The delicate balance of the 'just in time' supply chain has been destroyed - probably forever - and that is, in the main, a direct result of our abrupt and untimely exit from the EU. Our useless administration will attempt to continue to cite Covid as the prime cause for their U-Turns and failures, but they are incompetent liars who will do anything to save their jobs in the short term, and - in my opinion - do not deserve any respect for the success of the vaccination program engineered by far worthier people than they will ever be in their brief wielding of political power.
They are terrified of losing the votes of the elderly as is traditional with the least intelligent of Tory administrations, and they believe that the working class votes of the North which brought them unexpected and undeserved seats there at the last election will magically reappear next time, but they will not. There will be much more damage done before this is fully understood by what passes for Whitehall mandarin wisdom in the next few months.
They have raised unavoidable taxes for the poor and essential workers to try to plug a hole in the deep sink of the national debt rather than upset potential voters by slightly increasing other income-related taxes which may not be so popular with the electorate who they are depending on to keep their jobs when the shit really hits the unguarded fan.
We have never had it so bad.
Of late, Tom, I have said I'm pleased I will be dead before Social Security money runs out in 2034. I am pleased that I have contributed far less to my country's decline than the average citizen.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, there has to be a resolution, a return to equilibrium, a recognition that we all are in this together. If I knew what to do, I'd do it. I don't know. And so, it's to bed and let smarter people figure it out.
Failing a miracle, it has to get a lot worse before it gets any better.
DeleteAt the risk of being political - which I promised some time ago never to be - I feel more or less the same as you Tom.
ReplyDeleteIt is the irreversible and inevitable decline which makes me so depressed. It isn't even a matter of politics anymore, it is a matter of surviving the politicians. There was a soft fruit farmer on the radio this morning saying that she tried offering 90 jobs to local people, and only 3 were anywhere near qualified to do them. She got special dispensation to employ Eastern Europeans but is still 30 short of a viable workforce. She said that policies made in her sector were ideological now, and not pragmatical. So a lot of her produce will rot in the field, a lot more will never be delivered in time and the price of the stuff which does make it into the shops will double as a result. Nobody wins.
DeleteWhen people I know who voted to leave are complaining about paying twice or three times as much as last year for their fruit and veg I shall remind them that this is what their vote got them. They were warned.
DeleteThe housing market is the source of many of our problems.
ReplyDeleteWhen creating the right to buy your own council house, M. Thatcher destroyed affordable housing for the young. Who could not resist the temptation to make a lot of money overnight by buying social housing on the cheap? I know of one person only who refused to go along with it. Now even renting is unaffordable for many young people.
DeleteMy parents bought their tiny little council house back then and it was genuinely the only way they could ever have afforded to own their own home. The small amount of wealth created from its increase in value over the years is now rapidly dwindling to pay for my father's care and accommodation in his old age. I have very mixed feelings about all of it.
DeleteI think we have just to wait for this particular graph to go down. Pricing people out of housing is a sin but it is up to presumably the middle class to recognise what they are doing and vote OUT as far as tories being in power. Agree completely that labour doesn't hold any promise of a brighter future. I always throw my vote away by voting Green and they seem to have made it in Scotland.
ReplyDeleteScotland want to exacerbate the problem by creating another border for themselves and making bonded deliveries go through two sets of controls rather than one. I don't believe this is the time to be trading conflicting ideologies by voting Green.
DeleteSome in the US feel a new party is required. I agree that things will get worse before they get better.
ReplyDeleteA new party or a different system, but now is not the time I think. When things go wrong in society, the far-right rise. They depend on disunity and they exploit disharmony.
DeleteAnd you can see that in so many places.
DeleteThat is disturbing
I think any extremists will do anything they can to exploit prevalent conditions, but the extreme left seem to go for it when things are good for what they perceive to be the wealthy and privileged. Both faction's rally cry is 'unity' in the face of a 'common enemy', but both use the same social tactics to further their cause. The right conditions for life on this planet are very fine and precarious, and the right conditions for a peaceful life are even more delicately balanced. Goldilocks had a lot to answer for when she was picky about whose porridge she stole.
DeleteAny time there's a huge shift, there's a bit of upheaval, and seemingly, those who will exploit that for their own selfish motives.
ReplyDeleteLike Weaver, I also eschew being political, but must agree with you both.
This is beyond politics - if anything can truly be that.
DeleteIn Germany we soon have elections and a lot of people are really not knowing whom to vote. All politicians suddenly discovered "climate" (- am for saving that, it is high time - but I do not believe that they do really care - or use the right way. (Not that I am an expert - but some things are really contra-productive).
ReplyDeleteAs a big England fan I am sad about all the difficulties in economy now.
And yes: I was very surprised when some very (!) modest houses in Clapham were said to be "worth" more than a million now. (Though here in Germany prices for houses or apartments also go through the roof, and in the Netherlands too).
Not much fun to be young at the moment, I fear.
What will you do without Mutti? Germany has been very Green for a long time, even if the politicians are not.
ReplyDelete