Is the UK doomed?

I would love proportional voting. I hate the current system.

The UK has been on a downward spiral since 2010. Wage growth and productivity have been stagnant and the economy as a whole is heading into a death spiral. The countries whose economies we used to laugh at, like Italy and Spain, are now our peers and it won't be long before we're talking about Poland and Czech Republic as our rivals. There should be anger and outrage, but the UK is a very insular country. If people travel, they go to touristy parts of Spain or Turkey. If we travelled or even just read news about other countries, we'd realise just how poor we are. We often talk about ourselves as being comparable to the US but an average American worker would look at UK salaries as derisory. GDP per capita is around $15,000 higher in the US. In the UK, we're shocked at how crazy it is that some Americans don't have healthcare, or the level of gun crime, or the restrictions on civil rights. But look at the UK right now: the health service is free to use, but it's on it's knees and relies on overworking doctors and nurses - it isn't sustainable. We don't have much gun crime, but basically all other crime has been decriminalised at this point as police don't have resources to investigate - fun fact: if there is no CCTV evidence of a crime, then it doesn't get recommended for prosecution. The UK is the basket case of the G7. However, there is a chance that the US overtakes it in 2024. There is a credible risk that the US will not be a democratic country after 2024 as the GOP continues to move away from gerrymadering and restricting voting rights to indicating that the party will not accept the results of the next presidential election if the Dem candidate wins. Fun times for everyone.

The pound is rapidly approaching parity with the dollar all while the prices of goods continues to rise. We are slowly becoming a 2nd world country and nothing is being done about it.

Kwazi sh*tting himself lmao

thenorthernecho.co.uk

Letters of no confidence in Liz Truss 'already being put in', claims Tory MP

LETTERS of no confidence in Liz Truss are already coming in amid fears she will "crash the economy", a source has suggested.

Open link

Letters of no confidence are already being submitted by Tory MPs to get Liz Truss out before she destroys the economy any further.

I'm not convinced by the timing of this budget, but some bits are being blown out of proportion a bit.

Scrapping the higher rate of tax sounds contentious until you remember that it was only brought in right at the end of labour's last stint in office, so we're actually reverting back to what labour had.

The rate of tax change gives a little extra money in the pocket, but it would have been far better to have shifted the bands up to reflect the wage spirals in recent years driven by the lack of workforce - a trainee manager at a supermarket is on £44k... they're already knocking on the door of higher rate - that can't be right!?

I agree public services have been underfunded, but noone wants to accept it is possible that there is also a tremendous amount of waste in the public sector. Only half of those in the NHS are clinical... of course you need some folks involved in procurement, facilities etc... but a 1:1 ratio with doctors and nurses etc... no.

This wasn't a good budget, but it's the timing more than the content that is the issue.

Sorry, WRONG. The Scots would be much more well placed to be independent AND part of the EU. A tiny Scotland living under the umbrella of the EU is a far better place than England/Wales on its own.

To remove oneself from the largest, most prosperous and (generally) stable block outside of the US and (maybe) China is suicidal. I cannot believe that fear of brown skinned immigration caused Brits to vote to destroy themselves.

Of course, I've also been stunned as an American to see that the US identity (land of immigrants, open, tolerant, progressive, etc) I was taught in school and university is pure mirage, and that the average America is every bit as racist, hateful and bigoted as any Brit or European.

A cabinet that strays too far from the electorate is obviously working without mandate, which seeds distrust and discontent in the country. It's clear to me that both the British AND American systems are completely out of date and not connected enough to their citizens.

Both countries desperately need to rework their governmental and electoral systems, which are stacked HARD in favor of the affluent and powerful.

I agree with much of what you write, but you fail to account for the fact that voters chose to go along with Boris' folly. Brits chose this disastrous path.

I've been watching the Ken Burns documentary about the US and the Holocaust this week, and it forces the viewer to see and acknowledge that the entire western world went along with, or was at least complicit with, the horrors of Germany's Jewish solution. A frighteningly large part of the US population was anti-immigration, anti-semitic, even sympathetic to politics of the Nazis prior to entry in WWII.

Just as Brits have to face the portion of their populace that is racist, xenophobic, anti-immigrant and fiercely nationalistic (as evidenced by the bizarre spectacle of the Queen's death and national 'mourning'), the US has to face that too-close to half of our voting populace is pro-autocrat, anti-immigrant, racist and convinced of false American exceptionalism. These are all dangerous impulses that are unfortunately very strong in these countries.

Let's leave it there without starting to discuss Orban, Meloni, LePen and their ilk.

Many elementary schools in UK are now majority Muslim. Think about what that means for the future.

The UK is going through a cultural transition and moving towards 2nd world status. When you are first world, and immigrate a populace from the third world that will trend towards being the majority in 20 years...you get a blended 2nd world.

Same thing happening in Europe.

With increasing temperatures the middle east/north africa will continue to flood into Europe and UK.

However I don't think Europe will let itself go down like that. There will be wars and civil wars, much of tied to racism and religion like the Europe of old for thousands of years. When Germany or England or Sweden enters a tipping point where the country becomes at risk of losing its white christian cultural influence there will be wars and violence.

Might not be tomorrow, but definitely with 25 to 30 years.

People and cultures that refuse to evolve and adapt are doomed to failure. The reactionary and racist notion that any culture or identity is locked in place, forever, is absurd on its face.

England was for the Druids, until it wasn't. It was for the Celts, until it wasn't. It was England until it subsumed Ireland and Wales, not to mention the Irish issues. It was Catholic, until it wasn't. It was essentially all-white, until it wasn't. Nobody, including you, can stop these macro changes that occur within EVERY populace over time.

The idea that with wars and climate change, Europe will somehow wall itself off from brown and black people, maintaining some 'pure' monoculture, is wrong, dangerous and already overcome by events. I've spent time in Europe, and fella that horse is already WAY out of the barn.

The big question for now, beyond Russia/Ukraine, is how long it'll take for the EU to destroy Hungary's economy, so that Hungarians decide to get rid of Orban and his autocratic dreams. It'll be a lesson that Italian voters will want to watch closely, as will the UK.

Europe has had wars upon wars because of changes in religious power and other cultures gaining too much power.

I'm not saying it will be stopped, but there will be wars over it. There will be a tyrant who rises to power in England or Germany or France who will try and save the country. He will initially succeed and gain a huge following. He will try and use his power to expel those he deems are lessening the quality of life in Europe and return to the "good old days".

Alternatively, importing so many third world immigrants will lead to more economic strife leading to more calls for socialism/communism as the capitalist system fails to support the growing populace. When did a European country ever peacefully transition to communism?

If you are under 50 you will see a western European land war in your lifetime.

In the recent French election ~60% of the vote went to the "far" left and right candidates. Their thoughts on the EU are complicated and none of this is recent, e.g., see their discussions around the times of the Nice and Lisbon treaties.

Swedan also just voted in some folks that would be called "right wing", and now Italy too. The Brits are also right wing.

Perhaps, rather than derisively dismissing people as "ilk", you would acknowledge the significant societal challenges that are driving people to vote for parties/policies you do not like.

Democracy is a contact sport. Benevolent dictators are short term fixes.

This was pure fabrication from one of the most pathological posters this board has ever seen.

El Keniano is 100% not Kenyan born or bred. He clearly has a privileged UK education. Maybe a parent or grandparent is Kenyan, and he was likely bullied at his (British) school which has resulted in a pathological hatred for all things British.

BTW, explain to me how in British law you can 'slander' somebody who uses an anonymous identity, by claiming he is not who he says he is? Oh, and he also has a Twitter account in which he pretends to be 'Cleopatra' - a 'big bad mamma', which suggests he does like to roleplay a bit, as well as roleplay rather crude and offensive racial stereotypes.

The thing is I remember the same thing from coolrunning which is why I asked. If he is white he shouldn't be ashamed of it...

Well, I suppose technically it would be libel but that's getting picky. He has said on numerous occasions or implied that he is Kenyan/native etc. If someone is implying that he is a liar, that on its own is enough to constitute libel really. All it has to be is an 'unfavorable impression'. Implying that he has lied about his heritage, especially in today's climate, is just that.

Are you a legal expert? I'm quite confident that it would take something extreme (if possible at all) for somebody completely anonymous on a freaking running board to sue somebody for libel for claiming that he wasn't Kenyan. Otherwise, 99% of legal cases in the UK would be made up of such frivolous online spats. In any case, in UK law, a defence against libel is that the alleged libel could be reasonably believed. Contrary to what the doping apologist shill RekRunner claimed, it's been widely believed here for years that El Keniano is a pretend Kenyan. I'm actually one of the few here who believes he may have any link to Kenya at all.

However, if he wants to sue, I'll happily take it up with him and counter sue him for accusing me of racism over highlighting Kenyan doping cases here. I actually do have a personal lawyer, and furthermore, any court case would involve his 'Cleopatra' roleplay, and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't want to be cross examined in public over that.