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)

You only had to see the recent African migrant surge into a Spanish conclave in Morocco to recognise once food shortages turn into no food/famine people will be on the move on their millions.

Strange re Brexit comments, I've got a lot of family scattered abroad and not many think anything of Brexit?

It's been one problem after another eg 2006 credits crisis. I think people have forgotten just how globally major that was.
Then the transition of Brexit during a Pandemic and now this ridiculous war!!

Without poo tin I think we would have been in healing mode, recovery.

Now I can't see anything but utter carnage. Let's all hope COVID doesn't have a nasty surprise for us this winter!

Yes, but...blue passports...

Well, since the answer I keep seeing on internet fora has become “Guillotines” I’m expecting some rough times ahead

KleineDrache - are you in favour of guillotines? Or maybe firing squads?

I think there should be a radical evaluation of wages. We're not paying some people enough and others (no facts - just supposition) too much. There is NO MAGIC MONEY TREE so we have to work with what we've got and redistribute it more equally.

I honestly think so many of you are getting caught up in UK politics (understandably) when we are now a global nation. Borders mean jack shit unless you’re prepared to use arms to protect them. It’s not going to be small home grown politics that decides our fate in the end. It’s going to be whether there’s enough food to feed everybody globally and whether there’s going to be enough fuel to power everyone globally.

There’s a recent article in the Guardian on ‘Skimpflation’ that I thought was interesting.
Basically everything we buy (food, outings, holidays, clothes etc) will be crapper as companies desperately try to cut production costs.
In a way, this is a private sector version of a strike - you’re not going to get what you used to get and it will cost you more.

I read on the news today that Boris is making a blatent attempt to appeal to women voters with his observations on men being the ones who start wars. I hope to God women are not fooled into thinking he is on their side.

This one bloody killed me. BORIS JOHNSON lecturing about toxic masculinity? Hello pot, have you met kettle?

Yes. I live in Scotland.
IndyRef 2 Date announced yesterday.
Whatever your opinion of it, it will cost a fortune, & be hugely divisive.

All Govts seem to make everything worse (corruption & greed, all of 'em)

But yes, we are heading for a very difficult winter indeed.
Covid is still around just enough to disrupt things (either 'Officially' or just by people needing time off as they feel too ill to go in) Waiting lists bulge still.
Strikes will rumble on as this Govt has no idea how to be honest or negotiate. Cost of living is spiralling.
Brexit affecting us.
Worldwide political unrest.

It's a perfect storm really.

I frequently think I'm the only person feeling like this so it's quite comforting to know it's not just me.

My partner is very anxious and all this stuff worries him a lot, especially cost of living. I'm always reassuring him that we're in a good position, we can take a hit and still make out alright etc. We're lucky. But reading all this has made me shit myself a bit, and we ARE the lucky ones really. It's all a bit bloody terrifying at the moment. I wish I could believe Johnson going out would change a thing but it won't if all we get is a new flavour of Tory. We need a sane and responsible (and frankly quite radical) government to dig us out of the shit we're in. And I don't see one on the horizon.

I don't think we ever recovered from the last economic crisis, the government used QE to kick the can down the road. They can't use QE anymore so everything is going to go tits up. I think things will get very bad.

>it’s very important to be clear about what the facts are to deal with a problem. We have GDP growth but people aren’t feeling like the money is tricking down.

The facts about any claims for growth, fastest in G7 etc are deliberate lies - we only have high figures because we dropped so low - relative growth wrt the rest of the developed world since the 2008 crash has us at the bottom.

Child poverty growth alone shows yet again that trickle down is bollocks

We're certainly in a mess - and about to fall from rock bottom into rock bottom's underground car park.

The government have plotted themselves into this corner, and at the same time they are where they wanted to be- the rich became richer, the poor became poorer. Johnson will go after some more striking and before the next election- when he’s no longer a vote winner. We will see another Tory leader who will promise the world and the media will throw more shade at labour and how bad they’d be (though seriously I cannot see how anyone could genuinely believe that). The public will lap it up and there will be another Tory government again.

This is why Scotland will become independent, sheer hatred for what the Tories stand for will see us leave, even if it costs Scotland in the short term. There will be a big campaign about how much worse off Scotland will be, but they will leave anyway then what’s left of the UK will say to themselves good riddance they were a financial drain on us anyway.

Brexit is like one of those shit Christmas Wonderlands where you're promised a magical experience with Santa and Reindeer and find yourself in a car park with a smelly guy in a Santa suit and some dogs with horn headbands. There's bound to be anger when we were promised it would solve all our problems then it turns out to be a crock of shit.

On top of all of that - the government is very alarming, they have shown themselves not to be committed to the rule of law, let alone ethics or even common sense. They'll do anything to stay in power.

When the credit crunch hit, at least we had Gordon Brown in charge who was knowledgeable and dedicated and did a huge amount to reduce the impact around the world. A global crisis with Boris Johnson around - we'd be screwed.

I'm guessing you live somewhere where most people are British born?

People didn’t just wake up and decide to strike for no reason. The people at the top are incompetent and corrupt, and we always knew that but we put up with it because we could afford to have a fairly okay existence. Then they just kept taking and taking. The rich are obscenely rich and the poor are getting ridiculously poor.

Its going to suck to have more industrial action, but what’s the alternative? Asking nicely?

Tax people more and they retire early or move abroad.

Reduce wages and the highly skilled move abroad.

Just look at the situation with GPs - they are very well paid, but either move abroad or are forced to retire early because their pensions are too high and they suffer penal charges. Would you reduce their pay or increase their tax to "redistribute" wealth? Either way, we end up with fewer GPs!

Actually it was Brown who used QE to "solve" the financial crash, not a current nor even recent Govt!

Agree
but GPs striking is odd

they should use their union to get better conditions. I may be wrong but I only ever hear of the BMA going on about other stuff.

Those who are saying ‘worse is to come’, what do you think is going to happen?

🙌

@sopsmum I have been saying that the state of the roads, litter and general mess of the UK has been transparently showing our downhill state for many many years now. LIke you I also have spent time abroad and the level of cleanliness in many European countries and the state of their roads, even formerly poorer countries is now putting us to shame. The UK looks poor, even though on paper it is not, and once you get school buildings, roads, litter, dirt, basic infrastructure like the bins not being collected, it all goes downhill. Same for public parks- got rid of all the park keepers, not enough people to tend them, apparently a People's Army was supposed to volunteer. Weirdly when I've mentioned this a few years ago on Mumsnet, people were quite resistant to the idea that the Uk was anything other than idyllic and how their village was lovely and tidy, but the writing was on the wall before Brexit and Brexit sealed our fate.

Brexit is like one of those shit Christmas Wonderlands where you're promised a magical experience with Santa and Reindeer and find yourself in a car park with a smelly guy in a Santa suit and some dogs with horn headbands soooooooo true!