Is the UK now giving off strong Third World vibes?

I found the class war to be an english variation of tribalism. It's mad that something like 70% of MPs went to Cambridge or Oxford (collectively called Oxbridge) yet less than 1% of population did.

I think England is stuck in a mediaeval ruler and ruled society, and they keep voting for it.

Plus first past the post voting is not representative democracy. It's nuts that Cameron's parliament majority only needed 38% of those that voted.

Any time I've been to Manchester and Liverpool, you could tell they are very much working class cities - just by the way people were dressed, the accents etc. You wouldn't think for a moment you were in an affluent city.

I showed a clip of hurling to someone in Manchester and they replied that it's a toffs game because it looked like hockey.

I went to the Irish centre in Cheetham Hill to catch an all Ireland once, they advertised that theyd be showing it in the main bar.

The bar was full yet their big screen was showing the premiership. None of the english staff could figure out how to get the hurling up on it.

Instead the entire lounge of county jersey wearing fans turned towards a few wall TVs showing the final and no one watching the soccer on the big screen that dominated the lounge.

A older Irish gent who went to England in the 60s said Irish people stopped coming in the 90s, so now the second generations weren't being replenished with Irish influence so they just didn't appreciate why people were wanting to watch hurling rather than their premiership.

There are issues everywhere.

I just found the “shabbily dressed” comment absolutely hilarious. The supposition that your choice of clothing on any given day indicates poverty or wealth is jaw dropping level backward, judgemental and speaks to a frightening level of immaturity.

People in the UK are dressed indistinguishably from people in the Rep of Ireland.

There are well dressed people who have no money and badly dressed people who are many times millionaires, both here and in the UK.

The mental image of a totally bewildered visiting Irish national walking around the streets somewhere in the UK being almost offended by people who are dressed identically to what you would see on the street anywhere in Ireland, just because he/she is in the UK is approaching Leprechaunism. 🤣🤣🤣

I lived in finglas and inner city too.

Have you lived in areas in England I mentioned before?

I saw material poverty in England that I hadn't seen in Ireland since the 80s.

Relatively there are poor places within Ireland, just as there are relatively poor parts of Switzerland.

I'm noticing more and more english accents on Irish building sites.

The main argument against PR was "we'll end up like the Italians".

5 Prime Ministers in 7 years later............

That's what ignoring all the countries that coalitions work fine, will do.

Italy was always an untypical example of a country with coalitions ; dozens of different parties and with a recent history of both fascism and communism. The overwhelming majority of countries have much more stable coalitions than what was seen in Italy post-war.

They (Brexiteers) are gaslighted into thinking whatever the right wing press barons want them to think. All the stuff about Britain being the greatest democracy in Europe, the EU being totally corrupt by comparison etc is straight from the pages of the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph.

A huge problem is that the right wing media sees its role as to keep the Tory Party in power. This is a disaster from the point of view of the public, as the Tory Brexit regime is scarcely being held to account at all. Even now, the right wing press are mostly attacking Starmer and Labour (and the SNP, Greens, Lib Dems etc). The whole thing is beyond messed up.

Part of the problem is the alternatives The Tories aren't great, Kier Starmer isn't the worst but the likes of Jeremy Corbyn put a lot of voters off with daft Marxism and class warfare is not what those looking for an alternative want.

i can, not a chance will there be an irexit.

it won't be allowed to happen.

As I explained to brexiters as an Irish person it would be hypocritical not to respect a nation leaving a union, just as we did.

The story of the Sycamore Gap tree being cut down in an act of vandalism is so on point with where the UK is at in this period of time.

It's not a significant event in the context of politics or the economy or looking at it through similar lenses, but its another news story that people click on, or hear, or see and for many I expect it cuts away at their mental fortitude.

It feels like this period of time will be looked on as a very dark period for the UK in future years when it is distilled down to being referenced as a decade or 15 or 20 year period.

If you were born in the UK in say, 1995, you'd be 28 years of age now. Probably having completed education, built up a couple years experience (or more if you didn't go the 3rd level education route), and possibly in a relationship and thinking of the next logical step of house, marriage, family etc. (Broadly speaking of course). And while many people born at that time, did all these things, many of their significant years in terms of their mental well being, societal viewpoint and personal philosophy has been accompanied with pretty negative events in the society around them.

From the 08 crash which could have impacted the parents of these people in terms of job security, mortgage payments etc as the kids entered secondary school to the massive growth of tuition fees for university courses as they looked in that direction, the period of austerity which it feels like never ended. The toxicity that led to the Brexit referendum being held as they graduated from college and which was ratcheted up during the campaigns, as they saw 50 to 60 year old's argue for taking away the opportunities to travel freely for these young people that they themselves had benefitted from. Everything that has happened since with successive governments being in a shambles, a series of calamitous Primer Ministers along with a dominance of political influencers with very regressive philosophies, the acrimony and vitriol that prevails in anything with a European influence, the Covid Pandemic, the sh*tshow that is UK beaches for the last couple of years, the rampant inflation of the post Covid period, the profiteering of companies in possession of formerly nationally owned companies, the terminal decline of the NHS, the slashing of the goals for anything progressive or for the wider ocuntry with the step back of Net Zero targets and the practical abandonment of HS2.

And this week, something that gave most people a feeling of comfort when they saw it, in person or on TV or whatever, was destroyed, just because.

It's just a tree, but if you're a 28 year old in the UK who likes nature, wants to protect the environment and feel like your youth was stolen from you, this was another blow you have to fend off. The fact that it is just so pointless makes it hurt even more.

Believe me it was easier to spin them off with that than actually engage with their brexit fantasies.

They had zero knowledge of their own history so it would be like wrestling a pig, both get dirty but the pig enjoyed it.

that's a mistake that is often made, all be it thanks to the far right press.

what corbyn was offering wasn't marxism, but what is offered in the rest of europe, social democracy.

because politics in britain is so scued right now, anything that is not the hard/far/alt right wing of politics is saw as hard left or communist or marxism etc.

I will defer to your better knowledge but there is a difference between a moderate left social/ cohesion view and an amout of the British labor policies.

TBF there's been nothing but opposition to this which I never understood. George Osbourne may have been overplaying the 'northern powerhouse' thing but woudn't you want to upgrade and modernize a major rail route anyway.