ABC Australia piece on poverty in the UK

[Ownyourchoices]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-06/broken-britain-poverty-crisis-pushing-voters-to-reform-uk/106354940?fbclid=IwdGRjcARB5p5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeWCpDwM4FfmMpDrm15PUXdfbx6ouNj_UnXY2Gn1_aBqB9CNpuhOf00svG56c_aem_pMUJ56g9kvpjdI8wSuPjIg

“In the working-class Lancashire town of Blackburn, one woman, standing outside her small council terrace, dressed in a bathrobe and smoking a cigarette, said she would move away in a heartbeat, but was too broke to do it.”

It reads like an episode of Little Britain!

I’m sure if I went to the top ten deprived areas of Australia I would find similar poverty and depression. (Which does not excuse the multi generational hardship in parts of the UK that successive governments have failed to address.)

I once went to visit a friend in rural Australia and it was like another world. If you have watched Last stop before larrimar on Netflix you get the idea. The conditions that people were living in were shocking.

Well that’s a depressing read.

I’m sure we could stereotype ‘Straya just as much if we wanted to.

I watched this and I live in a similar area (not by choice though). It is a different world. I'm generally very left but this experience opened my eyes. You could give this woman £50k per week and she'd still be saying the same thing. It's a deeply engrained "woe betide us" mindset that is an incurable cyclical disease in these areas. They blame absolutely any and everyone for life's problems, but the onus is never on them to change anything. In my area it's very Reform, immigrants (usually called 'illegals') are the cause of all societal ills. I had a discussion with someone recently about a protest that is planned against a house being sold to someone from outside the area. The locals think it should be bought by the local council to house "local families" (they think by protesting the council will buy the property). I was trying to explain that's not how it works, but regardless, we shouldn't feel terrified of someone 'new' moving in, people should not by default feel threatened by someone who is not their sibling. Areas where everyone is related to one another isn't necessarily something to aspire to.
The woman saying she'd move abroad tomorrow is a prime example of the lack of awareness that is foundational in these areas, how on earth do you think you'll live without working?