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 ...

I was alive and bringing up my children in the 80s. There were problems, sure, but there wasn’t a Government deliberately destroying businesses and people’s livelihoods by implementing policies that they were warned would cause such damage. And there’s the endless lies and the breaking of international treaties.
It’s astounding.

This is what I'm talking about. And I was alive then too. Maybe people who feel we're all fine are unaware of the damage the UK government is doing - seemingly deliberately. I suppose they will be if they don't read the news of have any awareness of current affairs.

I was alive and bringing up my children in the 80s. There were problems, sure, but there wasn’t a Government deliberately destroying businesses and people’s livelihoods by implementing policies that they were warned would cause such damage

I think the miners, and steelworkers, and other heavy industries shut down in the 80s under the Thatcher government may just see things differently.

Some people seem to have VERY short memories.

9/11 too felt like this . I was working in the US for a major corporation when there were all those anthrax parcel scares shortly afterwards. I washed my hands more then than I have with covid!

It's just life I think . Ups and downs.

This is one of the reasons that there is an increase in anxiety in children. Parents who see the worst in everything, I mean who said I feel sorry for my kids not getting a house? I didn’t own my own home until I was 26 oh and look I survived.
Parents passing on their anxiety about their views of the world has a bigger impact than COVID has had on children’s mental health.
We don’t live in a perfect stable world and never have but by god living in the UK is a blessing compared to other countries.
Be careful who you vote for.

@BringPizza

“Ah yes - we weren't sure whether we were going to die of AIDS or a nuclear war.

Honestly, compared to that, COVID is a piece of piss”

Between the AIDS tombstone adverts at the bus stop and the stupid leaflets about painting your windows white and sitting under the dining table I think we were all battle hardened before we left primary school…

Don't panic. There have always been crises and shortages of one sort or another.

I was born in 1960. My mum suffered from morning sickness and prescribed a wonder drug called thalidomide to take care of it. Thank goodness she didn't take it. But I have several friends who weren't that lucky. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 she was so scared of a nuclear attack she took a week off work so if London was hit we would all be at home and die together.

In the 1970s there was a sugar shortage so severe it was temporarily rationed. There were also such bad fuel shortages s that we had regular scheduled power cuts. Some businesses had to operate 3 day weeks. The govt actually printed petrol rationing coupons just in case, although I don't think they were ever used. Later in the decade firemen went on strike for ages and I can remember seeing army trucks that were deployed instead.

When I was in my 20s and working in the city there were such severe rail strikes my employers chartered coaches to get us all to work. Later in the 1980s I got my first mortgage - the interest rate was 9%. There was also the rise of HIV. It was terrifying and I knew 3 young men who died of it.

In the 1990s i was working in a building society and in one 48 hour period interest rates went from 10% to 12% to 15% and then back down to 10%. It was chaos. I spent my last couple of years in that industry dealing almost exclusively with property repossessions caused by a financial recession. I remember particularly one nice man, a builder, who came to London from Belfast to get his family away from the troubles. When the recession came and work dried up he lost everything including the house they bought here and were made homeless. I often think of him and hope things improved for him eventually.

So yes, times are very tough now but they have been worse in the past and I live in hope they will improve in the future.

I was very alarmed by Keir saying that we can't say only women have a cervix though. That to me is true dystopia !

@CarryOnNurse20

If we think like this it is what it is, we can only do our best. there will never been any change. Imagine if the suffragettes had thought like this?

There is no petrol shortage, increasing inflation is a worldwide problem, as is Covid, obviously, gas prices are high all over Europe. Your only tue points of concern are Government and Brexit.

@pussycatlickinglollyices

Council tax is supposedly increasing by over £200 per year for the next 3 years from April...probably by more than that from year 4.

It is not "supposedly" rising by "over £200 per year", that is what the councils are pushing for to maintain services, they won't get that, but they might get a 2-5% rise in council tax. The issue though is that whilst most people say they want councils to spend more money on things that they want, almost no one is prepared to pay for it.

Stop looking at the internet and you'll find most people are just bumbling along as normally as they can.

Things will be shittest for the poorest, as usual.The rest will feel the pain one way or another to a greater or lesser degree, as usual. The rich will mostly get richer, as usual. Nothing new really and certainly no danger of imminent collapse.

@KingsleyShacklebolt

I was alive and bringing up my children in the 80s. There were problems, sure, but there wasn’t a Government deliberately destroying businesses and people’s livelihoods by implementing policies that they were warned would cause such damage

I think the miners, and steelworkers, and other heavy industries shut down in the 80s under the Thatcher government may just see things differently.

Some people seem to have VERY short memories.

The difference with mines, steelworkers and heavy industry is the government said that they were not prepared to subsidise those industries, but that they had to survive on a commercial basis. In Germany for example they modernised, steel working and shipbuilding survived. In the UK the unions fought every attempt to modernise and the companies went bust.

Now however the problem is the UK is that that the government is putting impediments in the way of commercial enterprise, it is not that government is removing subsidy, but they are actively increasing the cost of doing business, impeding international trade and increasing tax on business.

No. You're an I OP.

Considering that you're no spring chicken- you really should know better.

Inflation is what will cause the next crisis. Prices go up, wages go up, prices go up more, interest rates go up... and up... and up...

😂😂😂

Things are getting more than a bit sticky. Those of us who are awake can feel and see it now. Others will feel and see it later - when it's too late

Oh yes you're obviously just far more enlightened than the rest of us.

If it happens, it happens. The world will keep turning.

but there wasn’t a Government deliberately destroying businesses and people’s livelihoods by implementing policies that they were warned would cause such damage

The car maufactoring industry my DDad worked in was decimated thanks to government policies and they knew at the time the affects and hoped a service industry would take it's place- my MIL worked in textile industry - completely gone. Both industries and companies they worked for were asset striped including pensions schemes - jobs went abroad.

That was in midlands - that not even touching on mining or steel or ship building that's usually mentioned.

I was constantly worried in my childhood that my DDad job would go and our family would be in serious trouble.

@HesterShaw1

Stop looking at the internet and you'll find most people are just bumbling along as normally as they can.

They are. Those of us who are scanning the horizon are quite envious of them. Or at least I am.

[quote Penfield]@CarryOnNurse20

If we think like this it is what it is, we can only do our best. there will never been any change. Imagine if the suffragettes had thought like this?[/quote]
The Suffragettes probably delayed women getting the vote rather than accellerated it. One of the arguments at the time against giving women having the vote was that they were irrational and emotional, something which the suffragettes were deemed to have demonstrated.

The main reason that women were given the vote was that politically expedient, first for the Liberal Party and then for the Conservative Party. At the time both granted the first limited voting rights to women and then full voting rights to women it was thought that the women would vote for the party who implemented the change.

On a micro level basic commodities have been going through the roof since lockdown ended

Most consumable lines even in places like Lidl and Aldi are up 30% across the board

Walkers/Cadbury and nestle have increased product lines prices by around 50% whilst simultaneously decreasing product size

Housing market - don't get me started people in my area are paying 50k over the odds for property that was overinflated in 2019

People did save some money in some areas through lockdown but i suspect for a lot most of that will have evaporated on house /garden renovation , online shopping and a during a busy "restriction free" summer

Every single person i speak too seems have credit cards / overdrafts / loans / pcp / klarna / clearpay and payday loans coming out of their ears

Alll the while wages across the board have largely remain the same in the last 10 years

These price hikes we keep hearing about now are not because of "shortages" they are because of hyper inflation caused by governments and their gross economic mismanagement

300 billion the gov has wasted on covid lockdowns

You cannot pump that much imaginary money into an economy and not expect to see serious ramifications , its all being kept hush hush and covered with excuses at the moment

But mark my words by feb 22 all hell is going to start breaking loose.

What can you see on the horizon @Blossomtoes?

@NotDavidTennant

Could you be more explicit about what you think will happen? So far you're being quite vague and then chiding anyone who doesn't share your fear at whatever this unspecified disaster is going to be.

Yes - OP lots of us have asked you to elaborate but you have dodged all questions.

@Claudethecat

What can you see on the horizon *@Blossomtoes*?

Already posted that. RTFT.

Most consumable lines even in places like Lidl and Aldi are up 30% across the board

Food prices have not gone up 30%. You are talking absolute mince.

If you spend your time watching and reading the more sensational elements in the media, then yes, I can see how you might reach the conclusion that chaos rules. However, it’s not something I personally feel going about my business and I don’t see how it differs from any other difficult period in history. There were shortages and industrial strife in the 70s and we came through it, the same will happen now. The world, and the UK, will bumble along as always.