Fed up with the current state we are in

[SanctusInDistress]

Am I right to be upset over the current state of things and that the future looks bleak?

nhs- don’t get me started

jobs - where on earth are jobs? Barely anything there and when there are they are looking for somebody who has done that exact job in an equal organisation.

bills - spiralling

food - at this rate we will be either back to the middle ages foraging for postage, or eating cheap nasty ultra processed stuff all of the time.

working conditions - there are two camps; the quiet quitters with chúpatz to get away with it, and the workhorses being worked to death.

brexit - I’ve yet to hear of a tangible benefit (apart from blue passports).

politics - everybody has run out of ideas. They don’t know what else to come up with.

poverty in work - spiralling

house prices (in SE where I live) - where are people finding the money to pay these prices?????

going out - impossible. Theatre tickets, cinema, meals out. It’s just become too expensive except for rare rare treats.

everything is at a standstill, waiting for this election so that something can happen again (or not) to jolt the economy for ordinary folks like us back into action.

am I just being unreasonable with being fed up?

This is on a smaller scale, but I've noticed a massive increase in dog poo left on pavements in my area lately- I feel like many people have stopped thinking of others/ showing respect and it's making things worse for other people. Maybe leaving dog's mess on the pavement is a bit like voting Conservative and not thinking about the bigger picture.
YANBU, but try and make the best of it and enjoy simple/ cheap things.

I am generally a “centre voter” I’m a labour voter but like some standings of the far left and right.

one guy swayed me - Jeremy Corbyn……his plan was great…..tax the top 10% a bit extra (which to them is nothing) and make it better for the “worse off” to work……and he was annihilated……for example I was a 22 year old single mum who worked full time paying childcare - and I would have been better off staying home claiming benefits (which I didn’t do) - he was going to switch that around, make it worthwhile to work - more people working, more income tax, more people spending in shops - basic economics - I thought he was too far left for me until I paid attention and he completely swayed meand all the media tainting didn’t register; he’d have changed the direction of the country

@Justchatting06 that's why they destroyed him.

I don’t think that it has ever been so obvious how corrupt and out for themselves (and their obscenely rich mates) the current government is.

I’m not a dyed in the wool labour voter by any means, but enough is enough. We absolutely need a change now. The situation with public services is shocking. I’m still furious about Brexit.

In general we are fairly lucky as a family and have been well served by the NHS recently, but I fully appreciate this is not everyone’s experience. We also still go out for meals etc., but we are working more hours than we would like. I think buying our house 20 years ago, when prices were a lot more reasonable, and not living in the south east help! I absolutely work at staying positive. My children need me to for the sake of their mental health. This country has been through bad times before.

You may want to remember 2008 properly. Lehman Brothers (US bank, nothing to do with the Lab government) fell, which prompted a GLOBAL recession. Every country had to do something, some let their banks fail, we didn’t hence the lack of money. Bailing out our banks was something the Conservative opposition supported too, and looking back I fail to see we had a choice.

Whereas following the economic policy that is austerity has been a choice and it’s failed dismally. But people like you are still in denial that your free market, laissez faire form of economic beliefs are not working. But the rest of of us see it every day.

Also are you getting your stats from GB News? Our national debt has risen by a huge amount. Not all the Tories fault but a large proportion of it is.

‘Left wing nutters’ is the type of insult trotted out when there isn’t anything concrete to draw on. You’ve got nothing positive to bring out about your political beliefs and where it’s got us as a society, so you choose to insult instead.

We get the government we deserve. Ignorance gets punished.

PS do some reading on economics, a national economy is not run like a household budget. Improve your education and you may not be duped next Election Day.

His policies were great. You are right. We would be in a very different position now with those policies. Like him or loathe him, his policies were often very good and for the people.

''@Thisilldo
At last someone who makes sense.
The conservatives are still trying to undo the mess labour got us into in the past.
Do people really want a labour Government where everyone will be like sheep?''

Does anyone really still believe that nonsense?

The conservative have been in power for 14 years.... not Labour. You can't keep blaming them for the Tories incompetence.

Everything in this country has declined under successive Tory governments 'leadership''. They brought corruption and lies to the heart of government and the self-inflected disaster that is Brexit.

The only sheep I can see are the ones who still believe what the Daily Mail says and think that the Tories have been doing a good job...

Thankfully the polls are showing that the majority of people have woken up and will not vote conservative.

Yes. Too many vested interests. Even the Guardian.

Yes. Unbelievably obvious. I do wonder when enough will be enough for people. What on earth will it take?!

Well said.

It's all true and it's depressing. I worry about my children's future. I cope by just not dwelling on it. I find joy in each day in the small things. When I think of everything that's wrong with the country, I feel completely hopeless and powerless.

It very much depends on what type of surgery you’re waiting for though, it’s not like comparing apples with apples. I had a VNS implant for my epilepsy and was in surgery within 4 weeks as this treatment is still quite rare. However, I’ve been waiting for a first ENT appointment for 7 months and they’ve asked me twice if I want to come off the waiting list 🤷‍♀️

Both instances are under a Tory government. I can’t see it getting any better with Labour. How can it? Where will the money magically appear from?

Itsnotallaboutyoulikeyouthink. Bang on,. Life is not easy. It's up to the individual to try and make things better.

I think some 16 year olds are more competent to vote than many of the supposed competent over 18s 😂

I said all that too and was treated like I was a total nutter. Now look.

In my own circumstances I was better off under the labour government. They brought in tax credits that really improved my day to day life as a single mum to four children. I know tax credits had their own problems but for my family their were life changing for quality of life with children. They supported families in other ways too such as sure start, grants etc.

The problem my family currently have is now those children are grown ups the cost of living under tories has spiralled leaving the children of poor households like mine priced out of the housing market. We have no assets so there is literally nothing I can do to help. My children work full time but even on a reasonable wage they can’t find anything affordable on one wage. Housing is the priority thing to tackle to change many of the other issues.

We need affordable housing on one income. If people then have partners it makes the prospect of having a family affordable because they can pay housing with just one of them working. This is turn gives family the choice for a parent to stay home for a few years or to work back to back shifts so childcare costs aren’t so crippling. It also helps single parents manage finances without so much need for top ups. More disposable income keeps shops open and the economy flowing into the non essentials such as leisure.

Obviously not everyone is struggling but people at the bottom are getting swallowed up by wages not keeping up with housing costs.

I take your eloquently and charmingly put points.

On average, EU workers were net contributors to the UK economy.

Things are definitely dire. I do think things are not that much greater elsewhere. Some things are better here, others elsewhere.

COVID, Ukraine and Brexit haven't helped but having Tories in power didn't help. It's been a perfect storm.

@ALunchbox I wonder where we would be had Labour been in power? When the barrel's empty not much can be done. In 2010, Brown had sold all the gold bullion at the bottom of the market, Blair and Brown had bankrupted hospital trusts by extending and extending PFI, we were on the heels of the financial crisis which kept interest rates artificially low for more than a decade, and they increased benefits exponentially by the introduction of working tax credits, the knock on effect of which was to contribute to increased house prices.

However one thinks of Brexit and whether one voted Remain, the country voted for it. I have no issue with immigration but I have issues with EU bureaucracy and the fact that the EU became federal rather than confederal.

Add in Ukraine and covid and we were in a perfect storm and will repair the damage regardless of who is in power for years to come.

Locking down for as long as we did and closing schools to children and support for young families and those who were dying was horrific. Government allowed the NHS to rule and that was a rank error along with the depth of furlough which was concomitant to the depth of the lockdown. I am not persuaded that labour would have done it differently and may have done it worse.

What can never ever be excused was the conduct of Downing Street who did not apply the draconian rules to themselves. For that the government deserves to fall. Whether I trust the state of the nation with the Labour Party is not in doubt. I don't.

One thing I would stop immediately is the payment of benefits to those who reduce their hours for that reason when work is available for them. It is a truly immoral initiative. Benefits are for those who can't work or who have no work, not for those who chose not to.

Where did you go?

I fucking swear to God im going to make a template.

This very definately needs saying again.

a. Fruit picking veg picking etc a lot of which is LIVE IN work. If you rent social housing you have to actually fucking well live there. You are not allowed to live away from home for the length of time these employers want you to. If you want that you will need to give SH tenants more rights! But that would also mean giving them more rights to leave their home for other reasons Up for that are we SH haters???!!!!

b. Gas safety checks fire door checks electric checks Surveys My tenancy agreement says i have to be home for these and no i cant get a friend or neighbour to do it for me.

c. the hatred there is for SH tenants ensures that some busybody would probably report the flat as abandoned if a tenant were to risk their tenancy by taking this job.

d. i have mentioned SH tenants because they will be the most likely group expected to take these jobs yet their hands are tied and they cant And even if they wont perhaps they want a life after the working day (just like home owners have (You know the ones who arent expected to do these jobs) instead of sharing a berth with a stranger.

Prison?

There is a very very simple solution to the country's problems. Everyone pays more tax. But no one in politics will suggest this, the old libdems tried and lost seats at the next election.

But we have to face facts. Covid hit the economy for 6. The austerity measures the torys had pursued were lost. Therefore we need to increase taxation and Labour when they win(cos as even as a staunch Tory I can't see them losing) will need to make some hard decisions and must not get in the way of investment and opportunity to grow the economy

Someone mentioned 2008 and Lehman brothers, the fact that this was one us bank should not have caused the effect it had but because of the Labour government reduction of banking controls and the ability of almost free money for lenders lead to huge liquidity problems in the market. Labour panicked when northern rock and then Halifax went down (or near as damn it) and instead of nationalizing those 2 got Lloyds in particular and the other to step in...leading to a need for the government to buy into the other banks.

Labour also introduced in work benefits, like tax credits which supported low wages, I had a man working for me in an insurance company in his 40s turn down a pay rise as it effected his benefits. This is why wages are far behind where they need to be an tax revenues are not as they should be.

We need to also think outside of the standard routes of raising tax revenues. One idea would be to have mandatory ppi insurance on all mortgages run by a select group of insurers, with all profits to the government. It would allow lenders to have confidence in lending, prevent any housing price panic and generate revenue. Lending increasing will stimulate the housing market and encourage house building.

Did you not see my post earlier, to which no one has responded I note?

Labour gave the BoE independence in 1997 which led to low interest rates and a massive increase in house prices by 2004, tuition fees for students and uncontrolled immigration and still everything is the Tories fault? Throw in the fact that noone would listen to Boris during the pandemic when he wanted to keep calm and carry on, and his efforts in ending the Ukraine war and it"s blatantly obvious that many posters are either nor old enough to remember it properly or have conveniently forgotten!