[Puffer Fish]

"Entire sections of the UK are crumbling. And the media aren't asking why.
There are now areas in this country where life expectancy is actually dropping, and in some areas below the retirement age.

Public services are falling apart, they're systematically dysfunctional, they're crisis-ridden. Our GDP is crumbling, children are growing up shorter, they're dying younger, and we barely hear a thing about why it's happening, or even that it's happening at all in our press.

That is why Byline Times traveled across the UK to find out exactly what's going and bring you the truth about why the UK is falling apart.
I traveled to Blackpool and found out why residents are saying their city is crumbling. They told me the media haven't visited the town in months, and that is a huge failure of our media.
There's a particular reason they aren't talking about this. Right-wing papers don't want you to know the truth about what's happening in this country, and that's because the policies, the government officials, and the situations that have led to this happening are the policies that they pushed on the front pages of their newspaper for decades. Things like Brexit and austerity from the Conservative government are some of the key reasons why the UK and its services are falling apart. And those papers endorse the people and the policies that allowed that to happen. So they don't want you reading the truth ... for a country to function you need an informed population, filled with people who know what is going on."

Byline Times , March 2024
TikTok video - bylinetv


He blames "the Right". But I think his claims would be equally true about the Left -- and I'm particularly referring to the complicated web of effects large scale immigration has had on the British economy.
But this purpose of this thread is not really to focus on the reasons for what's happening -- we can have that debate in another thread. What this thread is about is to look at what is happening, the deterioration of standard of living of the nation.


The United States is currently experiencing a similar phenomena, but the economy of the UK seems to be falling apart and deteriorating at a faster rate.
It does seem like the Covid pandemic had something to do with it, or that was the trigger. But there are probably also deeper structural problems that were going on before then.

[Godstud]

The West is deteriorating because of Leftist values(or lack thereof). Whether people like it or not, the West was founded on Christian morality, and now that they are abandoning it, it's biting everyone in the ass. Decadence, narcissism, delusion, and degeneracy are rising because of lack of ethics. It's not just a UK problem. It's a Western problem.

[Potemkin]

The West is deteriorating because of Leftist values(or lack thereof). Whether people like it or not, the West was founded on Christian morality, and now that they are abandoning it, it's biting everyone in the ass. Decadence, narcissism, delusion, and degeneracy are rising because of lack of ethics. It's not just a UK problem. It's a Western problem.

Wow, you turned into a grumpy grandad pretty quickly, @Godstud. Probably your arteries hardening or something.

[Godstud]

@Potemkin, Oh, I'm so sorry that you disagree with me and feel the need to attack me, since you have no argument. When, or if, you have something intelligent to say, please come back and say it.

[wat0n]

It seems Brexit wasn't such a great idea after all.

[Godstud]

@wat0n No. Brexit was a disaster for Brits. It was however, a protest vote and you often don't get what you want when you do that.

[Potemkin]

@wat0n No. Brexit was a disaster for Brits. It was however, a protest vote and you often don't get what you want when you do that.

The problem is, you often do get what you want when you do that. Lol.

[Tainari88]

The problem is, you often do get what you want when you do that. Lol.

Is the UK deteriorating?

As long as you are drinking your black tea at home Potemkin? The UK is going to survive. Without you drinking your morning tea out of your habitual mug and bunging something in the microwave for breakfast--Western civilization is not safe in this world.

You can't allow deterioration Potemkin. The entire city in Scotland where you are from depends on you only to keep running and functioning. The deterioration is serious.

[Potemkin]

Is the UK deteriorating?

As long as you are drinking your black tea at home Potemkin? The UK is going to survive. Without you drinking your morning tea out of your habitual mug and bunging something in the microwave for breakfast--Western civilization is not safe in this world.

You can't allow deterioration Potemkin. The entire city in Scotland where you are from depends on you only to keep running and functioning. The deterioration is serious.

I don’t know what they’re going to do without me, querida. Lol.

[Tainari88]

I don’t know what they’re going to do without me, querida. Lol.

They can't live without some deterioration. All the challenges of the past like fighting the Black Plague, and the wars from Mary Queen of Scots, and so on and so forth, the Clan clearing wars or something? It is all insignificant when compared to you not drinking your black tea and some random boiled egg and toast for breakfast.

Eres el único con el poder de salvar toda la humanidad. Just you.

Only you can prevent the Fall of Western Civilization.

La Caída de la Civilización Occidental. It is over. Without that black tea in your mug? It is over.

[Potemkin]

They can't live without some deterioration. All the challenges of the past like fighting the Black Plague, and the wars from Mary Queen of Scots, and so on and so forth, the Clan clearing wars or something? It is all insignificant when compared to you not drinking your black tea and some random boiled egg and toast for breakfast.

Eres el único con el poder de salvar toda la humanidad. Just you.

Only you can prevent the Fall of Western Civilization.

La Caída de la Civilización Occidental. It is over. Without that black tea in your mug? It is over.

All civilisations fall, querida. But little do they know their time is coming so soon.

[Rancid]

@wat0n No. Brexit was a disaster for Brits. It was however, a protest vote and you often don't get what you want when you do that.

Careful what you wish for is something that a lot of people need to understand.

I speculate, that most people just knee jerk their way through life. This is why we get into funny spots like voting for Brexit. More generally, voting against our interests. Then we start to find ways to cover up these mistakes by externalizing the blame.

Immigrants, lack of family values, this, that, and the other.

In short, most people live a life of reaction and not self-reflecting enough to understand why leading a life of knee jerk reaction is a bad idea.

Here we are...

[late]

All civilisations fall, querida. But little do they know their time is coming so soon.

I can remember people saying that in the 1950s.

And the 1960s..

And the 70s...

And the 80s, 90s, Oughts, 20 teens, and you just now.

Odds are, blind luck will make somebody right someday.

But not today, Zerg.

[Rancid]

I can remember people saying that in the 1950s.

And the 1960s..

And the 70s...

And the 80s, 90s, Oughts, 20 teens, and you just now.

Odds are, blind luck will make somebody right someday.

But not today, Zerg.

Indeed.

"Civilization is on the decline" is coming from the same place as bullshit like "Kids these days are worse than before", etc. etc.

It's all the same bullshit people repeat and buy into over and over again. It's mostly shit people say to not have to face their own failings to themselves, to their families, and to society (especially society). It's like a round about and weak ass submission to the world.

In short, the people that say shit shit constantly need to get a fucking grip. Someone needs to slap them on the face and say "GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF PUSSY!"

Absolute fucking lazy and trash "opinion" to have.

Go searching through pofo how this shit has been repeated over and over and over and over and over... ad naseum.

Fucking nonsense for the weak.

[wat0n]

There's also Spengler's essay on the decline of the West, like 100 years old.

But in his defense, inter-war Europe was a mess.

[Rancid]

But in his defense, inter-war Europe was a mess.

Yes, but life everywhere is always a mess one way or another. There is always something we can point to that is a mess, always.

This is why I'm exhausted with these "the west is in decline", or "kid's are horrible these days" or whatever other fucking bullshit. Fucking exhausting, and all of it is excuses to justify some random bullshit.

[late]

There's also Spengler's essay on the decline of the West, like 100 years old.

But in his defense, inter-war Europe was a mess.

So true.

It also produced some amazing literature, Brideshead Revisited, Great Gatsby, Grapes of Wrath, The Sun also Rises, Virginia Wolf, Evelyn Waugh, George Orwell, WH Auden, TS Eliot, and more.

There was one book, about a women that lost her love, father, brother in WW1, and decided to go to college to do something. So while she was dealing with having her life ruined, the kids at school (she was older than them) were partying like mad because everyone could see the madness growing in Europe. It was called Requiem for Youth, or something like that. Not what you'd call light reading, but it leaves an indelible mark on one's soul.

[wat0n]

I absolutely agree with you on that one, the Greatest Generation had to endure all the inter-war tribulations and the West eventually emerged stronger all things considered.

Yes, but life everywhere is always a mess one way or another. There is always something we can point to that is a mess, always.

This is why I'm exhausted with these "the west is in decline", or "kid's are horrible these days" or whatever other fucking bullshit. Fucking exhausting, and all of it is excuses to justify some random bullshit.

Right, but the inter-war period was particularly messy.

[late]

The book was Testament of Youth by Vera Britten. It was made into a movie in 2014, which I have not seen. Masterpiece Theater did it in 1980, and it was excellent, but like so many old shows, it seems to have vanished.

"Much of what we know and feel about the First World War we owe to Vera Brittain's elegiac yet unsparing book, which set a standard for memoirists from Martha Gellhorn to Lillian Hellman. Testament of Youth is both a record of what she lived through and an elegy for a vanished generation. Hailed by the Times Literary Supplement as a book that helped “both form and define the mood of its time,” it speaks to any generation that has been irrevocably changed by war."
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/374388



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testament_of_Youth

[Rugoz]

The UK's 2023 GDP per capita (PPP) is marginally below France. In 2019 (before Brexit and Covid) the gap was ~1%, now its ~3%. Probably difficult to attribute to anything at this point, though I'm certain Brexit didn't help. In nominal terms, the UK has gained over France in the same time period.

Just saying, the UK economy isn't "crumbling", "falling apart" or "deteriorating at a fast rate".