BRITAIN IS A DEAD COUNTRY 

Tories asking why the UK is so shit after they've been in power for almost 15 years

I work two jobs in the UK. The problems I'm facing weren't caused by people calling in sick with fake covid notes, immigrants not being sent to Rwanda, or transpeople in sports. It was caused by an inept government crashing ALL our EU trade agreements, then massively underfunding public services for a decade while cashing in any public assets to private companies and stashing the bribes in tax havens. All while building up a economy that relies on housing as proof of assets, dispite 80% of the population haveing no real way into this market. This government has left me poorer, with less rights and access to healthcare. And now has the gaul to tell me its someone else's problem.

>decimate NHS >people get long term sick >pikachuface.jpg

I like it when people who have never worked talk about work. Like priests giving marriage advice.

Most companies will just let you have a day off if you call in sick. The Tories are just scapegoating their failures by blaming the working class again

Got to love the way his tone is meant to convey empathy while he attempts to ruin the lives of millions of people.

“We need to stop moving people from work, to welfare.” Sounds like Ben Shapiro wanting to abolish retirement.

Sunak's wife was Non-Domiciled in the UK until there was a huge outcry, this meant she didn't pay the highest rate of UK taxation despite having material assets of over £700 million, and yet he dares lecture us.

One thing I'll add, being from the UK. Companies ALREADY have discretion about sickness policy and have a million routes to ignore sick notes or demand people coming in for several days before a sick note is necessary and working someone into needing the note then clamping down on how long they accept that note as an acceptable excuse for not coming in and infecting everyone or working yourself into further illness. It's not like he's making a good thing into a bad thing. He's making something already awful even worse.

As a native Englishman i agree that Britain is a dead country. I just hope something worse doesn't rise from its ashes.

Always love it when people who grew up rich tell the rest of the people that they have to develop better work ethics…

Brexit has honestly broken UK politics. It’s been disastrous in all aspects of the country but the Journalist and Political class seem to forget that it even exists. And the “stiff upper lip” attitude means that there is little push back. It’s Taboo to even bring up at all

History repeating itself in the age of information is insane.

We gonna be seeing "Work will set you free" signs soon enough if Capitalists keep this up

He acts like he is only talking about Universal Credit (Basically unemployment benefits) but then repeatedly name drops Personal Independence Payments that are for people with permanent physical or mental disabilities so they can afford support and he's even talking about getting rid of that... Also "We want to make it easier to access" my ass! They keep making it harder each year

Gotta love how Britain botches their COVID response, then makes a surprised Pikachu face when they have more long COVID.

“We MUST stop people from going from Work to Welfare.” I guess retirement shouldn’t be a thing huh Britain.

I love how my country allows a rich dude who has never worked a day in his life, whose priminister pay is a drop in an ocean compared to how much money he already gets from other interests decide what is fair for workers.

The "over medication" bit felt more like "any medication." Like if you went to the doctor and said you were sleeping 20 hours a day, they would be like "Tough shit, go back to work."

Sunak saw the film I, Daniel Blake and thought yes, that is the society I want to create but more hardcore. Vaush you're not exaggerating by comparing it to Nazi policies - Tory anti-disability policies have already killed tens of thousands of innocent, profoundly struggling people, including driving countless to suicide. Absolute monster, and he'll never face any consequences for it because he's obscenely rich.

I'm terrified. I'm a UK citizen who is disabled, but because our benefit system, I was forced to travel, which is hard for me, to a "health assessment" where they lied about the whole thing to deny me disability benefits. I have an autonomic disorder which is so debilitating I'm frequently scared I'm actually close to death and I cant work because of it. If they take what little I do get away from me, i will actually die a slow horrible death on the streets because i don't think i have what it takes to kill myself.

Sunak is a multimillionaire.

I know an englishman who's a double amputee, he also has severe respiratory problems from a substandard gas mask he was issued, and this shit still applies. Make no mistake if the could make it legal they would euthanize every cripple. The guy traded his legs and lungs to the british army and this is his pension. Sunak is the richest man to ever lead their country, and no he doesn't pay his share.

I have so many chronic illnesses. The thought of being forced to find work when I barely have the energy to get out of bed and read a book is terrifying. They want to kill me.

I got a letter from DWP saying we aren't going to give you money because you don't want to look after yourself, I appealed and got it sorted and got more money. The irony is a got an offer for an interview at a post production house the day after and was too stressed on the phone that I said sorry not now, like I'm trying to get work I don't need the government to micromanaging my disability and work, I am on it

I hate the smug little grin he has as he talks about pushing people into unimaginable poverty

I'm presently out of work on disability for a spinal injury. Sunak is such a sleaze, his stupid argument is 6% of "well notes" said they could be back on partial work... but if you're out of work more than 7 days, something is SERIOUSLY WRONG and needs real treatment. Forcing injured people back to work immediately just guarantees their injuries turn to real disabilities. If I had to go back to work 9 hours a week with a spinal injury, it would almost guarantee it won't heal and I'll have to get surgery.

When Sunak says “If you can you should” what he really means is “If you’re living and breathing you should be working, regardless of how crippled you are, depressed you are, suffering from mental health problems, we’re too lazy and inhuman to consider those as factors for why you people aren’t working, you’ll work until you drop and be happy about it!”

Maybe if the rich wasn't so money dependant they didn't need workers working all the time

dead in 31 seconds british empire fell off

"people aren't sicker than they used to be".... I mean (gestures at the pollution on the planet), You sure about that?

Pray for us, I’ll remind everyone though that us Brits as people, are actually quite open and supportive of progressive values, we largely support for instance renationalisation of key utilities, policies to tackle climate change, when polled the British are the biggest supporters of green policies in Europe. Our government does not. They do not represent us. On the behalf of all Brits, they do not represent us.

Stop being so right about my country Vaush

I kinda feel bad for britain tbh. I mean it's bad everywhere but britain is just so depressing to look at now.

Landlords are economically inactive.

It's so nice to hear about the importance of hard work from someone who earns the national average annual wage passively during his morning shit.

Another disabled person here. One thing people don't understand is that they think because accessibility and accommodations services exist that means there must be disabled individuals who aren't participating in using them in order to work. But in actuality these services are underdeveloped, barely usable, and sometimes aren't even physically accessible to a large portion of people with disabilities. Ask someone to specifically talk about any of these programs and it reveals how little they know. I would GLADLY work if I could, I would GLADLY continue education if I could afford it, and have been trying to develop some kind of career so I can get OFF government assistance. Physically I need help making meals, I need assistance for grocery shopping and transportation. I can only manage showering every couple of days. The problem isn't people with disabilities. It's that humans are not treating disabilities as a normal part of being human. It is literally the most human thing. It's NEVER going away. And instead of designing society; work, education, transportation, even social events around it and embracing it as a part of the human experience, people see it as an outlier rather than a regular occurring inevitability. If they want people with long term sickness and disabilities to have jobs, they should put effort into figuring out realistic ways to give people with long term sickness and disabilities jobs. Not doing so- only creates more disabilities. But AGAIN. Ask anyone one to describe these work programs in specifics and they can't do it. They really only have a vague idea of how they work, and basically just point to the fact they exist. The only people who actually understand them and know how terrifyingly FLIMSY they are, are people with disabilities, occasionally family members, and disabilities advocates. It's like ordering someone to travel across a country but giving them a razor scooter instead of a car, and then berating them for not going fast enough or far enough. We are not the problem. At all. It's not people with disabilities who are "refusing" to adapt.

As a brit I used to watch American politics to cheer me up. Americans now do that for the UK. We're so fucked here.

Can't help but notice he never mentioned anything about forcing employers to *actually* comply with making their workplace more accommodating to someone with disabilities, or anything about preventing employers from taking advantage of those who are disabled by paying them less.

I can't stand the saccharin voice he puts on when he's talking to the public, like 'listen to my tone it's clear I care deeply about you while what I'm saying is I hate you'

After Brexit London wanted to break away from England and became it's own country they should.

Anyone got a plane ticket? But on a serious note I'm genuinely scared for my future here espicially as a transwoman. When I hear Rishi talk I cannot help but actually here a villian. Something about the way he talks sounds evil.

Tories act as if people are getting PIP because they have mild anxiety. They have no idea just how insanely difficult it is to get disability benefits as is let alone after whatever Rishi fucknut decides to do. I've seen so many people saying that the majority of people on benefits are just gaining to system. I wish it was that easy. I've been on PIP since i was 19 for numerous things. Brain tumours, autism, bpd, severe depression, chronic back pain, chronic migranes after brain surgery, pernicious anaemia, pcos. It took me 3 years for them to accept my application. And every single fucking year after my health care review they come up with some dogshit reason to stop my pip. And every fucking year it takes months to fight it. Last time they stopped my payments is because i mentioned off handedly that i THANKED MY NEIGHBOUR for takimg the bins out for me. They said it was proof im sociable and that my mental health can't be that bad if I'm talking to people. My dad lost a leg to diabetes and they stopped his payments because he drank water from a bottle during the review, stating that he can clearly look after himself because he can open a bottle. The DWP is a fucking circus and honestly if anyone is able to bullshit their way into getting payments then let them have it because they've clearly worked hard on the act. I've known of people with terminal cancer who had their payments stopped.

Nationalist Exceptionalism is one hell of a drug.

When the fundamental goal of living is working, what is the point of living?

As a British person i can concur

Here's one thing I never want to hear, a politician weighing in with their medical opinions

"The NHS budget is facing the largest cuts since the 1970's. Clearly, we're saving money on all the people who are *not* sick, so there's no way everyone is sicker than they were three decades ago... Also, what pandemic?" -a necromancer with a stick

The Tories couldn't have picked Alicia Kearns? Pro-Trans, sympathetic to Palestinians, former Amnesty International activist? I might have just answered my own question.

Don't blame me I voted corbyn in 2019 😭

Just for the record I don’t think UK is a dead country it is just suffering through the result of over a decade of the most self destructive right wing government we have ever had. It is dying though.

Not sure I agree that the entireity of the UK is a "backwater" outside of London. That is a rather massive generalisation.

I hate it here

I worked at a Burgerking during Covid in the US. If you called in sick and didn't get a doctors note you were fired. I'm not even kidding. We lost some of our best people because management was psychotic and acted like being sick was an excuse to get off work.

"Economically inactive" is certainly one way to say "physically ill and incapable of the kind of labor the government and major companies prioritize," but maybe something was lost in translation. I'm not that fluent in British.

Whenever some conservative says to me Pierre Poilievre will be better for Canada, I'll just point to the Tories in the UK.

The most anyone would have to work in a functioning, productive society is 15 hours per week. Work 3 days a week for 5 hours each day.

"Arbeit macht frei" Maybe we need to pass laws to prevent people over a certain income or wealth from being allowed into politics.

London is the only center of commerce in the UK? WTF Vaush? You never heard on Manchester? How about Belfast? How about Glasgow? GTFO bruv.

In Germany, the doctor issues sick notes. You know, the one who is qualified actually...

He will be gone in 6 months, of which 3 months will not have an action parliament

i would argue that your opinion of the uk without london is grounded in reality somewhat, but vastly over-exaggerated. there are areas of gross poverty, but not to the extent you say.

When comparing the US to Europe, and England, its important to know that over in Europe, countries use REAL numbers. While in the US, every state, city, county, has its own version of what poverty, unemployment, and homelessness are. All of them collect data in different ways, which makes nationwide statistics completely impossible. And since no state wants to come out worse than the next, well, quite simply its impossible to make any kind of direct comparison.

Ya know what makes it so much harder to "gather greater evidence" about being sicker? Being in the midst of being sicker. Especially in a timely manner.

So the current law is you can self certify for a week, meaning you don’t need to go to a doctor, and still get paid. If it’s longer, you need a doctors note, and most workplaces give you up to a month of fully paid sick leave per year you’ve worked at the company, so if you’ve worked for 5 years at a company you can get 5 months of full pay on sick leave.

Your description of the UK's demography is profoundly ignorant and inaccurate, urban life in London is no different to any other city for the vast majority of its urban dwellers. Although the wealth gap in the UK has grown alarmingly under the Tories, it remains FAR narrower than the US, for example, and our urban demography is far more homogenous

The only good news is that he won’t be in power to implement it.

This happens over and over and over again. Politicians create a strawman of people exploiting these systems, but when people who specialize in disability studies actually look into the number of cases in which it happens, it's like 1 in several thousand. The amount of fraud is negligable, meanwhile a massive amount of people who SHOULD have government assistance get turned away. (I forget the actual numbers, but there's an episode on Alice Wong's "Disability Visibility" podcast that talks about it in length.) There are better ways to cut down on government spending than creating more barriers for the most vaunerable amoung us. Sunak should not be the person speaking on this.

the whole idea that the UK is a barren wasteland of poverty outside of London is false. Yes London is without a doubt the most wealthy part of the UK, but their are many many more wealthy and middle class areas far away from the City. The north has been left a lot in the past by many different governments but in the last 20 years many areas have seen huge investments. The UK sick notes and fit notes are the same thing. The worker can self cert sick for 7 days after this you need a sick note to cover you for time off, you then have to give a fit note to return to work. They are literally the same piece of paper from a doctor the only difference is that the doctor ticks a different box, these include "not fit", "fit", "light duties", etc.

It's surreal to be living in this country today. I see the destruction they've caused whenever I leave the house, it's physical, in your face, completely inescapable. Entire streets left to decay, an ever growing homeless population, and rising costs destroying the few things we have left. My city can't even manage waste consistently anymore, what with the council in some kind of bankruptcy limbo. The Tories delivered exactly what they promised they would, and when they're done I guarantee many of them will leave the country with the wealth they stole.

As someone who has a chronic condition that has been making it harder for in office work. Work from Home has been a god send for me. I fear what my life would be without it. WFH does give a lot of disabled people the option to enter the workforce but this micromanaging the UK is doing is insane. It also confuses me as to why corporations keeps trying to TAKE AWAY WFH when it gives so many more people the ability to work. I GENUINELY do like working and just challenging myself (helps keep my brain active and getting opportunities to work with different things),

The Tories utterly gutting the healthcare system, then saying. "Wow, everyone is sick, well this must be everybody else's fault but ours." Last time I rocked up to A&E while in crisis, they were like "That's nice, buh-bye now," and just kicked me out on the street at 2am alone, I mean. Yes, seeking treatment is better than just being off sick. But. What treatment? Can't even get through to the Samaritans in a timely fashion because they've had to pick up the slack, and they have the infrastructure to be a charity, not to take over for all mental health NHS treatment. But yeah, they all go to these schools where they are taught that they are better and more deserving than the rest of us. And it's leads to these boneheaded interventions. Sunak's "Just go and ask for treatment if you've got mental health problems." Much like Rees-Mogg's "Why didn't the Grenfell victims think to leave the building?" or the constant refrain of "If you're struggling with food bills, buy cheaper food." They're convinced that they're inherently cleverer than the plebs, and it leads them to suggest these insultingly obvious things that any idiot would obviously already have tried and feel like they did a great job, bestowing the benefits of their great wisdom on the unwashed masses. It would be embarrassing if Tories had any capacity for shame.

Where is the protest against THIS. Don't Parliament have bigger issues?

This reeks of a stupid idea sold to smug Brits who think the problem is always someone hypothetical and not literally the government's fault

How they can tell sick people to get their asses back to work while they have a single family whose job is literally sitting around, living off of everyone's tax money in obscene luxury, is baffling

What happened to positive progress? We were doing quite well for 80 years or so. People have such short memories.

Never mind the fact that if you’re sick enough to need to go to a doctor, you’re probably too sick to work. Rich people think poor people fly off to the doctor for every little thing, quite the opposite.

The british empire understood that Britain was not a land rich in area or natural resources (in an industrial sense), and so built their wealth and power on trade, enforced at gunpoint. Not understanding these basic truths is how Brexit happened.

As a Brit this video was both cathartic and enraging. It's like we're an island of masochists who just love suffering, we've been doing this to ourselves for decades and we can never seem to stop, it just gets worse and worse year after year because we keep doing the same retarded shit over and over and expecting different results.

"Great" Britain

You're wrong about cities here Vaush. I live in Manchester and it's economic growth is insane atm. It's basic London outside of London. Basically the only other place worth living.

the problem with Vaush is his arguing points stem from his inferiority complex about Europe. He turns some pretty genuine concerns in to the most ridiculous conclusions. Sunak is announcing some very authoritarian policies most of these won't even be passed before the next election or even really enforceable it's just desperate pandering to the one demographic he has left.

Most places have a policy that you need a doctors note for EXTENDED sick time. My last job automatically put you on "short term disability" after consecutive days. When I suffered a double spinal cord injury and was out almost 9 months, they fired me within 3 months of being back "for reasons" ... "right to work" like most right wing things means the exact opposite, "right to terminate for no reason"

living in the uk is depressing

"UK has never had a revolution" jesus christ chat has 0 historical knowledge. Had they never heard of the English civil war and the levellers?

Neither sunak nor vaush want to talk about the elephant in the room: long covid. The implications of long covid are massive, underreported, and feared by all in power.

While this is obviously a terrible move by Sunak, I do wish Vaush wasn't so confident in his assertions on a system he clearly hasn't looked into. In the UK you don't need government approval or oversight to take sick days if the period in question lasts less than a week, I.E., most sick days any employee would be taking in either country. It's only after a week that you're required to get a fit note from a GP. This is obviously far more charitable than the system that exists in the US, because you oftentimes get company allotted sick days on top of what you're legally entitled to via fit note or short term sickness-especially when you consider you're getting paid your wage regardless. The twisting Vaush is doing to make his blanket 'Britain bad' statement work here is beyond frustrating.

London is not really a city, nobody lives there people only work there, they all work in finances and in the evening they drive to where they really live.

You'd think the priority would be to treat/heal people who are too sick to work, not furiously digging for work they could theoretically still do before they get better.

Vaush saying london is only real city in the UK, should tell you he doesn't know enough to speak on the matter

The motivation for this, Vaush, as this government is dead, the country yes maybe, but this government most certainly is dead. They wanna election in 2019 on a single issue. Every single thing Jeremy Corbyn talked about, wages, taxes, insulated homes, homeless, education, investment in infrastructure, has been at the forefront of discourse in this country and the problems people face while the Tories approach them with a sledgehammer with a bow wrapped on the neck. And yet some people still think Corbyn was the worst option.

I know we just arrived to the 21st century, and the internet, and we've not long passed the oil energy boom and industrialization and stuff. London in 1900 had around 1 million homeless and working poor. These were the Oliver Twist wretched in the streets, factories, occasionally crammed into quarters, or else tied to poor houses to engage in the exhilarating employment prospects of breaking rocks for 3 pence a day or something. We are going back there, it wasn't there long ago, we arguably never real left. God bless the countries formerly known as UK, what will they be without the U and the K?

What i dont understand is the idea that giving any amount of money to "unproductive" people is "wasting" the money. The money doesnt just sit in their bank accounts, it gets spent and is pumped directly back into the economy, paying sales tax in the process.

Standard Tory talking point and policy in the UK. Main difference to this period of time to previous Tory governments is the fact that they’ve used Brexit to turn people against human rights law. It’s allowed them to pass a host of draconian legislation without much protest, which they’ve recently made illegal anyway.

I live in New Jersey. Employers of all sizes must provide full-time, part-time, and temporary employees with up to 40 hours of earned sick leave per year. I call and say I’m sick. Done. I get paid for it. Same goes for personal time. I don’t need a reason. I call say I’m taking a personal day. Done. I get paid. I have over 100 hours of personal time currently. No notes needed.

I hope the NHS will give me my one official sick day good boy chicken nugget dollar now

Already love the title. I saw that Joe Rogan video with that British guy talking about his Trump is America’s best option.

@35:39 I hadn't seen the whole speech before. That section is mental. They do next to nothing about tax fraud by rich people! How insulting to conflate the two...

I actually do have love for my country from a personal perspective, the culture, the music, the people etc. but thoughout my life I've seen it gutted and become progressively hostile towards me and the people I love all because twats with no beliefs or principles want to make a little more money and cling to what little power they hold. I'd move to europe, but unfortunately because the education system practically ignores teaching foreign language, moving anywhere that doesn't have english as the primary language is not really a viable option, not to mention the effects of brexit. A lot of complicated emotions for sure.

The idea of a set amount of sick days per year is horrible, since being sick is unpredictable and having set number of paid days would be an opposite incentive to stay off work to use them up. They have paid holidays in the UK already...