Anybody else feel like we are heading for an equivalent of the "winter of discontent"?

[Ihatethedawnchorus]

There just seems to be more and more talk of strikes from different areas and it just feel likes a build up of general discontent(not blaming anyone, things are bad, not likely to improve in the short term and people are getting desperate and disillusioned with good reason)

Yes, shit times a’coming.

Only have vague memories as I would have been about 7/8 but remember bin bags piling up and demonstrations/protests on the news

yes, things feel very 70s. I don't think it's going to be a good winter ahead

I'm certainly feeling quite discontent. Like lots of people I barely earn more than I did 15 years ago but I'm being gouged left and right by increased prices on every damn thing. Bring on the strikes. Let those fuckers at the top sweat a bit.

I remember the winter of discontent. It was not great and it was not fun. The economic background which led to strikes is very different to now. Strikes aren't going to end the war in Ukraine which is fuelling prices nor sort out global shipping and supply problems. But I guess if people want to see unburied dead bodies start to stack up again and rats running in and out of uncollected rubbish, a winter of strikes is the way to go.

I have a feeling that something is coming that will change society again although I am not sure what. I've been avoiding the news as it's all speculation about what might happen. I definitely think that Mr Sunak will be coming out soon with another open purse for us to get through this.

As a side note op I love the Dawn chorus 😁

I'm not so sure. I'm loving having freedom again post covid and the general sentiment seems bolstered by the recent good weather. I think people will enjoy being able to have a proper Xmas again.

The war in Ukraine hasn't been going on for fifteen years!

This is a long time coming and unlike the 70s a lot of this wage crisis is down to our own government's economic mismanagement. We've had growth problems and productivity problems for most of this century due to the downward pressure of austerity exacerbated by the BoE's long term money printing scheme and further compounded by trade and tariff difficulties from Brexit negotiations and repercussions from the exit itself.

Wages are so low at the bottom that they cannot absorb the economic shocks currently hitting us and so working people need higher wages. They've asked for them and been refused. In that situation strikes are the only way to go.

Yes
there's a fresh hell coming soon which may avoid strikes
dunno what
i avoid news

Pretty much sums it up 😁

I'm in a union, and if we vote to strike then I'll be striking. My pay has been cut hugely in the past few years in real terms. I'm.public sector, our terms and conditions have been changed and eroded. I think many people, in all sorts of jobs and industries, have had enough.

This is a good summary of it. A combination of mismanagement bad luck, and utterly stupid decisions. Take away the first and last and the UK would not be in even more of a mess than other countries. It might be convenient for the Government to try to blame it all on global supply chains and Ukraine war etc but that is not true.

E.g. recent inflation figures:

Trading economics

Liechtenstein 2.52%
Switzerland 2.92%
Faroe Islands 4.43%
France 5.2%
Norway 5.75%
Malta 5.85%
Albania 6.76.%
Luxembourg 6.87%
Italy 6.8%
Finland 7%
Sweden 7.3%
Denmark 7.4%
Iceland 7.6%
Austria 7.7%
Ireland 7.8%
Germany 7.9%
Portugal 8%
Slovenia 8.16%
EuroArea 8.17%
Spain 8.78%
Netherlands 8.89%
Belgium 8.9%
United Kingdom 9%

And UK has the worst projected growth of any developed nation. Etc.

Brexit idiocy shaving 5% off our incomes in perpetuity (would you like a 5% payrise? Ask the people who voted the stupid way in 2016 where it is) plus decades of economic mismanagement and failure in productivity growth therefore people getting poorer.

Probably - but don't blame the war in Ukraine or Covid.
We have a lousy government that will service the needs of the better off just to keep them voting Tory.
Public Service workers have long been undervalued - yet it is more likely your life will be messed up more if Public Service workers do not turn up for work than anyone else - think Education, NHS, Prison Officers, Police etc etc
We have a PM prepared to break the law, prorogue Parliament, rename on treaties and follow vanity projects over seeing to the basic needs of the less privileged. Can it get worse ......oh yes.

Yep. And it will.

The moment the public accepted him illegally suspending Parliament (so suspending our democracy to suit him) and yet he stayed in office when found guilty on a court of law of doing so... that was when it fell apart. That gave him free licence to do whatever he wanted. Unbelievable that he was not removed immediately and imprisoned.

Yet the hill the British public decided to die on, much later, was him hosting parties?

What is wrong with people?

I hate it because I have to suffer to consequences, too, but there is a huge element here of "you get the Government you deserve".

When will people stop voting for this??

We keep voting to self harm in the UK. I'm not sure what is wrong with us as a nation but we have done it to ourselves. I feel quite ashamed to be British these days!

Same. I remember talking to friends from other parts of the world back in 2008/9 about how the good thing about Britain was that both main political parties were not far apart and fairly centrist, so no extremes. Then all hell broke loose and now I am utterly ashamed whenever I go abroad. We are a laughing stock.

Brexit really cemented it. It has made it SO embarrassing to be British.

It's so humiliating. Every time you meet someone foreign here or you are the foreigner meeting someone abroad you feel you have to apologise for the idiocy. People in every country react the same, because they can all see it rationally and so their view is universally "wtf were people thinking???" 🙈😆😞

(I don't and never have supported any political party btw. I just want a functioning Government that doesn't actively sabotage us all and trash everything.

Yup it’s shit - why we tolerate it I have no idea.

I’m sure someone will be along soon to say if you don’t like it and are ashamed then leave.

🤣🤣🤣

Yeah, there's always some muppet who comes up with that instead of engaging with discussing why we are here.

No facts or data, of course! Just their sacred "opinion" which (apparently) is equally valid despite it being based on tumbleweed.

The Winter of Discontent will seem like a Bit Breezy an Tuesdays in Autumn compared to what’s coming. If inflation is running at 9.1% a pay rise of 4-5% is a significant pay cut. Spiralling essential costs - energy, fuel, food, means that non essentials will be out the window. This will tip a great many small businesses, the ones who are still clinging on by their fingertips, over the edge.

Unless of course they can't afford Christmas, or heating, or food. Some people are working their arses off and still struggling to pay for basics.