UK has gone to shit.

[Ilovegreentomatoes]

What is happening to the uk? No food on the shelves, the cost of living has become extortionate coupled with stagnating wages it seems this is a country where unless your in the higher income bracket you really can't afford to live anymore.
Poverty is going to be rife I dread to think the amount of people who will be choosing between food or heating this year.
Aibu to think this country has gone to shit of the likes we have not seen for a long time.
I am lower income and feel like I can't afford to live anymore.

While I am not up for scaremorgering and still raise eyebrows at the fuel panic (we were fine in number of northern places when it was at it's worst apparently), even I have to admit that I did stop last week in a shop and mentioned that the shelves are not empty, but very much not full. Lots of stuff had just 1 line and was spread out. This is probably only second time I saw an issue here

My family abroad is asking if we are all ok🙄 The newspapers have been... Well, newspapers.

@VladmirsPoutine YY exactly! And the Queen walks around with an actual golden crown on. But people don't question it, because that's right and proper. I think it's just how class manifests in England.

@DogsandCatsB4u I wanted to retire to Spain. Genuinely did, it made sense for me financially. I am beyond gutted just about that, on a personal level. And I'm dreading what's coming up this winter.

So true

@jgw1…but you holidayed in the U.K…I wasn’t talking about the U.K…what would exchange rates have to do with holidaying in the U.K…

[quote BunsyGirl]@jgw1…but you holidayed in the U.K…I wasn’t talking about the U.K…what would exchange rates have to do with holidaying in the U.K…[/quote]
I have no idea, but you keep saying the cost of holidays have gone up, but that is not true in my experience.

@Ilovegreentomatoes

Main message here....If you want any hope for the future get boris and his stuck up out of touch tory cronies out.

Indeed, but we need to getaway from tropes like 'stuck up'. That's a bit 'Beano'.

That, they may be; but maybe 'over-privileged', utterly divorced from the reality of so many peoples' lived existences' ' might be better.

@Hulkynothunky you do realise that Boris nor the Tory party give a f* about the public sector… infact they want to pay as little as possible so it fails and they can subcontract as much as possible to private companies. It’s very much deliberate! Covid testing contracts were à peine example.. same thing with NGS cleaning services, and the use of private surgery to ‘relieve’ NHS backlog. xo

[quote BunsyGirl]@wherearemychickens Did I actually say that it was stronger than pre Brexit…I was talking about 2019…holiday prices have gone up significantly since 2019…I wonder why! Apparently it’s because the exchange rate is worse now…lost of people on this thread trying to manipulate my words…I wonder why…[/quote]
... I wonder why ....

Eeee methinks this thread is whipping the frenzy.

Petrol stations in my area never ran out of fuel and I think didn’t in majority of areas. Shortage of fuel was very localised. LONDON. Media made this out to be countrywide.

No shortages of food in my area, again media seize on a local issue so people start panic buying and then create a situation where all the beans are in people’s garages instead of on shelves in Tesco .

The problem with gas and electric prices seem to be because Putin has throttled the gas supply because he wants the EU to agree to an alternative pipeline to the one currently in use. Basically because of his stand off with the Ukraine he doesn’t want to pay that country for the existing pipeline that runs though Ukraine . Nothing the UK can do about that. Been an issue for years that Russia supplies most of energy to Europe and UK. The chickens have come home to roost.

We have lots of gas in the North Sea that the UK government will not allow licenses to drill for. Will not allow fracking. We are shutting down ageing coal fired power stations. The nuclear power stations we have are past their sell by date.
We put our eggs in the basket of renewable fuel, but unfortunately it isn’t working out. Maybe it will in the future but it is not happening fast enough.

Yes I do think the employers should up the minimum wage. They have been able to pay very low wages to people due to the government topping up wages with tax credits and universal credit. This is unsustainable in the long term and also is not good for people personally as they are in a benefit trap.

This zero hour contract minimum wage economy cannot continue. People need to be able to earn enough money to sustain their family life.

The people at the bottom of the pile of which there are many, will not complain or protest at food shortages, prices going up, minimum wage etc. Because they are used to living hand to mouth and rely on food banks, govt. top ups and black market income.

I don’t know what the answer is but my instinct is saying we have become a nation of addicts to charity and bail out.

Unfortunately only answer in that situation is rock bottom. Hopefully renewal and complete change.

@chugga

Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon about panic buying. Why don't people just STOP doing that? If people stopped reading the papers then they wouldn't be panic buying because the papers just say anything to get people wound up. We saw the fuel shortages that were apparently a thing, they weren't but as soon as it was in the paper and everyone and their nan had to go out and get fuel then there was a problem. Do you think that if that wasn't in the papers then that amount of people would be out buying fuel those days and queuing for hours? No, they wouldn't, we'd all be getting on with our normal lives and fueling up when we needed too. As soon as the papers mention anything about shortages then everyone is out stocking up on things, if we just bought how we normally did then this wouldn't be a problem and if you are worried about it for any reason then pick up 1 or 2 things extra a week, don't go out and buy 20 things that you don't need at that moment just because the paper has put that fear in you.

Ah, chugga- it's usually the 'one or two things' that does it, not the '20'.

The red top press brought us Brexit; the red top press brought us Boris; the red top press brought us 'panic buying'.

There's some sort of commonality there, but buggered if I can see it... 🤔

Brexit and 10 years of the Tories is what happened

There's some sort of commonality there, but buggered if I can see it...

Jeremy Corbyn would be so much worse.

And the reason things won't change is because somewhere deep in the electorate's psyche is this 'Keep calm and carry on' mentality or 'We won the war' and variants of 'when I was young my siblings and I only had 3 baked beans between 5 of us and a cushion on the floor next to a single solitary candle and we managed just fine.' It's a lost cause as far as I see it.

[quote sjxoxo]@Hulkynothunky* you do realise that Boris nor the Tory party give a f about the public sector… infact they want to pay as little as possible so it fails and they can subcontract as much as possible to private companies. It’s very much deliberate! Covid testing contracts were à peine example.. same thing with NGS cleaning services, and the use of private surgery to ‘relieve’ NHS backlog. xo[/quote]
I'm a teacher. Don't worry i know they don't care about the public sector. They also really really don't care about education or levelling up. I'm just making the point that this talk of moving to a high wage economy is just a way to appeal to the masses. My point being if this was a true belief he would have to increase public sector pay.

[quote ProlesOnParole]@VladmirsPoutine YY exactly! And the Queen walks around with an actual golden crown on. But people don't question it, because that's right and proper. I think it's just how class manifests in England.

@DogsandCatsB4u I wanted to retire to Spain. Genuinely did, it made sense for me financially. I am beyond gutted just about that, on a personal level. And I'm dreading what's coming up this winter.[/quote]

Us, too. Villa in Valencia province. What we so wanted, for the past 8 years.

@jgw1 well I’m on a lot of Facebook travel groups and lots of people are complaining about significant increases in costs for holidays abroad in 2022…which accords with what I have found when I have priced up the holidays we took in 2019 for the same dates in 2022. But it’s definitely Brexit, everything’s Brexit…

Unfortunately only answer in that situation is rock bottom. Hopefully renewal and complete change.
What does this mean?
How can you effect renewal and complete change if you're at rock bottom? Or would it be complete change from a functioning, albeit imperfect society, to a failed one?

[quote BunsyGirl]@jgw1 well I’m on a lot of Facebook travel groups and lots of people are complaining about significant increases in costs for holidays abroad in 2022…which accords with what I have found when I have priced up the holidays we took in 2019 for the same dates in 2022. But it’s definitely Brexit, everything’s Brexit…[/quote]
If it is not Brexit, could it be the rising price of gas?

@Blinky21

Brexit and 10 years of the Tories is what happened

This ^^

yes it has and as long as we have a bumbling clown in charge of it together with his self serving cronies it will be the same, iv honestly never felt this depressed about this country before , if it were possible for us to move and live in another country i honestly would ,

About revolution - it’s not true the England hasn’t had a revolution - that’s another name for the Civil War.

King tried to rule without Parliament, Parliament fought to get him to negotiate, he wouldn’t so he was executed by extremists. 10 years of Republic followed before the monarchy was restored but with caveats that were the result of the war.

Then there was the Glorious/Bloodless Revolution of the late 17c which augmented Parliament’s power, fundamentally changed how England was governed, and paved the way for democracy.

@jgw1

There's some sort of commonality there, but buggered if I can see it...

Jeremy Corbyn would be so much worse.

I almost have to tread carefully here to avoid 'deletion'.

I hope I am allowed to ask- in what way are you so sure a parallel universe in which Labour won would be worse? Seriously, I'm a HCP- I am obligated to work under the auspices of 'evidence based practice'.

Where's yours?

People keep arguing that the reason wages have dropped is because employers have found that EU migrants accepted much lower pay. But I doubt that's true tbh. It just seems like another way to blame 'foreigners'

Shortage of fuel was very localised. LONDON. Media made this out to be countrywide.

I live in London, and yes we have ongoing shortages at the pumps. My mum, on the other hand, lives in the northwest. 10 days ago the buses couldn't run properly and she couldn't get a taxi to prevent her hobbling home (78, bad knees). Guess why that was?

[quote BunsyGirl]@jgw1 well I’m on a lot of Facebook travel groups and lots of people are complaining about significant increases in costs for holidays abroad in 2022…which accords with what I have found when I have priced up the holidays we took in 2019 for the same dates in 2022. But it’s definitely Brexit, everything’s Brexit…[/quote]
And you don’t think travel companies from airlines to hotels to villa agencies have to raise prices to compensate for the losses of the last 18 months?