Are you optimistic about the UK's future?

Britons are the most pessimistic across 29 countries about their disposable incomes.

I'm not. I feel quite miserable when I contemplate the future in this country. But it might just be me. I think getting by on a low income tends one towards pessimism. Even if only because one relies so much more on public infrastructure working as it should. And it doesn't any more.

Do other people feel optimistic? Are you confident about the future for you and your loved ones?

Last time I felt optimism about this country was perhaps 1997 when the Blair government got elected, the Good Friday Agreement being announced and the lead up to the 2014 Scottish Independence referendum. Early 2000 felt optimistic too, up until September 2001.

 

No. The UK has suffered from 10+ years of disastrous Tory government, perhaps highlighted by the catastrophe of Brexit, and still there is not a credible opposition party - the left and center continue to fight each other, instead of the common enemy.
10 years ago I was quite desperate to return to the UK from the US, where I've lived since around 2000. Now I see Massachusetts as preferable to the UK. The healthcare here is a rip-off, and there is the gun problem (less of a problem in MA than elsewhere in the US), but the economy continues to grow in MA, and the state governance is thoughtful, where the UK seems caught in a spiral of self-destruction. It's so sad, because there is so much to like about life in the UK.

 

I am an optimistic person, being pessimistic takes up far too much headspace.

The country will be what it will be, I am not going to waste my life worrying about it.

The kids and grandchildren will have some of my positive feelings rub off on them.

 

I don't care, have no opinion. we will get on with what we do, live within our parameters. Waste of time question.....


We deliberately had no kids.

 

Put it this way - I'm glad my kids have EU Passports, even though I don't.

 

Not in the least. This country has gone down the pan and a fair chunk of the population keep pulling the chain.

 

If the disposable income of the rich goes up, the disposable income of the poor has to go down.

This is by design. It’s a choice.

 

No!

 

I wish you were still in Europe. What a waste of a great nation.

 

No.

 

Even your King might run the place better than your current govt.

Although, seen from afar, Sunak seems to be a little less of a catastrophe than the four before him. Or does it just seem so because he’s not as loud?

 

If things were different for us, we would have left by Christmas 2016.

Every single day there’s more bad news, more evidence that we are deep in shit, with no viable leadership to guide us through and out of it.

 

Sunak? He's a laissez-faire wingnut with no long-term vision for the country. https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/rishi-sunak-industrial-strategy

 

Strictly speaking you’re referring to income. Disposable income depends on your expenditure choices.

 

It isn’t leadership that is our problem, it is half a decade of relentlessly pursuing the same idea despite the clear evidence that it has failed to achieve its own stated objectives

 

No, disposable income depends on having a decent income. Expenditure ‘choices’ are for those with a decent income, the very obvious problem for public sector workers is that they have only had real terms income cuts for over a decade.

The absurdity is that we have an economic model based on people spending into the economy. What we have now is economic illiteracy

 

Sorry but wow. What a negative attitude