I wouldn't say 2.8 % [1] of UK works on zero hour contracts mean the job market is 'devoted' to zero hour contracts. Just because it is in the news a lot doesn't mean it happens all the time.
Honestly your post makes it seems like the UK is this corrupt, broke country when it couldn't be further from the truth.
All I see is posts against the tories online but every election they've been the majority.
[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwor...
If so, how is it that we no longer fund $service adequately any more (where $service is any and all of them)? How is that possible after so much has been privatised leaving so many fewer to fund publicly? Why can't we afford enough police?
Why can't we afford adequate library provision? Interesting that parliament keeps their public library though, isn't it?
How is it that in a time of highest levels of employment food banks have grown from barely existing to being everywhere? Could it be that policy has resulted in deliberately inadequate welfare provision? How, in a time of such extensive employment, are wage rises barely noticeable?
If your definition is a few incoming oligarchs buying up expensive property they never set foot in, or someone putting up a willy waving skyscraper sure UK is doing great. By every other measure, including levels of mental health, poverty, satisfaction etc, UK has effectively shot itself.
Oh, and don't hold up Tories being elected as some sort of proof when our democracy is one of the least representative on the planet[1]. Our system is biased both systemically and demographically.
It feels like a corrupt, broke country, especially after a visit to London. It feels like somewhere to be deeply embarrassed of, and I mostly am these days.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9rGX91rq5I CGP Grey's "Why the UK Election Results are the Worst in History" on the 2015 results.
Maybe read other news stories apart from the ones that aren’t just anti-Tory.
My real peeve is what the party system has become, even compared to when I first joined the voting electorate during Thatcher's first term.
The centralisation, and disenfranchisement and corrupt use of private capital in PPP was just as bad under New Labour.
Anti Tory sources? Thanks, that made me smile. For most of my life the Telegraph and weekend FT were the primary sources delivered to house, with Economist and New Scientist subs. I'd buy a Guardian periodically for balance, sometimes the FT full time. I no longer read the Telegraph since it became a rubbish tabloid Daily Mail 2.0 which leaves only Reuters, Guardian and to a lesser extent Independent as serious UK sources online.
They got 36.9% at the last election.
They also fought against moving towards proportional representation because they knew it reduce their power.
There has been no public service ethic in government since the 80s. Government has become a tool for leveraging policy for personal and corporate wealth extraction and the promotion of privilege. Promotion of common welfare and social investment are currently absolutely taboo.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/apr/07/mp-owen-pat...
The reason the Tories keep scraping through election wins is because the UK media are institutionally right-wing. The Tories rely on a base of confused pensioners and - increasingly - dog whistle racists. Latterly, BBC editorial has been obviously compromised, with BBC News failing to challenge or question government policy in any way, and selective reporting making dissent seem either small or irrelevant.
The result is that British voters are probably some of the least educated and informed in all of Europe.
None of this is good. I left the UK last year, and I genuinely fear for the future of the people I left behind. Historically, the next step in this kind of post-imperial malaise is traditionally a military dictatorship. I hope the UK can pull itself together and avoid that, but I worry that it's going to be a very close thing.
Invest into a system for 30 years so the older generation can live comfortable lives off your investments. The same generation being in power, guts your retirement because of austerity.
The tension across generations is so large today, that I wonder if systems that establish intergenerational dependencies are ethical anymore.
Why should a generation that enjoyed cheap education, be able to pull the ladder from behind them once they're done?
Unpopular opinion, but I've wondered if in its pursuit of fairness, Democracy allows a people that are unaffected by a change to blissfully ruin things for those who are adversely affected by it.
IMO, social democracies aren't equipped to deal with an "I got mine" tendency rooted in looser associations with traditional social structures. (such as family, religion or local communities. Not preaching, I am an aethist)
[1]http://www.lse.ac.uk/assets/richmedia/channels/publicLecture...
I'm fine with staying in the UK in the short term but I have huge misgivings about starting a family and raising kids here. If I were to do so, they'd be enjoying the things that most people here don't have the luxury of (private education, etc.).
Local government funding is more centrally funded that at any point in UK history, and the last 8 years have brought an insane skewing of an already heavy skew in favour of London and the South East. The North-South divide is 2:1 for pounds spend by government now.
8 years to destroy every achievement of inclusion and protection since the war. 8 years to put a third of UK children into poverty and a welfare system actively designed to get people to choose to give up. The bastards even knew that whilst rolling it out.
I'm also looking to leave. I really, really don't want my retirement here any more as we abolish everything that was once worthwhile about the country and rush to public services that work as well as the US (ie not at all).
The UK has become, surprisingly quickly, a terrible place to live and work, with widespread poverty and low wages, and a job market devoted to zero hours contracts for all.