UK uniquely flawed pandemic response - oscillating between lockdown, let it rip, lockdown and finally back to let it rip entirely - cost the country billions, whilst infecting a larger percentage of the population than any other comparably sized country. The long term impact of long Covid is not just reduced labour force participation, but also surely reduced productivity from those able to come back to work but now in a permanently debilitated state.
What are you insinuating would have been the better approach here? It sound like you would have wanted harder lockdowns and/or pursue a zero Covid strategy?
I think he's implying exactly that. I don't necessarily agree with it, but there's something to be said about possibly spiking infections driven by the "we're free!" effect of long term lockdowns followed to removal of any and all restrictions in less that a month. It felt like towing a jack-knifing trailer. One moment we were proceeding off the road, and the other we were careening into oncoming traffic.
Not sure. In the devolved administrations, Scotland in particular, my understanding is they locked down for longer with more restrictions and actually had higher death rates (other factors may be at play here to be fair) or very similar levels:
obviously - in hindsight, zero covid, coordinated globally, would've shut this thing down in 4 weeks. This was the advice of the WHO, ignored by the UK when it mattered.
> The slow decline of the UK is really heartbreaking to watch as someone who always looked up to the UK gov as a model of sobriety and rationality.
This must be a joke, right?
BoJo was literately taken down for partying with colleagues during the lock-down mandates, Sunak was there too. And to be honest, I don't think sobriety is even the Anglo-Saxon lexicon; they're regarded as the worst tourists in Europe because of their rampant and belligerent alcoholism: they're only slightly behind the Russians in that regard.
Brexit was inevitable, they were never really an EU state in anything but name: they had the strongest currency which they were never going to give up, no Schengen agreement but benefited from it as well as the free-trade zones and cheap labour policies from mainland Europe that created lots of resentment--lots of Polish, Czech workers refused to go back during the massive shortages (truckers, nurses) during COVID because of how they were treated in the run up to Brexit. Ultimately the UK suffers from a very insular Island mentality that makes it questionable if they're even European at all--by contrast I think Wales, Ireland and Scotland are definitely European cultures.
Look at my recent post history, I'm not exactly an Anglophile but I've lived and worked in the UK and spent lots of time immersed in the many sub-cultures of the UK one of the reasons it's odd culture appeals so much to me is that it's likely the only modern analogue of the US and it's foreshadowing the fate of the US if things don't get corrected.
It's a cautionary tale and it's political upheaval and overall decay in influence and subsequent loss of both soft/strong power is worth studying. There was nothing slow about it;s decline, after the end of WWII it was apparent and obvious to see the sun had set on Britannia and it went to it's Pirate roots and served as a money-laundering hub for the elite and corrupt: there is a reason why it was called Londongrad by Russian oligarchs.
Adam Curtis is really good at detailing how it happened, Bitter Lake and Hypernormalization is a good start.
This is such a total hit piece with all the right bingo hot words and themes: Brexit, "Island mentality", "Not European", "Sun has set on Britannia", "Pirate roots" (?) to name a few. Total poisonous bile.
One could argue over semantics, but the overall analysis is largely correct in my view (as a British born-and-bred citizen). Is there something you particularly disagree with?
The vitriol in the position. Possessing such a negative exaggerated view point is not healthy and doesn't help discourse. UK has challenges yes, but it has a lot of good to offer too. It reads like left-wing doomerism.
My rhetoric and vocabulary aside, the fact remains the UK is a cautionary tale for the only remaining super-power who the World has come to resent in my Life-time due to it's atrocious track record on civil liberties domestically and empire adventurism abroad. I think the parallels are incredibly apt and are getting more dangerous as the World has descended into Authoritarian-fascism seen around this time last century.
Also, I identify as an anarcho-capitalist with staunch crypto-anarchist values and I think we've been pigeon-holed as right wing extremist/terrorists given our views so being called a left-wing doomerist is a new one. But given how the US and UK have treated Julian Assange, someone from our community, one can sort of guess why you'd call me/us that.
Just so it's clear I was pro-Brexit, but not for the reasons you may think; Nigel Farage is the very definition of the opportunist and useful idiots that makes up the UK (all of them really) political system, as is the whole system with it's reshuffling of PMs and crashing of the GBP and pension system to serve the elites with tax exemption while the populace suffers the most.
The main issue with the UK is it's class system has three levels of mobility- non working class, the working class and the middle class. The upper class has always had the power and control but felt a need to make the middle class, who generate most the wealth, feel that they had some input post WW2. Even Thatcherism was on the side of the middle classes to some degree.
Since 2008 this has changed massively. Now it's a small group of the upper classes who have realised they don't need to care about the middle classes at all who have taken the UK back to a quasi-feudal system where they decide who gets in power in all political parties and what gets on our screens.
The most recent example of this was during the Conservative leadership election where Conservative Home polled it's members and Kemi Badenoch was by far the preferred leader of it's members (Liz and Rishi were bottom). The party which has no obligation to do what it's paying members preferred chose to appoint the lowest two scoring leaders in quick succession. You now have Conservative voters who are going to vote them out because they felt ignored.
If Keir Starmer said "I'll consider another EU referendum" then I'd fully believe that the Labour Party hadn't been got to, but as they haven't, I think they have been nobbled too.
You can expect fewer Brits abroad because we will be poorer, but drinking more heavily just to unwind from what it's like living in the UK. I hope they behave themselves, but I don't have much confidence.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 45.9 ms ] threadhttps://www.ft.com/content/0eccfeef-2913-43a7-9518-6728f15e5...
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/covid-lockdown-s...
This must be a joke, right?
BoJo was literately taken down for partying with colleagues during the lock-down mandates, Sunak was there too. And to be honest, I don't think sobriety is even the Anglo-Saxon lexicon; they're regarded as the worst tourists in Europe because of their rampant and belligerent alcoholism: they're only slightly behind the Russians in that regard.
Brexit was inevitable, they were never really an EU state in anything but name: they had the strongest currency which they were never going to give up, no Schengen agreement but benefited from it as well as the free-trade zones and cheap labour policies from mainland Europe that created lots of resentment--lots of Polish, Czech workers refused to go back during the massive shortages (truckers, nurses) during COVID because of how they were treated in the run up to Brexit. Ultimately the UK suffers from a very insular Island mentality that makes it questionable if they're even European at all--by contrast I think Wales, Ireland and Scotland are definitely European cultures.
Look at my recent post history, I'm not exactly an Anglophile but I've lived and worked in the UK and spent lots of time immersed in the many sub-cultures of the UK one of the reasons it's odd culture appeals so much to me is that it's likely the only modern analogue of the US and it's foreshadowing the fate of the US if things don't get corrected.
It's a cautionary tale and it's political upheaval and overall decay in influence and subsequent loss of both soft/strong power is worth studying. There was nothing slow about it;s decline, after the end of WWII it was apparent and obvious to see the sun had set on Britannia and it went to it's Pirate roots and served as a money-laundering hub for the elite and corrupt: there is a reason why it was called Londongrad by Russian oligarchs.
Adam Curtis is really good at detailing how it happened, Bitter Lake and Hypernormalization is a good start.
My rhetoric and vocabulary aside, the fact remains the UK is a cautionary tale for the only remaining super-power who the World has come to resent in my Life-time due to it's atrocious track record on civil liberties domestically and empire adventurism abroad. I think the parallels are incredibly apt and are getting more dangerous as the World has descended into Authoritarian-fascism seen around this time last century.
Also, I identify as an anarcho-capitalist with staunch crypto-anarchist values and I think we've been pigeon-holed as right wing extremist/terrorists given our views so being called a left-wing doomerist is a new one. But given how the US and UK have treated Julian Assange, someone from our community, one can sort of guess why you'd call me/us that.
Just so it's clear I was pro-Brexit, but not for the reasons you may think; Nigel Farage is the very definition of the opportunist and useful idiots that makes up the UK (all of them really) political system, as is the whole system with it's reshuffling of PMs and crashing of the GBP and pension system to serve the elites with tax exemption while the populace suffers the most.
Sure brits love to get drunk but their politics always seemed reasonable to me.
I love the different subcultures the UK birthed and its heartbreaking how bad things are and are still going to get in the coming century.
Downvote me if you must, wont change my personal (albeit uninformed) feelings.
As for Adam Curtis i enjoy his work but this parody hits it on the nail: https://youtu.be/x1bX3F7uTrg
Since 2008 this has changed massively. Now it's a small group of the upper classes who have realised they don't need to care about the middle classes at all who have taken the UK back to a quasi-feudal system where they decide who gets in power in all political parties and what gets on our screens.
The most recent example of this was during the Conservative leadership election where Conservative Home polled it's members and Kemi Badenoch was by far the preferred leader of it's members (Liz and Rishi were bottom). The party which has no obligation to do what it's paying members preferred chose to appoint the lowest two scoring leaders in quick succession. You now have Conservative voters who are going to vote them out because they felt ignored.
If Keir Starmer said "I'll consider another EU referendum" then I'd fully believe that the Labour Party hadn't been got to, but as they haven't, I think they have been nobbled too.
You can expect fewer Brits abroad because we will be poorer, but drinking more heavily just to unwind from what it's like living in the UK. I hope they behave themselves, but I don't have much confidence.