Households’ living standards are improving at the slowest rate in more than 50 years, as soaring immigration fuels population growth and the economy stalls. The Telegraph has more.
New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that real GDP per head, which is often described as a measure of average living standards, is growing at the slowest rate in decades.
It has increased by only 0.3% a year on average so far in the 2020s. This is much lower than in any previous decade since at least the 1970s.
GDP per head has slowed as the population has grown faster than the economy. Net migration added 1.5m to the population across 2022 and 2023. The economy grew by 4.3% in 2022 as the U.K. bounced back from the pandemic but growth slowed to just 0.3% last year.
The economy has not kept pace as a result of a worklessness crisis and persistent problems with productivity. The number of people out of work from sickness has surged to a near-record high of 2.8 million, fuelling fears of a spiralling benefit bill.
The ONS said: “Long-term sickness, ageing of the resident population and net migration for reasons other than work each may have been factors that contributed to a higher population outside of the labour force.”
Worth reading in full.
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Well I never.
FFS!
What face masks don’t cause anywhere near enough of is embarrassment for the wearer.
“Most of the plastics used in daily life shed toxic chemicals when they are heated or stored for prolonged periods of time. Once they have been released, humans consume them through breathing, eating and drinking, as well as through skin absorption.” (From plasticoceans.org ).
Very hard to avoid all plastics of course, but masking sounds like a very good way to ensure you ingest plenty of those toxic chemicals. Like I say, a filthy habit and dreadful for the environment.
Friend of mine is a nurse – he opened a new box of masks one day and offered me one – I refused but I took the box to examine one – before handing them back to him I took a sniff of the newly opened box of masks and it smelled of chemicals.
Glad I stuck with my exemption card instead.
Perhaps it was the same study, but I recall seeing a report about masks shedding inhalable plastic particles some weeks or months ago.
Apart from the detrimental effects on wearers’ health, there is little comment from the eco-warriors, regarding the tons of discarded masks now polluting land and sea.
Indeed, they won’t let us have straws that work because “reasons” but there’s no issues with mountains of spit and snot riddled nappies.
I wonder how may of those useless plastic LFTs have been dumped into the sea?
The crabs must be wondering what incommunicative alien species has invaded their locale.
I believe that problem gets filed under ‘Yes, but, no, but, yes, but…’
I recall reading reports over a year ago (from Canadian research I believe) about microscopic mask fibers being breathed into the lungs and possibly leading to some quite nasty health conditions and diseases which is another reason why I refused to wear one. These masks were only ever meant to be used briefly and then disposed of – I know of people who were wearing their mask all day long and usually the same one over and over again.
A dirty, filthy habit.
A strange lapse in our otherwise pristine and antiseptic present.
I would hate that job, the researcher who flushes out people’s nostrils
Sounds like a job for Kenny Everett’s ‘Sid Snot’ character.
And they updated the Covid symptoms list to include hayfever-like symptoms last year.
But the virus is real…
Pathetic.
Someone may well have said that, but what was expressed last year was that it could be that pollen allergy might actually reduce the risk of respiratory infection. That was on the idea that there is only so much surface area in one’s nostrils etc, and the cells that are allergically reacting to various things – such as viruses – would not be available to other compounds at the same time.
A tennis friend of mine is just getting over his second bout of covid. Very fit man, but thoroughly vaxxed. I’ve begun to conclude that the vaxxes and/or the virus do something to the logical faculties.
So THAT’S why I never wore one! Knew there must be a reason.
I refused the damn things because I refuse to pay attention to an illegal government AND, I’m not prepared to look like a Next Tuesday
Recently my mask seemingly irritated a nerve and for three days it felt like I had a hair on the end of my nose. Ridiculous. Can’t wait to be rid of the thing (healthcare).
The pathetic state of our society and our deliberately broken relationship with our own health is evidenced by the fact that the plebs need “a Doctor” to tell them this ( in a White Coat of course – see Milgram).
“The masks, which are the gold standard for blocking Covid particles…”
That would be fool’s gold then would it?
I mean who the f*** would write that, and it get through editorial. They are just trolling us.
The ‘gold standard’, surely, would be lips sewn together, nostrils blocked by silicone sealant, with top quality goggles protecting the eyes and earbuds protecting the lugholes. That’s the affordable version, for those who can’t afford access to a decompression chamber.
Suggest you all read (if you haven’t already) Hector Drummond’s The Mask Cult. Explains the nonsense perfectly and in great detail.
‘The masks, which are the gold standard for blocking Covid particles…’
Ha, haaa, haaaa… Fools’ gold.
There is no such thing as a CoVid particle – that’s like saying a Common Cold particle.
CoVid is a disease which in fact shares the same symptoms as other respiratory virus infections.
Words, definitions matter… but not to lazy ignoramuses in the MSM.
Or ingnorami, as Julius Caesar might have put it.
Speaking of hay-fever… if masks can stop virus particles, they must be able to stop the much, much bigger pollen particles.
So why don’t hay-fever sufferers wear masks? Could it be they are not effective at stopping even large particles?
As normal human beings we don’t usually go around totting up numbers but our masters do. It is all metrics to them. They can’t possibly win but they can do a lot of damage as they collapse. We need to keep the number as low as possible.
They longed for mass masking. Way beyond any diease threat it was the subervience and obedience. We must never allow it to happen again regardless of the threat.
My experience exactly – long bouts of sneezing. I just exempted myself and if anyone insisted I wear one, I would explain what would happen and say “your call”. They always accepted my argument.
I’ve barely worn a mask yet I’m sneezing and have an itchy nose.
I assumed if was gay fever as it got really bad when I cut the fir tree hedge and people walking past where sneezing and coughing.
gay fever?
Is that another name for monkeypox?
Face masks also cause paranoia that results in prolongation of public fear!
This is the paper:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.waojou.2020.100474