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

[RejectedFleece]

Just that really.

I'm late 30s

I wonder if that explains it - by the time you were paying any attention to the state of the nation, things were on the up. I'm 10 years older and I remember Ireland in the 1980s - a very happy childhood but the city and country and world were going through difficult phases.

Well said, but there’s a pervasive and annoying ‘race to the bottom’ mentality on MN at the best of times.

Across Spain, average house prices and rents are lower, but concentrate your searches to cities in Cantabria, Donostia, Catalyuna and Navarra -where there is work - and you will see that the cost of property is very similar to most of the EU's developed areas. And it gets cold in winter and bakes in summer, so energy costs still matter.

Whats upsetting is that it doesn’t need to be like this - poverty, schools and nhs struggling. There is enough money but it isn’t in the right place. The government should be sorting it out but they are in fighting and protecting their own interests.
They did more than just anger people with their lockdown parties, there’s now a big distrust of all authority, rule of law and expertise.

The people lamenting Brexit and wishing for things to continue as they are have a circle for a Venn diagram.

Burn it all down. This bullshit can't end fast enough.

@TheYearOfSmallThings are you Irish?

Could be worse.

We could have totally torpedoed our economy like Germany just did. Voluntarily.

I dont think you mean lamenting do you?

The people who would express grief about Brexit are not the same people who want things to continue as they are

*I think we notice it more because we've never had crisis before"

:-) You must be either very young, or so old you've forgotten.

I suspect Angela Merkel is going to be repainted as Putin's puppet-whore when the story is eventually told.

It's not what you've got in your life, but who that really matters.

Upholding a neoliberal trading bloc that is the final form for an unsustainable, short sighted economic model?

Yeah, I meant lamenting. Let's not pretend that the EU is anything other than something people wanted to remain part of because it may have kept the party's punch bowl filled a little longer. It was going to end one way or the other (look at how the Russian gas situation has wrecked everything on the continent).

The UK can go down in flames happy we did it with our new found sovereignty. The Eurozone can enjoy becoming fractured and reverting to the old ways of petty bickering amongst themselves over the scraps that remain.

And America? Oh, America. This must be what it was like when Rome was falling. I'd say China rushes in and takes over along with the rest of BRICS, but their demography says "nuh uh". They're at least not dumb enough to keep crypto legal when it ran up against keeping the lights on for the workers.

Exactly. And on top of that price rises everywhere, people are going to start getting laid off because most people don't have the ability to spend anymore (I work in retail, we are getting quieter and quieter), the very real threat of war, food shortages because of that war. It's very real. It's not good.

It's a consumer issue. If you are in manufacturing, in a specialist field, and you are competent, then you should be quids in. Our workload board is flat out for months ahead.

The discretionary consumption economy don't do too well when consumers tapped out.

The VAST majority of jobs that exist are totally redundant and useless. The ones that are actually important will not be allowed to strike. Such as the Norwegian oil and gas strike that was ruled illegal this week because it would end the European economy overnight were it to go ahead.

IMO it feels different because of Putin doing a Hitler - something we’d complacently (in hindsight) thought was in the past - at least in Europe. That is a main factor in food price rises.
With climate change on top, it’s not surprising that people are anxious.,But so far we’re not too much affected by that in the UK , unlike Oz -recents floods in Sydney not to mention wildfires in Oz, California and hotter parts of Europe.

And the jobs that will offer stability, like caring, will steadily become more attractive as the glossy options evaporate.

I lived in the Soviet a Union when it was collapsing and then for next five years or so was around in various former communist states. Yes, I was rich as I was a westerner but when the gas gets switched off at the start of winter or the electricity is on for a couple of hours it is hard and bloody cold. But and this is something I’ve hung on to you do appreciate small things just as much as the big ticket stuff. It also means things take more time and effort to do. I just hope we help each other out as we did during the pandemic

There's an interesting thread on here people who just don't want to work, it's a drudge, boring, they want to pack it all in. They're in their thirties. That's pretty depressing

But I don't know how else they can live a reasonable lifestyle

Attractive how? Look at the treatment, i.e. pay rises meted out to nurses and teachers; nothing but utter contempt for feminised jobs.

There's people complaining about being stuck at airport or worried they will be. Then at the other end of the spectrum worried about buying food, energy.

We're heading into hard times yet we're buying holidays two weeks sun soon forgotten or paying the energy costs this winter.

Leasing a new car every three years, that I don't understand

This is different and it is worse than previous economic crises, mostly because the climate won't 'bounce back' and will continue to contribute to mass emigration, poverty and war. Average life expectancy has shrunk, and the gap between rich and poor is growing at an alarming rate.

Global corporatism, political corruption and collusion, the decimation of secure and decently paid jobs, and the consequent rise of authoritarianism are at the heart of the problem. It's easier to blame lazy Brits who live off benefits when the reality is that most people on benefits (apart from pensioners) are in work, or to point the finger at people who miss their GP appointments or at immigrants, or at 'entitled' people who don't know how to cook or budget and piss away their money. But these people really aren't to blame. The blame is with governments, Labour and Tory, who will not be honest with the public about how drastic things are and that hard choices must be made to address massive problems like social care. We need a really honest, inclusive and open national discussion about the issues we're facing and would have faced even without the pandemic (though less acutely of course). Sadly, I doubt we're going to have it any time soon.

We've just been through more than a decade of deliberate austerity. We are still navigtaing the horror of brexit. Hundreds of people per week are still dying with or of covid, and we are still no better prepared for another pandemic. Then a cost of living crisis which is going to bite much harder than expensive butter and fewer car journeys. To top it all, a government in crisis. A divided society. Things are very, very bad.

Oh I forgot the contextual backdrop of a climate catastrophe.

@TheYearOfSmallThings are you Irish?

Yes (now live in London)