Maybe, it's just the media, but is anyone getting strong Third World vibes off the UK at the moment?
It'll only eat itself if they run out of Smartprice Beans at the food bank. :-)
Exactly my point. Brexit benefitted virtually nobody but there were plenty of middle class people who knew they'd be ok so the consequences didn't matter.
The same mentality doesn't exist to the same extent in Ireland. The politics of both countries are radically different.
The politics may be different but I'd argue the middle classes are exactly the same.
Benefitted all of the people who had vested interests in in the consultancies for how Brexit would look, along with betting against Brexit succeeding with foreign investment elsewhere.... i.e. all the politicians who backed Brexit.
How many would that be?
lol.
There is no bigger threat than having all your major cities turned in to nuclear wasteland.
not at all, that's just what those who have an unhealthy obsession with WWII and who want to keep that ultra-expensivity part of military spending and funding going want you to think.
One party ruled Italy from shortly after WWII until Berlusconi came to power - the centre-right Christian Democrats. Jockeying for position, or for a better ministry, was common, but this was generally party infighting and had little real effect on the administration of the country.
It is true that there was a strong Communist party, but it was comparable to the British Labour Party,and was compared to them. It was not enormously radical, and gradually became even less so. Certainly some regions were generally ruled by the Communists, but it is silly to compare them to the fascist dictatorship that ran the country for over 20 years. They were thoroughly democratic and played the political game entirely within the system.
Aaahhhh, so they’ve fooled everyone, except you and Jeremy Corbyn.
That's a bizarre one alright. If the EEC / EU was a dictatorship hellbent on oppressing them and stealing their sovereignty, then why build the Tunnel? The sea routes should have been fine for such a malevolent continent.
And now they can't build the high speed lines, it's mad what's happening there
Well it isn't going to matter as long as you wrap your router in tinfoil.
It's recommended that you unplug it for the duration of the airburst though and maybe hold onto it for the blast.
For most countries high speed rail lines are matter of huge prestige - a really powerful way to signify technological prowess of a country.
And yet the Tories and their cronies come along and make a complete bags of it.
Now if the Chinese (or any other country) are looking at Britain to invest in Britain this latest fiasco, is going to have have a reverse halo-effect.
For a country that practically invented mass-scale rail travel, it's sad what has happened.
The UK spent $15.7 billion in aid ( much of it to countries like Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Yemen ), in 2022 slightly down from $15.8 billion in 2021.
I reckon a lot of that should be cut and instead invested in the UK itself if people reckon it is giving off third world vibes ...
...the uk hardly played a role in the fcuk ups in some of these countries, has it!
It is sad what's happening now post-brexit and HS2
So many great memories of 70s Manchester , the pools the libraries , the buses, the lollipop ladies , the NHS , the school meals
They were doing so much right in so many ways
...then maggie came along! what a cnut!
I’m pretty sure that Manchester still has all those things.
I wasn't sure who to blame
Probably the Tories I suppose in the main
They had so much right over there
None of which has changed. All those things are still happening.
The place has changed
They've no direction home as Dylan used to say
Of course it’s changed. You were there fifty years ago.
mamchester is far over than it was in the eighties, so I’m guessing it is also nicer than it was in the seventies.
sometimes people just hark back to a bygone age and have an overly romantic view of the past.
Be grand. Truss is back, baby.
There's probably a reason you chose that username I'm beginning to figure
At the Tory Conference today, they announced it is strongly rumored that HS2 from Birmingham to Manchester is being scrapped.
The conference is being held in a former train station, which was refurbished with funds from the EU, there's literally a plaque on the wall of the building stating that.
The symbolism of Europe funding train infrastructure in the UK in the 20th century and then when the UK decide they can do better on their own, their government having to announce hiding the cancellation of part of the most strategic development project on train transport infrastructure in over 100 years is just too close to the bone as to how the UK has fallen in recent times.
This all but confirmed cancellation and the weekends statement about supporting car transport shows that the UK hasn't hit the bottom just yet as it continues to fall from a place where it was last seen as a Global player. Shameful stuff.
Edited: As apparently the decision to cancel having been made is being denied by #10.
Who announced it? According to the 6 o'clock news on Radio 4 it got no mention in the speeches by the Chancellor or the Minister for Transport.
She had her chance. He should call their bluff.
Sorry, I saw it on a BBC Tweet today, but see now that Number 10 has denied it.
Have edited my post to make it categorically clear that the project is proceeding full steam ahead.
Not too sure about that, here's a few reasons for you.
1. Check the background of most middle class in Ireland,many moved to the city from the countryside in last one to two generations.
2. middle class are relatively new to being middle class in Ireland except for pockets in Southside Dublin mostly. Mostly they only really felt comfortable since the 1990s...
3. Many have experience of emigration and hard economic times (grandparents, parents and themselves if over 30 or so ALL having emigrated and returned and experienced depressions and recessions the likes most British couldn't understand), and have a deeper understanding around the ramifications of that and highly value 'stability' above all else
4. Middle class in Ireland generally strongly support being members of the EU and see the value in that
Perhaps for other factors such as entertainment choices, sun holidays, hobbies , aspirations for their kids they won't differ so much.
The thread title should state "Are the US, UK and Ireland now giving off strong Third World vibes?" because all three have adopted the same neo-liberalist greed-is-good Reagan/Thatcherite model that went into overdrive since the 2008 economic crash. The UK has only added to its woes by stupidly adopting brexit.
