To think the country is b*gg*r*d, and life as we once knew it is over?

[RejectedFleece]

Just that really.

Wait until the nuke hits.... 😂😂😂

So everyone is reading the UK story and lamenting, but I've just come back from our first foreign holiday in four years. Fuel prices are as high in Spain and France as the UK, and wages are much lower. Spanish NMW is about 1000 euros a month (roughly £6.50 per hr). Food costs the same. Please, stop with the whingeing. It's tough, after what we shall all have to consider - in retrospect - a boom, to go back to a few years hard scabble.

I think it's different this time because there are so many people who are really poor already!

People who work full time & still need to use food banks, life expectancy is dropping in some areas of the Country an estimated 117,000 people died in the last year while on NHS waiting lists!

People saying oh it's fine are living very different lives to a large proportion of the population!

People will die over the winter because they can't afford to put their heating on!

@EmmaH2022 yikes

I don't think that's necessarily true... Esp about doctors. Money doesn't equal the necessary brains to get through medical school! And frankly if you're rich why would you bother training to be a Dr!

All the drs I've ever worked with have really given a shit about their jobs, especially the younger ones.

There's not enough money in the world to make me want to work the shifts a junior doctor does, it's really not a rich kids walk in the park!

@EmmaH2022
… complete with new “yellow peril” stock photo of aggressive looking Chinese soldiers (western soldiers never look angry).
The West faces several decades of relative economic decline. Partly due to the rest of the world taking back the part of the pie they’re entitled to, and partly due to the impossibility of eternal growth/exponential profits.

This is all highly subjective too. I know quite a few truck drivers making £1k a week this past year. Some of these had previously not had much of a wage increase since the 90s.

the combination of failing public services AND spiralling consumer costs is pretty potent (not to mention housing now being out of the reach of a huge chunk of the population and the self-harm of Brexit). If the likes of Sky, BBC, ITV, Murdoch, Mail, etc weren’t continually telling the country to chill/blame the EU/immigrants/SNP etc, the Tories would be polling single figures by now. It’s only going to get worse.

The future state of our country has nothing to do with the price of food etc etc.
Every piece of fabric that holds our society together is buggered.
Our NHS.
Our Education system.
Our judiciary.
Our police force.
Our no. Existent housing program.
Then we have the very low calibre of person going into politics.

@henone

”everyone is reading the UK story and lamenting, but I've just come back from our first foreign holiday in four years. Fuel prices are as high in Spain and France as the UK, and wages are much lower. Spanish NMW is about 1000 euros a month (roughly £6.50 per hr). Food costs the same. Please, stop with the whingeing. It's tough, after what we shall all have to consider - in retrospect - a boom, to go back to a few years hard scabble.*

Wages are much lower in France?? No, very slightly, with far superior public services.
In Spain, yes wages are lower. But then average house prices and rents are WAY lower than the UK.

Every piece of fabric that holds our society together is buggered.

Genuine question - do you mind saying your approximate age?

I am mid 40s and I remember much worse times. Like much, much worse. I am wondering if all the people who think the world is ending are much younger than me?

The world changed when the world trade centre was hit on 9/11. Then the financial crash of 2008 finished off whatever had become of capitalism and this is the post-reckoning of both.

We need to bring in euthanasia and be done with it. There’s so many people here who don’t want to be.

That's not how it works...... (where I live).

Horrible thing to say.

I grew up poor in the 1970s, then got fed by neighbours during the miners strike (Dad was collier). The upside of this was that I grew up with very low expectations and it doesn't take a lot to make me happy.
My DC on the other hand, have quite the lifestyle these days. They will have to get used to having a lot less.

TheYearOfSmallThings
I’m 76, so as you can imagine I’ve studied and witnessed all that I’ve written about.
I have retired friends who have worked in all the departments that I have mentioned.
I view it as very sad the way things are going.

@TheYearOfSmallThings what things were worse?

I'm late 30s

Don’t underestimate the skills need to be a plumber, these skilled trade’s people fit boilers and heating systems and have a massive responsibility that your house doesn’t blow up, not everyone would have the aptitude or the intelligence to do that, it’s more than putting washers on leaking taps and plumbing in washing machines. You sound clueless.

Well said! My landlord is an apprentice plumber and he came here to fix a leaky tap and told me he rarely gets to do basic things like that in his job.

I'm tired of people offering "solutions" to others which are totally impractical - but seem oh so easy to the person offering them. I have mentioned my difficulty in finding a permanent job and have been blithely told to retrain. I'm 63 next month, by the time I finished retraining I would be getting national superannuation. Also, as has been mentioned on numerous threads, people should be able to support their family/themselves in a comfortable manner on a full-time job - whatever that job is.

I’m mid 40s and can’t say I remember worse. I mean I vaguely remember the 70s and being dirt poor, I remember my dad making yoghurts because we couldn’t afford to buy them. I remember both my parents being teachers but we still had no money. People didn’t buy clothes, electronic stuff , etc like they do now. We didn’t eat out like we do now. I remember the power cuts.

but I think what we’re facing is worse, yes things might not be that bad yet but I can see the way it’s heading and because of the underlying causes I think it has the capacity to be worse and long term/permanent. Which in the 70s it didn’t.

I also think that unless people work in public services they have no idea just how bad things are

Your user name is ace. Best I have seen in a long time.👌

This thread hasn’t done anything for my anxiety.

Try looking at third world countries you might feel lucky

TheYearOfSmallThings
what things were worse
Police corruption was far worse and then we had the brutality that some dished out. But!!! We had a population they feared and respected the police in equal measure.
Education. We were given a good rounded education, but!!!! if you failed your 11 plus you were just fodder ( there were exceptions)
I’ll probably think of more but it’s been a long day in the garden and the charity shop where I volunteer.

Yes millions of workers can't afford the basics of living nevermind a place to actually live but we should all feel thankful we're not in an obscure district of India fighting a stray canine for a half chewed chicken leg 🙄