Reality of life in UK under current government

[Melisha]

I think people need reminding of what life is currently like in the UK and did not used to be the case.

1. Potholes galore. Every time I drive I am trying to avoid potholes.
2. Our local river keeps getting sewage discharged into it.
3. Our local beach is no longer safe to swim in because of sewage.
4. We have more street homelessness than I have ever seen in my life time, and I am old.
5. More local food banks than ever before.
6. More litter and less street sweeping.
7. Much longer queues at A and E and queues of ambulances outside.
8. Long waits for operations. I have been waiting 16 months for a gallbladder operation.
9. Shoplifting way up. I live in a well off area and yet have seen people blatantly shoplifting in front of staff. I never saw this ever until a year ago.
10. Rape practically legal as conviction rate is tiny.

Please add your own.

I won't be voting Labour or Tories. Both useless.

Jonathan Pie says it better than me... (sorry for the massive link at the bottom)

The thing that gets me is that I wish those who are still determined to vote Tory, despite the crushing poverty, isolaton, homelessness and in some cases death their policies have caused while making the rich even richer is they can't just say 'look, I'm looking after my own interests and I simply do not care if more sick, disabled, vulnerable people are made homeless or die as a result of my choices at the polling booth.' Why can't you just admit you don't give a shit about the people the tories' policies will harm most, those with the least left to lose, and least ability to fight back? Just admit it and be done.

https://twitter.com/JonathanPieNews/status/1808429752518123779?cxt=HBwWhoS5genR6pgyAAAA&cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjcw%3D%3D&refsrc=email

@Unphased you do not understand economics do you?
Strong economies depend on high productivity. Skilled high tech manufacturing has very high productivity rates.
We are not talking about the kind of cheap stuff we used to manufacture that China and now India produce. We are talking about the type of manufacturing in Singapore or Germany. But we do not have the infrastructure to support most of it. We need to build it.

I could have predicted much of this the minute Brexit kicked in - more immigration of people needing housing, healthcare and education-whole families rather than young single working people often coming for just a few years and filling gaps in care, hospitality etc-often living in shared houses. People were fed a load of rubbish-the Tory's always knew what the score would be- and Reform would soon learn that a fair chunk of the population simply don't want these jobs and if you say next to no immigration you will have real issues in some sectors - whilst many older people voting for it just think (whilst doing nothing themselves) that somehow you can force people (other people) to do these jobs and would be moaning their heads off if services got even worse. My belief is in the next few years conditions will be made that it's easier for people from EU to come back- meaning the only people losing out will actually be Brits!! 'We hold all the cards' ! - pull the other one, it's got bells on it. The Tory's deserve to lose but the solution is to take a deep look at all our systems, housing, benefits, health, education, nationalisation and bring in some pragmatic solutions that aren't tied to a particular political party- for instance- I loathe Farage and Reform but think the idea of bringing 'many ' (not all) degree subjects down to 2 years is worth looking at in depth given that many students are in less than 10 hours a week- I do think we should look at how places like Germany and Netherlands work their health and use insurance etc and yet all are covered off. Our systems in many areas of life don't make sense and are often unfair too I feel at the moment to middle earners

@Treeper22 and that was amazing! I posted it yesterday - says it all

I know right!!! He condensed 14 years of apoplectic rage into a few minutes 😅

Where have you been for the last 40 years?
we hade a highly skilled workforce, ship builders, car makers, miners, welders, aircraft manufacturers, etc all highly skilled occupations, we couldn’t compete in a worldwide market, how do you expect to get that all back?

Labour are clearly going to win, so I'd really like to believe that they will sort out all the problems everyone's listing. I'm not very convinced they will though.

Vote Conservative - definite shit show for the next 4 years (proven track record)

Vote Labour - possible shit show for the next 4 years (unknown quantity)

Vote neither - strong possibility of the first option. Do you want to chance it?

Very very true, each and every word @Alwaystired94

asylum seekers are not illegal immigrants.

Oh so which country will allow us to set up processing centers? Why would they take that on when they will be processing their own? To claim asylum you have to be IN the UK so that doesn't make sense does it.

Ordinary people aren't unable to get houses because of 'illegal immigrants'. Its down to house prices have sky rocketed for many reasons including council houses being sold off and not replenished so our social housing stock is low. We need many things to shake up our housing situation including more social housing, more affordable houses to buy across the board, less extortionately high rents from private landlords and better controls on landlords.

@Unphased i will say again you do not understand economics. They are not highly skilled high tec manufacturing industries. And talking about the UK car industry really shows you understand nothing. The UK car industry is stuck in the past and will cease to exist within 5 years without a major change.

I truly hope I’m here in two years time, cheap housing for all, Doctors and hospital appointments next day, school numbers reduced, no poverty, no food banks, no pot holes, cheaper energy prices, Good social care for everyone etc, I can’t believe that will happen under Labour all unfortunately any of the existing parties

Whilst I understand that the tories have been clowns, we have very significant problems resulting from covid. For example, we have GPs working from home, empty surgeries and desperate patients. Covid facilitated that. Plus there is war in Ukraine which has also impacted us financially. Also, it was not utopia prior to the tories. My sibling is a teacher who was attacked whilst teaching in a state school in 2007. This was commonplace. The tories can't be blamed for everything - there have been the serious external problems as above. We'll see if Labour can fix it. I think not.

The only thing that people find satisfying about Labour is that they are not the Tories. And those who actually hope to see a sea change in policy and the fortunes of the general population will be the most dissatisfied cohort of the lot of us once the gloss of a colour change has worn off. Come April Labour will be on the shit list.

@Unphased I actually swore after Brexit discussions on MN that I would not discuss economics with people like you who have no understanding of economics, but think they do. I broke my promise today.
From labours policies the current Labour party can improve the economy. We need a stronger economy to provide good public services. Our economy has declined over the last 14 years while some of our neighbours economies have not.

it's going to take more than 2 years to enact the kind of change we need for our society.
We can start taking the first steps straight away but none of us are under the mistaken impression that within 2 years 14 years of chaos will be undone.

Well let’s hope Labour can add that to their lengthy to do list

Give me hope, how many years are we talking about?

Not true.
I am satisfied by a lot of their policies and many i've spoken to agree. Its a bonus that voting for a party who has a manifesto we prefer also are not Tories.

An important reality for life under the current government is a lack of ambition for our country. Too many people seem to think that we have to accept a managed decline of our economy. That is not true. When people complain about our economy, too many government Ministers tell us we have to accept it as just the way things are.

How long is a piece of string? Maybe leave the forecasting to the economists and analysts rather than random anonymous people on Mumsnet.

So just the whiff of a change, not any evidence of it is good enough for you? Gosh, what a good party supporter you are to keep the bar so low.

Well done on completely missing the point. How can they have evidence for a mandate they cannot enact until they are in power? The manifesto goes into good detail on how they will look to achieve each aim.

And yes, "any whiff of change" is preferable to the current decline we've had for 14 years. Why would i not utilise the option of change when the alternative is to keep the current cause of the decline?

I'm not expecting Labour to fix everything in four years. There's too much that's broken. And I'm sure there will be stuff they're going to do that will piss me off.

The one thing I'm willing to bet my vote in is that they won't be worse than keeping the Tories in power. The last 8 years has been one absolute disaster after another all fuelled by Tory party in-fighting, greed and lies. The Tories have no talent left; anyone with an ounce of integrity was pushed out years ago. To continue with them would be disastrous.