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.

@Cattenberg

I’ve been thinking about the public services that seem to be run on a fraying shoestring.

NHS
Education
Social Services
The justice system including Legal Aid
Some local council services

Anything else?

I've been thinking the same. Social services were already stretched before covid, now it's beyond breaking point. How do these services keep running in the future when the 'cut backs' have happened so frequently that there's literally nothing left?

I assume that the people saying imagine if Corbyn had been in power are doing it to make themselves feel less guilty about voting for this shitshow?

I wasn't a fan of Corbyn, but actually, we don't know how he'd have steered us through this crisis and we never will. Based on the evidence to date, it seems highly unlikely that he'd have done a worse job than our current government. Either way, it's pointless to compare a hypothetical reality with what is actually in front of us right now. People voted en masse for the Tories and we are now reaping the results of that vote. If you're happy with the current situation, then great. Many of us are not so impressed.

Those same people who stop at 2-3 children as they can’t afford more

Confiscatedpopit I thought nowadays for environmental reasons it was frowned upon to have more than 3 children?

@Islamorada

If it helps Op it is not so good in other countries either. Quite a few of the same issues than here with food, services, fuel prices skyrocketing and interest rates going up.

What other countries? I live in the EU and we don't have fuel or food shortages. Electricity has gone up but not nearly as much as in the UK, for various reasons.

Agree only fools and mothers.

I've also heard there are food issues in some part of the states!

@WhatwouldAnneFrankthinkofus

Nothing like a gloom and doom thread to cheer everyone up isn't it.No-one has to stay in uk you know, if it's not good then I am sure there are plenty flights out to greener pastures.

Hahahahahahaha!1 Just not EU countries then, right?

People would have muddled through Brexit if there had been a recognisable positive outcome at the end of that muddling it’s already proving that cheap Labour suppressed wages, proves a lot of what leave voters were saying. The issue was no government preparing for that to change.

And yet they are still risking their lives to come here. Weird innit?!

It's true that there is no decent alternative, but that doesn't mean we have to love this government. My breast surgeon friend is desperate to leave the NHS because it's so awful as are his surgeon pals. They can all get much better jobs, with a better work-life balance abroad. It's not just HGV drivers that we are short of, it's public transport drivers too. HGV and bus drivers, the ones who haven't retired since being furloughed or left the country, are being lured to work for companies like M&S that can pay them £56K per year. The present government could invite back the foreign drivers it shooed away to ease the crisis, but it doesn't want to because doing so would add to the perception that Brexit is to blame. The cabinet are split over whether to do this for this reason, the Guardian reports a senior minister saying today. Schapps is today bigging up the fact that he's been able to shorten the HGV training time because we have left the EU, omitting to mention shortening this has meant ditching reversing a lorry from the exam

Nc4post99 - Sorry to hear about your father 💐

@OnlyFoolsnMothers

People would have muddled through Brexit if there had been a recognisable positive outcome at the end of that muddling it’s already proving that cheap Labour suppressed wages, proves a lot of what leave voters were saying. The issue was no government preparing for that to change.

I don’t understand what you mean by this, how is Brexit the solution to cheap labour?

I actually think covid has done the government a massive favour, as it is such a convenient excuse to hide a multitude of sins. For some inexplicable reason, they seem able to get away with this, despite their monumental mishandling of covid itself

@IndiaMay

It's all come at once a bit but

Covid - mostly back to normal now but am sure there will be a few restrictions in the winter as hopefully the final door on it

Food shortages - luxury foods (eg out of season foods and fizzy drinks) are short. Hardly the end of the world. My aunt in the US said they have had a lot of food and goods shortages there. Not sure why.

Fuel - idiots that will right themselves in a few weeks. I remember the last major fuel shortage when I was at primary school. I didnt go to the local school and in the end me, mum and my brother had to cycle an hour in the morning to get to school as we were so low in fuel and my dad needed to get to work. Mum could walk to her work in an hour too.

Energy prices. Yep bad. This is the only thing I'm worried about but it is making me think. Do we NEED the TV on or are we just multi screening. Absolutely anal about light off etc. Turn off the outdoor light. Not needed. We have solar powered phone chargers from camping. Get them out.

And say a silent prayer Corbin wasnt in charge

What about food banks? Austerity = poor government.

Lack of people in food production, hospitals etc? That’s brexit.

Poor environmental record - government

A level and uni admission debacle - government

The list is endless. It’s a dire government.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

Margaurite2000

People have agreed with me on this thread though. How is it different?

Energy crisis
Constant rising prices
Huge cost of living squeeze
Lurching from one crisis to the next
Divided nation.

The causes may be different, but the effects feel the same.

Lol, it was like living on a different planet in the '70s. The effects certainly don't feel the same to me.

Dominic Cummings was right. Neither Boris Johnson nor Jeremy Corbyn were appealing choices. Corbyn is dreadful and would have been a disaster. It's in no small part his fault we've got what we've got instead.

Smoking really would help. Much as people don't want to accept that. Smoking taxes went towards funding the NHS (smoker tax covers more than their own treatment). It's a net gain to the economy because smokers tend to die younger, which saves hugely on pensions and social care.

@Tealightsandd

Dominic Cummings was right. Neither Boris Johnson nor Jeremy Corbyn were appealing choices. Corbyn is dreadful and would have been a disaster. It's in no small part his fault we've got what we've got instead.

Smoking really would help. Much as people don't want to accept that. Smoking taxes went towards funding the NHS (smoker tax covers more than their own treatment). It's a net gain to the economy because smokers tend to die younger, which saves hugely on pensions and social care.

But Boris Johnson won. What was it about him that made him the better choice?

People talk a lot about the availability of cheap labour suppressing wages. What they seem not to realise is that, if wages are pushed up, we will all pay for it anyway. Companies will pass on their extra costs to consumers, so we won't actually be any better off.

Lack of people in food production, hospitals etc? That’s brexit.

It's the consequences of relying on exploiting cheap labour. We have million+ unemployed and the numbers are rising. Pay living wages, provide affordable secure housing (so that people can afford to do the lower paid but essential jobs), and train people up.

As a doctor this is the first time in my nearly 20 year career that I haven't been allowed to request routine blood tests for my patients.

High skills high wages high cost of living.

See Norway.

I feel exactly the same OP. For all the above listed reasons, Brexit, Covid, having possibly the most incompetent government definitely within living memory, maybe even the worst ever, but at a really critical time.

For the poster who came out with the same hackneyed whataboutery bollocks about ‘just think if Corbyn had got in’, my fat, dimpled arse would’ve made a better job of Brexit and Covid, let alone a fairly inoffensive jam making politician. How anyone can believe that Boris Johnson with his record of U turns and fuck ups has done even one thing right is beyond me.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

Of course we have a health service

I haven’t been able to see my doctor since the start of lockdown, despite having mental health problems. I ended up paying to see a private pyschiatrist.

Ds can’t get a dental appointment. Dd fell apart in lockdown, still waiting for CAHMS.

I don’t feel like l do have access to a health service really.

That's awful and I am sorry your family are in this situation. Obvioulsy the NHS isn't working the way we would like it to. I know lots of people are struggling or not getting treated.

But we do have a health service, it's wrong and unhelpful to this discussion to say that the UK is in the same position as a country that doesn't actually have a health service at all.

Schapps is today bigging up the fact that he's been able to shorten the HGV training time because we have left the EU, omitting to mention shortening this has meant ditching reversing a lorry from the exam

Reversing is not being removed from HGV driving tests.

The reversing part of certain medium and large vehicle tests will be assessed by an authorised third party instead of a DVSA examiner.

fullfact.org/online/hgv-reversing-test/

@AlexaShutUp

People talk a lot about the availability of cheap labour suppressing wages. What they seem not to realise is that, if wages are pushed up, we will all pay for it anyway. Companies will pass on their extra costs to consumers, so we won't actually be any better off.

So you prefer it that large numbers of people are left on exploitative poverty wages - wages that don't pay enough to cover the rent and food and gas and electricity?

And actually we do pay for exploitative labour. Taxpayers have to prop up poverty wages with UC, and taxpayers spend billions on expensive homeless accommodation, because poverty wages so often don't pay the rents.

I really don't know how the poorest are going to survive

^.
Revolt?