TLDR: This Redditors thoughts that the UK could be heading for a revolt.
Would love to hear reddits thoughts on this.
For cIarity I would consider myself to a Socialist by nature and it pains me to see people experiancing hardship due to no fault of their own. I will try to be impartial when wrtting this, but doubt I'll be successful.
I feel like the UK working class and even some of the middle class are now approaching a precipice. I'm not sure? I'm sensing an undertow of discontent.
We've experianced a substantial amount of change in a relatively short period of time. In my opinion these events have exposed the disparity and injustices that would normally be hidden away.
Brexit I think has been the first big change which has really divided the nation quite bitterly. Regrettably I voted to leave the EU. Naively at the time I thought this would be the best way to express my displeasure with the government. I strongly believe the only reason the Leave campaign made it over the line was due to others voting with a similar thought process or those who initially believed the propoganda which has since been debunked and the lies exposed. I believe that the UK has been left in a weaker position financially and poorer diplomatically with our neighbor's.
COVID was the next event, although necessary the lockdown of the country had a major impact on the economy and lives of the people. Businesses have gone under and people have lost their livelihoods. Again government corruption and deceit has been shown to have taken place, partygate & contracts awarded to “mates” to name a couple of scandals. The pandemic clearly deepend the financial hardship the population was already facing following brexit, but it has also erroded the trust of the people towards the establishment and politicians even further.
Event number 3. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused a horrendous humanitarian crisis. I'm deeply ashamed at the response of the UK to provide support to the Ukrainian people, in fact our record for supporting any refugees of any country is shocking.
In addition the resulting war has lead to a cost of living crisis the likes of which hasn't been see for generations. Energy prices have rocketed, food supply chains distrupted, the cost of food production and distribution also heavily impacted. All this while energy producers are seeing obscene profits. Our government has the means to reduce taxes on the most vulnerable and increase taxes on the billion pound corporations to see us through these hardtimes, yet they are unwilling to do this. They would rather borrow billions of £ which will have to be paid back by public taxation. Again we've seen a very us and them mindset, this will bring greater poverty to the UK and crucially to those households which have normally been able to weather the past difficulties.
And finally event number 4. The UK has just lost its monarch. I used to think that I was in some form a royalist, however the more I think on it any respect I've had for the monarchy was with the queen herself, not because of her position but more for the link that she had to WWIl (think the respect for a grandparent living in that time). The amount of pomp and pageantry that we're seeing and will continue to see for her funneral and the succession of King Charles will be monumental. The cost to the public purseid going to be huge at a time when we're already experiencing a tremendous amount of difficulty, it's going to be a hard pill to swallow for many. I find that one of the biggest slaps in the face of the british people is that any assest transfered to the new king will not be subject to taxation (inheritance tax) as there is a clause in the law that excludes the monarchy to avoid the erosion of wealth. Surely they have have ample assests that will will recoup any tax in time.
Overall I feel that the UK is in a pressure cooker, and people have eaten too much shit. Unions are striking, people are dying and were seeing a bigger push from workers for fair pay that meets the cost of living. We're still seeing the “elite” trying to go on as business as usual and we're definitely not all in this together.
If you made it this far thanks for reading.