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.

Without the war in Ukraine, things would have been very much more manageable & without any sort of LD, we'd have seen the economy collapse and huge numbers of deaths - where exactly would these people have been treated?

NHS was already overwhelmed pre CV, with over 3m waiting for treatment, thats nothing to do with CV, lowest number of beds and staff in western europe then add in Brexit and its a perfect storm.

Yes I has acute appendicitis at the back end of 2019 and had to wait 12 hours for a bed this was way before anyone had heard of covid.

Agreed. At best we can expect stagnant growth and that’s no good for business.

Suddenly all those options, choices, perks and decisions the vast majority of us have enjoyed for years all get very slimmed down.

The small businesses that were only ever viable because of cheap energy and buoyant levels of disposable income are going to suffer along with many of the big boys too.

It's almost impossible to comprehend the fallout from what’s to come. God help us all.

@NewPapaGuinea
"Well, the majority kept voting for a party that were only going to make it worse..."
"And not even the majority. 43% of votes."

Really? How awful !

About as awful as Tony Blair getting in with 43.2% of the votes in 1997.

Some people have short memories, or maybe it's the extra 0.2% that's making you feel superior ?!

Well, I don't know what the people who voted for the Tories and cheered Johnson and Brexit on expected...

It was always going to end in tears.

www.disabilitynewsservice.com/the-department-for-work-and-pensions-deaths-cover-up-and-a-toxic-30-year-legacy/ I’ve been poor under a Tory government and I’ve been poor under a Labour government. They’re both as bad as each other.

The things that stand out to me on these threads is no real understanding that lots of us have always had to make the choice between food and heat. Loads of us were never going to get onto the housing ladder, even slogging our guts out. Some of you seem to be only just seeing this for the first time.

Also, an insistence on allocating blame. Someone could post saying things are shit and they’re worried, followed by pages of posts blaming Tory voters/Brexit voters etc and complaining that they’re all bastards who are solely responsible for the mess we’re in now and how it serves them right. Well yes, it was a bit shortsighted and something that lots of us could see coming, but we’re all in that mess together now. So why aren’t we banding together and sharing small ways to make things better for our families ready for winter? I’m seeing so much anger directed at other people in the community and I get it, I really do. But it was this sort of separation that caused people to vote this way in the first place.

Maybe protest marches against fuel prices need to happen instead of allowing and enabling government not to tax the huge profits energy companies are making?

I wonder if new ideas / industries will take off - a bit likezoom, wfh, no commuting during Covid.

When was the last time a peaceful protest achieved anything ? Bearing in mind how 50% of the country only gained the vote after a sad need for violence.

Think back to the very start of the pandemic, Boris Johnson, said we would have to get used to a new normal, so I assume this is it.

The covid debt, accrued from testing, furlough, fraudulently applied business bounce bank loans. Needs repayment.

You can’t shut down the economy and without serious repercussions.

You can’t shut down the economy and without serious repercussions.

I agree with your last line but not the ‘new normal’ phrase (still loathe it now)

The Ukraine war is causing most of the pressures atm , although the huge spending is a factor

See

Think back to the very start of the pandemic, Boris Johnson, said we would have to get used to a new normal, so I assume this is it
The covid debt, accrued from testing, furlough, fraudulently applied business bounce bank loans. Needs repayment
You can’t shut down the economy and without serious repercussions

A Pandemic shuts down the economy all on its own and economic activity very soon bounced back, we were locked down for about 9 weeks, the other LD's didn't have anything like the same effect.

Yes monies need paying back but as i understand it, we basically borrowed 1/3rd from our selves, isn't that what QA is & had Sunak taken out interest rate insurance, we' not be paying back so much.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has caused much of what we are seeing now, without this war, things might have been tough, with inflation 5 or 6% but not the hyper energy increases we've now got.

What i don't get is why European help for consumers & businesses is so much better than for the UK.

The EU nations are putting it on national balance sheets. And it shows. The Euro is below dollar parity now and only going lower. Sterling is nowhere near as bad.

The world fears a recession with ever increasing interest rates, the $ is the currency of choice.
The euro has been here before.

The UK will have to borrow 10s of billions to protect the public and consumers from energy price rises too, its just that for whatever reason, these spending decisions have not yet been made.

Scary times.

When was the last time a peaceful protest achieved anything ? Bearing in mind how 50% of the country only gained the vote after a sad need for violence.

Are you referring to WW2? It was after this that the average man and woman were given the vote. It was only army veterans and very rich powerful men that had it before. However, the 'need for violence' was more about stopping Hitler than anything else.

Actually, I'm getting mixed up I think. It was after WW1 that the average person got the vote.

What I find ironic is that all through the pandemic they were screaming “save our NHS” etc. The NHS is even more dire now than it was during Covid & no one gives a fuck anymore.