Half a million UK workers drop out of workforce, citing long-term illness

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.

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.