Let’s not mince words here, the World is a gloomy place at the moment. Everywhere you turn there is a financial crisis going on, a country’s economy on the brink of collapse and not much of a credible plan for recovering. If not a financial crisis, then a rebellion against some form of Fascist regime. The World, for want of a better word, is on its arse! So what can we expect living in the UK in 2012, apart from the impending end of the world?
Well first off, we can expect to hit another recession. The Bank of England have downgraded our economic growth predictions again for 2012, warning us to expect a double dip recession at some point in the not too distant future. To me, this offers the obvious question of ‘have we really ever recovered from the previous recession?’. I don’t profess to be an economic whiz or in fact even understand the basic fundamentals of what exactly a recession means in real terms. But what I do know if that things were bad then, feel worse now and don’t look like improving anytime soon.
This leads us onto the ultimately depressing news that youth unemployment has broken the 1 million mark for the first time since 1996. So if you are between 16-24 you are left with either chasing a useless higher education you can barely afford, or seeking employment that just isn’t available. The government try to blame this partially on the crisis in the Euro zone, but this is OUR issue and it needs looking at NOW. Will we end up with a situation similar to the summer where the youth of Britain decided enough was enough and took to the streets?
But it’s not just doom and gloom for youths, as total unemployment in the UK hitting over 8% this month. This is bad enough without the news that huge UK companies are continuing to shed jobs by the bucketful. In the news this week, British Gas look likely to lose 850 jobs. No money in the economy, no jobs, massive unemployment; you are doing a grand job Mr Cameron!
On the up scale, London hosts the Olympic games in 2012. We may not be able to get hold of tickets, or even afford them if we could due to recessions and no employment, but at least Lord Coe gets to look like a hero. There is also the Euro 2012 football championship in Poland and the Ukraine, with England looking to bring home their first trophy since 1966. We have more chance of David Cameron stand at the doorway of 10 Downing Street and firing £50 notes out of his arse.
To sum up, things are looking grim. Am I the only one hoping that Nostradamus was actually right?