Are we taking bets yet on when mass civil unrest will begin re. Cost of living?

[UsernameInTheTown]

Having frozen my backside off these past two days as I'm terrified to have the heating on longer than an hour a day, I'm thinking that this will be utterly intolerable come next Winter. Will there be mass civil unrest and the guillotine rolled out while the affluent are targeted by the desperate and those with nothing left to loose?

@Cyw2018

It's not rioting weather in the winter months!

On a more serious note, so many of us have jobs that require a DBS check these days that we can not risk rioting or even defending our rights and opinions on certain subjects as if we get arrested and charged or convicted we are likely to be out of a job with all the knock repercussions that come with that.

Likewise with taking industrial action, the majority of people have mortgages and/or credit, so can't afford to strike for long, and the government knows this.

Yes. This is why Thatcher gave people the right to buy their council houses. It wasn't to open up the 'dream' of home ownership. It was because she knew that if people had mortgages to pay, they would be more reluctant to take industrial action and that this would weaken the trade unions.

We can tweak around the edges which is why some countries are seeing less problems than we are

Countries that are not so afraid of the rich that they won't tax them hard

Until their core voters start to suffer then they will still vote for a donkey wearing a blue rosette
I don't agree.
They will still in their cold houses with empty kitchen cupboards, then go out and vote Tory again.
Well, this is what they voted for, enjoy your sovereignty.

@sashh
Absolutely prime example of what I was just saying.
All of the things you have listed have happened under Tory rule.
Rape convictions are what now...? 1%? Tory cuts to policing and courts.
The Tories just voted down making misogyny a hate crime.
Self ID was a Tory idea!

And yet despite all the above, I have no doubt you will continue voting Tory. As someone with a disability and on state benefits, how's that working out for you?

Yes we should riot, but us sensible Brits wont, we will moan but do nothing

Just because someone doesn't want to vote Labour doesn't mean they're going to vote Tory 🙄

There won't be riots but there will be many more food banks opening, and in traditionally wealthy areas.
Schools will increasingly have to do the job of making sure that children are fed and have appropriate clothing.

@velvet24

Yes we should riot, but us sensible Brits wont, we will moan but do nothing

I agree you’re more likely to see it on SM than elsewhere (mn as an example) but when you say you want to see riots how much destruction do you mean? Eg you’d like to see LA / recent US level rioting

Riots in the summer by those with nothing left to lose are not at all improbable

People who riot end up with criminal records so, for the majority of the population, it's not an option if they need to keep their job, home etc. Mainstream people are never going to riot, it's only criminals and the far right who go down this path. I don't know what the answer is, mass demonstrations perhaps. A general strike would be a good idea. Unions need to be stronger in order to fight for workers rights. People associate unions with far left hardliners, but it doesn't need to be that way.

@Lovebroccoli

There won't be riots but there will be many more food banks opening, and in traditionally wealthy areas. Schools will increasingly have to do the job of making sure that children are fed and have appropriate clothing.

No they won't - they don't have that to give. Give over thinking that schools will pick this up. Their job is education, not social provision for people are in financial trouble. A lot of teachers will be in financial trouble themselves.

I think there's too much internalised snobbery in this country. People fondly imagining that they're just mini versions of the wealthy when they're not at all. They're too inhibited and proud to demonstrate. They can't accept that we're all just tax unit cannon fodder whom the rich believe they're too good to even shit on. There is no difference between a lowly factory worker and a middle class academic/doctor/small business owner etc., even though the latter will absolutely refuse to accept this. Most people are three paychecks away from personal disaster.

The difference is property - it is. If you don't own your home with a majority of it paid off and good assets then you are just vulnerable. If you are several paychecks away from doom, you are vulnerable. It does not matter who you are, what car you rent, the clothes you wear, the holidays you have.

Its about your assets. And if you don't have any, then really, you aren't very much in the UK. And you will be absolutely the bottom of the pile in political terms. Nobody wants your vote.

@Alexandra2001

Why would there be riots?

the USA has far greater levels of inequality and poverty, with no functioning healthcare for the poor either and no riots and as my mum used to say "we always follow the US about 10 years later...."

We are meek and lack the passion of the Europeans, who throughout the ages have overthrown their oppressors, when have we ever done that?

Look at the massive crime increase in the US. Especially the democrat run ones and the ones who "defunded the police".

And when did you last see a police officer here?

People who riot end up with criminal records so, for the majority of the population, it's not an option if they need to keep their job, home etc. Mainstream people are never going to riot, it's only criminals and the far right who go down this path

YET AGAIN

The poll tax riots. Lots of my friends ended up in court and were proud of it. These were just normal people who’d been pushed too far.

No one seems to know anything about British history on this thread.

Privatisation and then lack of regulation has absolutely screwed over this country.

The profit motive was supposed to make the companies more efficient, but it really doesn't work.

Look at the trains- on very few journeys do you actually have a choice of route and company to use (only really cross country vs via London). So instead rail travellers are just having to pay through the nose to give extra cash to shareholders. And I know that lots of us who are lucky enough to have private pensions and stock ISAs are shareholders, but there would be plenty of other shares available without privatised rail, energy etc.

Plus, the rail network was also expected to be money making whilst roads are funded via general taxation ('road tax' hasn't been used for roads for years). So rail fares (and all public transport) is hugely expensive and contributes to more congestion on the roads, which has economic and environmental costs. Franchises are regularly reviewed which disincentivises companies from investing in new trains.

With energy, there was competition re who you purchase energy from, but it's all from the National Grid. Lots of the bigger energy providers also generate energy too. So privatisation could potentially be good for the consumer IF the supposed efficiency that comes with the profit motive cuts costs more than the profits add to them. However, recently Ofgem massively took their eye off the ball. These tiny energy companies were offering fixes when they hadn't actually secured the energy yet and didn't have extra finance to cover increased costs,so they couldn't deliver and went bust. Consequently every household in the country will be paying the price of that.

Post financial crash there have been numerous regulations for banks and insurance companies to make sure they can meet their obligations. Yet there was nothing in place to ensure energy companies could.

Council housing was effectively privatised by being sold off (lots then ended up as BTL), so tax payers are forking out large amounts of housing benefit to pay private landlords. And housing costs (rental or purchasing) are rising out of the reach of many people.

When will Brits learn that the market cannot be trusted to regulate itself? Especially when so many of our Tory politicians and the party itself are being funded by private companies and foreign 'businessmen'. Privatisation without adequate regulation has not worked.

@TargusEasting

Yes exactly that

I know a couple of people who were involved (not necessarily with recent events)

They were both in privileged positions with the opportunity to attend the events in London itms

@sashh then you are clearly more of an idiot than I thought then aren't you!

@kendodd absolutely well pointed out

Its about your assets. And if you don't have any, then really, you aren't very much in the UK.

But what can young people do about it?

[quote Kendodd]**@sashh
Absolutely prime example of what I was just saying.
All of the things you have listed have happened under Tory rule.
Rape convictions are what now...? 1%? Tory cuts to policing and courts.
The Tories just voted down making misogyny a hate crime.
Self ID was a Tory idea!

And yet despite all the above, I have no doubt you will continue voting Tory. As someone with a disability and on state benefits, how's that working out for you?[/quote]
Bloody mind blowing. Tory Central Office is really doing a number on the feminism boards here at the moment. It’s a good thing at least some of us can see straight through it.

What will Labour do? Windfall tax, like other countries.

It’s a good thing at least some of us can see straight through it

Oh good lord 😀

Hands up who supported Covid restrictions like lockdowns. Oh no, everyone’s gone all quiet. Or coming out with excuses like ‘but but but it saved lives’, ‘but we didn’t know what was going to happen’, ‘but it was needed at the time’. While these low risk people were banging pots and pans like idiots outside their houses, watching Netflix all day and baking banana bread with kids, governments around the world were printing money like it was going out of fashion.
What did you think was going to happen? Locking down healthy adults and shutting down the economy and have the magic money tree pay for it would only lead to this. Was the banana bread worth it?

I did but still had to work from home as did dh. No furlough for us