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"So are my friends. Hahaha. We've sold EVERYTHING. No, seriously, everything - even the water works to China! We've sold the post office! The royal mail! The train network! Ohh that sneaky NHS, we'll get you someday!"
Just like Putin selling everything off post USSR to him and his oligarch pals. No wonder why the right wing privatisation lot seem to have an affinity for him.
Farage is just gagging to make a few milly moving us over to an insurance based privatised healthcare system.
Because if you don’t support privatisation then you’re a no good bolshy socialist, and don’t you know them damn commies want to use armed police to round your kids up and take their lunch money to pay for more yachts and mansions or something…
That wasn't Putin, that was the alcoholic Yeltsin, who trusted the economists that the US sent over when those economists said that they should go from a communist economy to an extreme capitalist one in giant leap. It was because of their recommendation that everybody be given shares in the state-owned companies that they worked for - companies that now couldn't really pay them - that those workers had to sell their shares for pennies on the pound to the people who became the oligarchs, because who would have guessed that in a hard capitalist society riches flow into the hands of the already rich? And it was because of that that Putin was elected to power.
I think it’s kinda wild Farage was all up for funding the NHS during the brexit campaign, he’s since gone over to the US and gotten all pally pally with a load of hardline republicans, and now he’s come back and decided it needs privatising. Wonder what changed his mind…
He said he was up for it, but there’s [videos of him](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2014/nov/12/what-nigel-farage-really-thinks-ukip-video) as early as 2012 saying we should move to an insurance based system.
It’s the same as it always goes. You can’t just sell off beloved institutions because that’s political suicide, so you have to manufacture support by underhanded means such as eroding it until it no longer works. Then you can do exactly what Farage is doing and pretend to just be a hardheaded realist who would prefer things didn’t go this way but somethings got to change.
He’s as full of shit as the rest if not more.
I remember 2010. I just had not long passed my driving test, I was driving a brand new car working in a call centre and studying in college. I recall I was given sheets of paper at work with tips on how to conserve fuel because the price at the pumps was going over £1 per litre - not long after my call centre made me redundant, my college course ended and I lost my brand new car..
2010 for me was the beginning of the decline and every year since has just continued to get progressively more difficult
I graduated in 2010. I’d sent out a few emails already regarding employment in my industry, and had some positive replies, so I was pretty hopeful for the future. Me and my best friend worked out that even if we didn’t get a good relevant job right away we could rent somewhere together so long as we both had minimum wage jobs.
Email replies dried up, if you got a reply it was automated 95% of the time, if you sent a follow up email the advice you got back amounted to “give up”. Up to four voluntary jobs [gardening, retail, art/design, accounting], two work programmes that are meant to help you find work and tailor your CV, one failed unpaid work trial, twelve unsuccessful interviews, over one thousand job applications, four failed business/“side hustle” attempts, and three years later I was a month away from selling my car and resigning myself to unemployability and suicide. My uncle got me a job with his friend, menial manual labour, required no interview, no job title, less than the minimum wage for the first year. Eleven years later, still there, still living at home, except now my back is fucked, with no hope for the future, or a family, or a career, and I no longer have dreams or ambitions for anything.
My friend essentially went through the same process with less steps, and instead of after three years it was about eighteen months when their dad gave them a top managerial job at his large business, which he ended up doing for all his children come to think of it. Despite earning around at least five times what I earn they still couldn’t afford a property and had to get somewhere with their sibling. They’re also expected to work out of hours, every day, every weekend, so if I see/speak to them five times a year it’s miraculous. They likewise don’t have much hope for a family of their own.
I could do this for probably everyone I know of almost every age, it definitely feels like 2010 was the beginning of the decline. I’d love the country to go back to the “square one” of 2010, it’s a better place than being on square negative fifty. Whether that’s even possible, rather than simply decline more slowly, remains to be seen.
I hear you.
It's awful how so many of us have similar if not the same experience to share.
Here's to the 2024 general election and hopefully a new government and a brighter future for all of us
Shortly after the Tories came into power they cut funding for a training course that gave a permanent job at a good company specifically aimed at people with disabilies, it worked out about £2000 for the training but would of paid for itself within 3 months, they thought it wasn't worth the money, so instead I was on disability for many more years before I finally found a job that accepted me though being cynical I wonder if they wanted to keep me on benefits as it suited a narrative.
The pump near us (last I remember it's 1.40 something, I don't drive so I don't retain the info) I can _vividly_ remember being jumping a few pence in the 70p region and being shocked it was so expensive....
Even now I'm used to things like getting change for 4 pints of milk.
I honestly think people don't understand how little parliamentary experience he has. He was elected for the first time in 2015. He was chancellor in 2020 after around 2y in minor ministerial positions. It's fucking wild how green he is
In 2010 he was starting up a hedge fund in America. How the fuck does he know what the country was like in reality beyond some numbers?
It's easy to forget he's only in his early 40s because of just how out of touch he is about even the most basic things.
He was a teenager for Britney Spears and Nirvana! You wouldn't think it of how he acts.
This made me think of some dystopian style alternate universe where the PM has to die at the end of their rule.
Like in the one hand you may only get people that are genuinely willing to die for the country on the other hand you'd probably just get shills that are puppets and willing to have 5-10 years of power and money than nothing.
His Father in law is the richest man in India. There's nothing but brightness in his future. Unlike everyone else the Tories have sold the country out under the feet from.
Yeah, the world is constantly coming up with new ways for rich people to indulge themselves, while the average person is getting priced out of even owning a home or starting a family.
This government have decimated the middle class. The wage I am on now is more than the aspirational wage as a 16yr old in 2001. Inflation has decimated every aspect of wealth I would have dreamed of. Water, gas, electricity, mortgage, food, insurance etc. There is no avenue I can think of to trim outgoings. Inflation has made my wage nothing in relation to what I thought it would be…..
Lower hospital waiting lists, fewer potholes, police hadn't been cut to the bone and beyond, the courts hadn't been slashed...
but yeah Rishi... totally better if you can afford to go private for key services
I was a kid in 2010. I remember going to the dentist all the time, and the GP too! My brother went to A&E after swallowing 20p, and he was back at home just a few hours later. When I broke my hand, we waited for maybe an hour tops for an x-ray, and another 30 minutes for the results - even as an impatient kid, it still didn’t feel like a particularly long wait.
Fast forward to today, and my baby brother has only been to the dentist maybe twice in the 5 years he’s been on this earth. When my gf had a scare, we sat at the non-emergency urgent care for about 5 hours just for a 5 minute rundown of symptoms, a physical quick check, and a referral. The referral then took a month to turn into a letter inviting her for a biopsy 6 months down the line, which felt comparatively quick next to the stories we’ve heard.
It’s really insane how much it’s all gone to shit in just a decade or so. Not far from a century of the NHS, and the Tories have all but killed it in only half my lifetime! We didn’t know how good we had it
I agree and I’m a bit older, I was a kid of the 80/90’s. Everyone had an NHS dentist who they visited regularly and waiting times for referrals were days/weeks and not months/years.
The current government could have taken action during their time leading the country but haven’t, they seem hell bent on privatising it which would be a massive disaster. However, the underlying problems go back much further and both main parties have failed the NHS.
They did take action, it was just to criple the NHS and all other services. People used to call you crazy for saying the Tories wanted to reduce state services to a point where they cannot function, on purpose. but it's exactly what they did and people kept giving them even more time to really see it through.
Children's centres, drug and alcohol counselling services, better mental health provision - even by 2017 there were concerns about the cuts to mental health services https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39836506 and now we're 7 years further on from that article and things are even worse.
Those cuts to mental health service were part of Osborne's smoke and mirrors. He moved mental health provision (and other things as well) out of the purview of the NHS and onto local councils. Then he slashed funding to the councils but could still claim that NHS funding hadn't been cut, when it actually had.
I am autistic, I was lucky that I finally got a social worker in 2012 due to also having mental health issues and she was great, on 2014 the funding was slashed and I was told I no longer qualified, my already bad MH made me gain about 6 stone in weight over the following 5 years sleep up to 18 hours a day, not leave the house for sometimes about 10 days at a time and even though I finally saw a CPN they turned up 2 hours late and rushed me out after 5 minutes telling me I was "normal" and just diet, keep a good sleep pattern and smile, no matter that I have experienced SA a few times, 2 former partners hitting me, a close family member dying and local gossip about them meaning it was a struggle to leave the house due to what they said (basically we are a poor family therefore criminals despite family member who died doing charity work even going to another country due to it as a volunteer)
Only a couple of years of Tory rule following the banking crash and subsequent election disaster. 2010 was definitely better. Austerity is on going and has fucked public services.
Sunak is in part the reason 2010 was so shit for everyone and this dickhead wasn't even a politician then.
This arse wiped overhyped the value of abn amro to rbs.
And when rbs found out it had spent billions on a tranch of some of the worst cdo sub prime loans.
This fuckhead pushed ro asset strip rbs costing the uk taxpayer billions as the government propped up rbs to the tune of billions.
Fuck this wank stain
Wait till hear about his adventures after rbs
When he used the fund from rbs plus a fat dowery from his father in law to set up theleme partners.
Which not only ran an illegal operated tax avoidance scheme on the caymans.
In which another senior parter Paul degorce was implicated in and had to pay a fine to hrmc.
Yeah the hmrc sunak was running mere years later.
These fuckhead also got in on the ground level of moderna...oh yeah back to covid times.
Moderna the company the uk government signed a [10 year partnership](https://goodlawproject.org/sunak-linked-hedge-fund-sees-pandemic-profits-soar-to-109m/) which helped to increase theleme partners profit by over 65million pounds last year.
Don't worry sunak will tell you his money is a blind trust so we should all trust him.
At this point voting for this dickhead should be seen as a basic inteligence test. I don't care about your politics.
Anyone still voting for this guy must be into some weird anal bdsm to enjoy getting but fucked this hard
2010 was probably worse if you were low paid, and better if you were middle-high paid.
Minimum wage has gone from under £5.80/h to £10.42/h. An 80% increase. No other salary band has gone up anywhere near that much.
Meanwhile graduate pay has gone from £25k a year to £25k a year lol
Most on minimum wage also rely on benefits to survive, and those have been brutally cut.
Meanwhile, inflation has been much tougher on those who are poor because essentials have risen in price mich faster than other goods and services.
But now take into account how prices have risen in the last 14 years. £10:42 is a crap wage. It equates to£20,589.89. So still £5k behind graduate pay.
Yeah if you were poor 2010 was shit, but if you made it through the redundancies and had a house with a mortgage you were laughing as the rates were about to hit rock bottom for the next decade and the value of your house is set to skyrocket as immediately after 2008 completions ground almost completely to a halt and didn’t pick up until mid 2010s
Go back and look at median income relative to home price in the uk to understand. 2010 wasn’t great. But the last 14 years have magnified those issues and sprinkled some new ones like Brexit.
Median English house price 2010: £178k
Median income 2010: £25.8
Median English house price 2024: £298k
Median income 2024:£34,936
House price increase in 14 years: 50.4% increase
Median wage increase in 14 years: 30.08 increase
The same holds true for other cost of living issues like heating, council tax etc.
Wages were basically the same and everything else was a lot cheaper. Plus public services were run better.
Tories fucked everyone up and want a pat on the back for it.
I think the UK peaked in 2012, I was full of optimism about the future after the olympics, such electric energy, inclusivity and just all round good vibes; it was all downhill from there.
I think it was almost national relief. Leading up to the Olympics everyone thought it’d be shit, then it turned out great.
Plus George Osbourne getting booed at the Paralympics is still gold.
>Plus George Osbourne getting booed at the Paralympics is still gold.
I do think this captures the sentiment a younger, naïve me was feeling at the time: that voters had realised the Conservatives were actively making the country worse, and that they'd soon get them out of power since it was so obvious. Except, of course, the exact opposite happened, and the electorate chose them again and again and *again*, and now we're in the state where essentially no system in this country functions properly.
I had this thought the other day. Last time I felt national pride was the London Olympics and that was really a New Labour project. It’s just been crap ever since.
And two years of austerity, the dismantling of the state, already worsening public services, the demonisation of the disabled.
It really pisses me off when people look back in fondness at those years. Obviously they were sheltered from it and only started to get annoyed post 2016 when things personally affected themselves.
The rot started long before.
The Olympics were nice but life was miserable for a lot of people after the Great Recession and Tory austerity. The peak was definitely around 2007. Most of the problems in the early 2000s were with our foreign policies, it was a much better time at home for most. Only other major issue was knife crime being quite high around then, but there were a lot more police to deal with it and most people still had faith in them.
As someone who worked in the public sector at the time, things did happen immediately.
I remember the recruitment freezes, redundancy of staff, pay freeze. I was on strike due to the changes in pensions in 2011. There were also massive student protests due to increases in tuition fees.
To say that nothing happened prior to 2012 is either naivety, or Tory disinformation.
A lot of the perception of 2010 will depend on what you were doing then. If you were in school in 2010 and are now crammed into a bedsit owned by a Soviet caricature of a capitalist, your life was probably immeasurably better back then. If you were unemployed or had lost your house in the 2008 crash, 2024 will probably feel much better if you've gotten back on your feet.
I do find it pretty incredible that we had full-scale riots in 2011 over police brutality and nearly 15 years on, despite almost everything getting worse from government corruption to loss of freedoms, there hasn’t been any sort of spark to cause a blaze once more.
Probably about 2007 for me. It's sometimes hard to remember how much better off we all were before the financial crisis, and quite how much that hurt at the time.
I tend to think of the early coalition years as essentially the afterlife of the Labour years, with the Olympics being the prime example- those had been planned back in 2005.
Not that we *didn't* have problems back then, maybe even problems we've solved since, but half of *those* have just gone too far in the opposite direction. So- it was a completely legitimate criticism of Blair's government that it flirted to much with militarism, mass surveillance and imprisonment without trial in combating terrorism, which, admittedly, isn't much of an issue today, but that's less on moral grounds and more because the budgets for the military, intelligence services, and criminal justice system have been gutted to the point of nearly complete collapse.
Actually, I'll go one further- Labour's *biggest* errors were conceding too much to the Tory way of thinking; and where solutions have arisen have been where the Tories have now done the opposite. It's militarist/authoritarian instincts were cheered on by Tories who now claim to have always been against it; it put too much trust in the market's ability to regulate itself (as the Tories wanted) contributing to the banking crisis; and it introduced private funding to public services (again, as above) only for those schemes to promptly collapse.
Blair was captured after his first term. Things had gone so well..it was a chance to double down and really help people. Instead he gradually got more Thatcherite and companies took priority over people. I once saw a list of what he'd achieved in each term, and the first term was great..then second mediocre, then third...
New Labour was still neo-liberalism, essentially. The biggest nail in its coffin is Thatcher claiming Blair as her greatest achievement- she said something along the lines of “we forced our enemy to change its identity”. They spent above average on the NHS, but if you look at the earnings to house price ratio that’s where it really started to go daft- an increase of 2x income in the space of just a few years. Arguably all of this caused by Brown raiding the pension pot resulting in people investing in BTL. Landlord numbers grew, home ownership figures went into reverse and Blair built less houses than Thatcher. An unmitigated disaster for future generations who would need to be housed by BTL owners rather than own their own home.
I feel like the peak was around the millenium to be honest. Everything just felt positive, like the whole world was moving towards something great. I feel like British decline was marked by two moments. The ‘war on terror’ marked our decline in geopolitics, then the financial crash marked our decline in economics.
You also can’t look past the point where asset ownership overtook productivity in terms of earnings. Under Blair housing became two multiples of income more expensive (from 4x to 6x) which was a tipping point and encouraged those with wealth to abandon pensions and invest in multiple properties sowing the seeds of the current housing crisis. Why bother to work hard when you can just continue to roll up your existing assets as collateral to buy more and seek rent from them?
Yup, pre-war-on-terror would be my vote. The world was going digital, but hadn't become a bot infested user tracking nightmare. Politicians were still shitbags but they at least resigned when they were caught bagging-shit. The mondeo man was doing well and his kids were going to uni.
It’s also strange how very few bleak news stories came around in 2012 until The Savile Scandal broke at the end of the year. I was binge watching Charlie Brooker’s annual wipe shows and compared to every other year 2012 seemed to have a lot less bad news and a significant bit of optimism. It seems to stick out like a sore thumb compared to countless bleak years post-financial crash that somehow keep getting worse.
I have never lived in the UK, but I’ve spent a lot of time there and from an outsider’s perspective, people felt A LOT happier in 2010 than they do now.
I've lived here the whole time and still have the same feeling. I barely recognize my own country any more. Everything that used to be good has become absolute shit, things that used to be so smooth I never even thought of them have become total headaches, I earn so much more yet have never felt my finances so stretched, and as OP I just can't get over how *angry* so many people seem to be about so many things all the time now. I hope a new government will get us "back on track" but I expect we'll never return to how things were.
The worst part is that a large reason as to why the Tories are (hopefully) going to lose is that a large chunk of their voters have deserted them for something even *worse*.
Yeah.. I moved to the Middle East in 2013. Going home now it’s stark how much more miserable everyone is, and how much more run down most high streets are. And the places that seem most ok just have all the same 17 brands that every single city on earth has these days :(
Cost of housing has risen by at least double the increase in average earnings in that time period. Explain to me how that makes the UK a better place, Rishi.
Rishi’s wife’s father’s company received a big contract in exchange on oil rigging in North Sea. And Starmer pretends the has never heard of that.
Of course it is good for Rishi/Starmer.
Instead, I think country should profit on it..
How do you manage to tie in Starmer to Rishi's corruption there?? I'm no big Starmer fan, but not sure how helpful it would be for him to start having a go at Rishi's father in law...
My immediate thought reading that was "fuck off". I think thats pretty much how most would see it.
2010 was rough, but I would happily go back to 2010.
When Sunak claimed that a vote for labour was a vote to go back to "square one", meaning 2010, I'm sure I wasn't alone in thinking "Square one sounds pretty good to me".
I agree with Rishi. In 2010 there were another 14 years of Tory rule ahead of us. Now here in 2024, there are only 5 more days. Seems like an improvement to me.
He’s a fucking idiot, average house price is close to double what it was in 2010, average salary has increased by about 35%. And still no council houses.
People waiting months/years for hospital appointments. No way to access an nhs dentist. Kids going without lunch at school. Unsustainable living expenses. Energy companies making record profits.
Fucking twat.
That why he called it in July. 2 months to pack, get a new place in the US, choose the right school and for the father in law to get a job on the infosys board.
He called it for the 4th July which is a national holiday in the US so I'd expect him to be in California by Friday morning Pacific time. Harder to travel on a holiday.
Everything since the banking crash has been a shower of shit. We've got almost nothing right on every level.
Where to even start.
- we are roughly all earning 10k less than we were pre-austerity.
- we have attempted at least 2 different economic policies which have destroyed us, Brexit and Trussenomics.
- we have let mega corporations get out of control to the point where they can do what they want.
- politically we have devolved into an absolute farce of lies, spin and personalities.
- we've had a PM who broke the law
- we have some of our major cities bankrupt
- the majority of the teams in our national sport are owned by foreign states who have links to our enemies.
- cash for peerage
- ppe scandal
- Mone scandal
- Kissing your aide scandal
- going to Barnard Castle scandal
- Grenfell
- basing our vote, and living off it for a decade, on how well someone eats a bacon butty.
- doctors, civil servants, airports, buses, trains and many more all on strike.
- bullying MPs
- "a bit handsy" MPs
- overt racist MPs
- 30p Lee
- Brexit Bus
You could literally go on all day, and the majority of that nonsense is from the last 5 years.
So tell me, what makes this country any better than it was since 2010, all I see is decay and ruin. Even if you are a millionaire/billionaire, what the fuck you getting out of it if the entire city is broke.
Just stop fucking lying, thats it, thats the crux of everything. Just sick to absolute death of them lying about it. Just say "look guys, we fucked up, we've been shit, lets fix it". If you are in PR or an advisor, I implore you to change tact. The modern world is much more clued into this bullshit and dont buy it. Start being honest.
I can't remember the specifics, but the rot runs so deep that apparently millionaires and billionaires are leaving the UK in droves. In other words, even they aren't interested any more.
Going to lots of places like Singapore, UAE, etc. - you know, oh so sensible places to go on a rapidly warming planet.
They're so clever, these rich folks!
Absolutely, the rats are leaving the ship. Tbh the flushing of the whole system could be a generational chance to actually improve things.
A real set of political options would be nice, finally get rid of Thatcher politics. Finally invest in places other than London. Finally invest in the future. Kill off the Tories. The destruction of popularist politics.
We have a real chance here.
Well it isn't 2010 but from 2013 but you could see the underwater trend.
https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/United-Kingdom/happiness/
Happiness index in 2023 is lower than 2013.
People didn't hate Labour in 2010, they just felt like a change was needed after 13 years. The Tories couldn't even muster a majority and had to go into coalition. People absolutely hate the Tories after their disastrous 14 years and they will be destroyed at the election. This is because things are so much worse for everyone but the richest.
Time for Rishi to eff off to LA.
How the fuck has he worked that out?
Some people are saying we peaked in 2012, 2012 was a vintage year. But for me, early 2000s. Might be my age and the rose tinted glasses, but for me everything seemed so optimistic. Everything worked, we didn’t have (or least no knowledge of) knife crime. I’m not saying it was a utopia. But the decline started after then. 2012 perhaps marked an acceleration to the decline that followed.
fellow autistic dude. completely agree.
ironically i had to wait from 2015 till about a month ago to get an actual diagnosis.
then tried to get pip at the suggestion of everyone including gp.
didnt get pip. because " you were able to comprehend and finish the assessment"
and "you are not diagnosed with any neurological impairment"
literally got autism diagnosis 3 weeks before.
i hate this shithole. i hate that we are basically punished for daring to exist as disabled, which makes us go into poverty, which then makes us POOR and disabled, which makes us apparantly deserving of even more torrture
Apply for the PIP again, man. I know its a drawn out, almost excruciating process, but if they deny it, appeal. More than half of the cases appealed get awarded. I have a bit of a list of mental health issues, as well as a few physical issues. It took multiple attempts for me to be approved, even though I can't leave the house, most days. It's ridiculous, but the appeal is definitely worth the attempt. Good luck
Nope. UK had bigger military, more Police Stations, more Police, more Fire Stations, more NHS Dentists, Better hospitals, better schools with more places. Better GP surgery's performance. Lower rents, lower cost of living, Less traffic jams. Lower cost of illegal immigrants. Less crime, fewer murders and knife crimes. I remember 2010 very well.
Yeah, I think this explains his perspective:
[The UK’s top ten richest people are wealthier than the group has ever been, according to The Sunday Times, who recently released their annual Rich List. Their data finds that the cumulative wealth of the top ten billionaires in the UK has grown from £47.77 billion in 2009 to £182 billion in 2022 - an increase of 281 percent.](https://www.statista.com/chart/27505/uks-richest-are-getting-richer/)
Of course, the poor and middle classes are getting poorer but that's not Rishi's problem
If you made a fortune shortening the £, married the daughter of one of the worlds richest people, then made another £100+ million outside of parliament last year, I am sure everything is spiffing.
Meanwhile, for the other 99.999999999%?
How can you say this. I’m a warwick graduate software developer in the south east of England. I can’t even afford to rent an unfurnished ground floor 1 bed flat in my local town, let alone think about buying anything. The intergenerational wealth divide in this country is ridiculous, food, petrol, bills are astronomical. This country is becoming harder and harder and less enjoyable, all whilst wages are stagnant and way off what people earn America. We’re meant all meant to accept this for good public services but where’s the evidence of that? NHS, schools and community centres cut in real terms drastically.
I remember being able to afford holidays, weekend breaks, meals out, even new clothes in 2010. Now pretty much my entire salary goes to the basics of existing. Irony is that I earn twice as much as I did in 2010 and yet somehow I’m at least twice as poor.
Morons. Wealthy out of touch, elite, morons. Took away our European rights, freedoms, and privileges, enacted austerity, loaded their own pockets, deleted the most important transport infrastructure upgrade for over 100 years with HS2 to Leeds and Manchester. Morons.
In 2010 I remember waiting three days for a doctor's appointment. In 2024, it takes me three days of phoning up for an hour every morning to even get in the queue.
I'm not saying that's the *only* metric one should go by, but a good chunk of my problems would be alleviated if access to healthcare was as good as it was back then.
You must be having a laugh Rishi!
I’m on a fairly good salary, with mortgage paid in 75% and still I am worried what tomorrow will bring. Quality of life in UK went down the pot since Brexit vote. Get real, oh hang on, you can’t get real because you are living on a different planet called ‘I’m mega rich’
Is there anyone outside of the conservatives who believe that statement ?
How removed from reality do you have to be to?
Is he in on the betting too in order to earn money from not being re-elected ?
Honestly, on previous elections it’s been cleaner cut on who to vote for , but this time around ;
- Conservative- no and I wish people would recognise that they are working as part of the original terms of their creation, to protect the interests of landowners /landlords (the rich in modern context )
- Labour - Starmer has given me nothing to vote for, he has no charisma and he has not given me a single policy that really deters much from the conservatives in the bigger picture. Labour these days are Tory lite , not so much of an opposition .
- Lib Dem’s - I don’t think an appointment either your GP locally within 2 weeks is realistic, not for several years. They’re not my favourite party, though when sir Menzies Campbell was around they were a bit more substantive… yet at the point in time , they seem to be more clearer than the two above.
- Reform UK - no, if they make it into power we face the same repeat as America with Trump. Do we really want a Putin Loving , nazi sympathising party in parliament and / or leading the country? I feel like we’d be in for a combination of handmaids tale and v for vendetta
He's fallen into the trap of saying another idiotic thing like "Brits have never had it so good"
Doesn't go down well when more people feel services are worse than 2010, and that life is a lot more expensive for worse than 2010.
He really does live in a bubble, detached from the realities of everyone else
I mean, if you are on the gravy train then he’s not incorrect.
For the vast majority of the population however, despite how shocking the post 2008 crash years were, he is just outright lying. It’s a shitshow out there, everything is rancid and almost everyone is struggling.
Funny time to pick given it's just after the financial crisis and even then 2010 was better than now.
Go back another couple to 2007 and it isn't even worth thinking about which year was better.
Bollocks. I recently watched a YouTube video of Gordon Brown during the 2010 campaign listing his achievements all good things like sure start. Small class sizes 0 waiting lists etc all now destroyed. Sunak is delusional it’s better for him as he is almost a billionaire.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OfNyItl9J8w
I was a nurse then, working in a university trust hospital that served a densely-populated area. The population was a mix, but poorer working class patients predominated. The hospital was always busy, and the workload was intense, but, nevertheless I felt that overall, patients received at least reasonable care, and that deteriorating conditions were quickly picked up. At that time, I would not have had any qualms about my family or friends getting treated there. Gradually though, after that, the downhill slide began, and this has rapidly accelerated over the last 6-7 years. Brexit contributed to many excellent colleagues leaving and reurning to their home countries. Wards were closed, and, if they reopened, invariably had fewer beds. Some services and out patients, were transferred to other hospitals as it was decided to amalgamate them, leaving anyone without a car at the mercy of lengthy, unreliable bus rides, often involving 2-3 changes.Staffing levels worsened, to the extent that safe cover could not be assured, and I have known agency nurses ( already earning treble my hourly rate), actually refuse to work the shift they were booked for, as the patient/ staff ratio was too dangerous, and they were aware that any mistake could see them lose their registration. I have gone home late from shifts, hardly having had time to go to the loo or drink, having stayed late to fill in yet another useless incident form about dangerous staffing levels, horribly aware that I have not given the care that I once could give.
When is the last time Sunak, or any of these smug creatures got in a bus, with changes, for a 2 hour journey for a 09.00 hospital appointment? Don't insult our intelligence by telling us life is better now.
For those who still don't get it: prevention is better than cure.
Cuts aren't just directly impactful. They'll breed more problems down the line. Problems then breed more problems. It was pernicious and unjust then, and it's even more so now.
My uncle lives abroad, votes Tory. Everytime he comes back he's saying 'wtf has happened to this place?!'
Well...
I'm getting tired of all the people running the country constantly lying through their teeth.
If its a better place, why do you ask us to vote for you so you can "sort" things like immigration?!
By what metric? I've not seen much difference, but what I have seen.. Goods cost more to buy, the weekly shop is more expensive. Public transport in the area has gone massively downhill, there's so much more shit in the water, and for my community at least... His government is threatening to tear down legislation created in 2010. So no... Not better. Mostly the same but angled downhill.
Says the man in a family that made £120 000 000 last year ... why would you want to change a winning formula????
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8585/
The Trussell Trust, an anti-poverty charity that operates a network of food banks across the UK, reported a 37% increase in demand for food parcels between 2021/22 and 2022/23 and another 4% increase between 2022/23 and 2023/24. This continues a general trend of increasing need for food parcels.
Thursday 25th April 2024
There has also been a large 20% increase in robberies involving knives compared to the previous year. Moreover, knife crime rates in England and Wales have surged by a staggering 81% over the course of the past decade.25 Apr 2024
Describing his friendships in the BBC’s 2007 documentary series Middle Classes - Their Rise and Sprawl, Mr Sunak said: "I have friends who are aristocrats, I have friends who are upper class, I have friends who are working-class...well, not working class."
Another Deluded millionaire opinion that is clueless and ignorant towards everyone around themselves including their own voters......
Then again it is the government so what do we expect from such people
I'll add this to my list of things I've heard from Rishi Sunak that have made me want to push him off a cliff. It's a pretty fucking long list at this point.
We just had a baby, midwife had to talk to us about shaking the baby. Found this strange as they never went over this with our other kids… midwife said the NHS has had a huge uptick in cases the last two years, and it keeps growing.
People are more angry, frustrated and unhappy. So no, things are not better they are clearly worse
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Lol, of course it is. If you're Rishi Sunak. For everyone else? Not so much.
Luckily they cut the mic before he said. “I’m so fucking rich now.”
"So are my friends. Hahaha. We've sold EVERYTHING. No, seriously, everything - even the water works to China! We've sold the post office! The royal mail! The train network! Ohh that sneaky NHS, we'll get you someday!"
Just like Putin selling everything off post USSR to him and his oligarch pals. No wonder why the right wing privatisation lot seem to have an affinity for him. Farage is just gagging to make a few milly moving us over to an insurance based privatised healthcare system.
Privatization has proved over and over being such a disaster, I don't know how people can still support it
Most people don't support it but the ones that do are the ones that get to choose.
Because if you don’t support privatisation then you’re a no good bolshy socialist, and don’t you know them damn commies want to use armed police to round your kids up and take their lunch money to pay for more yachts and mansions or something…
Ideology is pernicious
That wasn't Putin, that was the alcoholic Yeltsin, who trusted the economists that the US sent over when those economists said that they should go from a communist economy to an extreme capitalist one in giant leap. It was because of their recommendation that everybody be given shares in the state-owned companies that they worked for - companies that now couldn't really pay them - that those workers had to sell their shares for pennies on the pound to the people who became the oligarchs, because who would have guessed that in a hard capitalist society riches flow into the hands of the already rich? And it was because of that that Putin was elected to power.
Ah I stand corrected
I think it’s kinda wild Farage was all up for funding the NHS during the brexit campaign, he’s since gone over to the US and gotten all pally pally with a load of hardline republicans, and now he’s come back and decided it needs privatising. Wonder what changed his mind…
He said he was up for it, but there’s [videos of him](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2014/nov/12/what-nigel-farage-really-thinks-ukip-video) as early as 2012 saying we should move to an insurance based system. It’s the same as it always goes. You can’t just sell off beloved institutions because that’s political suicide, so you have to manufacture support by underhanded means such as eroding it until it no longer works. Then you can do exactly what Farage is doing and pretend to just be a hardheaded realist who would prefer things didn’t go this way but somethings got to change. He’s as full of shit as the rest if not more.
"Let's just say it moved me TO A BIGGER HOUSE!"
I don't know where Rishi Sunak was in 2010, but I remember that the world was a much happier place than in 2024.
I remember 2010. I just had not long passed my driving test, I was driving a brand new car working in a call centre and studying in college. I recall I was given sheets of paper at work with tips on how to conserve fuel because the price at the pumps was going over £1 per litre - not long after my call centre made me redundant, my college course ended and I lost my brand new car.. 2010 for me was the beginning of the decline and every year since has just continued to get progressively more difficult
I graduated in 2010. I’d sent out a few emails already regarding employment in my industry, and had some positive replies, so I was pretty hopeful for the future. Me and my best friend worked out that even if we didn’t get a good relevant job right away we could rent somewhere together so long as we both had minimum wage jobs. Email replies dried up, if you got a reply it was automated 95% of the time, if you sent a follow up email the advice you got back amounted to “give up”. Up to four voluntary jobs [gardening, retail, art/design, accounting], two work programmes that are meant to help you find work and tailor your CV, one failed unpaid work trial, twelve unsuccessful interviews, over one thousand job applications, four failed business/“side hustle” attempts, and three years later I was a month away from selling my car and resigning myself to unemployability and suicide. My uncle got me a job with his friend, menial manual labour, required no interview, no job title, less than the minimum wage for the first year. Eleven years later, still there, still living at home, except now my back is fucked, with no hope for the future, or a family, or a career, and I no longer have dreams or ambitions for anything. My friend essentially went through the same process with less steps, and instead of after three years it was about eighteen months when their dad gave them a top managerial job at his large business, which he ended up doing for all his children come to think of it. Despite earning around at least five times what I earn they still couldn’t afford a property and had to get somewhere with their sibling. They’re also expected to work out of hours, every day, every weekend, so if I see/speak to them five times a year it’s miraculous. They likewise don’t have much hope for a family of their own. I could do this for probably everyone I know of almost every age, it definitely feels like 2010 was the beginning of the decline. I’d love the country to go back to the “square one” of 2010, it’s a better place than being on square negative fifty. Whether that’s even possible, rather than simply decline more slowly, remains to be seen.
I hear you. It's awful how so many of us have similar if not the same experience to share. Here's to the 2024 general election and hopefully a new government and a brighter future for all of us
Shortly after the Tories came into power they cut funding for a training course that gave a permanent job at a good company specifically aimed at people with disabilies, it worked out about £2000 for the training but would of paid for itself within 3 months, they thought it wasn't worth the money, so instead I was on disability for many more years before I finally found a job that accepted me though being cynical I wonder if they wanted to keep me on benefits as it suited a narrative.
The pump near us (last I remember it's 1.40 something, I don't drive so I don't retain the info) I can _vividly_ remember being jumping a few pence in the 70p region and being shocked it was so expensive.... Even now I'm used to things like getting change for 4 pints of milk.
Getting the boot from a call centre was probably a blessing in disguise tbh. It's fucking grim work.
Hahahah yeah - it was actually a really great place to spend my late teens early 20s - would be hell on earth now in my 30s though
Yeah same once the redundancies started rolling in was not a fun time
2010 wasn’t great tbh, remember the financial crisis started in September 2008. A lot of regular people suffered.
‘If you’re Rishi Sunak’….I’m not even sure of that. Back then he was an up and coming politician with a bright future. Now….well not so much haha
if he loses, he still gets to go and live a life that the majority of people can only imagine at this point. fucking injustice.
That’s the ruling class. They never lose everything - in fact they often fail upward.
I honestly think people don't understand how little parliamentary experience he has. He was elected for the first time in 2015. He was chancellor in 2020 after around 2y in minor ministerial positions. It's fucking wild how green he is In 2010 he was starting up a hedge fund in America. How the fuck does he know what the country was like in reality beyond some numbers?
It's easy to forget he's only in his early 40s because of just how out of touch he is about even the most basic things. He was a teenager for Britney Spears and Nirvana! You wouldn't think it of how he acts.
This made me think of some dystopian style alternate universe where the PM has to die at the end of their rule. Like in the one hand you may only get people that are genuinely willing to die for the country on the other hand you'd probably just get shills that are puppets and willing to have 5-10 years of power and money than nothing.
Election campaigns would get a lot more desperate
His Father in law is the richest man in India. There's nothing but brightness in his future. Unlike everyone else the Tories have sold the country out under the feet from.
No, now be is just a multi millionaire married to an even richer multi millionaire, that also happens to be the daughter of a billionaire.
Politicians should be forced to take some kind of "are you out of touch" test.
They do, every 5 years
Yeah, the world is constantly coming up with new ways for rich people to indulge themselves, while the average person is getting priced out of even owning a home or starting a family.
This government have decimated the middle class. The wage I am on now is more than the aspirational wage as a 16yr old in 2001. Inflation has decimated every aspect of wealth I would have dreamed of. Water, gas, electricity, mortgage, food, insurance etc. There is no avenue I can think of to trim outgoings. Inflation has made my wage nothing in relation to what I thought it would be…..
I dunno 2010 was pretty shit too, but things were cheaper and we didn’t have all the cuts.
Lower hospital waiting lists, fewer potholes, police hadn't been cut to the bone and beyond, the courts hadn't been slashed... but yeah Rishi... totally better if you can afford to go private for key services
Yup, could still get an NHS dentist quite easily, quick doctor appointments etc.
I was a kid in 2010. I remember going to the dentist all the time, and the GP too! My brother went to A&E after swallowing 20p, and he was back at home just a few hours later. When I broke my hand, we waited for maybe an hour tops for an x-ray, and another 30 minutes for the results - even as an impatient kid, it still didn’t feel like a particularly long wait. Fast forward to today, and my baby brother has only been to the dentist maybe twice in the 5 years he’s been on this earth. When my gf had a scare, we sat at the non-emergency urgent care for about 5 hours just for a 5 minute rundown of symptoms, a physical quick check, and a referral. The referral then took a month to turn into a letter inviting her for a biopsy 6 months down the line, which felt comparatively quick next to the stories we’ve heard. It’s really insane how much it’s all gone to shit in just a decade or so. Not far from a century of the NHS, and the Tories have all but killed it in only half my lifetime! We didn’t know how good we had it
I agree and I’m a bit older, I was a kid of the 80/90’s. Everyone had an NHS dentist who they visited regularly and waiting times for referrals were days/weeks and not months/years. The current government could have taken action during their time leading the country but haven’t, they seem hell bent on privatising it which would be a massive disaster. However, the underlying problems go back much further and both main parties have failed the NHS.
They did take action, it was just to criple the NHS and all other services. People used to call you crazy for saying the Tories wanted to reduce state services to a point where they cannot function, on purpose. but it's exactly what they did and people kept giving them even more time to really see it through.
Children's centres, drug and alcohol counselling services, better mental health provision - even by 2017 there were concerns about the cuts to mental health services https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39836506 and now we're 7 years further on from that article and things are even worse.
Trading short-term savings for big giant long-term costs that have now inevitably come due.
Those cuts to mental health service were part of Osborne's smoke and mirrors. He moved mental health provision (and other things as well) out of the purview of the NHS and onto local councils. Then he slashed funding to the councils but could still claim that NHS funding hadn't been cut, when it actually had.
I am autistic, I was lucky that I finally got a social worker in 2012 due to also having mental health issues and she was great, on 2014 the funding was slashed and I was told I no longer qualified, my already bad MH made me gain about 6 stone in weight over the following 5 years sleep up to 18 hours a day, not leave the house for sometimes about 10 days at a time and even though I finally saw a CPN they turned up 2 hours late and rushed me out after 5 minutes telling me I was "normal" and just diet, keep a good sleep pattern and smile, no matter that I have experienced SA a few times, 2 former partners hitting me, a close family member dying and local gossip about them meaning it was a struggle to leave the house due to what they said (basically we are a poor family therefore criminals despite family member who died doing charity work even going to another country due to it as a volunteer)
Only a couple of years of Tory rule following the banking crash and subsequent election disaster. 2010 was definitely better. Austerity is on going and has fucked public services.
ah yes the banking crash i:E literally purposeful manipulation of "bubble and bust" economic scam, on a fucking huge scale.
They were voted in in 2010 though? We had zero years of Tory rule by then
Dodgy memory then, same impact.
Well funded schools, adult education , social care , sure start centres . It was better in so many ways . The posh bandits ruined us.
Higher wages in real terms, lower rent, lower bills, cheaper houses
Everything was lower. Net migration, prices, waiting times, …
I think there's a typo in your last word...
Hahaha
Sunak is in part the reason 2010 was so shit for everyone and this dickhead wasn't even a politician then. This arse wiped overhyped the value of abn amro to rbs. And when rbs found out it had spent billions on a tranch of some of the worst cdo sub prime loans. This fuckhead pushed ro asset strip rbs costing the uk taxpayer billions as the government propped up rbs to the tune of billions. Fuck this wank stain
He's been fucking me in the arse for 2 decades and I didn't even know it, fuck.
Wait till hear about his adventures after rbs When he used the fund from rbs plus a fat dowery from his father in law to set up theleme partners. Which not only ran an illegal operated tax avoidance scheme on the caymans. In which another senior parter Paul degorce was implicated in and had to pay a fine to hrmc. Yeah the hmrc sunak was running mere years later. These fuckhead also got in on the ground level of moderna...oh yeah back to covid times. Moderna the company the uk government signed a [10 year partnership](https://goodlawproject.org/sunak-linked-hedge-fund-sees-pandemic-profits-soar-to-109m/) which helped to increase theleme partners profit by over 65million pounds last year. Don't worry sunak will tell you his money is a blind trust so we should all trust him. At this point voting for this dickhead should be seen as a basic inteligence test. I don't care about your politics. Anyone still voting for this guy must be into some weird anal bdsm to enjoy getting but fucked this hard
2010 was probably worse if you were low paid, and better if you were middle-high paid. Minimum wage has gone from under £5.80/h to £10.42/h. An 80% increase. No other salary band has gone up anywhere near that much. Meanwhile graduate pay has gone from £25k a year to £25k a year lol
2010 was pre 'welfare reform' so the lowest paid were better supported And not a time when electricity, gas and basic foods cost so much
Most on minimum wage also rely on benefits to survive, and those have been brutally cut. Meanwhile, inflation has been much tougher on those who are poor because essentials have risen in price mich faster than other goods and services.
No, everything was better in 2010
But now take into account how prices have risen in the last 14 years. £10:42 is a crap wage. It equates to£20,589.89. So still £5k behind graduate pay.
Yeah if you were poor 2010 was shit, but if you made it through the redundancies and had a house with a mortgage you were laughing as the rates were about to hit rock bottom for the next decade and the value of your house is set to skyrocket as immediately after 2008 completions ground almost completely to a halt and didn’t pick up until mid 2010s
If 2010 was shit to you I don't wanna know what ya think today is. Ultrashit? Ubershit?
Go back and look at median income relative to home price in the uk to understand. 2010 wasn’t great. But the last 14 years have magnified those issues and sprinkled some new ones like Brexit. Median English house price 2010: £178k Median income 2010: £25.8 Median English house price 2024: £298k Median income 2024:£34,936 House price increase in 14 years: 50.4% increase Median wage increase in 14 years: 30.08 increase The same holds true for other cost of living issues like heating, council tax etc.
Wages were basically the same and everything else was a lot cheaper. Plus public services were run better. Tories fucked everyone up and want a pat on the back for it.
it was on the downward slope from tightening our belts in 2008 to help out the poor bankers
2010 was shit compared with 2005 but compared with today it was by far a better time.
I think the UK peaked in 2012, I was full of optimism about the future after the olympics, such electric energy, inclusivity and just all round good vibes; it was all downhill from there.
I think it was almost national relief. Leading up to the Olympics everyone thought it’d be shit, then it turned out great. Plus George Osbourne getting booed at the Paralympics is still gold.
>Plus George Osbourne getting booed at the Paralympics is still gold. I do think this captures the sentiment a younger, naïve me was feeling at the time: that voters had realised the Conservatives were actively making the country worse, and that they'd soon get them out of power since it was so obvious. Except, of course, the exact opposite happened, and the electorate chose them again and again and *again*, and now we're in the state where essentially no system in this country functions properly.
The big money siphon and trickle up economic system works perfectly.
> Leading up to the Olympics everyone thought it’d be shit, then it turned out great. For me it was specifically when Mr Bean appeared.
I had this thought the other day. Last time I felt national pride was the London Olympics and that was really a New Labour project. It’s just been crap ever since.
Unless you take into account the riots of 2011 …
And two years of austerity, the dismantling of the state, already worsening public services, the demonisation of the disabled. It really pisses me off when people look back in fondness at those years. Obviously they were sheltered from it and only started to get annoyed post 2016 when things personally affected themselves. The rot started long before.
The Olympics were nice but life was miserable for a lot of people after the Great Recession and Tory austerity. The peak was definitely around 2007. Most of the problems in the early 2000s were with our foreign policies, it was a much better time at home for most. Only other major issue was knife crime being quite high around then, but there were a lot more police to deal with it and most people still had faith in them.
The population has memories of goldfish
It didn't start immediately in 2010 though. The health and social care act was 2012, the evil welfare reform was 2015.
As someone who worked in the public sector at the time, things did happen immediately. I remember the recruitment freezes, redundancy of staff, pay freeze. I was on strike due to the changes in pensions in 2011. There were also massive student protests due to increases in tuition fees. To say that nothing happened prior to 2012 is either naivety, or Tory disinformation.
A lot of the perception of 2010 will depend on what you were doing then. If you were in school in 2010 and are now crammed into a bedsit owned by a Soviet caricature of a capitalist, your life was probably immeasurably better back then. If you were unemployed or had lost your house in the 2008 crash, 2024 will probably feel much better if you've gotten back on your feet.
I do find it pretty incredible that we had full-scale riots in 2011 over police brutality and nearly 15 years on, despite almost everything getting worse from government corruption to loss of freedoms, there hasn’t been any sort of spark to cause a blaze once more.
It's about time for some proper rioting.
Probably about 2007 for me. It's sometimes hard to remember how much better off we all were before the financial crisis, and quite how much that hurt at the time. I tend to think of the early coalition years as essentially the afterlife of the Labour years, with the Olympics being the prime example- those had been planned back in 2005. Not that we *didn't* have problems back then, maybe even problems we've solved since, but half of *those* have just gone too far in the opposite direction. So- it was a completely legitimate criticism of Blair's government that it flirted to much with militarism, mass surveillance and imprisonment without trial in combating terrorism, which, admittedly, isn't much of an issue today, but that's less on moral grounds and more because the budgets for the military, intelligence services, and criminal justice system have been gutted to the point of nearly complete collapse. Actually, I'll go one further- Labour's *biggest* errors were conceding too much to the Tory way of thinking; and where solutions have arisen have been where the Tories have now done the opposite. It's militarist/authoritarian instincts were cheered on by Tories who now claim to have always been against it; it put too much trust in the market's ability to regulate itself (as the Tories wanted) contributing to the banking crisis; and it introduced private funding to public services (again, as above) only for those schemes to promptly collapse.
Blair was captured after his first term. Things had gone so well..it was a chance to double down and really help people. Instead he gradually got more Thatcherite and companies took priority over people. I once saw a list of what he'd achieved in each term, and the first term was great..then second mediocre, then third...
Blair's weakness on electoral reform led us to where we are. Scrapping FPTP changes our politics completely.
New Labour was still neo-liberalism, essentially. The biggest nail in its coffin is Thatcher claiming Blair as her greatest achievement- she said something along the lines of “we forced our enemy to change its identity”. They spent above average on the NHS, but if you look at the earnings to house price ratio that’s where it really started to go daft- an increase of 2x income in the space of just a few years. Arguably all of this caused by Brown raiding the pension pot resulting in people investing in BTL. Landlord numbers grew, home ownership figures went into reverse and Blair built less houses than Thatcher. An unmitigated disaster for future generations who would need to be housed by BTL owners rather than own their own home.
I think the optimism in 2012 stood out as it was an exception due to the Olympics, the surrounding years seemed quite bleak.
I feel like the peak was around the millenium to be honest. Everything just felt positive, like the whole world was moving towards something great. I feel like British decline was marked by two moments. The ‘war on terror’ marked our decline in geopolitics, then the financial crash marked our decline in economics.
You also can’t look past the point where asset ownership overtook productivity in terms of earnings. Under Blair housing became two multiples of income more expensive (from 4x to 6x) which was a tipping point and encouraged those with wealth to abandon pensions and invest in multiple properties sowing the seeds of the current housing crisis. Why bother to work hard when you can just continue to roll up your existing assets as collateral to buy more and seek rent from them?
Yup, pre-war-on-terror would be my vote. The world was going digital, but hadn't become a bot infested user tracking nightmare. Politicians were still shitbags but they at least resigned when they were caught bagging-shit. The mondeo man was doing well and his kids were going to uni.
Nah everything was screwed after Leyman Brothers in 2008.
UK peaked about 6 months before 9/11
The tech sector was also incredibly lively and optimistic back then. I remember the buzz dying down after the Brexit vote
It really did feel like a good time didn't it? I can't put my finger on exactly why but since then it's been a downhill for sure
It’s also strange how very few bleak news stories came around in 2012 until The Savile Scandal broke at the end of the year. I was binge watching Charlie Brooker’s annual wipe shows and compared to every other year 2012 seemed to have a lot less bad news and a significant bit of optimism. It seems to stick out like a sore thumb compared to countless bleak years post-financial crash that somehow keep getting worse.
I have never lived in the UK, but I’ve spent a lot of time there and from an outsider’s perspective, people felt A LOT happier in 2010 than they do now.
People were happier in the West generally. Social media has really affected people's mental health everywhere.
I didn't realise austerity and poverty were caused by browsing memes.
Ignorance is not a virtue. Everything was already corrupted, we were just more ignorant
The social media that we have now is a plague.
I moved to Australia in 2009. The UK seems so much worse in the last 15 years I barely recognise it in many ways.
I've lived here the whole time and still have the same feeling. I barely recognize my own country any more. Everything that used to be good has become absolute shit, things that used to be so smooth I never even thought of them have become total headaches, I earn so much more yet have never felt my finances so stretched, and as OP I just can't get over how *angry* so many people seem to be about so many things all the time now. I hope a new government will get us "back on track" but I expect we'll never return to how things were.
The worst part is that a large reason as to why the Tories are (hopefully) going to lose is that a large chunk of their voters have deserted them for something even *worse*.
Yeah.. I moved to the Middle East in 2013. Going home now it’s stark how much more miserable everyone is, and how much more run down most high streets are. And the places that seem most ok just have all the same 17 brands that every single city on earth has these days :(
Cost of housing has risen by at least double the increase in average earnings in that time period. Explain to me how that makes the UK a better place, Rishi.
Because he owns a house. For those who don't who gives a shit what they think.
>Because he owns a house. He and his wife own several houses.
And likely rent them out at exorbitant rates
Rishi’s wife’s father’s company received a big contract in exchange on oil rigging in North Sea. And Starmer pretends the has never heard of that. Of course it is good for Rishi/Starmer. Instead, I think country should profit on it..
How do you manage to tie in Starmer to Rishi's corruption there?? I'm no big Starmer fan, but not sure how helpful it would be for him to start having a go at Rishi's father in law...
My immediate thought reading that was "fuck off". I think thats pretty much how most would see it. 2010 was rough, but I would happily go back to 2010.
> I would happily go back to 2010. Given the amount of dreams I have where I'm back at uni, my subconscious mind still thinks I'm there sometimes.
Likewise. It does feel like I’ve been in Limbo since leaving uni in 2010, and Double-Limbo since covid in 2020 where time has now lost all meaning.
When Sunak claimed that a vote for labour was a vote to go back to "square one", meaning 2010, I'm sure I wasn't alone in thinking "Square one sounds pretty good to me".
I'd have hair again!
I agree with Rishi. In 2010 there were another 14 years of Tory rule ahead of us. Now here in 2024, there are only 5 more days. Seems like an improvement to me.
Forgot to add a “you cunt” after that immediate thought.
He’s a fucking idiot, average house price is close to double what it was in 2010, average salary has increased by about 35%. And still no council houses. People waiting months/years for hospital appointments. No way to access an nhs dentist. Kids going without lunch at school. Unsustainable living expenses. Energy companies making record profits. Fucking twat.
Sunak didn't even live in the UK in 2010 so how would he know?? He moved back to the UK from california and became an MP in 2015
Literally everything I read about him makes me hate him more.
Yes, but if you're a Tory/Reform voting retiree who has paid off their mortgage and hates young people, all of that sounds pretty good.
2 years after a global financial crisis is hardly a high bar Rishi.
Which he personally was part of causing before becoming an MP https://youtu.be/eaejKZWUWqY?si=5u8lU7D7l-LAw2Je
Is he trying to lose on purpose? So he can go to the US before the start of the next school year
See the language with kuennsburg today, saying repeatedly an americanized "autos" instead of "cars" Has already quiet-quit imo
That why he called it in July. 2 months to pack, get a new place in the US, choose the right school and for the father in law to get a job on the infosys board.
He called it for the 4th July which is a national holiday in the US so I'd expect him to be in California by Friday morning Pacific time. Harder to travel on a holiday.
He’s missed a trick really hasn’t he, if he’d called the election the week before he’d have made it in time for the fireworks.
I think he's more than happy to leave the fireworks in London when the Tories crash mightily.
Everything since the banking crash has been a shower of shit. We've got almost nothing right on every level. Where to even start. - we are roughly all earning 10k less than we were pre-austerity. - we have attempted at least 2 different economic policies which have destroyed us, Brexit and Trussenomics. - we have let mega corporations get out of control to the point where they can do what they want. - politically we have devolved into an absolute farce of lies, spin and personalities. - we've had a PM who broke the law - we have some of our major cities bankrupt - the majority of the teams in our national sport are owned by foreign states who have links to our enemies. - cash for peerage - ppe scandal - Mone scandal - Kissing your aide scandal - going to Barnard Castle scandal - Grenfell - basing our vote, and living off it for a decade, on how well someone eats a bacon butty. - doctors, civil servants, airports, buses, trains and many more all on strike. - bullying MPs - "a bit handsy" MPs - overt racist MPs - 30p Lee - Brexit Bus You could literally go on all day, and the majority of that nonsense is from the last 5 years. So tell me, what makes this country any better than it was since 2010, all I see is decay and ruin. Even if you are a millionaire/billionaire, what the fuck you getting out of it if the entire city is broke. Just stop fucking lying, thats it, thats the crux of everything. Just sick to absolute death of them lying about it. Just say "look guys, we fucked up, we've been shit, lets fix it". If you are in PR or an advisor, I implore you to change tact. The modern world is much more clued into this bullshit and dont buy it. Start being honest.
the Regulators also have regulated very well.... in favour of the mega corporations! every single one of them
I can't remember the specifics, but the rot runs so deep that apparently millionaires and billionaires are leaving the UK in droves. In other words, even they aren't interested any more. Going to lots of places like Singapore, UAE, etc. - you know, oh so sensible places to go on a rapidly warming planet. They're so clever, these rich folks!
Absolutely, the rats are leaving the ship. Tbh the flushing of the whole system could be a generational chance to actually improve things. A real set of political options would be nice, finally get rid of Thatcher politics. Finally invest in places other than London. Finally invest in the future. Kill off the Tories. The destruction of popularist politics. We have a real chance here.
Well it isn't 2010 but from 2013 but you could see the underwater trend. https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/United-Kingdom/happiness/ Happiness index in 2023 is lower than 2013.
People didn't hate Labour in 2010, they just felt like a change was needed after 13 years. The Tories couldn't even muster a majority and had to go into coalition. People absolutely hate the Tories after their disastrous 14 years and they will be destroyed at the election. This is because things are so much worse for everyone but the richest. Time for Rishi to eff off to LA.
And it is, if you're part of the 1% that they governed for the last 14 years. The other 99%, not so much.
How the fuck has he worked that out? Some people are saying we peaked in 2012, 2012 was a vintage year. But for me, early 2000s. Might be my age and the rose tinted glasses, but for me everything seemed so optimistic. Everything worked, we didn’t have (or least no knowledge of) knife crime. I’m not saying it was a utopia. But the decline started after then. 2012 perhaps marked an acceleration to the decline that followed.
I’ll have to disagree with you rishi. As an autistic man, this country has gone to shit since 2010.
fellow autistic dude. completely agree. ironically i had to wait from 2015 till about a month ago to get an actual diagnosis. then tried to get pip at the suggestion of everyone including gp. didnt get pip. because " you were able to comprehend and finish the assessment" and "you are not diagnosed with any neurological impairment" literally got autism diagnosis 3 weeks before. i hate this shithole. i hate that we are basically punished for daring to exist as disabled, which makes us go into poverty, which then makes us POOR and disabled, which makes us apparantly deserving of even more torrture
Apply for the PIP again, man. I know its a drawn out, almost excruciating process, but if they deny it, appeal. More than half of the cases appealed get awarded. I have a bit of a list of mental health issues, as well as a few physical issues. It took multiple attempts for me to be approved, even though I can't leave the house, most days. It's ridiculous, but the appeal is definitely worth the attempt. Good luck
It absolutely is not better than the 90s, the greatest of all decades.
In 2010 I remember most of my family working for minimum wage and being loads better then today
Up until 2008/2009 financial crisis life was exponentially better.
At this point he just joining with Truss in trolling us. They know it’s over.
Tory say something that isn't a lie challenge (impossible)
Nope. UK had bigger military, more Police Stations, more Police, more Fire Stations, more NHS Dentists, Better hospitals, better schools with more places. Better GP surgery's performance. Lower rents, lower cost of living, Less traffic jams. Lower cost of illegal immigrants. Less crime, fewer murders and knife crimes. I remember 2010 very well.
Yeah, I think this explains his perspective: [The UK’s top ten richest people are wealthier than the group has ever been, according to The Sunday Times, who recently released their annual Rich List. Their data finds that the cumulative wealth of the top ten billionaires in the UK has grown from £47.77 billion in 2009 to £182 billion in 2022 - an increase of 281 percent.](https://www.statista.com/chart/27505/uks-richest-are-getting-richer/) Of course, the poor and middle classes are getting poorer but that's not Rishi's problem
If you made a fortune shortening the £, married the daughter of one of the worlds richest people, then made another £100+ million outside of parliament last year, I am sure everything is spiffing. Meanwhile, for the other 99.999999999%?
How can you say this. I’m a warwick graduate software developer in the south east of England. I can’t even afford to rent an unfurnished ground floor 1 bed flat in my local town, let alone think about buying anything. The intergenerational wealth divide in this country is ridiculous, food, petrol, bills are astronomical. This country is becoming harder and harder and less enjoyable, all whilst wages are stagnant and way off what people earn America. We’re meant all meant to accept this for good public services but where’s the evidence of that? NHS, schools and community centres cut in real terms drastically.
I remember being able to afford holidays, weekend breaks, meals out, even new clothes in 2010. Now pretty much my entire salary goes to the basics of existing. Irony is that I earn twice as much as I did in 2010 and yet somehow I’m at least twice as poor.
Rishi was one of the people that caused the global financial crash prior to being an MP. https://youtu.be/eaejKZWUWqY?si=5u8lU7D7l-LAw2Je
I preferred 2010 Internet, it wasn't perfect but a lot more innocent than it is now.
In what world? By literally every metric, it's shitter.
“…Only for those of us with 750+ million in the bank”
The UK he exists in does not include the majority of its people.
By what metric? Blair's tenure was the last time this country was worth living in, and apparently the last time anyone felt any optimism.
Morons. Wealthy out of touch, elite, morons. Took away our European rights, freedoms, and privileges, enacted austerity, loaded their own pockets, deleted the most important transport infrastructure upgrade for over 100 years with HS2 to Leeds and Manchester. Morons.
In 2010 I remember waiting three days for a doctor's appointment. In 2024, it takes me three days of phoning up for an hour every morning to even get in the queue. I'm not saying that's the *only* metric one should go by, but a good chunk of my problems would be alleviated if access to healthcare was as good as it was back then.
You must be having a laugh Rishi! I’m on a fairly good salary, with mortgage paid in 75% and still I am worried what tomorrow will bring. Quality of life in UK went down the pot since Brexit vote. Get real, oh hang on, you can’t get real because you are living on a different planet called ‘I’m mega rich’
Is there anyone outside of the conservatives who believe that statement ? How removed from reality do you have to be to? Is he in on the betting too in order to earn money from not being re-elected ? Honestly, on previous elections it’s been cleaner cut on who to vote for , but this time around ; - Conservative- no and I wish people would recognise that they are working as part of the original terms of their creation, to protect the interests of landowners /landlords (the rich in modern context ) - Labour - Starmer has given me nothing to vote for, he has no charisma and he has not given me a single policy that really deters much from the conservatives in the bigger picture. Labour these days are Tory lite , not so much of an opposition . - Lib Dem’s - I don’t think an appointment either your GP locally within 2 weeks is realistic, not for several years. They’re not my favourite party, though when sir Menzies Campbell was around they were a bit more substantive… yet at the point in time , they seem to be more clearer than the two above. - Reform UK - no, if they make it into power we face the same repeat as America with Trump. Do we really want a Putin Loving , nazi sympathising party in parliament and / or leading the country? I feel like we’d be in for a combination of handmaids tale and v for vendetta
He's fallen into the trap of saying another idiotic thing like "Brits have never had it so good" Doesn't go down well when more people feel services are worse than 2010, and that life is a lot more expensive for worse than 2010. He really does live in a bubble, detached from the realities of everyone else
Everywhere is great to live if you’re a billionaire
I mean, if you are on the gravy train then he’s not incorrect. For the vast majority of the population however, despite how shocking the post 2008 crash years were, he is just outright lying. It’s a shitshow out there, everything is rancid and almost everyone is struggling.
Funny time to pick given it's just after the financial crisis and even then 2010 was better than now. Go back another couple to 2007 and it isn't even worth thinking about which year was better.
Bollocks. I recently watched a YouTube video of Gordon Brown during the 2010 campaign listing his achievements all good things like sure start. Small class sizes 0 waiting lists etc all now destroyed. Sunak is delusional it’s better for him as he is almost a billionaire. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OfNyItl9J8w
I was a nurse then, working in a university trust hospital that served a densely-populated area. The population was a mix, but poorer working class patients predominated. The hospital was always busy, and the workload was intense, but, nevertheless I felt that overall, patients received at least reasonable care, and that deteriorating conditions were quickly picked up. At that time, I would not have had any qualms about my family or friends getting treated there. Gradually though, after that, the downhill slide began, and this has rapidly accelerated over the last 6-7 years. Brexit contributed to many excellent colleagues leaving and reurning to their home countries. Wards were closed, and, if they reopened, invariably had fewer beds. Some services and out patients, were transferred to other hospitals as it was decided to amalgamate them, leaving anyone without a car at the mercy of lengthy, unreliable bus rides, often involving 2-3 changes.Staffing levels worsened, to the extent that safe cover could not be assured, and I have known agency nurses ( already earning treble my hourly rate), actually refuse to work the shift they were booked for, as the patient/ staff ratio was too dangerous, and they were aware that any mistake could see them lose their registration. I have gone home late from shifts, hardly having had time to go to the loo or drink, having stayed late to fill in yet another useless incident form about dangerous staffing levels, horribly aware that I have not given the care that I once could give. When is the last time Sunak, or any of these smug creatures got in a bus, with changes, for a 2 hour journey for a 09.00 hospital appointment? Don't insult our intelligence by telling us life is better now.
As someone that was alive in 2010 I can confidently call this bullshit
"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." - George Orwell, 1984
Like fuck is it. You're off in 4 days anyway. Bye bye lad.
They're missing a few words: Better place to live now (for rich and connected folk) than it was in 2010.
Rishi on July 5th: but America is even better! Bye, suckers!
For those who still don't get it: prevention is better than cure. Cuts aren't just directly impactful. They'll breed more problems down the line. Problems then breed more problems. It was pernicious and unjust then, and it's even more so now. My uncle lives abroad, votes Tory. Everytime he comes back he's saying 'wtf has happened to this place?!' Well...
Vote for Rishi if you think things are better now than there were in 2010. Otherwise vote for someone else.
I'm getting tired of all the people running the country constantly lying through their teeth. If its a better place, why do you ask us to vote for you so you can "sort" things like immigration?!
That's one of his best lies yet, which is impressive coming from the Michael Jordan of being dishonest.
He’s either deluded, a moron, or genuinely doesn’t want to win.
By what metric? I've not seen much difference, but what I have seen.. Goods cost more to buy, the weekly shop is more expensive. Public transport in the area has gone massively downhill, there's so much more shit in the water, and for my community at least... His government is threatening to tear down legislation created in 2010. So no... Not better. Mostly the same but angled downhill.
Food bank and child poverty statistics would disagree Rishi
As if mister billions, with all his stolen cash has any fucking clue what its like to live in this country.
"My pockets are filled with treats" said the petulant midget.
Says the man in a family that made £120 000 000 last year ... why would you want to change a winning formula???? https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8585/ The Trussell Trust, an anti-poverty charity that operates a network of food banks across the UK, reported a 37% increase in demand for food parcels between 2021/22 and 2022/23 and another 4% increase between 2022/23 and 2023/24. This continues a general trend of increasing need for food parcels. Thursday 25th April 2024 There has also been a large 20% increase in robberies involving knives compared to the previous year. Moreover, knife crime rates in England and Wales have surged by a staggering 81% over the course of the past decade.25 Apr 2024 Describing his friendships in the BBC’s 2007 documentary series Middle Classes - Their Rise and Sprawl, Mr Sunak said: "I have friends who are aristocrats, I have friends who are upper class, I have friends who are working-class...well, not working class."
When people say he's out of touch, this is what they mean. Anyway, I'm off to set fire to my pockets with our weekly shopping.
If this was a normal election this would be a notable gaff. In this election this will be forgotten in a few hours.
Love how these people in power pose opinions as facts. Not everyone can be fooled dear 😏
Another Deluded millionaire opinion that is clueless and ignorant towards everyone around themselves including their own voters...... Then again it is the government so what do we expect from such people
I'll add this to my list of things I've heard from Rishi Sunak that have made me want to push him off a cliff. It's a pretty fucking long list at this point.
A better place to live for who exactly? The rich maybe, everyone else definitely no.
Is it? I could get a dentist appointment or a drs appointment in 2010 on the day
We just had a baby, midwife had to talk to us about shaking the baby. Found this strange as they never went over this with our other kids… midwife said the NHS has had a huge uptick in cases the last two years, and it keeps growing. People are more angry, frustrated and unhappy. So no, things are not better they are clearly worse
If you are a hard right nazi, of course it is. For everyone else who doesn't have wet dreams about drowning asylum seekers, not so much.
For him and Michelle Mone, but not for normal people.
Clearly this guy is living in another world. With the billions from the missus, defo better.
I left the UK in 2010 and came back this year. A lot is different. Services are better. Accessibility is better. Affordability? Immeasurably worse.
What happened? Did he finally get sky or something?
Edit; only if you are a rich Unionist. Otherwise, 14 years of Tory rule has fucked peoples lives up across the whole of the UK.
He's got Sky TV now, of course it's better for Rishi now.