Are we heading for disaster? Or, have we never had it so good?

In a blog like this, I’m bound to highlight eye-catching horror stories to show what’s happening in the world. But is everything really as gloomy as it sometimes seems from the headlines? There are some major threats to our well-being – these include:

1. Our national debt – at some point – maybe £1.4trn or £1.5trn or £1.6trn – our debt must stop rising and there could be a massive financial crash that will make the 2007/8 implosion look like a picnic. Then the government will have to make real cuts – not the tinkering around we see today. The problem is that if the Tories are in power after 2015 and make the necessary cuts, there will be strikes and riots. But if Labour are in  charge, they will carry on spending on those who contribute nothing and impose punitive tax increases on those who work, crushing what little industry we have left.

2. Collapse of the EU debt ‘house of cards’ – the Club Med countries are bankrupt and their economies are contracting by the day making their situation ever worse. But if any country were to leave the euro, this would cause a massive bank collapse in other countries like France (banks exposed to $489bn of Club Med debt), UK (banks exposed to $392bn) and even Germany (banks exposed to $478bn). So, to protect EU banks, the EU must somehow keep the whole thing together as removing just one card will cause a monumental crash across the whole continent. And this time, if a major bank goes under, it will be shareholders and depositors who will pay.

3. Europe committing economic suicide to fight non-existent global warming – for every coal-fired power station we close, China and India build 30 to 40 new ones. Every new “green” tax we impose, makes our industry uncompetitive and shifts jobs to Asia. We are slowly strangling Europe’s economies to save the world from “global warming” that isn’t actually happening. But our leaders can never admit they got it wrong. The UK is particularly at risk because Ed Miliband was responsible for our ludicrous carbon reduction targets and he may be our next PM.

4. One to two million Bulgarians and Romanians coming here – this week, workers at the Louvre in Paris went on strike to try to force the police to act against the hordes of Roma gypsy children thieving from staff and visitors. Apparently Paris is now over-run by Romanian and Bulgarian criminals and beggars. Next year this will be coming to a town near you – there will be a massive rise in street crime and burglaries. But anyone who dares to protest will be branded a racist by our impotent political leaders who have allowed this to happen.

But looking on the bright side – we quickly forget that every generation has to live through some kind of crisis. For my parents’ generation, it was WW2. For the generation before that – the Great Depression. Before that – WW1 and so on. Compared to what other generations have experienced, perhaps our problems are relatively minor. We’re richer than any other generation. We’re incredibly generous to those who can’t (or can’t be bothered to) work. And we’ve got better health care, in spite of Sir David Nicholson’s attempts to rid us of our elderly. So, maybe we’ve actually never had it so good?