To think the uk is on its knees

[Ilovemycatalot]

Just this. Every day negativity. No one is happy with life or working conditions. The country is at an all time low. Living standards getting worse by the day people getting poorer. I know we are not in poverty like some countries but honestly can’t see us ever returning to decent living standards unless you’re the few top percent earners. Tell me I’m being dramatic perhaps I am but can’t see much of a way back from this .

So somewhere like Cambridge that is pretty well off?
One third of the population are spending less on eating out and takeaways. But two thirds are not. So if you live in a fairly well off area there may ne no difference.

I was in Cambridge today. The number of vacant shops is astonishing. About a third of the Grafton Centre is vacant, it feels like a ghost town. We had lunch in a half empty city centre restaurant. If this is happening in an affluent university city, I dread to think what it’s like elsewhere.

AllOutofEverything
Clavinova We have sunk 10 places in the international corruption ratings, but never mind some countries are worse!

Yes - shockingly corrupt France is worse!!

Well, I've just read what it's all about and the Index is actually the perceived level of corruption in the public sector (as judged by surveys of so-called 'impartial experts and business leaders') - not necessarily the actual level of corruption. The media will clearly play a role in perception and there is obviously going to be some political bias whatever they claim.

Transparency International UK's press release states: January 31, 2023 - Britain has slumped to its lowest-ever score in Transparency International’s global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).

• this is not in fact true - as per my link to the Index rating in 2010 - where the UK had a lower ranking. As far as I can see, Transparency International UK are being disingenuous (and politically motivated) with their press release (they appear to justify their misleading headline as the Index had a revamp in 2012.)

If it is like that in Cambridge that is very worrying.

@Ilovemycatalot

i was just at a major global conference.
people I hadn't seen for 3 years due to covid

the whole world is embarrassed for the Uk

the brexiteers have utterly screwed the country
when ukip collapsed they all joined the tories
and one world tories left
they led to liz truss costing us 34gbp billion in 6/7 weeks

some of the leaders ( with Germany passports) like Farage should be arrested for enabling racial hatred ( this poster).
for spreading utter lies ( the 350 million bus) and the fact that the immigration issue was EU issue. In fact over the decade before most immigration was from outside EU.

they also made millions by shorting the pound. That's like inside trading.

most who voted from Brexit could not even define the difference between the EEA, the EU, eFTS and the customs union.

which meant they really didn't have a clue.

most Darby say this but it true it's embarrassing

the UK needs to rejoin the Eu
and yea we will be worse off than before due to losing the pound in time but we will be better than the current path.

My mum's best friend fell and broke her hip 2 weeks ago. She had to wait 6 days for her op. 6 fucking days and would probably have waited longer only her family kicked up a stink after she was left on a bedpan for 45 minutes on the fifth day.

The country is fucked. The Tories destroyed it.

That is so sad. I’m in the US now, but all my family is in the UK. My dad needs a resection of his colon, which doctors discovered two weeks ago, but he hasn’t heard a peep since. I’m very worried about the state of the NHS from afar, as my parents and their siblings age.

Nonsense. We have a modest income (not even at 40pc tax bracket) and we're fine.
Serious amount of hyperbole here.

An outside perspective. Real wages are lower than they were 18 years ago, and our welfare state, contrary to the belief of the right wing, is one of the least generous.

From Foreign Policy .com

I’m so sorry @thereisonlyoneofme.

The British populace are generally feckless, lazy, entitled parasites and over indulges on an overly generous welfare state.

A succinct and accurate view of what the Tories really think of us. Thank you for being brave enough to say it @BillieJeanmm.

Imagine believing "the tories" and "labour" in the current year, like that's what the conflict boils down to, or like something different will happen depending on which one you vote for.

Fucking hell. Anyone want to buy a bridge?

Well, if thats true.... must surely include you as well?

As for teens & pregnancy, what would you do? put her to work in the camp and drown her children? whats your alternative?

btw the only way to reduce teen pregnancies is education, work prospects and hope...

Yes, its more than 50% and you know why? .....the Tories and employers have kept wages down so much that the only way we can avoid mass poverty is give them in work benefits.

The only people saying there is no real Cost of crisis are people wealthy enough to avoid private health and indie schools but of course can't have it both ways.... if 60% receive in work benefits... thats 17m workers who can't afford to live despite working......

I would go further than that. I would like to see Johnson, Gove, Farage and their bunch of liars who knew that Brexit would be catastrophic for the country (their faces the morning after), but pushed it through for personal gain, charged with treason.
That entitled slug Johnson, who's never done an honest day's work in his life (is he a 'wealth creator '?) thinks he was born to rule over us but doesn't have the intelligence or commitment to do the job. He just wants the trappings.

They have a 70+ majority in the House of Commons

The referendum was an enormous mistake. Most of the population had no idea about the complexities of our trading system and what Brexit would mean, but it was swept through on deluded notions of 'sovrinty' and appealing to xenophobia.
Some of the comments on this thread remind me of the woman who said that she wouldn't vote for Jeremy Corbyn because he wanted to get rid of food bank and she needed hers...

Stop listening / reading the news. They love to talk the country down

Labour bringing in tax credits is the reason that wages are so low. Employers don’t need to pay a living wage when they know that the government will top up their employees pay.

@beguilingeyes - couldn't agree with you more.

Internationally we have become so diminished. Trade is proximate. We aren't an empire where we can exploit other places to support our people. These cod fantasies peddled during the referendum on trade never admitted that to deliver Brexit, the UK would have to make trade harder. It was the first trade deal in the world that put barriers in place, not removed them, as every other trade deal does.

Not one of the promised trade deals by the Conservatives is in effect yet. If you were looking at delivery, these people are a monumental failure.

We are now a bullshit talks, money walks society.

Not quite. Labour started it by the overly generous tax credit system. You can trace the rot back to then. Ever since, it’s been impossible to reduce state reliance properly as they held wages down.

I think two things in last couple of weeks summed up why there are issues here and I'm not a Tory but both annoyed me

First was someone I know with a very nice HA flat telling me she gets £1700 UC and family allowance and pays £600 rent but also gets to keep 200% of her£750 maintanance. Meaning she gets £2450 income and reasonable rent- whereas a single mum teacher on here a few weeks ago with similar sized mortgage got the same- as she had very modest maintanance
The person I know doesn't work as she told me she gets by perfectly ok without working and 'doesn't want to' . Doesn't appear the benefits system puts much pressure on her either. Two kids but both over 5

Second was a builder on twitter saying Brexit meant he was now making £3000 a week wages as he had little competition and people were desparate . He said 'he didn't give a monkeys if others were struggling or Brexit was a disaster for their business' as he was doing very nicely thank you. ' not much help though is that to teachers/nurses/fireman etc. and I'm afraid his attitude is common.

Yes some people are doing ok still but if you can't see that the general trend is downwards standards for most , static earnings and higher costs then count your blessings and look at the wider picture for all. Yes your cafes might be full, do you not notice the empty premises, lack of police, queues at A&E, food banks being seen as 'normal' an acceptance of fraud and contracts for mates in the public sector as 'just business'??

100% of maintanance - correction

Not any more. They’re down to 68 now. And it diminishes with every self inflicted by-election. They haven’t won or retained a seat for a couple of years now.

Before anyone says “Oh but Southend”, it was uncontested out of respect to David Amess, one of the last of a dying breed, the decent Tory.