Hanging on in quiet desperation

We're back from our 10 day trip to the UK. I took Paula over to see her parents. After the trip and Christmas, this last 10 days have exemplified that England is a country whose population is hanging on in quiet desperation. I fear it's in an accelerating downward spiral from which there is no escape.
To wit:
- cost for a lunch for two : $18 (think 18 bucks for 2 whopper meals)

- cost of a gallon of petrol : $12 - it cost me $208 for 800 miles-worth of diesel whilst we were there. To put that into perspective, 800 miles-worth of petrol here at home (Vegas and back) costs me $70.

- cost for a dinner for two : $120 (and I'm not talking chic restaurant - I'm talking three different pubs and an indian restaurant)

- utility bills that (after going up 14% year on year) are so high now that pensioners are going into debt because they're having to use credit cards to pay for gas and electric. People are spending more in one quarter now than we spend here at home in a year.

Whilst we were there, there was a news story about police arresting a man and charging him with terrorism offences for spraying his neighbour with a hose.

The government are pushing through laws to make it a jailable offence to put videogames into kids bedrooms.

The average salary is £22,000 yet 6 million people live in zero-income houses claiming £30,000 a year in benefits.

On the streets is where it's now most noticable : nobody is smiling any more - everyone looks miserable and downtrodden. There's a very real sense of desperation in everyone you talk to. When they find out you live outside the country, there's almost a "please help us" attitude that comes across.

This would all explain why in 2007 there was a record low birthrate of only 79,000 babies whilst at the same time 400,000 people left the country.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I've visited England on three occasions and it's been nice to visit, but I've been really pleased to go home (to Australia).

The weird thing is that on every occasion that you enter the country, you get 20 questions from immigration, like they think every visitor is going to want to over-stay their visa.

In no other country have I been bugged so much about my reasons for wanting to visit etc, yet it happens every time in England!

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