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.

They're not really though. Westminster still hold the purse strings.

The majority are from Afghanistan who are fleeing the Taliban. Around 70 percent get refugee status.

@cupcaske123

"The majority are from Afghanistan who are fleeing the Taliban. Around 70 percent get refugee status."

In 2023, the largest number of UK asylum seekers came from Afghanistan- 9,307. The next biggest group, about 7,400 people, came from Iran, followed by Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. In 2022, Albanians were the top nationality with more than 17,300 people (including dependants) claiming asylum.6 days ago. Currently the largest number are coming from Vietnam but that may change over 2024.

It clearly changes from year to year but I would question why Albanians and Vietnamese are claiming asylum when it's viewed as safe enough for Brits to go there on holiday.

Who exactly then?

Vietnamese and Albanians are two of the most trafficked nationalities. Vietnamese are often trafficked into the sex trade and nail bars. Both nationalities can claim refugee status after establishing they've been trafficked.

That short video sums up the last 14 years better than anything anyone could write on here! Brilliant.

Basically the country works on a broken pyramid scheme. Growth and population expansion is the only thing that temporarily props it up. And ill gotten gains from colonial days gone by. This isn't ever really talked about, understood or tackled.

@1dayatatime

It clearly changes from year to year but I would question why Albanians and Vietnamese are claiming asylum when it's viewed as safe enough for Brits to go there on holiday.

Cos it's all a giant con.

In the same vein, why is it ok for Arsenal to have "Visit Rwanda" as a short sponsor yet not as a place to send asylum seekers? Why is the European Championships sponsored by "Visit Qatar", when Qatar has a reputation for...ah you know the rest.

It was Labour who brought in the current dental contract

Local authority funding was absolutely hollowed out. That's why there are more potholes. They had no choice but to to radically reduce their repair programmes. I was actually speaking to someone involved in this only the other day.

Excellent Jonathan Pie rant @EsmeWWax

This is not true. The issue is that our economy is in decline. Because the country has been so badly governed.

Not true. It was the Conservative party in 2006. The new contract reduced what NHS dentists received for most work.

blogs.deloitte.co.uk/health/2019/03/what-has-been-happening-to-nhs-dentistry-since-the-introduction-of-a-new-contract-in-2006-.html

Labour have lost my vote over the gender issues (Women do not have penises, @KeirStamer), but Labour in Wales have been asking Westminster to examine the Barnett formula for years. We may have won devolution here in Wales but our national purse is still dictated by the Tories. They have of course, ignored the pleas.

My addition to the list:

Cuts to education - huge classes, understaffed schools.

Ridiculous demands made of schools re tracking and performance has created an environment that doesn't encourage people into the profession l.

Closures of PRU's across the country meaning that schools have to somehow manage those badly behaved pupils who, quite literally, create havoc in classrooms and corridors.

Closures of community Sure Start - not quite sure how to word this one, but WTF has happened to parenting? Behavioural issues in schools are at critical level.

I was also going to add Dentists.

• terrible public transport for extortionate prices
• a water system that pollutes rivers and the sea
• dreadful social care
• high levels of homelessness
• too many children living below the poverty line
• a broken NHS
• an under-resourced judicial system
• all the negative effects of Brexit

Labour were in power in 2006..

I left the country just as the Tory government got in. From the outside (obviously based on friends and family comments as well as balanced media) I think the UK has fallen a long way. When you are frog being boiled maybe it’s harder to see…

I don't think many of us have missed the rapid decline tbh. We have just been generally powerless to stop it!

I live in a nationally recognised deprived area. Never was maintained or cared for as the more appealing towns nearby seemed to have the money before it came our way BUT my god, how run down it is now. None of the street furniture has been repaired or repainted since 2010. Buckled railings stay buckled. The population look ground down, the youth services and family centre which were vital were closed or streamlined by the Tories, now we have almost Marshall law with the teenagers. The secondary schools have been changed and failed, changed and failed and now getting another rein carnation ....Our heritage, of which there is much has been eradicated or neglected.
There are pockets of volunteers and entrepreneurs who have tirelessly managed to improve and recognise what was once a bustling sea side destination, they are fabulous but they face an uphill battle.

I live in a similar area though I do not even have the sea to look at to.soften the blow. It really grinds you down to.feel like you are at the bottom of the heap and looked down on by all. I get v angry thinking of all the money that has been wasted or used to boost the coffers of the already wealthy.

Looking forward to all of this to go with Labour. How long should I wait for? Glad they will be deporting all rapist criminals. Let me know to go and watch the planes leaving.

@Triestre You think only immigrants are rapists? Okay...

@Aussieland.
And how do they and you feel about what's happening with Europe and the swing to the right? Macron calling his snap election, the possibility of Trump getting in again. Are these happy contented nations you're seeing?

@Triestre the amount of homeless people shot up around us near the end of the Blair era. People lost their homes, was that due to Blair /Brown?
I'd say no, it was the credit crisis that affected everyone globally. That's also when food banks began to be needed in a great we volume.