Blaise Tapp: Is it really fair to say the country has gone to the dogs?

By anybody’s measurement, 2022 hasn’t been a vintage year so far, but has it really been as grim as many are making out?
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Blaise Tapp writes: On the face of it, this year is giving 2020 – when the pandemic turned us into a nation of banana bread and boxset bores – a run for its money in the race for the title of ‘Worst Year in Living Memory’ award.

War in Europe, the soaring cost of living, sky high fuel prices, rising interest rates, a looming recession, record breaking NHS waiting lists, drought, floods and a rudderless government were certainly not how anybody had hoped the first eight months of the year would pan out.

On his telly and radio shows, Jeremy Vine only seems to talk about how millions of us will be able to heat our homes this winter. Listening to a tearful Rita from Rotherham explain how the increase in the cost of gas and electric will mean that she will have to live exclusively in her kitchen between November and April and subsist on only own-brand beans and toast is enough to sour anybody’s mood.

Jeremy Vine, the man to whom the nation moans during the week. Photo: Getty ImagesJeremy Vine, the man to whom the nation moans during the week. Photo: Getty Images
Jeremy Vine, the man to whom the nation moans during the week. Photo: Getty Images

This latest national crisis is undoubtedly incredibly serious and has led me to not only worry about what it will mean for our own finances but how it might impact older relatives and those friends and loved ones who long ago had already tightened the belt as much as they possibly can.

While there can be little doubt that most of us – those who don’t have a Swiss bank account and a live-in nanny called Prudence – are in for a difficult couple of years, does the situation we are facing really justify the almost wall-to-wall negativity that is currently being amplified across all media channels?

Is it really fair to say that the country has gone to the dogs? I don’t think it is, largely because we still have much to be grateful for: we live in the UK, which is not only the world’s fifth largest economy but is a democracy, which means that those at the very top are ultimately responsible to us.

The outlook is bleak but, unlike crises such as the pandemic and war, it does feel like there could be the political will to come up with some sort of fix. At least, we hope there is.

While it won’t be a great source of comfort to many, things could be worse and you won’t catch me talking the country down.