Are you worried for the future of GB and indeed the world?

I think the greatest challenges facing children today will be the cost of living, the need to work until later and later in life and possibly the development of AI making jobs harder to come by. I certainly wouldn't want to be starting out. I have no children myself, which makes me sad at times, but in some ways I am glad I am not inflicting a potential tough life on someone. Just need to get through it myself!

I am not worried either.

Nothing new under the sun, says the Bible Book of Ecclisiates, written in 3000BC or whenever.

And there isnt.

Not selective at all. We were aware of these things. But for those of us born 1950s onwards life was overall pretty Normal and anticipated to remain so.

I remember the "troubles", I remember IRA bombing and one of the reasons I left one of our huge cities that I was living in at the time is I thought "In the not too distant future I am not sure about its safety...so I'd better not be in a huge city...I'll go somewhere smaller/safer". One-off incidents happening to Israelis representing Palestine-they-call-Israel, airplanes are all one-off incidents basically.

Nuclear Armageddon - I was one of the main people in one of the leading CND groups in the country - ie that other groups copied. I can't speak for anyone else in it - but I remember I never took that "Protect and Survive" stuff seriously - it was clearly ludicrous. I never doubted we'd throw out the American cruise missiles stationed in our country. I don't remember one moment's doubt ever about it - I knew we would win. Again - I can't speak for anyone else - but I basically knew we had won when our most public officer in our CND group had his house broken into/all our documents gone through/nothing stolen/his house desecrated and I knew we had won the second he told us what had been done to his house - and we all sympathised and we all (including him) carried straight on. We'd already proved waving large sums of money at our group from an American direction was something we unanimously dismissed the offer of in about 2 minutes flat - and yep...I also knew we were going to win at that point - as none of us had a scrap of doubt at turning down American money meant to shut us up.

What some of us (including me) fear is not just one-off incidents - but a takeover of our Society as a whole and all of us affected by it.

I can’t believe anyone can state life here was ok until 1990? They must have been in a deep sleep! We left for the USA in 1977 and couldn’t wait to go. There was endless strikes, you name the industry and it was striking. And then the miners strikes continued with all the violence. And the bombs and misery on Northern Ireland. I could go on and on. We could only stay in the USA for three years as it was a job transfer and we returned to a country that still seemed to be heading for the rocks! So no I don’t worry about my children and my grandchildren’s future here, worrying never changed anything.

M0nica

SkyDancer I actually worry constantly about the future of this country and of the world. As someone upthread said, things were pretty much okay till the 1990s.

I cannot that anyone, let alone 2, could say that. What about the Cold War, the threats of nuclear armageddon, 2 world wars in 30 years. The IRA and the 'troubles' in Ireland, Islamic terrorism goes back to the late 1960s/70s. Remember the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The hijacking of airplanes and their passengers.

Some people here clearly have very selective memories.

They must have lived in a bubble.

I think, as a child until I was a teenager , I was unaware of these terrible things and that is how it should be. Children should not be burdened with these worries.
However, I remember being aware of politics because my DF was politically active and talked about this at home.

CountessFosco

What worries us more is the rise in Sharia Law [illegal apparently but gaining ground]. How would our lovely GDs of 15 and 13 fare under this draconian system?

I’m with Babs03 in having confidence in the younger generation. I see them bringing up their children well, whilst running their own businesses, or working well in paid employment. I don’t see Grammar Schools as a positive, they benefitted a very small proportion of children and left the majority feel in like failures at 11.

I’ve seen no evidence Sharia Law is ‘gaining ground’ other than when used occasionally by a small number of separatingMuslim parents. The majority of Muslim women who were born in the uk instruct solicitors

Carriadagain blames ‘illegals’ for our problems. The numbers fleeing the Middle East and Africa is set to continue to rise. Global warming, wars, famine etc means many will try to find a better life for their children. That’s why international co-operation is needed, not ideas like `Rwanda.

Thanks to MOnica for setting accurate historical facts.

For the last 50 yrs the UK has been slowly sinking, we have been spending more than we have been earning, selling ever more national assets to the highest bidder. The rich get richer the poor get poorer, do I realistically expect any polititian to change that - no, we all want jam today it’s not going to happen.

Blimey OP- answers on a postcard?

David49

For the last 50 yrs the UK has been slowly sinking, we have been spending more than we have been earning, selling ever more national assets to the highest bidder. The rich get richer the poor get poorer, do I realistically expect any polititian to change that - no, we all want jam today it’s not going to happen.

That has certainly been a part of it - our national assets being sold off and put in private hands. I am still trying to get my head round selling off our water, our public transport, our fuel into private hands. It was obvious that, just to take one example, ie selling off our water = shareholders would be determined to take "profits" and blow maintaining our decent water system. I only have to take a 20 minute walk from my home to our nearest river - and it's very easy to see just how polluted it is any time/any day and yet a 50 year old friend of mine tells me that she remembers when people went swimming in it. That's one example of where our money has gone to "grabbers". I think Welsh Water just hides it rather better than some of our other water companies.

All round we see a sinking country - we used to have an NHS, we used to have better public transport, we used to have a reasonable public library system and so the list goes on....

I think sone people have very selective memories and just want continual digs and fears about ‘strangers taking over Our land’
(especially brown strangers not so bad if they're white or European )
Etc etc I m with Monica, being born at the end of the war I remember many frightening times I have a picture I painted as a teenager of my fear for the people starving in Biafra It’s a very very ‘dark’ picture, and made a huge impact on me
then there was the Suez crisis and I remember being very scared of a world war starting I remember hearing about the dreadful black shirts and Oswald Mosely Then there was the horrendous Enoch Powel and his rivers of blood
The Vietnam war remember the little girl running from te bomb isn’t that a picture imprinted on your mine then the Vietnamese boat people coming here
I remember worrying about Russia and their power many times over the years , then there were all the strikes in the 70s
(was it 70 s) with only having electricity so many hours a day
The awful fears nearer home over Ireland the dreadful IRA bombs going off in shopping centres/ malls etc
No I don’t believe there has ever been a time to not see fear or worry about the world going up in Smoke

And as for youngsters not getting houses my mum and dad were in their 60 s when they got their first mortgage I was in my 40 s when I got mine my paternal family never had one they were in council housing all their lives
Rose coloured glasses
As for the original question no it’s no more worrying than it’s always been, up and down, never smooth, just like life really

I grew up in the 50’s, in a three bedroom rented house, with two families and my Nan, no bathroom and an outside toilet. Heating was one coal fire. Bullying father.
Life is so much better for my grandchildren, the girls in particular have many more opportunities.
I think the world has always had various conflicts, dating back to the Stone Age probably.

Dinahmo I think you are maybe forgetting the conflicts - I can't even describe the anxiety I felt for my children during the cold war.
That cast an enormous shadow over my life and my continued respect for the women of Greenham Common (remember ^Women for Life on Earth) - who led the protest against having American Cruise missiles here on our soil in the UK is real and sincere.

Don't you remember the apartheid struggles in South Africa and the thousands of us that protested/boycotted/wrote letters/saw our MPs to campaign for change?
And then the wars in Afghanistan...

I’m 66 and feel that nothing much is that grimmer than now. I still remember from my youth sad and terrible things happening, wars happening, the miners strike, power cuts, children starving in Biafra, my friend at primary school had a baby sister who died in a car accident as no baby seats or seat belts.

There was much less traffic in the roads and communities knew it each other as people tended not to move so far away from family. This meant children played outside on their own more.

There was no social media so we knew less of what went on, “nasty” people didn’t have a “dark web” in which to unite.

We have 5 wonderful children between us and wouldn’t ever ever wish not to have had them.

BlueBelle

I think sone people have very selective memories and just want continual digs and fears about ‘strangers taking over Our land’
(especially brown strangers not so bad if they're white or European )
Etc etc I m with Monica, being born at the end of the war I remember many frightening times I have a picture I painted as a teenager of my fear for the people starving in Biafra It’s a very very ‘dark’ picture, and made a huge impact on me
then there was the Suez crisis and I remember being very scared of a world war starting I remember hearing about the dreadful black shirts and Oswald Mosely Then there was the horrendous Enoch Powel and his rivers of blood
The Vietnam war remember the little girl running from te bomb isn’t that a picture imprinted on your mine then the Vietnamese boat people coming here
I remember worrying about Russia and their power many times over the years , then there were all the strikes in the 70s
(was it 70 s) with only having electricity so many hours a day
The awful fears nearer home over Ireland the dreadful IRA bombs going off in shopping centres/ malls etc
No I don’t believe there has ever been a time to not see fear or worry about the world going up in Smoke

And as for youngsters not getting houses my mum and dad were in their 60 s when they got their first mortgage I was in my 40 s when I got mine my paternal family never had one they were in council housing all their lives
Rose coloured glasses
As for the original question no it’s no more worrying than it’s always been, up and down, never smooth, just like life really

I completely agree.

TeriT - we now, of course know that
the miners strikes continued with all the violence
Was perpetrated by our own government - by Margaret Thatcher's own directive.
...not her finest hour.

I worry most about climate change and the increasing number of appalling weather events we are seeing. Above all I want our grandchildren to be able live on a planet where people care about the environment and do their best to halt thoughtless destruction.

When my children were babies I was able to stay home with them until they went to kindergarten and we could live reasonably off my husband’s wage. I don’t think that is so easy these days, mums have to resume work a lot earlier because of the massive mortgages hanging over them. I don’t worry so much about climate change because that has been going on since time began and there is not much we can actually do about it. We are not King Canute. Way back then the seas were much higher and a lot of our land was under water. There were ice ages and species were wiped out. For the last 200 years we have been closely monitoring things and kidding ourselves that it is different from what it has always been. Have we had a Lake Taupo event ? Did the sky darken for weeks? Have we had a Pompey event ? Where were the cars that caused those events? Where was the fossil fuels that caused those events?

No, I don't actually worry about the future BUT I do often wonder what this country and the world will be like in 50 years regarding ever evolving technology, climate change, pollution - etc. etc.
I'd love to 'come back' just to see the changes.

David49

For the last 50 yrs the UK has been slowly sinking, we have been spending more than we have been earning, selling ever more national assets to the highest bidder. The rich get richer the poor get poorer, do I realistically expect any polititian to change that - no, we all want jam today it’s not going to happen.

... we all want jam today it’s not going to happen.

We want jam today- because we are continually promised jam tomorrow.

... and not only do we not get the jam, increasingly the bread on which to put it is in short supply also.

I think most reasonable people just want a decent wage, food on the table, and an affordable roof over their heads. In the 21st century in one of the world's wealthiest countries, it really should not be too much to be asking.

I’m optimistic because of A.I. in ways we can barely comprehend yet. The young ones will harness this.

One thing that's been overlooked by those of a more "positive" take on things - or rather two.

The "Covid" Lockdown - when, afaik, I don't think Britain got "locked down" for literally centuries before that. That's one of the downsides of the Internet - as in They wouldnt have been able to stage a Lockdown if we hadn't had the Internet. Then the Covid Jabs coming along shortly after that started up - and people are still having "sudden deaths" and illness from them ever since.

Neither of those two types of things happened in anything remotely like our lifetime - until 2020. So yep....the evidence life has become noticeably worse than it was for quite some time before....

I did read exactly which "plague" type illnesses came along just in my lifetime alone - and there were 4 or 5 - but the difference was there wasn't a Lockdown for any of them (ie because there wasn't an Internet then and there wasn't such a culture of "work or shirk" from home then - as jobs didn't lend themselves to it). Some worked - but a lot did shirk.

CariadAgain

One thing that's been overlooked by those of a more "positive" take on things - or rather two.

The "Covid" Lockdown - when, afaik, I don't think Britain got "locked down" for literally centuries before that. That's one of the downsides of the Internet - as in They wouldnt have been able to stage a Lockdown if we hadn't had the Internet. Then the Covid Jabs coming along shortly after that started up - and people are still having "sudden deaths" and illness from them ever since.

Neither of those two types of things happened in anything remotely like our lifetime - until 2020. So yep....the evidence life has become noticeably worse than it was for quite some time before....

I did read exactly which "plague" type illnesses came along just in my lifetime alone - and there were 4 or 5 - but the difference was there wasn't a Lockdown for any of them (ie because there wasn't an Internet then and there wasn't such a culture of "work or shirk" from home then - as jobs didn't lend themselves to it). Some worked - but a lot did shirk.

...there wasn't such a culture of "work or shirk" from home then

When I worked in Norway in the early 2000s it was not infrequently impossible to get into the office because heavy snow made some routes impassable, so we worked from home.

The owner of the company I worked for was so pleased with the results that he called a meeting and asked us if we'd like to consider WFH on a structured regular basis.

Some people shirk when they are in the office, gabbing away on private telephone calls or with their colleagues, as they do when WFH.

Others get on with the job either in the office or at home. My sales-figures improved when WFH because I like a peaceful and quiet environment without the constant and disruptive interruptions from colleagues.

Your blanket condemnation is misplaced.

I agree Dickens. Misplaced.

Well said Dickens. In my work, it was accepted that some tasks were more easily completed at home. We shared offices, writing detailed histories or reports in the middle of a busy office was less efficient than doing that from home, 20/30 years ago.
Plus carriadagain - your conspiracy theories on covid vax aren’t supported by the evidence

Well, whatever.
I’m delighted somebody saw fit to start this jolly light-hearted thread just in case any of us might be feeling down or nostalgic as we contemplate Christmas or a bleak future without loved ones.
If all else fails we can always “Put our heads between our knees and kiss our arse goodbye”
In the face of all this doom and gloom, is it worth even thinking “Happy New Year” ?