For those not from the UK there’s a wider narrative at play here.
Any and all government bashing is almost a national sport and pastime at this stage. Throw in some numbers to try to prove your point and you’re going to be well received.
So there’s a lot of misinformation out there. Perhaps this Twitter chap is talking rubbish too.
For the record not saying our government is perfect but holy heck it’s hard to keep up with the negativity
"This Twitter chap" is a journalist at the Financial Times and is a senior fellow at the London School of Economics. He's not just some rando bashing government...
So you're saying as a result of these two positions that he holds he cannot possibly be wrong and I should blindly trust anything he says so long as he shows some workings?
I'm saying that you shouldn't dismiss what he's saying because he posted it on Twitter and/or because (you feel that) people are bashing the government.
He's a journalist at a well-respected newspaper, who has practical and academic experience using and interpreting data for his journalism, communicating his story in accessible way (both accessible in a pedagogical way and because the FT has a paywall). Engage with what he's posted and evaluate it on its merits, not just dismissing it because it's a Twitter thread containing a viewpoint that you don't want to be true.
They're doing incredibly badly despite friendly press support, are leaderless after the misconduct got too much even for the Tory party, and are facing some really serious problems this winter if energy prices match projections. In the meantime they waste time on culture war nonsense. They're not being bashed enough.
I would suggest that the bashing contributed to Boris Johnson being forced (correctly in my opinion) to resign. Not to mention causing many of his former colleagues to read the writing on the wall and finally admit that his honesty was "questionable" (either on TV leadership debates and/or by way of resignation).
If the general public was instead expressing extreme satisfaction with the government, I find it unlikely that this would have happened.
Yeah, extensive bashing has achieved the bare minimum, the resignation of Johnson - but, characteristically, in a half-assed way while a lengthy leadership contest happens and the leadership vacuum remains. We're now moving on to strikes, and if the 70s speedrun continues we're likely to see either energy rationing or a mass non-payment of bills, presumably followed by actual riots, until a general election is finally called.
I don't believe it's going to get quite that bad, but I agree that they need to get a move on and get back to some form of stable government quickly (even if the people in power are not necessarily who I'd choose).
the 12+ hour wait times, the hospital occupancy, the aging population and slashed social spending are all hard data. if you want just ignore everything about the excess mortality, and you'll still get the same picture, it's not gonna look nice anyway you dice it.
healthcare (and education) are both incredibly big outliers in the last decades of technological progress (incredible diminishing returns, just look at US spending, brutal Baumol effect, since almost everything is still manual labor .. every MRI/CT requires more professional labor, every new drug requires more tests and consultations, and so on).
no wonder it's looking worse and worse when compared to total GDP of aging populations.
Any and all government bashing is almost a national sport and pastime at this stage. Throw in some numbers to try to prove your point and you’re going to be well received.
So there’s a lot of misinformation out there. Perhaps this Twitter chap is talking rubbish too.
For the record not saying our government is perfect but holy heck it’s hard to keep up with the negativity