Comment: A Perfectly English Malaise: Is it any wonder we can’t be bothered?

Last Wednesday (3^rd Jan), the press was full of the horrors of sickie Britain. Tumbleweed bowled across empty streets in cities across the country as if simultaneous dirty bombs had gone off on New Years Eve. So what was the cause of this mass apathy? (massapathy?) There are clearly two reasons, one of which is the eternal deluge of rain but combined with the other two, there’s a good chance we’ll never leave the house again.

I have a friend, the epitome of 2K man, wealthy, converted property owner, dog owner, and above all one of life’s uber-shoppers. No, you won’t find any value brands in his house just ‘quality’ merchandise. He is strong in his belief that we are currently at the pinnacle of mankind’s shopping experience and he is determined to make the most of it. When else in an Englishman’s history have you been able to buy items from all the way around the world at such cheap prices? To him it is a near nirvana. And it’s true things are devastatingly cheap if you know where to look and you know what you want. Everything is pouring out of China faster than they can make the stuff and it makes you wonder whether there will come a point where no one will need another thing ever again. What will happen then? Well we’ll probably invent some even more pointless stuff.

When the shops and bellies are full with things so cheap, it’s no wonder the incentive to go to spend eight hours a day in the office seems about as appetizing as another Christmas dinner on Boxing Day. It’s a worry when an economy is ever so slightly successful and the first reactions of its citizen’s is: I can’t be bothered to do anything, and I certainly am not prepared to do a job the Eastern European labour force might consider doing. Come to think of it I suspect all this laurel resting is probably the same malaise that infected the English cricket side this summer and just as hard as it is to see them picking themselves up soon, it’s hard to see anyone else in this country attempting anything resembling work before April. Let’s just hope we don’t have a recession.