AIBU to feel life in the UK has worsened since Covid?

[MerryAmberViper]

feel everything is just getting worse since covid

Im on a good salary of 32k live alone entitled to no benefits and lucky enough I can afford to put heating on in winter but have to be careful

crime everywhere with lenient punishment or sometimes no punishment at all
everyone seems entitled angry or depressed and no one seems to care about following the law
clear resentment and disagreement in country people on social media saying vote green or vote reform and if you dont you are terrible
divided country especially with brexit when inflation being caused by covid and the war brexit hasnt changed much
stagnant salaries if you can even get a job at all
everything expensive
people on great salaries of 100k+ moaning about the tax they pay because they are bad with managing their money even though they are on over double average salary when people like myself manage on much less
massive wealth inequality
NHS and public services run down
terrible government both tories and labour

@FasterMichelin living not far from Tamworth in terraced house not too far from birmingham bought it for 160k needs some work but my neighbours are nice

yeh I should do what you said and stay off social media

I just think the uk will never get better sad times

@MasterBeth but is it really?

The costs in the economy are again covid and the war around energy and supply shocks
look at supermarkets this week basically saying no to government to cap costs and saying energy prices being bought under control would help reduce prices energy prices and instability are again due to wars

Im not saying there is no effect from brexit and it was an own goal for uk but the effect of brexit is tiny compared to everything else
trade with europe yes I accept more difficult but it hasnt stopped

people just seem on here to moan about brexit when at the moment the uk has so many bigger more important problems

Can you not see how people living where a terraced house costs 5x more than that (or more) and only earning 3x your salary (less than 3x take-home) might have reason to say they're struggling?

I think the main change since Covid is that people are generally more selfish, insular and unwilling to support their fellow citizens.

There is also a general mistrust of the state, politicians of all parties and of authority and as a nation we are very politically unengaged.

More & more people don't see politics as a way to change things and it seems if they could they would rather just sort their own little world out and not engage with wider society and doing things "for the greater good" at all.

Oh come on

apart from london and maybe some centres of biggest cities most terraced houses dont cost 800k and even in places where they do there is cheaper housing nearby

Every other European country had COVID, energy cost increases and austerity. They are not falling apart the way the UK is. Saying Brexit is only a tiny part of the problem is sticking your fingers in your ears because you don't want to hear the truth.

yes definitely agree

I think mental health of UK has gone down sharply

Covid put a motor on the decline of the country. Things becoming more expensive, people becoming more selfish and openly racist, flakey and antisocial. We have become much more individualistic rather than community focused, so it's every man and woman for themselves and it's palpable.

Now AI jeopardises millions of jobs too.

Meanwhile it's a warzone in other countries so perhaps it could be worse...

Austerity and Brexit have really changed the UK for the worse, however, I think that the rot really started with Thatcher.

Agree re 2008

They keep renaming the credit crunch but its still here 20 years later and life is worse

I think its improved since the pandemic for me - telephone appointments have been a godsend

Thatcher was an evil witch but the UK economy still grew strongly during the late 80s and 90s, up until 2008. Cameron and Osbourne's austerity choked growth and left us with the infrastructure/ investment/ productivity crisis we have today.

yes but with all this credit crunch stuff you didnt have 10% inflation followed by high or near high inflation after that for 3-4 years

anyway good night mumsnetters I need to go and tickle my cactus

Yes, there are global shocks to our economy beyond Brexit, but the fact we can't trade as simply and freely with our closest neighbours has meant we are less able to cope with those shocks.

Brexit would have damaged us in healthier times. It's had an even bigger impact when there are global catastrophes all around us

I think you are naive to the price difference between outside Birmingham and the South East, not even London, outside the M25. A terrace in London would be a hell of a lot more. Even somewhere like Clapham, you'd expect to pay well over £1m for a 2 up, 2 down.

@jumpingjohnny
like I said apart from london....
Clapham is near london

84% agree

why dont only 14% of you agree voting I bu?

Very basic research ( non biased) would tell you that brexit was a key factor...

Overall
Brexit
Covid
Ukraine war
Iran war
Other shocks like tariffs and Truss
We weren't doing great before these but they have really compounded the issue

I’m older now and I can see that post WW2, people wanted to do better; intro of the nhs, better education, building social housing, more social mobility , joining the Common Market etc. Whereas Thatcher only thought of the rich and started dismantling; privatising our utilities, selling social housing and not letting councils use the money to build more but also no strategy to replace the mining industry eg she could have got us into renewables in the 80’s, created jobs for the former miners but no and we’re years behind now. Norway invested their North Sea Oil into a Sovereign Fund worth one trillion pounds that benefits its citizens but Thatcher sold ours off. She famously said that ‘there’s no such thing as society’. I’m sure that there’s more but the lack of strategic planning has continued since and I think that’s why most things are a bit shit. It’s also all made worse by our appalling billionaire owned mainstream media and social media.
Sad times but hopefully we’ll all get through it.

£32k isn’t a good salary.

You are woefully ill informed if you think Brexit has a minor effect on the overall economic financial and wider wellbeing of our country. The costs of Brexit were already being felt and have been compounded by the impact of Covid and then the war on Ukraine.
Also, seek out your comma key for the benefit of all readers.

YANBU welcome to late stage capitalism 😊 COVID wasn't the only thing that happened. Remember that little thing called Brexit? It just hastened the decline a bit. It's going to get a lot worse to so buckle up buttercup.

Covid has definitely been partially responsible for the dire NHS. GPs liked not having to have face to face contact with patients so much during COVID, that they carried it on. Now we have a situation where doctors waiting rooms are empty because the GPs are all at home diagnosing you over the phone.

Brexit is hugely to blame.

Plus (obviously) the 2008 worldwide financial crisis and austerity that followed it.

I agree with PPs that WFH has been terrible for mental health. Great for some of us, not great for new starters or the overall workforce

It’s a pretty okay salary if you live in the North, where if you are on your own, like OP, you can get a nice terrace in a nice area for less than £100k, as opposed to,possibly getting a bed in someone’s shed in 2026.

It's harder to build generational wealth now, the boom years are over.

Its now just going to be about a mega elite super rich class, and every else. Of course if you don't a flashy lifestyle it doesn't really matter. You just have to aim for average or slightly above average to be comfortable and cut your cloth accordingly.

I also agree that working from home is not good for mental health.