Weren't things meant to get better?

[BeachTree]

2 years of pandemic - restrictions, rules, missing out, illness, misery

We're emerging from this slowly and now we are facing
*Inflation
*Incredibly high petrol and diesel prices
*Ukraine War
*Blooming Brexit ( clearly was going on pre-pandemic)
*Refuse collection strikes
*Train Strikes
*Cost of living crisis - huge increases to food and electricity
*insert various other crappy things going on right now

Weren't we meant come out of this and start living and enjoying things again.

Well, the majority kept voting for a party that were only going to make it worse...

Absolutely agree.

Yes.

Life’s always been hard. You just notice it more because it’s your life. When I was a kid if I ever sat in on the news it was financial recession and Iraqi war and this and that. When my dad was young it was poverty and the miner’s strikes and racism and homophobia. All the time life has been hard. All the time the poor have suffered more than anyone else.

It certainly seems lot harder this decade than last, or even the one before. 2000 to 2008 seems like a golden age in comparison.

It feels grim because it is
I know people will say it's always been bad , but I'm old and I can't remember such tough awful times as this and I've lived through recessions and we nearly lost our house in the early 90s too
It really is bad and I worry for the future

Very, very true.

I’m 57. I’ve been running my own life for over 30 years. This is significantly worse than anything else I’ve experienced, and I started buying a house when interest rates shot through the roof.

Well, the majority kept voting for a party that were only going to make it worse

exactly

I think we were all wanting things to go back to normal and when people spoke of a 'new normal' they had in mind lingering Covid measures. As it was, the pandemic put us on the back foot and then the war in Ukraine started a catastrophic domino effect, just when we were worst placed to absorb the economic impact. I don't even think we have reached the lowest point yet.

The majority in fact didn't vote for them.

V true and because of our first past the post voting system, it was not even the majority.

I think that if you had the expectation that things were going to get better this year, then you’re only ever going to have been disappointed. I don’t think anyone needed a crystal ball to predict that the government would try to recoup the money spent during lockdown. And Russia has been poking away at Ukraine for years; it was only a matter of time before Putin ramped it up a notch. Add Brexit, and it was only ever going to be a tough few years.

Unfortunately lots of major adverse events in history started from domino effects of other adverse events. Like the WWII... The world now is 10 times more closely connected. So the immediate effect of a major event in one place shows much quickly and wider across continents.

Don't know what awaits us. I'm worried every single day, but tried to not think too much about it. There isn't much that I can do. No point to make life miserable when it's already not easy.

I'm over 70, and this is the worst "storm" I've ever seen. I've seen strikes ( miners, bin men etc) sky high inflation(25% at one point.)
Ward in europe (Bosnia). But all together? No, never seen this. And thats without mentioning the massive hike in energy prices and the pollution of our rivers and seas.

Twelve years ago i retired from DWP. I worked there for forty years. For the first time in my forty years, I saw staff being made redundant WHILE unemployment was going up. I knew then, that there was something very wrong indeed. I just didn't know how wrong and in what direction.

but the country gets what England votes for, so ....

I'm a similar age.
Things are hard but it's easy to dismiss the Winter of Discontent, Black Wednesday, Afghanistan, Iraq or 9/11 when viewed as history.

There hasn't been a GE since covid.

Nothing to add to that. Spot on

I am 54 nearly and lots of shit has happened in my lifetime, but I swear what is going on now and the last couple of years, trumps any of it. The government isn't just inept, it's corrupt. With covid, climate change, war, potential economic disaster - it's like the four horseman of the apocalypse! I can see why people are lapping up the conspiracy theories.

I know what you mean. I think a lot of people got through the past two years imagining how things would be better. And some things have improved, we're able to see each other, travel, things are open and covid risk has lessened for most through vaccination.
But we're now experiencing a set of circumstances we haven't had to deal with before and the economic impact of that. Pandemic fall out, climate change and the war are all pushing up prices and causing suffering.
I feel uneasy and dissapointed quite often. I try and limit how much news I'm reading and watching. Also keep in mind that this is the first "normal" year we've had since 2019 and that in itself takes a bit of mental adjustment.

In the simplest of terms what goes up must come down and vice versa. I think we're moving toward a time of greater economic equality because we just have to. People won't put up with this level of corporate greed and unfairness forever. Honestly I think it's the more comfortable middle class who will make change happen because once they start to feel the pinch and have to cancel a holiday or a new extension they'll be raging.

I remember the Poll Tax riots. Time for something similar over energy bills.

"If a problem can be cured by money or medicine, its not a problem".
l ' m not worried, l think l' ve been through that much over the past 10 yrs l have become immune to it all, which proves every cloud has a silver lining.
l' m probably in a much more vulnerable position finsncially than most on here, yet l don't give it a second thought. l focus on whats going right and for the first time in a long time, things are looking up for me.

Not being goady (I’m not British) but am genuinely wondering why things are so much worse in the UK compared to other countries in Europe.

Is it as bad everywhere else and just not broadly reported?

Where I live, there’s inflation and fuel prices hikes so definite burly having an impact on people, but not to the extent I’m reading about in the UK.

This is worse than anything I can remember.

We lost our home in the 90s interest rate spike but had a cheap rental to fall back on.

There was war but it had no impact on day to day life.

We could always afford petrol, food and clothes.

I'm much more worried about my DC's becoming adults than my DPs were about me.

They have to deal with:

-uni fees
-high rents and impossible mortgages/ deposits
-high public transport costs
-high bills for everything
-gig economy/zero hour contracts
-less freedom of speech
-climate change
-lack of political choice/ inspiring leaders
-globalisation

And in the context of worse mental health and social media scrutiny.

Completely agree. I think over lockdown there was even more realisation that the government - or people in the government - lie. They couldn't even obey their own Covid rules. There is more discontent, not just because of the awful events happening, but a general discontent in life being badly managed by greedy politicians and businesses. Profit, profit, profit and very little shared around.