Is the UK beyond repair?

[Brrrrrrrrrrrr]

I’m sure plenty will come along to say I’m BU but for the past few weeks I’ve really started to question where this country and our society is heading and whether or not things are ever going to get better and when that might be.

We have economic chaos driven by high inflation, increasing interest rates and a total lack of urgency by anyone in charge to seemingly do anything about it. We have a government in power that seem to have nothing but contempt for anyone that doesn’t resemble their backers, ministers openly mocking critics on social media and a PM who can not remember if he may or may not have had something to do with benefiting from £5 million of Russian money. What on Earth have we become?

Our Health service is being systematically picked apart and left to decay away much to the detriment of those who rely on it or who cannot afford Private healthcare. We have Medical professionals striking because they are underpaid again to the detriment of those who rely on said services, wait lists are through the roof and the levels of care being received are understandably inadequate.

The education sector is a ticking time bomb because teachers are seeing the demands of their roles increase, funding cuts, the behaviour of the pupils start to become impossible to manage and the prospect of an easier life switching to another career too hard to resist.

Food bank usage is at an all time high, not just by those in charge who don’t know poverty but working professionals who can not afford to feed their families because the cost of living has zapped every last penny from them. The reality on the streets of real life Is so far detached from that seen on social media that it’s like looking at a different planet.

It just feels bleak and I don’t see how things are going to change, I’m often an optimist but this is stretching any semblance of light in the tunnel. Anyone else? Is this the type of world you want your children to live in? Surely they deserve better? How can this be fixed?

I don't think it's broken beyond repair yet. But go fix the problems we need a different political system, one which will return coalition governments which will in turn should mean the end to the ridiculous short term knee jerk policies we've had over the last couple of decades. Coalition govt should also ensure that the repulsive snouts to the trough behaviour of our current crop of Conservative MP's and their friends doesn't happen again. Unfortunately I can't see any will to change the voting system from Labour so I think we're pretty much fucked now.

This is the thing, no one appears to be seriously stepping up to the plate to offer a solution. They’re slowly going to bleed the country to death and we’re far too over populated to have an unbalanced society, we need our public services to be stable for the sake of public health and civil order.

Well I'm sure Labour will win the next election by a landslide and all our troubles will be over.

Surely.

Agree - we need a more democratic system. And we need a more equal society.

I think we are set for a lower standard of living than the last few decades but that doesn't have to mean the collapse of the NHS. It may mean less money to spend on consumer products.

You know as well as I do that our problems won’t be gone, that is what scares me the most. Society is circling the drain.

No matter what mess we end in, people will pretend it's great.

I'm of an age where I've been here before. Sooner or later things will improve. Might take a few years though.

This is what I don’t understand, the absolute denial or complete acceptance that this is normal and fine.

I think it could slowly be brought back - it's just under the right government.

I can't help feeling that the tories know they are going to lose the next election and are leaving behind a "scorched earth" for labour to deal with.

@Chowtime scorched Earth is spot on. They’re pilfering the nation because they know they are toast, it’s the damage between now and a GE that worries me the most. How bad will they willingly let things get before the people say no more?

Can we campaign for electoral reform? PR instead of first past the post? Would that help?

People have short memories.
Even in just the last 100 years of our history there have been worse times for this country.
Times of war, recessions, strikes, pandemic even.
When I look at the world my grandparents were born into it doesn’t even compare- no welfare state, no nhs, no antibiotics, no electricity for large numbers of society. Her father was working 12 weeks a year - all the work available at the time.
Now, of course, things can be improved, some things are in a bit of a mess, somethings should be more equal etc. Bad times come and go in waves.

I think a lot of things in your list are cyclical or can be improved.

But i still think 'the west' is in a big decline and climate change in terms of managing the consequences of it isn't beingtackled.

Id love to have a party that had a plan to keep the uk nice to live long term in light of decline and climate change.

But can you imagine party winning in long term food, water and energy security.

I don't think the 70 or 80s were exactly easy in bit of UK my parents or IL were in.

Demographically we are not in a great place - but we are not alone in that most of western world is either ahead of just behind us.

There are problems - it does worry me is the lack of ambition or direction from current crop of politicians from all parties and it seems a wider issue than just us in UK has as well- that could be my age though and could change quickly - but feel like all we'd get from anyone is tinkering at edges of problems and kicking them down the road till the road runs out.

"We have economic chaos driven by high inflation, increasing interest rates and a total lack of urgency by anyone in charge to seemingly do anything about it."

What do you expect them to do about it ?

Don't the high interest rates exist to combat the high inflation ?

I think it is less that the UK is beyond repair, but more that our path is fixed. The things we can actually do to change our situation are getting more and more limited as time goes on. You'll see this in Tory and Labour economic policy, both of which to me appear to be converging.

As a nation we are about to get a lot poorer. Unless we are willing to start working alot harder and generating some wealth, rather than living off debt, asset speculation and expecting handouts for everything.

Adjusting is going to be tough.

We're fucked for a while. We need a huge change in how things have done, voting reform would be a start.

It's pointless fixing the mess for a decade only for the Tories to come back in, line their pockets and destroy another generation. And Labour aren't a great alternative.

Things will get better. It usually takes time and at the moment we're in the worst of it. We definitely need a new government. I know lots of people are saying Labour aren't a great alternative but I'm sure they would do a better job with the public sector and sometimes even a small positive change can make a big difference.

I partly blame the media for the mass hysteria they generate. I don't remember the news being like this during the 90s recession or even after the collapse of the banks in 2009.

I worry a lot about water. Research it the UK is very vunerable to running out of water. In fact I believe in the top 10 countries.

I’m not sure things can improve, the bar just keeps getting lowered. The decades and decades of making people feel grateful to work to pay their bills but have nothing else, the constant narrative of your child your problem, the demonisation of benefits- would require a huge overhaul.

The Tories are awful and things are bleak, but Labour will have their own sort of awfulness to dump on the country once they're elected so there's not much to look forward to. This wasn't the feeling in 1997 either.

The Tories surely couldn't win another election if their politics stayed as they are now, the electorate that favoured them is slowly dwindling, anyone under the age of 30 would never forget the hardships this government has cursed us with and would vote to not revert back to them, right?

I graduated in the 2007/8 recession/credit crisis. I was categorically told that there would be no graduate recruitment in my chosen field that year or the next. The few years after that were chaos, trying to cobble myself together a career. I suppose it was ok from 2013 to 2016, but did it really get that much better? I feel like society has been in crisis my entire adult life

I think we are in the middle of a serious decline for at least the next 2 decades.
It will get worse than it currently is especially health care, housing and public infrastructure, for certain places worse than others.

I am encouraging my elder two ( teens/tween ) children to look at qualifications they can use globally, I don't want them to feel they have to stay in the UK as adults.

Also looking at diversified portfolios with a focus on environmental investments, surprisingly the UK is quite vulnerable in this area, but we need to do more homework on this before committing.

Maybe we should look to AI to lead us, god knows we’ve tried everything else.

If you are gunning for Labour to be in next I think you will be in for a nasty shock, I have no doubt the UK public will continue to keep our current party in.