Inflation and recession

Originally Posted by Martin Butler

Expectations are a lot different also, When i was a kid we were a family of 6, 4 kids and 2 parents, money was tight, but my parents were of the war generation, clothes got mended, and if an elder son grew out of something, one of the younger children got it, hand me downs, we grew our own veg, and fruit, we foraged hedgerows for black berries, went fruit picking , mum was never a good cook, but she always seemed to be able to put something on the table, us kids, 3 boys and 1 girl all learnt to cook, to wash our clothes, and were quite independent, once we were all working, we paid our own way, we paid rent, and if we wanted something, we got it our selves, we saved up,

Same here, except 4 boys. I was the youngest so luckily by the time the clothes got to me they were back in fashion!

[Borg Warner]

Not just here the economic forecast looks a little bleak:

https://f24.my/8aqk

[bl52krz]

I am saving all the cardboard boxes I can. Do people know what for?

[macafee2]

Originally Posted by bl52krz

I am saving all the cardboard boxes I can. Do people know what for?

to be your new house? You may well have a few neighbours.

macafee2

[Borg Warner]

Originally Posted by bl52krz

I am saving all the cardboard boxes I can. Do people know what for?

You live in Birmingham?

Clearly an upgrade.

Best thing to come out of Birmingham?

The M6.

[grivas]

Originally Posted by mbev51

Hi, brace yourselves for what is coming. My wife and I are very lucky we have means and resources. One third of the population arent as lucky, they have no savings, they need to be supported, how that can be achieved, i dont know. Im trying to read 'road to Wigan Pier', only a few pages each night. The book, which is really a commentry on working class lives pre war, paints an awful picture of the lives of particularly miners. How familles kept going in those difficult times, its just so different to todays lifestyles. Our country is getting poorer, hopefully we will never regress back to those times.

We read these statistics daily and whilst we truly feel for so many people in difficulty we have to ask the questions, why is this happening, who is responsible, who is affected, how is it being addressed, how is this going to be resolved. The policy makers are clueless, the politicians lie and confuse the public, the lack of accountability in public life is criminal etc etc. The public need to decide once and for all, are they going to accept the status quo or are they going to be more demanding from those elected. In my opinion Britain is now in terminal decline, and will continue down this path, whilst the rich ruling class enjoy life, unless the public wake up from the deep sleep, unfortunately this is not going to happen.

[MSS]

Originally Posted by grivas

We read these statistics daily and whilst we truly feel for so many people in difficulty we have to ask the questions, why is this happening, who is responsible, who is affected, how is it being addressed, how is this going to be resolved. The policy makers are clueless, the politicians lie and confuse the public, the lack of accountability in public life is criminal etc etc. The public need to decide once and for all, are they going to accept the status quo or are they going to be more demanding from those elected. In my opinion Britain is now in terminal decline, and will continue down this path, whilst the rich ruling class enjoy life, unless the public wake up from the deep sleep, unfortunately this is not going to happen.

Do you not think the 'deep sleep' was the masses thinking there would be equal living standards for all, universal wealth, rights etc.?

It could be argued that mankind is just going back to how it always was - wealth in the hands of the elite and the masses being the peasants living on the breadline.

If one accepts the above, life seems not too bad at the moment.

What's that line from The Life of Brian?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DXyRsOQ9Is

[torque2me]

Originally Posted by grivas

We read these statistics daily and whilst we truly feel for so many people in difficulty we have to ask the questions, why is this happening, who is responsible, who is affected, how is it being addressed, how is this going to be resolved. The policy makers are clueless, the politicians lie and confuse the public, the lack of accountability in public life is criminal etc etc. The public need to decide once and for all, are they going to accept the status quo or are they going to be more demanding from those elected. In my opinion Britain is now in terminal decline, and will continue down this path, whilst the rich ruling class enjoy life, unless the public wake up from the deep sleep, unfortunately this is not going to happen.

Not all "well-to-do" persons are undeserving of brickbats. Take the chap that invented the 'Biro'. Made him loads of money but his patent income was 1c or 1p (this is from memory) per pen. Often it is just a question of scale.

You ask if we should accept the downsides and the status quo (good band by the way but a little repetitive on chords/beat)? Well, the situation is ever changing. We are constellations away from what was the situation in the 20's (the era my parents were born) and my generation (50's) is quids better than my parents. Should I rail and rant against this? Compare this to the utopia of communism up to the 90's . Those countries never got to the heights we did and we never got to the heights of the USA and Germany.

Those downsides are poorer governance and accountability. A Civil Service (once considered the best and least corrupt in the world) is now woeful. No longer willing to do their duties in the provided offices and thus they cannot provide a decent service. We could go on and on with instances and no administration would be able to sort every one of them out. We often change governments in the hope things improve. My first government was Harold Wilson onwards to Boris. All of them are seen, by me, to be flawed but I know that this is the best that can be achieved so resignedly accept.

Kev

[bl52krz]

Your last paragraph.Flawed? I lived through the last war. The thrifty fifties. The raving 60s. The mundane 70s and so forth.Started work 1955 as an apprentice .Apart from two instances of long absence from work because of illness, 2 and a half years in all, I have managed to keep my head above water, so not to bad. Throughout my life, I have noticed that some people work, and others chose to be unemployed. Those that have decided on the later, seem to have not fared to badly. They seem to achieve TVs, cars , latest mobile phones, computers for the children, holidays abroad, and two I knew of managed caravans to tow around the country with their children. The state now provides almost everything these people want. Now as a pensioner, they are as well off, and in some instances, better off than I am after working almost all my life, and many hours of overtime when I could.Those are the people who are now holding back this country from doing better.Another thing is that it seems to me that over the last thirty years or so, everything my generation, and before, achieved in negotiation at work for better conditions and wages, has been renaged on.I am afraid that until the ‘working classes’ get their act together, things will only get worse. A saying my grandmother used, was:- The working class will always be working class because the will not stick together. Over a lifetime that saying has proved to be very true.

[Saga Lout]

Originally Posted by mbev51

Hi, brace yourselves for what is coming. My wife and I are very lucky we have means and resources. One third of the population arent as lucky, they have no savings, they need to be supported, how that can be achieved, i dont know. Im trying to read 'road to Wigan Pier', only a few pages each night. The book, which is really a commentry on working class lives pre war, paints an awful picture of the lives of particularly miners. How familles kept going in those difficult times, its just so different to todays lifestyles. Our country is getting poorer, hopefully we will never regress back to those times.

I live in Wigan, I was born here and know its history very well and it's got a lot of history, the author George Orwell (real name Eric Blair) is just a part of it. The Wigan pier is a music hall joke by George Formby senior, it's actually a cast iron loading platform that could resemble a pier in its construction, it's still in place although a decoration these days. The pier was used to load coal on to barges as they delivered up and down the canal system.
In the mid 1980's there was a lot of demolition of old buildings around Wigan, many of them from that dismal era of Orwell, he lodged in an upstairs room that overlooked the mill area and the miserable coal fired housing surrounding the mills. I was able to be in the rooms he lodged in before they were knocked down in the name of progress? I saw that bleak landscape as it would have been in his day, it was bleak in the 80's. I was able to see what he saw but without the smog of factory chimney's that he looked out upon, his view was downwards toward the grime and he wouldn't know the town today.