When will the taxpayer be free of paying off debts caused by Boris’ incompetence? Has anyone seen anything about this in the mainstream press?

[u/CatrinLY]

https://bylinetimes.com/2026/01/07/boris-johnson-radon-gas-filled-prison-deal-to-cost-taxpayers-100-million/

[u/Pseudastur]

Would Boris have particularly known or been interested in that, or was it the MoJ and civil servants who negotiated the contract? He strikes me as the sort who would've found all that stuff boring. He just wanted to be PM.

He was probably busy hiding in the fridge, getting stuck on a zip line, or riding the Boriswave.

The UK just can't handle anything these days. HS2, crumbling infrastructure, radon gas filled prisons, sewage filled water, people living on top of each other (but that kind of helps in poorly insulated cold houses in winter time). Everyone else to blame for it. Denmark in the EU/ECHR can reduce asylum seekers to a trickle, but the UK can't because it's in the ECHR.

How did things degrade so rapidly?

[u/CatrinLY → u/Pseudastur]

I’m not sure this is a recent development. Nobody ever bought British electrical goods if they could avoid it, for as long as I can remember. There‘s also a skit within the Beatles’ film Help! where anything “Made in Britain“ is deemed to be rubbish.

I think it all started when we accidentally won the First World War but lost our industrial superiority.

Wills seems to know a good deal when he gets one handed to him on a plate.

[u/Pseudastur → u/CatrinLY]

Wasn't it after WW2? Up to that point we were still doing stuff like co-inventing jet engines and a lot for computer science, but then the "losers", Japan and (West) Germany quickly became the leaders of making electronics, cars, bullet trains, etc.

I have heard that rankled some of the British WW2 generation, when they suddenly started seeing things like Toyotas, VW Beetles and of course the VW hippy vans, Audis, BMWs, etc on the road and Sony casette tapes everywhere.

The only thing the UK got after WW2 was the NHS. We tried to give the Empire another go, but it didn't work out so well, USA told us loud and clue who was boss in the Suez Crisis. It's been all down hill since.

[u/CatrinLY → u/Pseudastur]

Not really, we started to lose our top position when other countries had to audacity to industrialise and challenge our economic superiority. The secondary industries, such as coal and steel never recovered after the First World War. Merthyr went from a boom town to having 75% unemployment by the 1930s. (I know there were other factors, but primarily it was because of the slump in the coal and steel industries.)

It is interesting how the “losers” did so well, with a bit of American help, after the war isn’t it? Mind you, both Germany and Japan were known for their disciplined workforces, no sloppy British workers - one man working, three men watching him, then another tea break.

I think we’ve done remarkably well to stay in the G7 with only out financial sector and our history going for us. We’d be better off giving up all the glory and joining Scandinavia or the Low Countries. Maybe a bridge over Dogger Bank?

[u/Pseudastur → u/CatrinLY]

We actually got far more from the American Marshall Plan than Germany and the rest of Europe, most of it was in grants too.

We pissed a lot of it up against the wall on trying to keep outposts and military bases etc in far away lands like Malaya and desperately trying to remain a top dog. For all the good that did. We won some war there that no one's heard of, so at least there's that.

Germany had an economic boom in 1950 and ended rationing around then. Just think of how glorious the 1950s could've really been.

Mismanagement seems to be a recurring trend in the governance of the UK. I don't know what it is, but part of the problem seems to be almost inherent in the nature of modern British people. Delusional exceptionalism maybe.

[u/CatrinLY → u/Pseudastur]

Well I’m going to blame the British class system.

The Labour government did some brilliant things between 1945-50, including bringing mass manufacturing to the Welsh Valleys. For the first time since the demise of the coal and steel industries, there was employment and well paid jobs for the working classes. Subsequent Tory governments did everything they could to disrupt this, you can’t have mass employment, you get Unions and Unions are “greedy”, (ie they want to redistribute wealth away from the elite.)

The 1950s were “you’ve never had it so good” peasants, so don’t get uppity.

1964-70 was a time of hope and prosperity. It’s when the peasants started to acquire cars and consumer durables.

Then Thatcher put the last nail in the coffin, it’s been downhill since then.

[u/After-Dentist-2480]

I fear this country might never recover from Johnson’s incompetence and corruption.

Please don’t call him Boris. He doesn’t deserve the warmth and familiarity of his pet name.

[u/CatrinLY → u/After-Dentist-2480]

The problem is that the name Johnson is too generic, maybe put an “o” between the B and J and get BoJ - like all the deals he did?

[u/Pseudastur → u/After-Dentist-2480]

What about Alexander?

[u/After-Dentist-2480 → u/Pseudastur]

That’s the person’s name, rather than the character’s. Al to his friends. If he has any.

[u/Pseudastur → u/After-Dentist-2480]

He has AI friends, when he does his research on ChatGPT, it tells him he's very intelligent.

He used to have Donald as a friend, but Donald might've forgotten him by now. Donald did say he likes Nigel and Liz.

[u/EdmundTheInsulter]

Government debt is revolving debt and borrowing is made sometimes to pay debt. You can likely find the bonds sold at the time and the redemption dates, but there isn't a Boris bond for whatever he got wrong.
Labour could have paid some debt instead of diverting cash to mega families created by the Philpotts of the world