To think life in the UK feels meaner, sadder and more dangerous than it did two or three years ago?

That's a very 'remainer' point of view, if you don't mind me saying. And I'm speaking as an arch remainer.

What the Brexit vote clearly demonstrated was that there were vast numbers of people who were unhappy, that the authorities weren't paying any attention to and the rest of us were in blissful ignorance about.

Calling the Brexit vote was a colossal mistake/error of judgement from Cameron, but those sentiments would have surfaced in other ways eventually.

So I think it goes back much further than that. The Blair years felt good for the country as a whole (not that I'm a huge fan of Blair particularly). But there hasn't been much to get excited about since then. Did we ever really recover from the financial crash?

I agree. This is the first time that I actually despair for future generations coming through. It just feels like something is brewing on lots of levels, and that we’re escalating into something that’s not going to end well for any of us… tbh, it all started going downhill with the emergence of social media, IT, computerisation. From the 1990s onwards.

Too much rolling news and social media fuels this. Life is what it’s been for years. 🙄

Can't we still do all those things? Yes, culture is more online but can't we be the change? I know it's cheesy but if we try & revive healthier habits that would help.

Yes 100%. My town is now a frightful place and it scares me when my children are out. It’s not the same as when I was growing up, now it’s full of drugs and undesirables.

I would date the change in mood back to the Brexit vote where people were given permission to openly hate their neighbour who they got along with for years. Everything has a side to take now

They didn't want to be in someone else's photo, they just wanted to enjoy their day, look at the landmark and move on.

As regards to being out and about on a Friday evening, could it be the UK is now taking more cocaine than ever before? Or huge increase in steroid use at gyms? Both of these drugs make users short-tempered and aggressive.

There seems to be a strange vibe around physical contact, like if you accidently just touch someone it can be aggressively confrontational instantly. Men are angry at women, women are angry at men. It is not easy at all being a young adult at the moment.

The teens were explaining some stuff to me that is going around social media nowadays, ours hate it, and what they see or get pushed towards them, actually this was their friend, but they were putting social media in terms of weirdness and we were just chatting about being young in and around their peers.

Saying this there are some lovely young people around, they are probably not the ones hanging out on Friday night where there is an odd vibe. They are trying to be positive despite the difficulties they will be facing as they try to enter the workforce and takes steps to leave home. Giving their voices a chance to be heard, listen to what they are interested in or concerned about.

It's a very odd time. There are many teens who are worried about the planet, to the point that bringing children into the world is not really a possibility in their minds, to others who throw whole fast food rubbish out of car windows.

And right now in society it feels as though the selfish gene is louder and more prevalent than the consideration gene. It will flip though, it always does, nothing stays the same.

I was out in the city last night in a busy restaurant full of good cheer, the walk through the centre had street music, football fans celebrating and everything from hens to preachers - all jolly enough. Very visible drug and alcohol issues and some groups of kids being daft, but nothing threatening. The park today had kids playing volley ball, a neat queue for the coffee shop, morning rugby and afternoon footy. Super busy and good to see plenty of kids on bikes and OAPs having a sit on the benches. I would say the city felt less polished and posh but the town feels like it has developed and there is plenty of life in both.

People are fed up, frustrated and have little to look forward to especially with the Autumn budget around the corner. Christmas expense coming, higher bills through winter. Life in the UK is grim at the moment for many people.

All true, but..... He was at least an optimist, he talked the country up. KS et al, are all doom and gloom, everything's broken, everything's shit. No wonder people feel disheartened.

We won the women's world cuo rugby, and everyone was suddenly happy. We just need a better narrative from our leaders.

That's why growth is so important. Because there's nothing but painful choices until the economy starts to grow.

But we were bloody stupid to outsource so much of our defence to the US. We should have been bright enough to figure out that they wouldnt always care about interests. That applies to the EU as well as the UK to be fair.

Agree completely

But that means we have to cut back in other areas and in particular welfare. It’s all well and good saying we need to do x y and z but we are stony broke and without curtailing our addiction to spending, we will continue to financially ride on the States’ coat tails.

I think the move to everything being online has been catastrophic for this kind of normal, healthy human interaction

We also need to stop obsessing about the US. Whatever chaos is going on over there isn't helpful, we need to distance ourselves as much as possible. That means acting like grown-ups on things like the economy/defense. We cannot be relying on them for these crucial things.

Hmmm, does anyone else remember the early 2000s? Hoodies out to mug you, happy slapping, gangs of youths drinking white lightning in the park, chav culture, ASBOs - you don’t see as much of this now. But equally there is less of the good stuff now - parties, face to face interaction, chatting on the phone, browsing the shops on a Saturday morning with friends. It just feels a bit like a grey void with everyone on the verge of emotional collapse.

Elon Musk has nothing to do with the UK. It's lazy to trot this kind of thing out.

We need to find areas of the economy that can be supported for growth. The government seems not to understand this/be lacking the skills to make it happen.

Oh for sure. Boris Johnson the lying, cheating, self interested philanderer who switched sides to bring us Brexit purely for his own gain. Boris Johnson who offered to help his friend, Darius Guppy, (who was subsequently sentenced to jail for 5 years for fraud) break another journalists ribs. Yeah, those were the days. I almost split my sides laughing.

And we are all getting poorer as a result of the billionaire class. Looking at Elon fucking Musk and his lot.

I think Trump and angry, right-wing men have a lot to do with it. You've got the likes of Farage, emboldened by Trump's extremism, spewing hatred and trying to cause division amongst us all. Times are not good.

It's poorer and there's more hopelessness so it's inevitable really.

Things aren’t going to pick up, that’s the problem 😬

I think it's very hard for people when COL has risen so much and there isnt much in the way of bright spots on the horizon. People need to feel hopeful about the future and many dont right now.

Boris who legged it off into the sunset leaving his shit for everyone else to clear up you mean??

Very short memory.