To think the UK has gone to hell in a handcart?

[Superlambaanana]

I’m just so fed up hearing about powerful people (usually men) getting away with things. It seems to have become the norm for them to do whatever the hell they like with zero consequences beyond a bit of handwringing in the media, which dies down fairly quickly, and never results in anything changing or being overturned. Leaving us ‘little people’ just having to suck it up.

Examples:

P&O sacked 800 workers in 2022. The CEO, Peter Hebblethwaite even admitted it was illegal. Yet nothing was ever done about it and he’s still CEO!

Liz Truss’s honours list. Bit of a roasting in the press for a day or two, but all the Truss supporters still got their honours in the end. Add to that Boris Johnston’s and the very dubious Charlotte Owen, and now Rishi Sunak creating a whole new honours round to make sure some party donors were rewarded in a blatant exercise in corruption.

Prince Andrew. Apparently still thinking of making a return to public life!!!!!! I mean, wtaf?!!!!!!

Michelle Mone. Has she really faced any actual consequences?

Phillip Scofield. Cheats on wife, bullies colleagues and his boyfriend, but achieves victim status because he was coming out of the closet.

Post Office scandal. Yes it’s managed to get some traction, but people will tire of it eventually and I bet that happens long before the sub-post masters get any justice or decent compensation.

Cost of living crisis and energy companies making absolute fortunes at all our expense with no prospect of bills actually coming back down to where they should be - no, instead we should be happy that they aren’t going up just as fast as last year!

Water companies. Borrowing money to give shareholders big payouts instead of actually managing the water and sewage systems to the extent that rivers are now full of faeces.

😩😫😩😫😫😩😫😩😫😫😩

Well said @medianewbie !

@DiamondArtists it continually amazes me that no matter what the topic on MN there's always someone like you along eventually who can't or won't put forward any reasoned arguments but instead just 'slags' the OP, anyone who agrees with them, and usually then gets into a slanging match with someone who says something like 'do you really need to be so rude?'

If you find talking about problems makes you miserable, you might just avoid engaging with topics like this rather than trying to police others with bullying tactics.

It doesn't make me miserable to discuss social issues even if they might be insurmountable. I have noted that the UK is a great place to live overall. I'm calling out some blatantly immoral behaviour which seems to be happening without consequence. I'm not claiming to have the answers or be willing to lead the country to fix it. Sometimes just talking about something and having others pitch in with agreement or counter arguments (see @feellikeanalien 's thoughtful post about perspective) is cathartic and educational and that is valuable enough.

I get that 'having a go' on an anonymous forum is a way for some people to release tension and if you enjoy a fight there will always be someone on MN willing to give you one. It can be a place to try on a bitchy persona and say stuff that you might be afraid to say IRL. But for Gods sake, make a point! Just saying 'oh you're all miserable and not doing anything but whinging' is not a valuable contribution!

And I do wonder if part of the problem around my original point (blatant corruption which no one even bothers to hide) is that public discourse is very often derailed these days by side arguments which are essentially just personal insults. See Brexit, the trans debate, culture wars, immigration etc etc. Let's debate the issue not the person or people engaging in the discussion!

That poster might want to characterize this discussion as whinging but I do not agree with the characterization.
We are discussing, comparing views, trying to get an overview of the situation so that we can have a grasp of what's really happening.
Knowledge is power and we are sharing it on here.
Those that seek to demean and dismiss the conversation, why would they do that? Do they want to shut us down so that we remain in the dark and uninformed?

Knowing that the press trawl through places like this, maybe this is your chance? However…. This isn’t really BAD news.

Ergo, they’ll ignore us.

The one thing that has made me smile is what Joe Lycett has been up to. He’s so fed up with all the fake news, he decided to create some of his own. It’s been fed into the press over the last week. Obviously no fact checking has gone on as multiple outlets have re-spouted the information.

Theres something about a hedgehog and a ball of fluff (which made the news as far away as NZ 🤣), and something to do with a statue of H from Steps. I saw something on HIGNFY that originated from Lycett too, although I took it at face value at the time.

@Ohyeahwaitaminute yes I heard about that! Isn't he due to do a big reveal soon? Mind you, I expect the media companies and journos will say that we click on all this stupid stuff more than we click on corruption stories or Israel/Gaza or any other serious story which takes a bit of reading and thinking to reach understanding. So we get the news we deserve on a way?!

Sorry to derail… but I’m always interested in the origin of phrases.

”To hell in a handcart refers to the Great Plague in London. The dead were left in the street in the 1600's and were collected by a bailiff who did not risk horses so used a handcart like a wheelboro to transport them to a common grave”

It is not true that social media shines more of a light on corruption. What shines a light is good journalism, and we have little of that left, as no one will pay for it. There used to be journalistic investigations, and now although it still happens, it happens way less.
Ut might be true that people who do not give a shit about news may now see the worst scandals referred to on social media. But in the past most people used to watch TV news and read a daily newspaper.

I used to be quite proud of being a citizen of this country, once. Now it's just embarrassing.

Interesting. Fairly hellish alright.

Agree. Social media is full of misinformation, partisanship and also crap they take from other social media, conspiracy theorists and other news sites. We still need decent investigative journalism, but the British press have basically devalued themselves so much with their behaviour over the years that no one trusts them. The fact that they have refused to sign up to an independent standards watchdog has made it worse for themselves.

Can we add that racist tosser Tory donor who said not only extremely offensive racist things about Diane Abbott but could be vowed to have made threats of violence but had not been arrested or even questioned under caution?

Yes! And the fact that torys were forced to dodge calling him out as racist. It seems it's ok to say racist things now. If you are challenged, just deny that your comments were racist.

This reminds me that Lee Anderson should also be added to the list!