By: Michaell Lange.
London, 03/12/18 –
Christmas is here, the street lights are on. Street fairs, black Friday, Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park. This is the time of the year I’m always looking for. But, is it only me feeling extremely depressed this time?
Driving around London has never been so stressful, and I’ve been driving in London for over ten years. Road works, road closures, new road layouts, cycling high ways, new road restrictions and bad driving, are making it impossible for professional drivers to make any money. I also never seen so many people sleeping rough. For the first time, more than 3 thousand people were found sleeping rough on the streets of London said The Guardian. The price of everything is going up. Rent, fuel and food are making standards of living a growing challenge for many. You work more, you work harder, you tight up, but its never enough. Violence is sky high, at the same time police number is the lowest since 2003. The justice system isn’t fit for purpose, and the NHS is in deep crises. Then, there is Brexit, looming fast like a Tsunami getting close to the shore while people watch in shock and horror. Thanks David Cameron!
Has London lost its appeal? Is it worth it any longer? I love this place, but I have to say, there are a growing number of people looking to other places to live. I have friends myself whom left to Australia, USA or went back home to Portugal and Spain. Moreover, there are less Europeans willing to move to Britain. The NHS alone has over 40 thousand open vacancies and farmers are complaining they don’t have enough people to work. After 16 years in love with this country, this is the first time I am thinking about pack everything and leave to somewhere else. I can’t see any light at the end of the tunnel.
Workers on the gig economy are wining a record number of court cases against unscrupulous multinational firms. But, the number of self-employed people, mainly in the gig economy are expect to reach 5 million in a couple of years time. Nevertheless, the same companies sucking off the life of the working force in this country and paying little or no tax at all, have been allowed to continue exploiting their workers even though they have already been found guilty of hiring people on the wrong contract. Workers in the mean time, have continued to be bullied and black listed by companies while working without any employment rights.
It makes business sense. They contract a person on a self-employed contract, even though the company controls the brand, the pricing, the clients, the finance etc, while all the costs are passed to those supposed to be self-employed people. The big business can then, keep the profits at the hands of the big people. What is left for workers are debt, frustration and long hours without making any money. More than 100 thousand people a year try to end their lives because of debt.
Police, nurses, doctors, pilots, journalists, fire fighters. They are all being dragged by this system of exploitation which will eventually, destroy the economy and eat itself. It makes me wonder whether the so called “Yellow Vest protesters” in France isn’t a new kind of “Arab Spring” that will soon take over Europe.
Incompetent and careless politicians such as Jacob Rees-Mogg, which has a 60 million pounds investment in a Russian bank sanctioned by European Union while criticising Theresa May for introducing tougher economic sanction on Russia, or the Joker Boris Johnson, who can’t even be faithful to his own wife, are destroying any positive prospective for this country. A not fit for purpose justice system that allow big people causing global economic crisis walk away freely while the small people are left to pay the bill, are driving Britain to the brink of social unrest. People just can’t take it anymore.
I better stop here before I start talking about the Bank of England economic forecast for Britain in case of a no deal crash out of the EU.
If you are Religious, this is the moment to start praying. If you don’t believe in God, this is the time to find one to believe. The way things are going, one can only speculate whether this ship has enough life boat for all its passengers…
Michaell Lange 