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

[RejectedFleece]

Just that really.

It genuinely seems like most UK citizens have not even the most basic grasp of economics. That is the only explanation for what has happened in the last decade. And it is really terrifying, because then people are voting in the dark. I assume that was the intention. 😔

The EU is/was a slowly sinking ship.

My point was that some people are so entrenched in their Brexit whinging that they'd be partly annoyed if it actually turned out to be a good thing and they were wrong.

It won't. It was never going to, as was always obvious. It has resulted in long-term, permanant scarring to the economy that far exceeds the long-term impact of Covid. These are facts. So I suggest you stop pinning your hopes on this in some vain attempt to try to prove people wrong about what was always a certainty, and focus on how to fix the problems. Or just shut it with the nonsense if you can't have a rational discussion based on reality,

It's too soon to tell whether it was a good idea or a bad one. Right now, it seems like crap but that has as much to do with a pandemic, a series of wars, including the current debacle in Ukraine and a dreadful set of self serving Uk politicians as any other factors. I do think the UK has suffered from the stupidity and delusions of the ERG fanatics, but I also think the EU over-reached itself. I voted for a Common Market in goods, trade, services and jobs, but not for a single EU government in Brussels. I still think the right balance is somewhere in-between.

I don't know how old "extremely old" is, @RejectedFleece , but I'll be 67 next month and I feel the same.

I look back at challenging times (strikes, high unemployment, galloping inflation, 15% interest rates and many losing their homes as a result) and none of them seem so bleak as they do now. I've never known a time when families struggled as badly as many are, or will soon.

Even in my affluent part of the SE, the roads are full of potholes, the council are struggling to maintain public buildings, the NHS has huge waiting times and staff near breaking point under the strain, social workers have massive caseloads, some of my clients (who all have MH issues) never get allocated a lead practitioner because there aren't enough staff. And still some in government want to cut public spending by another 20%.

It feels as though everything is falling apart.