Dark clouds are hovering above the United Kingdom, and it is not the usual weather that is bad this time. Economic stability in the nation is probably more vulnerable than it ever was. But can anyone answer, why?
In my opinion, this situation has been brewing for a while. This is just an inevitable result of the actions of those that are in power. Keep in mind all of this is coming from a foreigner's perspective and you don’t have to take any of this seriously at all because I don’t have the power to vote in general elections, yet.
I feel that the repeat of the two thousand and eight lingering in the air, like a bad smell, in all honesty, it could be my town. They use some rancid fertilisers around here. Jokes aside, the situation might prove to be potentially worse for everyone than during the previous financial crisis.
Most people seem to be blaming Tories (Conservative party), and rightfully so. They have been in power for twelve years, and yet all they got to show for is lining their buddies' pockets, Brexit, dysfunctional NHS and messing up the economy amongst many other shenanigans they have pulled out of their magic bag. Let's begin with Brexit. In two thousand and sixteen, the United Kingdom collectively voted to leave the European Union. For me as a foreigner that was a hot-button topic at the time. Financial hardships were forecasted by many, also dismissed by many at the time and even to this day, too. And here we are at this point battling the economic downturn and arguably one of the contributing factors, maybe even the main one, Brexit. People have elected Boris Johnson and his government to deal with Brexit and they also got a challenge early on in their mandate and it was Covid. In my humble opinion, they have fumbled the Covid response too. What I mean by the phrase “fumbled”, includes nations borrowing, mainly from BOE (Bank of England) to cover the costs of lockdowns and covid spending. They have literary printed money, something along the lines of four hundred and twenty-nine billion pounds borrowed of which 99.5% was covered by BOE.
They have created various projects through which they have managed to funnel hard-earned taxpayer's money to their friend’s family members colleagues and financial supporters. They have created an application for your phone, with the purpose to track and trace Covid infection, which did not exactly work as intended. An application for your phone cost the taxpayer thirty-seven billion pounds. Come on now, we all know where most of that money went. Failed PPE supplies had to be destroyed costing taxpayers millions if not billions.
After all that, and a rave at number ten, conservatives decided to get rid of Boris. Now we have “Pork Markets” Liz. She will do fine they said. She will be great they said. The first twenty-four days and she managed to almost crash the pound sterling and caused a great deal of economic damage.
The crisis continues, it is just the beginning. The mortgage rate increase is inevitable which probably will lead to a housing market collapse and loads of homeless people. Inflation will most likely peak at 15%, 15% can anyone imagine this in a first-world nation like the UK with over two trillion dollars in GDP? I could write and write with no end to it, there are twelve years of content that have led to this crisis. Still, there are some people, mostly online, who think that if you really believe in this government and blindly follow what they do without any sort of resistance everything will be great. If you believe strong enough the nation, will heal! Some of you who will read this might try to argue that Brexit had nothing to do with this. And you would be completely and utterly wrong. Around $1.4 trillion of investment has left the country or failed to materialise since Brexit happened. If you think that is nothing, that is around 70% of the UK GDP. Combine that with losses and borrowing, money printing, during Covid and you have yourselves a whirlpool that might take even the mightiest economies down. We can also add exodus of the workforce, the workforce that was trained and performing jobs, those jobs were necessary for the country. I am talking about logistics, the care sector and NHS.
We all need a pragmatic approach. Do not vote for most charisma, do not vote for jokes. Vote with your wallet for your wallet, for your and your children's future. Vote for a robust, cheap and plentiful energy supply. Because a country without secure energy is a vulnerable country. Now many will say we need to go green, and yes, we do. But we must not forget that we will still have to endure a decade or two of expensive gas and oil. Energy prices need to come down now, and then we can all invest in green. A person who has no money left at the end of the month won’t care for the green initiative, care will be placed on staying warm and eating. At the same time, the whole revamp of NHS is needed, because at this very moment it is not fit for its purpose. People are dying waiting to be seen by either A&E or their GP, people are being misdiagnosed or treatments are delayed. Disgraceful, for a nation of such magnitude. If any political movement or party could ensure that all these necessary changes happen with them in power, they would have my imaginary vote. This is a very big challenge for any leader of the country, to undo the damage of those who progressively took this nation to where it is now. Voters are not without the blame, because the changes that the Conservative government have been implementing did not happen in the past few months or days, all the policies that led here were implemented in the last twelve or so years. And the government before them, Labour, had tragic immigration policies, and after them labelling everyone a racist for speaking about genuine issues in some parts of the country. In my opinion, this was one of the main issues that led to the Brexit vote. And before you go off on me, immigration is net positive to the UK, no matter what Daily Mail says. Purely from the financial perspective. Arguably there will always be social problems with migration, and those should be discussed and addressed as they arise.
To have a functioning society and country, we all must band together. Talk about our differences and agree on common grounds. Move forward to improve, to make people more equal. Ignore the divisive rhetoric that every network in the nation is espousing to get clicks. Stay in the real world because it is being stolen right from underneath you.
Let’s stay warm
Yours truly
Tadas