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)

I always take it as a bad sign when the billionaires are taking to space to try and populate a new planet.

It feels like we have already entered into a dictatorship.

The future feels grim. Both short term strikes and long term.

There have been several posts like this. Sounds all rather ominous. Alien invasion? Zombie apocalypse? Deadly mutation of 🐒Pox? New deadly Covid variant? Nuclear war with Putin? A big tsunami? All of the above? 😅

Whatever it is, the birds 🐦 are in on it. That's why the dawn chorus is so loud! 🎶🎶🎶🎵👀👀👀

talked to mum about this but she said it didn't seem noticeable apart from rubbish and blackouts

😲We had 6 weeks off school due to strikes. We thought it was great! It was very memorable to me age 13. Rubbished EVERYWHERE. No TV, no heating or electricity. Buses were on strike at some point, so we didn’t go to school. I’m not sure how your mum didn’t notice it!

Yep I think there will be a lot of strikes in the next year

We need discontent because we need change.

Nothing changes when the majority are comfortable.

We are not all in this together, as the poor (sick, disabled, etc) are always forgotten and left to rot.

Only when the middle and the rich get poorer and when outcry, mess and inconvenience touches their lives, will things begin to change.

Will it help the poor? Maybe

But bring on strikes, demonstrations and outcry. Being on discontent and action.

It's long over due....

Typo
Bring on discontent and action.

I guess that's why the government is busily removing rights to protest and weakening the impact of strikes (army of supply teachers etc.). This is not purely down to covid and the war in Ukraine. There are years of mismanagement that are coming home to roost and Brexit is absolutely playing a part.

If anyone has any doubt about the mismanagement thing, just remember, the obscenely rich are only getting richer throughout this. There is no crisis for them. That's where all the money is going.

equalitytrust.org.uk/scale-economic-inequality-uk

That's not strictly true. I was around then. I was in my 20s.

There was TV and electricity! It's not as if we had no elec 24/7 !
It was a 3 day week so things were staggered. There were some electricity cuts but it wasn't all the time. TV finished at 10.30 at night, I do remember that. The other bit I remember was rubbish in the streets as there was few rubbish collections.

It is true!

Yorkshire tv had a walkout at Christmas and New Year, so we had no tv.

we weren’t at school for 6 weeks, due to caretakers strikes, teacher strikes, bus strikes and some others (dinner ladies?)

Its recorded in my dairy from that year which l still have. I was 15. It was my O level year. No one cared that we had 6 weeks off in our exam year then.

coopwindow I think you may be conflating two events, Heath's 3 day week of the early 70s, a result of the oil crisis and resultant strikes, then the later 1978-9 Winter of Discontent caused by many strikes by various unions. It wasn't the terrible time it's always painted as, but inconvenient for most.

Yes, I agree. The country is in an absolute mess.
I would anticipate multiple strikes within the next 12 months, possibly sooner.
What do the Tories expect with the real terms pay cuts since 2008 followed by a huge pay cut and a tax increase this year? This while handing out money like drunken sailors during the pandemic on wonderful schemes such as track and trace and awarding pensioners a 10% increase (it's only workers who are greedy, apparently). Inflammatory policies like this invite bad feeling. People are fed up and can't afford to keep 'sucking it up' when energy of all kinds and food bills are rising so much.
We have high inflation leading to interest rate rises, a recession which will lead to higher unemployment and, of course, the underlying lack of energy.
The government seem desperate to make everything worse with divisive policies such as above, sanctioning Russia, one of the major energy and commodity providers and trying their hardest to start a trade war with the EU. Bunch of arrogant imbeciles!

Thank you.
I've made this point on several similar threads.
I have seen various incorrect revisions of the actual history - including the (incorrect) idea that the 3 day week and attendant power cuts took place under a Labour government.

Bring on discontent and action

flirtygirl what form do you think the action should take?’

Well of course, everything is always the fault of the Labour party even if not in power- they are apparently responsible for all the strikes now too!

17.4 million said it was a price worth paying. So why for the love of God are they (including those of voting age who didn’t bother) not coming forward to pay it on behalf of those who didn’t?

Who's getting 4-5%? Even the canonised NHS is only being offered 3%. Clerical staff in one Train Operating Company have been "offered" 2% to their salary on condition that they increase their hours by 14%. So an effective 10% cut to their hourly rate (before you even factor inflation into it). Therefore you can add TSSA to the long list of unions voting for strikes.

Andante57

Action is protests and demonstrations. Strikes and industrial action.
People signing petitions like the current one to stop human rights law reform. People lobbying and writing to their mps.

People need to vote with their feet and their money. If businesses seek to cap pay for staff whilst giving large payments to bosses then don't use that business. If strike and industrial action is needed, be vocal with your support.

Most importantly people voting the goverment out. People stopping what aboutery and voting to help others instead of harming them.

"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."

I won't be saying that. If Scotland leaves I will be gutted and joining the campaign for Welsh independence.

"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

As someone who lives in England l wouldn’t be saying ‘Good Riddance’ ld be saying ‘Can l come with you?’

I’ve just been abroad, why on earth do you feel the need to apologise? How ridiculous. I didn’t meet any Americans apologising for making abortion illegal, or French people grovelling for Le Pens increase 🙄.

I have friends and family in many countries, particularly across Europe, so we discuss such things. Yes, French people are very ashamed of Len Pen. My US friends are outraged and ashamed of what is happening there to women's rights. And yes, I'm embarrassed at the way our country has behaved in recent years over Brexit and with all of the corruption, politicians breaking the law and staying in power. It's banana republic territory.

I agree too. There is no easy answer, but large pay rises will just make things worse. Someone has to pay. That means higher prices and/or higher taxes which just feeds back into the inflationary cycle. We can't keep borrowing more and more - that's partly why we're in this mess, i.e. too much borrowing over the past 20 years! We're already paying billions per month in interest on the borrowing! No easy answers, except a lot more belt-tightening.

People in my industry in the private sector are getting 7-10% payrises. Those in the public sector - with the same skills and qualifications - have had a pay freeze. That simply isn't sustainable. And public services will get increasingly understaffed/ staffed by substandard staff if that continues as people continue to walk. Why should only public sector workers take the hit?

The answer isn't that people are impoverished by the Government's incompetence. The answer is that after 12 years in power they should have been investing in productivity growth to increase the real wealth of the country so that sustainable wage rises took place in that time providing a buffer against an inflationary period, not spent that whole time making everyone poorer in real terms year on year so that people were already on their knees at the start of the downturn.

@TheGirlOnTheDragon You missed a few inconvenient countries:

Belgium 9.9%
Netherlands 10.2%
Greece 10.7%
Slovakia 11.8
Latvia 16.4
Lithuania 18.5%
Estonia 20.1%

I simply copied and pasted the list from the Trading Economic journal. Belgium was included in the list actually, but at a different figure than you've provided so I suspect you're not comparing like with like.

I should think that most European powers have something to be ashamed of at the moment. Germany has funded and armed Russia, Macron has been cosying up to Putin, Poland is restricting abortion and removing the independence of the judiciary, then there's Viktor Orban in Hungary...

Also GDP growth in the UK has been higher than in France and Germany over the last 6 years.

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.

Yes, only because it was so dire coming out of the financial crisis though, so we were catching up! Now our growth projected is the worst in the G20. Except for Russia. 🤣