Is the UK about to collapse?

[Penfield]

Sorry - There was probably a better way to put this.

Does anyone else have a feeling that we are close to some collapse, explosion, disintegration of society ...

With gas prices, petrol shortages, inflation, Brexit fall out, Covid, gaslighting government etc

I feel like we're on the edge of something - big ...

We'll be reet

Yes there are always people who ignore signs of a crisis. I remember people on MN in early March 2020 saying everything was okay and there would never be a lockdown. And even earlier some saying that the virus would never reach Britain. Some people seem to like living in denial. It is bloody obvious more shortages are coming. We haven't even put into practice the border checks that Brexit agreement demands.

Agreed. I remember all those who claimed that is was "project fear" to state the fact that every single economic projection regarding Brexit by a credible, impartial economist was negative; it was just a case of how negative the effect would be, not if.

I suspect if we had the data we could make a Venn diagram that would show a large overlap between them and the ones who say "don't watch the news" as if ignorance can shield them from reality. And the ones who accused those of us who read the limited scientific studies that were available on SARS-Cov-2 in terms of the R0 in Jan/ Feb 2020 and saw what was likely to happen, of "scaremongering".

And the ones who bang on about world wars, as though we should aspire to live in poverty when we do have a choice not to be run by imbeciles and vote against our own interests. And the ones who have "had enough of experts". And don't want to have vaccinations. And the ones who are ostriches burying their heads in the sand about climate change.

It would be a very interesting diagram. I suspect from a distance it might resemble one large, brown, almost circular dot.

Just a damn shame for everyone else that there are so many of them.

@julieca

Yes people always seem surprised when I say I lost money when I sold my first house. No prices do not always go up. Buy to let is keeping house prices artificially high.

They do in the long run though. I bet if you didn't have to sell when you did, you wouldn't have made a loss

[quote julieca]@dreamingbohemian I think there will be some nuclear missiles fired. I think it is unlikely to directly affect us. Far more likely to be in the Middle East or Korean border.

In terms of Trump, it has emerged that the Chief of Defence reminded everyone that they needed his approval to launch a nuclear missile and that Trump could not do it alone. So there was real concern that Trump might try. But there are some safeguards there.[/quote]
The way things are now, I agree. Although a nuclear exchange in the Middle East would still have a terrible indirect effect on the UK and Europe.

If in 5-10 years time we have an unstable post-Putin Russia, an unravelling China, and the return of a bellicose US president, I would not be so certain that great power war could be avoided.

(Before anyone tells me to stop watching the news, my current job is basically thinking about this kind of stuff all day : )

Absolutely not hard times ahead but this has happened many times before .
The difference is we are a more entitled and selfish society now.
Just look at care national scandal we want better . Then yes we can have better better but we'll all have to chip in for it there an outrage . we want it but won't pay for it .
Petrol panic buy was a major factor.
The majority wanted brexit the in fighting in our country put us in an embarrassingly weak position to negotiate .

TBH brexit was always going to be a rough departure but even though I wanted to remain .I don't think after covid it's necessarily a bad thing. As well as managing our debt left by covid we would of been bankrolling many EU counties where covid has crippled them finically for years .

@luckylavender

I hate responses to threads like this that say 'stop watching the news'. Why do people want to be in the dark?

Some combination of thick/ lazy/ ignorant/ frightened and incapable of coping with reality. Usually at least two of these combined.

As opposed to starting threads about how doomed we are? People are just trying to put things into perspective

@rwalker

Absolutely not hard times ahead but this has happened many times before . The difference is we are a more entitled and selfish society now. Just look at care national scandal we want better . Then yes we can have better better but we'll all have to chip in for it there an outrage . we want it but won't pay for it . Petrol panic buy was a major factor. The majority wanted brexit the in fighting in our country put us in an embarrassingly weak position to negotiate .

TBH brexit was always going to be a rough departure but even though I wanted to remain .I don't think after covid it's necessarily a bad thing. As well as managing our debt left by covid we would of been bankrolling many EU counties where covid has crippled them finically for years .

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 You really have no clue, do you?

The UK is having the slowest recovery from the pandemic of any G7 country including those that are EU members. And took a greater economic hit to start with. We had one of the highest death rates per capita of any country on Earth and managed to have one of the worst economic crashes in the developed world. Hardly a success, is it?

Of course it's always nice when people get so much joy out of 'I told you so'

I remember the winter of discontent-we just got on with it-and we didn’t have all the media hype banging on and on.This too shall pass and then next year there’ll be something else come along.

I think the only thing going for us atm is the fact we don't have an erupting volcano!. Don’t speak too soon, we have the SS Richard Montgomery off the coast of Sheppey.

I don’t think that the UK is about to collapse. I’m not in denial. I think it’s going to be bloody shit for most of us for a good few years. And I think what comes out of it may well be a very different Britain than the one we’re used to. But I’m not going to damage my mental health by worrying myself to sleep each night over something I can’t do anything about. All I can do is save every penny I can get my hands on and hope me and mine get through it relatively unscathed. What else is there to be done?

I’m just an ordinary person living a ordinary life in an ordinary town.
If I watch the news or read MN it feels like the end of the world is imminent. However I then open my eyes and look around and everyone is just getting on with things.

Very much agree with this .
And the same for what posters are saying about the 80s. I was late teens/20s in the 80s and the focus of my life was definitely around friendships / relationships and day to day stuff like college or work . There was no internet so unless you bought a paper or watched News at Ten a lot of wider worries didn't really affect everyone's day to day lives .

@Bucanarab

The environmental crisis is here, you just can't see it yet (and when you do it will be too late)

That's not catastrophising, that's reality

Ok so if that's the case, what the hell is the point in worrying about it? If it's going to happen anyway?

Because things are going to get so much worse if we don't act now. The business as usual model predicts a gmst rise of 4-4.5°C rise by 2100. The effects were are starting to see/feel are from a circa 1°C rise in gmst. A 4°C + rise can still be stopped but only if everyone starts taking it seriously and not pretending that "there's no point cause China/government/big business etc"

You're completely right but I despair really as it seems to fall on deaf ears no matter how it is explained.

@Mollymalone123 the press was full of stories about rubbish piled in the street, rats as a result, dead not being buried. The headlines at time were pretty lurid.

The UK is having the slowest recovery from the pandemic of any G7 country

How does unemployment compare? That is an important metric for people

@Pythonista

Of course it's always nice when people get so much joy out of 'I told you so'

Maybe people who find themselves repeatedly on the receiving end of "I told you so" should examine why they keep making such poor decisions that leave them in that situation and perhaps - shock! Horror! - listen to experts in relevant fields before making such decisions in future.

I don't vote Tory and I voted to remain. But it's the gleeful gloating that makes people look stupid.

@MarshaBradyo

The UK is having the slowest recovery from the pandemic of any G7 country

How does unemployment compare? That is an important metric for people

Hahaaaa nice try. But pathetic.

Actually because of how it's measured here, it's roughly 30% in reality (working aged adults who are not employed and economically inactive).

@Pythonista

I don't vote Tory and I voted to remain. But it's the gleeful gloating that makes people look stupid.

Nobody is gloating. People are seriously pissed off with all of the idiots in the UK trashing their lives.

Pathetic?

It was just a question

Ok I’ll leave you to the mire. Enjoy.

@OddSockReunion
Some combination of thick/ lazy/ ignorant/ frightened and incapable of coping with reality.

You sound lovely. 😂

Just because people don't agree with you, it doesn't make them thick. In fact it makes them uber tolerant having had to.listen to your increasingly maniacal ramblings. 😏

I’m not damaging my mental health in worrying either @Sn0tnose

And my kids aren’t stressed out by my thoughts because I share only a few of them. Enough just to make them aware of what’s going on in the world at the moment. They are old enough to read the news and work it out for themselves anyway.

Our family is lucky to be ok at the moment. But we will be affected by inflation etc I’m lucky enough at the moment to be able not to panic. But I have no idea how bad things are going to get.

I’m most concerned for the kids’ future. And it’s the aftermath of Brexit that I think is going to cause the biggest of problems- that sets us apart from everywhere else. The UK’s recovery from the pandemic is going to be a lot harder.

Brexit coupled with a government that doesn’t give two hoots about normal people. Everything they do seems to be about enriching themselves and their mates. We will suffer because if this.

People need to wake up and vote the Tories out because the longer they are in charge the more our children’s future will be f*ed.

@MarshaBradyo

Pathetic?

It was just a question

Ok I’ll leave you to the mire. Enjoy.

I thought you were being deliberately misleading by implying that the rates of adults without employment in the UK were high than most comparable countries. That would be a pathetic way to try to score points in a discussion about such important issues if you are aware that your comment would be misleading to people.

If you genuinely did not realise that the UK stats on that are scewed by policies designed under-report the percentage of economically inactive adults of working age then I apologise, and am glad to have shared this information with you.

I think people have spent the last 18 months stressed and anxious and worrying and they're sick to death of it.

Call it head in sand if you like.

No. It's not.