The Hindu : Opinion / Lead : Nothing to celebrate in New Year: "From a distance it looks like a poster for a disaster film: a man, panic written all over him, trying to run for his life as flames leap up from an exploding structure behind him. But get closer and you discover that the man is Prime Minister David Cameron and the exploding structure represents 2012. Beneath it, in small print, the caption reads: “And you thought 2011 was bad...”"
The cover of New Statesman's New Year issue dramatically sums up the mood in Britain as people brace themselves for another difficult year amid fears of thousands more losing their jobs and joining the lengthening dole queue at a time when the government is clamping down on welfare benefits.
This is the third consecutive year of “austerity” which has already led to swingeing public spending cuts and millions of job losses with little evidence of the promised new jobs in the private sector. Last year, Britain reached the highest level of unemployment since 1996 with 2.64 million Britons out of work, according to the government's Office for National Statistics (ONS). The figure is predicted to touch the three million-mark in 2012. The worst-affected are the 16-24-year-olds, accounting for more than one million of the total unemployed workforce.
ANXIETY, ANGER, PESSIMISM
Not surprisingly, the public mood is one of anxiety, anger and deep pessimism with people said to be less optimistic about their prospects in 2012 than they were at the start of 2011. Britain has been rated among the world's five gloomiest nations with just one in 10 people believing that the economy will improve. It is telling that the demand for anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs reported by the National Health Service has risen by more than a quarter since the start of the financial crisis in 2007, and the number of people being treated at government hospitals for “anxiety disorders” is soaring.
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