage. Good shortage. High energy prices, labour shortages. You don’t even know how bad things are because you are brainwashed into thinking that how you live is acceptable

I've just come back to live in the UK after living in The Netherlands for 12 years and the difference in the place is staggering - homeless people living on the streets, so many closed shops and empty units, drunk/drugged people roaming the town centre in the middle of the day etc.

So many here suffering from boiling frog syndrome.

Not 'panic' but frustration at the choices 'we' as a country have taken.

This government do not have the best interests of the Uk at the centre at all. I worry about where we are headed.

benmeoverbackwards there is no hypocrisy in Marshmallowswede's posts, just honest and intelligent and sorrowful analysis of the absolute mess the self serving tory scum have done to the country I live in.

The country my children have to try and make a life in.

We could do with listening to voices from people who are not native to the UK, because to anyone not born and bred inthe UK we have clearly lost our collective mind.

@Mamamia7962 yes you're right! There is probably no country on this earth where there is zero homelessness and zero need for food aide.
The EU city where I live at the moment has a food bank also.. However its in very low use. Never, not once I've seen anyone queueing outside it.

Parts of the UK live in poverty levels like Victorian times.

Really? Do tell me which part of the UK lacks indoor plumbing?

MarshmallowSwede - There are only just over 10 million people in Sweden compared to just over 68 million in the UK. So 124 murders compared to 600 murders, percentage wise per population isn't that roughly the same.

@Newgirls

Why would EU drivers want to come? Presumably they have jobs and schedules in the EU and will be treated better?

I’ll bet you anything they’ll come Why, I couldn’t say, but the prospect of living and working in London or the rest of the UK is still very attractive to many, many people. They may see it as a stepping stone to something more permanent.

@wewereliars

benmeoverbackwards there is no hypocrisy in Marshmallowswede's posts, just honest and intelligent and sorrowful analysis of the absolute mess the self serving tory scum have done to the country I live in.

The country my children have to try and make a life in.

We could do with listening to voices from people who are not native to the UK, because to anyone not born and bred inthe UK we have clearly lost our collective mind.

I grew up elsewhere and lived in US too and find mn quite anti U.K. generally

But I live in London and irl people seem pretty positive

I accept that deprivation may be higher elsewhere

Bobbipink A 3 month visa is not going to lead to anything permanent.

There is a shortage of drivers in the EU, so th pay will go up there, conditions in mainland Europe are far better and drivers don't need to worry about customs.

I doubt more than a handfull wil come.

@Pumperthepumper I’ve agreed with most of what you’ve said, but this bit is nonsense: they’ve spent the last decade pointing out what the Tories are doing wrong rather than providing any kind of opposition. That’s what opposition is - pointing out what the government is doing wrong. They’ve also produced several manifestos in that time, so it’s pretty easy to see what they would do instead.
This ‘all they do is criticise the government’ bollocks is as bad as the ‘but Corbyn’ bollocks.

@DdraigGoch

Parts of the UK live in poverty levels like Victorian times.

Really? Do tell me which part of the UK lacks indoor plumbing?

I don’t think that quote means they live like actual victorians.

[quote cardibach]@Pumperthepumper I’ve agreed with most of what you’ve said, but this bit is nonsense: they’ve spent the last decade pointing out what the Tories are doing wrong rather than providing any kind of opposition. That’s what opposition is - pointing out what the government is doing wrong. They’ve also produced several manifestos in that time, so it’s pretty easy to see what they would do instead.
This ‘all they do is criticise the government’ bollocks is as bad as the ‘but Corbyn’ bollocks.[/quote]
I disagree. If Labour put up any sort of opposition they would have wiped the floor with them post-Brexit.

@MarshmallowSwede

Oh so because there is crime in Sweden then there is no issue in the UK?

Ok then people.. nothing to see here. We had 124 murders in Sweden last year. The UK had 600 murders. To date you have had 119 stabbings in London alone. Yes there are a lot of gangs in malmo who shoot and kill one another. Everything that I said about Sweden still stands. We have crime as does every other nation.

Sweden isn’t a perfect bastion. Which I said before. I guess because we have crime then I should not say anything about problems I see?

This is what I mean! Any time I say anything about how you could possibly learn from Sweden. Not just Sweden.. look at the Danes or Norway. (Sweden is still the better of the nations 😀.. just a little joke between us) Look at Finland. Top rated happiness year after year. Maybe if you asked us and learned from how we govern our lands instead of telling us to shut up, you wouldn’t be in position you are in now.

Any time any Scandinavian says anything about our respective lands, the answer is always someone to pull out.. “oh but you had some gun crime there”. Is that the hill you want to die on?

But you’re right. Until we completely wipe out crime in Sweden then we have no business trying to advice the UK on how to have a functioning society where people actually can live a decent life. Your bare shelves and people in real fear of being cold and hungry in winter is not an issue at all. Us Swedish with our guns and running amok is the real issue! Carry on!

Yes, we get it. Sweden is the best country in the world. You can move along now.

@wewereliars

Bobbipink A 3 month visa is not going to lead to anything permanent.

There is a shortage of drivers in the EU, so th pay will go up there, conditions in mainland Europe are far better and drivers don't need to worry about customs.

I doubt more than a handfull wil come.

To be fair though, I doubt truckers are making £60k in Romania, so I'd not be surprised if some were happy to do a three month stint here for £15k.

To be fair though, I doubt truckers are making £60k in Romania, so I'd not be surprised if some were happy to do a three month stint here for £15k.

I though this was the whole point of Brexit? I thought we didn’t want Romanians?

@pontypridd

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.

Blimey are you aware of how privileged you sound? Do you realise there are millions of people living below the poverty line in this country:

People posting here,worrying, are looking at the bigger picture. I’m alright Jack is what you’re saying. I’m alright with my Alexa and the Alps.

Privileged to live in this country? Certainly. I could have been born in the US where they've got empty shelves due to a shortage of lorry drivers, where victims of Hurricane Katrina had little help, and where there isn't much of a safety net against destitution. I could have been born in a banlieue in France, I could be watching my life go up in flames in Greece, I could get bitten by a snake in Australia. Other countries have their problems too, even if their citizens are too proud to admit it. I'm no middle class Mumsnetter taking the kids to their private school in a Range Rover. Instead I worked 70 hour weeks for shitty wages in order to afford a cramped fixer-upper. You lot just carry on whinging about there being no sweet potatoes on the shelves. I don't have to worry about petrol, I don't own a car, they're too expensive.

The definition of the poverty line in the HBAI survey takes no account of what it actually costs to have the bare essentials. No, it is based on an income of 60% of the median earnings. It's actually a measure of inequality, not hardship.

I though this was the whole point of Brexit? I thought we didn’t want Romanians?

I'm just replying to the statement that nobodyvwull and to come for just three months.

Most truckers finally seeing wages rise probably don't want a pool of cheap EU labour returning. People always too about how we don't have enough doctors etc so need immigration, but for the average trucker it's not great if there are plenty of Romanians happy to work for £9.50 p/h and sleep in the truck.

@DdraigGoch you could also have lived in a country where owning a car wasn’t outside your wildest dreams and having to work a 70-hour week to afford your own house was seen as appalling. Imagine having a government that thought it was important to have choice in the supermarket, you could have enjoyed all the sweet potato you liked.

Imagine how well your children could have done in that country.

I disagree. If Labour put up any sort of opposition they would have wiped the floor with them post-Brexit
What should they be doing @Pumperthepumper? They call them out in the house and in social media and in the media I. General if anyone will let them. The Tories have a massive majority right now, there’s nothing they can do - when the majority was less (or non-existent) they managed to force U-turns but that’s not possible now. I always ask people who say this what they think they should be doing and I get no answer (or occasionally that they should do grass roots work, which they are, making life better at a community level ).

@ColorMagicBarbie

I though this was the whole point of Brexit? I thought we didn’t want Romanians?

I'm just replying to the statement that nobodyvwull and to come for just three months.

Most truckers finally seeing wages rise probably don't want a pool of cheap EU labour returning. People always too about how we don't have enough doctors etc so need immigration, but for the average trucker it's not great if there are plenty of Romanians happy to work for £9.50 p/h and sleep in the truck.

Still a bit mortifying to admit we need them though isn’t it?