Is it me, or is the country falling apart?

I ’M always slightly wary of a writer who starts a piece with: ‘people always say…’, or ‘it’s long been said that…’ Perhaps it’s irrational, but it’s always irked me. It feels like a lazy way of beginning an article. That being said, I’m about to immediately contradict myself and start this column in exactly that fashion, for reasons I hope will become apparent later. So, without further ado. They always say you become more cynical as you get older. Perhaps this is why looking around me now, I can’t help feeling as though the country is falling apart. Maybe it’s my age-induced negativity, but it seems as though whichever direction you look, UK PLC seems to be imploding. We can’t go anywhere – the planes aren’t working, the train workers are all on strike, and it costs an arm and a leg in petrol just to go to the shops. We can’t get ill – waiting times for routine operations are longer than they’ve ever been, ambulances take forever and getting seen by a GP or dentist is more of an event than winning the lottery. We’re all increasingly broke – apart from the billionaires, of course, who seem to be doing very nicely indeed. Food banks are busier than ever, and real, hardcore poverty is rocketing. Crime is on the up, and victims now face even longer waits for justice because even the barristers are going on strike. Even the smaller, supposedlyboring stuff isn’t working – people are waiting months to get a new passport, or book a driving test, or change their licence. The things we’ve long expected governments to have the basic competence to deliver can no longer be relied on. And things don’t seem likely to get better any time soon either. You would be forgiven for thinking, given this myriad of dumpster fires, that an opposition party was poised to win the next election, bursting with fresh and exciting ideas for how to fix things. At this point, they should be more likely to win than Usain Bolt at a primary school’s sports day. Yet it feels like the UK is currently an example of what happens when you don’t have a healthy and functioning opposition.

The things we’ve long expected governments to have the basic competence to deliver can no longer be relied on.

Now I know “they” say I’m meant to become more cynical over time, but the thing is I don’t think I have. I’m less optimistic about this country’s prospects now than a few years ago, not because I’m a few years older, but because any impartial, objective look at the state of things right now will tell you they’re not rosy at all. Or perhaps they are right. Perhaps life is better than ever, and I’m just older than ever.