Strike Out

What are we British made of? At what point did we decide to throw our toys out of the pram and nonce around like a bunch of immature children? When did the pendulum swing so far that we bleat and complain, when in global terms our cup continues to run over?
Times are, compared to the pampered years we've lived through, tough. But when we use this word do we have any real grasp of just how good we continue to have it? More than that, are we so ignorant that we choose to blame everything on the bankers when it's our addiction to credit and living beyond our means that partly  lit the touch paper? True, there are some greedy bankers in the world, but don't be so quick to project your infantile concept of the problem onto them. If you want to see the real pantomime villain then find the nearest mirror; you'll be eyeball to eyeball.
What was that? How dare he? Oh yeah I dare, and then some. If we had the self control to live within our means, or at least within touching distance we wouldn't be in quite the same mess. Granted, it wouldn't have cured the problem but at least it wouldn't have magnified it.
People of Britain (I deliberately removed the "Great"), the time has come to stop whining, hunker down, and get on with it. How's about we showed some grit, something like the courage that got us through two world wars? Times were orders of magnitude harder then, and the issues were life and death. In light of this, and as sad as I am that you cannot afford that 3D television you had your eye on, or that expensive handbag, or whatever. You are still in the lap of luxury, and if you doubt this then I suggest you try living as much of the developing world does. Day to day, hand to mouth, subsistence living. And their numbers dwarf yours, and they live in squalor and hardship and get to enjoy such delights as high infant mortality, starvation, and death from diseases that we in the west simply hand wave away.
In short, please by all means state your opinion, and bemoan that your pension isn't going to stretch as far and will cost you more. I'm sorry, but when you reap the harvest we've been cultivating for so many decades, don't be surprised when what you sow isn't quite as much as you hoped.
We're less affluent. We're not poor. And if you say otherwise, I'd love to see your evidence for this.