To be fed up of hearing 'just get on with it'?

[glitterpaperchain]

This kind of 'just get on with it' RE the heat is all over Facebook. People talking about the heat in 1976 and saying 'we just got on with it' or 'we muddled through' (as if people didn't die as a result of that heatwave)

My issue is - shouldn't we as a society be aiming higher than just getting on with things and muddling through? We should be campaigning for better infrastructure, better working practices.

I just think we have all this technology, we're supposed to be a rich country, let's fight to make things better rather than just managing. What happened to the spirit of the first union workers who demanded better conditions and rights? I want to see that spirit back.

But what about those who can’t afford to make these changes? Schools? Hospitals?

Four days ? Seriously ?

A lot kinder in many ways.

If you are that bothered just get aircon. I doubt we are going to switch to Spanish working patterns with siestas, and getting home at 8pm just cos you are a bit hot.

Missed it - wasn’t online, otherwise I’d have put my big girl pants on and challenged it !!

1976 was not a heatwave it was a several month long drought. It was hot - 70s to 80s - and a dry heat. The reservoirs nearly ran dry, and there were standpipes in the streets. It was not at all like a temporary heatwave. It was considerably worse with no end in sight until autumn.

We were bankrupt after the war but we managed to improve housing; health care and education for all.

It was probably the case until the end of the High Middle Ages (came to a sudden halt with massive changes in the weather in the fourteenth century) and though the Romans talk about Britannia being a damp hole grapes were grown north of the Antonine Wall. English wine was a thing until the fourteenth century when it was no longer economic a) weather changed catastrophically b) the English upper class discovered French wine was nicer.

I've got air con. My thread was actually meant to discuss wider society and people other than myself. I know that's a difficult concept for some people to understand, maybe it is new to you

Ok that's not relevant to my post

I was a child in 76 and my memory is that people weren't "just getting on with it" at all. This was mainly because there was also a drought but I don't remember the nights being hot as they are now. It also wasn't at all humid.

Other countries deal with the heat by having earlier starts and earlier finish, in schools 8-2, shops 7.30 -12.00 reopening 5 or 6-10, offices 7.30 - 2.00 if don’t have aircon.

I don’t imagine the blocks of flats in the outskirts of Paris and other European cities fare better than us.

Interesting to think old buildings in Sahara were constructed to keep cool, and in Pompei small dwellings had a central courtyard with a fountain

"sickly heat" describes it so well, and as a city dweller it feels dirty and sticky too.

My memory of 76 is that it went on and on, but I don't remember it being as hot as this. I was in Scotland, though, and now in hotter part of UK. Also I was 12, a long time ago, and the nemory plays tricks.

I think people were too worried about the lack of water to be talking about the heat in 76. The idea that people were just getting on with it is ridiculous though. Why do people think everyone who was alive then still talks about it.

@glitterpaperchain couldn't agree with you more.

France has the same temperatures as us, or higher. Less than 2% of schools have closed. And there, the debate is how can we find the funds to update our school buildings to better cope with the heat - not, yet again, mothers have to take leave or call in sick because the effing schools are closed.

Who exactly is worried about lack of water?

We live in an island with high rainfall, there is no reason to worry about lack of water in the UK.

(Worry about lack of water infrastructure if you want to, and excessive profits taken by water companies without investing in the infrastructure - but be clear there's no lack of water in the UK).

and it's only June.
That heatwave, and I well remember it, was later on in the year.
God knows what we'll be living through in July and August.
What we're experiencing now is completely different from 50yrs ago.
The evidence is incontrovertible. We are in serious trouble and need to slam the brakes on fossil fuel consumption. Should have done it years ago.
Members of this Labour Govt are meeting with and taking bungs from heads of the fossil fuel industries. The Party that's supposed to be on the side of the common man and woman. Some hope.

You're right, the French are suffering terribly.

I really feel for them. It could easily be the UK's turn next for this nightmare.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/25/french-heat-trap-homes-climate-inequality-grows

This heat at the moment feels like the heat that comes out the back of the bus.

😅🤣😂

There was a long drought in 76 and crops failed so people in 76 were worried ablit the lack of water.

Its already like that here Tenants in Woolwich are taking legal action against their HA because their flats get to 43c

Read properly! I said that we were worried about the lack of water in 1976. There was a drought. I didn't say we were worried now.

Yes crops failed and there was a hosepipe ban. People certainly were thinking twice about having a bath too