Are you optimistic about the UK's future?

All this inflation is the enemy and must be immediately brought under control nonsense is simply not true. The government and BoE completely fail to grasp that this inflationary set of pressures is not driven by people frivolously spending money on luxury goods, but on energy and food prices which people have to buy and hence the energy companies and food retailers operating in the Tory's lovely free market (a term that really means keeping their mates rich) can charge what they like and are doing. The BoE still can't see that interest rate rises will not do what they need or if they do in the longer term will put millions into poverty in doing so or I suspect they can, but don't care as of course all these lovely financial institutions can get even richer off the back of market instability.

If the government were serious about curbing inflation they'd leave the rates alone and start looking at truly flexible energy policies, long term housing improvement, food supply chain options and windfall taxing the profiteering outfits out there as well as setting permanent price caps to bring stability to the future, but they won't as they are in bed with all these big companies. That is why the UK is so utterly shite... a greedy self serving government combined with a large section of the population that just cannot see when its being shafted because they are sheep like and believe the media who are mainly run by more of the Tories' buddies and instead they get convinced all their problems are down to the nasty foreigners. That said in some ways we have all let this happen so maybe we are getting what we deserve!

PS In 2009 the UK saw inflation climb due to oil prices and devaluation of the pound but left interest rates alone through the next three years and inflation stabilised anyway as it arguably always will do.

 

It is actually quite amusing watching the UK from the outside.

 

Indeed. The planet will be fine. The human race may not like the way the planet reacts, however.

 

On my way out for the day but there are some parts of this which require comment.

 

Well, there will still be a rock spinning through space and it's unlikely we'll manage to eradicate every form of life...

 

No... brexit, its political ramifications and the opportunity its provided to the right has ****ed or is ****ing everything.

 

Your experience as a charity worker leads you to believe that the problem is that people who use food banks are “taking advantage of the system”? Not that there is something wrong with a system that requires food banks? Or is it that there is not a problem that a bit of belt tightening wouldn’t fix?

The bottom line is that in a country as rich as ours, people like nurses shouldn’t need second jobs or food banks. They should be able to afford a TV, a car, and a mobile phone. They should have an income that affords them sufficient disposable income to enjoy a decent standard of living.

They should need your charity

 

That's what Cecil Rhodes was told as he set out for Africa - "Remember, sir, that you are an Englishman, and have therefore won first prize in the lottery of life". Some of Rhodes's own thoughts were along these lines:

https://pages.uoregon.edu/kimball/Rhodes-Confession.htm#:~:text=It is our duty to seize every opportunity of acquiring,honourable race the world possesses.

Note especially this bit:

It is our duty to seize every opportunity of acquiring more territory and we should keep this one idea steadily before our eyes that more territory simply means more of the Anglo-Saxon race more of the best the most human, most honourable race the world possesses.

Hmm, well, while that may have been true at the time (one of the odder offshoots was British-Israeliteism, the idea that the USA and the UK were the ten lost tribes of Israel, and were therefore especially blessed), times have changed...

I guess it all depends on your basis for comparison. On a world scale, the British are undoubtedly towards the top of the heap. The comparison with similar Western/developed countries is not nearly so flattering. A lot of this can be laid at the door of the UK Government, essentially a chumocracy with a breathtaking sense of entitlement and an equally breathtaking level of incompetence.

 

Personally, I find it very sad to see the howling mess they've made of things. I quoted an interesting article in Der Spiegel a while back, and it's worth revisiting:

https://www.spiegel.de/internationa...p-hole-a-6b61dc6f-e33f-46f3-bd27-743364dd675c

Interesting that the largest dark area (East Lindsey) had one of the highest Brexit votes.

 

Where we are now is the result of a long term decline in the standard of living

 

I'm quoting here the words you have probably not read: 'Finally there were also those'. It equals to 'some'. If you don't believe that there are some people who take advantage of the system, it means you have never worked in charity. Please do also note that I'm not among those who have prejudices towards people who take money or food from charity, if I had some I wouldn't have done all this for months and at my expense.

True.

It was in 1992, a cell phone was an expensive nice-to-have at that time for most people, it became a necessity only at the end of said decade. TV: I'm talking about TV sets for €10k, those for 1k were already good enough. As for cars, a Chevy pickup isn't a basic necessity either, it's a totally silly thing to own unless you are a farmer in the Midwest. VW Polos drove very well already then, that's what I had.

 

I’ve seen plenty!

 

The strange thing about the UK is that so many seem to wallow in negativity.

My family in France get by on far less income and work less but enjoy life.

I avoid a lot of the MSM because of this, nothing positive is reported just a continuous moan and a sense of entitlement.

Had family over from Oz last year and some have had a hard time with the weather but it's part of life.

In a finite world with rapidly expanding population the time of eternal improvement in our material living standards is over.

 

Rhodes was of course a tremendous racist.

I say the natives are like children. They are just emerging from barbarism.​

and

Treat the natives as a subject people as long as they continue in a state of barbarism and communal tenure; be the lords over them, and let them be a subject race.​

Part of his appeal to some I guess

 

Whilst I feel pessimistic about the future of this country as a whole, I do feel very optimistic about the actual people who live here. When things get tough, people tend to become much more collaborative and supportive of each other.
I was recently planting trees in a community garden alongside Syrian refugees and the sense of common cause and shared humanity was palpable. It was very uplifting.

It's more the sense that our government is a pro-active barrier to progress that I find depressing. That and the fact that they still enjoy support from anyone with a brain.

 

You should move over to Belfast and join Ireland's Future. House prices and stuff are a little behind those in England so you could set up easily enough I reckon. I think the time is getting closer for Northern Ireland to leave the UK and rejoin Europe as part of a unified Irish state. I'll buy your first pint of the black stuff as a new Irish citizen. Of course you'd have to put up with all our political nonsense for a while but a new Ireland would be worth it - for everyone.

 

It's not moaning to want clean air,clean environment,
decent public transport,good health service and public health etc.

 

I have no time for people whose sole contribution to a thread is ad hom

 

The problem from where I sit is that we have everything we need.
There is no immigrant problem in the vicinity not that I have an issue with immigration.
You won't die from a lack of doctors appointment, although I've always got one with a little persuasion, and there are no potholes to speak of. The roads have been resurfaced in the last month.

There are plenty of electric cars and Chelsea tractors in this pleasant leafy close.

There's just no incentive to vote ABT.

The three local councillors got back in their Tory seats recently.

There's not a lot I can do.
ABT candidates put up very little fight round here.

 

First they came…