To panic about the dire state of the UK?

[moveblues]

So... all things considered... aren't we up sh-t creek?
-gas and electricity prices
-covid (masks? Pfft completed Covid mate (in England))
-council tax hikes
-inflation
-food shortages
-Brexit
-petrol

Sounds like something out of a dystopian nightmare. I'm worried dear reader, and 'keep calm and carry on' doesn't help.

I've seen a few posters claiming that streets in the UK are particularly filthy, something to do with not being able to afford to clean them whereas everywhere in Europe (they claim) is spotless.

Why then have I seen more graffiti in cities as varied as Geneva, Berlin and Brussels than I do if I travel to Manchester?

In Britain if a train gets graffitied it comes straight out of service for cleaning. In many European countries they stay in service entirely covered in spray paint.

Are those posters using a special brand of rose-tinted spectacles when they go on holiday, or else don't they venture out of the resort?

@cardibach

I disagree. If Labour put up any sort of opposition they would have wiped the floor with them post-Brexit What should they be doing *@Pumperthepumper*? They call them out in the house and in social media and in the media I. General if anyone will let them. The Tories have a massive majority right now, there’s nothing they can do - when the majority was less (or non-existent) they managed to force U-turns but that’s not possible now. I always ask people who say this what they think they should be doing and I get no answer (or occasionally that they should do grass roots work, which they are, making life better at a community level ).

My answer would be: start focusing on working-class values, stop trying to appeal to everyone, start making promises about taxing the very rich, stop dancing around the issue of

@TimeFlysWhenYoureHavingRum

It's what "the people" voted for. All this (apart from covid!) was predicted in painful detail prior to 2016.

No the people didn't vote for this.

They voted for training and job opportunities (that paid above poverty wages) and affordable secure housing.

Like you say 2016. It doesn't take 5 years to train HGV drivers.

YANBU, OP. I don’t switch on the radio most mornings like I used to, because I’m almost scared to hear what our next crisis is!

Really? Do tell me which part of the UK lacks indoor plumbing?

Like Victorian times is not just about the plumbing... how strange you are

Recently the news has been flooded with articles bemoaning the fate of 'born and bred locals' in places like Cornwall. Too many Londoners coming, they cry. Pricing out locals (always of course ignoring the fact that Londoners have been priced out for years by people from all over the UK and beyond - including from Cornwall).

Hmmm. Well that's freedom of movement for you.

The people who voted against unlimited freedom of movement aren't racist. They simply wanted the same as the Cornish and other beauty spot locals. The ability to afford to live near their local community, family, and support networks.

The problem was that Tony Blair (and all who followed him) wanted mass immigration (approx 12 million added to the population in just 20 years) but without the necessary spend on extra infrastructure, housing, and public services to accomodate it.

Of course reliannce on exploitation harms people. Migrant and locals both.

@wewereliars

This country is becoming a failed state, because the posh boys thought it would be a laugh to smash up our delicately balanced supply chains, and their paymasters saw megabucks to be made in the resulting chaos. And they persuaded the ignorant, the stupid and the racists to vote for it.

What is or is not happening in Sweden or Sudan is totally irrelevant to this.

You really don't know that you're born if you think that the UK is becoming a "failed state".

Why then have I seen more graffiti in cities as varied as Geneva, Berlin and Brussels than I do if I travel to Manchester?

Maybe, but do they have as many people wandering around during the day off their faces like you see in Piacadilly Gardens?

*Piccadilly

I went to Manchester 3 weeks ago. It looked awful in the city centre.

Not the Manchester of my student days at all.

[quote onlychildhamster]@Mamamia7962 But the thing with Germany is that I still think its somewhat better for the average person, assuming you have a job and can pay rent. It is perfectly feasible to rent all your life- tenancies are lifetime tenancies , the rent is controlled and you can decorate as you wish. My problem is that neither DH or I were locals so we needed a guarantor and a huge deposit as we couldn't show 3 months payslips. But once you get a rental, its much better than the UK. Childcare is cheap but its not for that many hours. state pension is also way better.

You don't have the problem of being a middle income family and being forced to sink all your savings into a housing deposit because you are worried that one day, you wouldn't be able to afford the rent. There were probably better things that I could do with £70k but I knew that if I didn't buy a property in London, I might be priced out of my own job in future because there is no knowing when the landlord would raise the rent.[/quote]
Yes this.

Germany has a good healthcare system too.

Higher taxes but you get what you pay for.

Their education system used to be good too. I'm a bit out of date so unsure whether it's still the case, but they used to offer excellent vocational opportunities. Because sole focus on academia isn't what's needed.

@colouringindoors

Re the Corbyn would be worse...

Don't be so utterly bloody ridiculous. What other government has spaffed 37 billion on a Track and Trace system that never worked, presided over by Dido Harding, a woman with no relevant experience? We have one of the worst death rates from Covid and one of the worst economic recoveries and all you can do is feebly claim that Corbyn would have been worse.
It really is time that Tory voters began to take responsibility for the shitshow that they have visited upon us all.

THIS

fullfact.org/online/37bn-test-trace-spending/

For clean streets, go to East Asia. For example, Tokyo's equivalent of London's Piccadilly Circus is striking in how clean it is. Impressive.

@MartyHart

I'm in the EU. No shortage of truck drivers. Supermarket shelves full and plenty of fuel. Energy prices will rise but suppliers are not going bust. Healthcare is more or less back to normal, just with masks.

The same here actually. I’ve not seen a single empty shelf.

And you do have truck driver shortages in the EU. 124,000 in Poland alone.

Corbyn would absolutely have been bad. Very very bad. One bad option doesn't make another bad option better.

Ddraiggoch thanks for your patronising response. We are meant to be a developed first world democracy.

A country in which political decisions mean;

The supply chain cannot get petrol into forecourts, food on the shelves and cannot / will not prevent it's health service from collapsing and where people are having to decide whether they can put the heating on or buy foodmeal is failing by any reasonable standard of good governance.

Most towns and cities in the U.K. just look depressing - grey cheap housing, wheelie bins everywhere, cars parked on the road, graffiti, lack of green spaces, rubbish everywhere & ugly 70s buildings. The whole country needs a good facelift because so many areas are just soulless and grimy.

You can add the worrying lack of vets and vet nurses. It's worse than the NHS just now. EU applications down 80% since brexit. The industry is in crises. You won't get your new pup or kitten registered within 40 miles of me, all practices have closed their books to new patients. Oh and this weekend we've been told there's a global shortage of cat vaccines due to the boom in pet ownership so you won't be able to get them vaccinated either. The lorry driver crises is also affecting pet food supplies and medical supplies. The welfare of the UK's animals is looking dire.

"Parts of the UK live in poverty levels like Victorian times."

There are people living in appauling conditions. Mouldy, overcrowded flats, kids without food or winter coats. My grandmother used to talk about seeing this in the 1920s. I watched a documentary recently where a guy heated his dinner by balancing the pot above a row of tea light candles! I'm sure this is unusual (I hope!) but still shocking to see in 21st Century Britain.

And you do have truck driver shortages in the EU. 124,000 in Poland alone.

Yes there's a shortage across Europe. One reason being the obsessive focus for the past 30-40 years on 'Education, education, education'.

Tony Blair (and his European counterparts) goal of getting up to 50% of the population in university was always ridiculous. Impractical, expensive, and unnecessary.

We used to have excellent and well funded adult education evening and weekend classes. Meanwhile people got on with getting paid employment, learning on the job, and working their way up (with options of broadening their minds/studying for pleasure/pursuing a hobby in their spare time).

There should have been more respect for the non academic but very essential jobs and for the people who did them. Europe wide they need better pay and conditions.

Btw I'm not against immigration (before anyone tries to misinterpret my posts). I love diversity and a cosmopolitan experience (unlike some of our more insular Beauty Spot Locals). But you can't have unlimited freedom of movement without providing for the increased demand on services, infrastructure, and housing. And exploitation of cheap labour is not ok.

I’m quite excited that DP easily got diesel today!!! Whoop whoop 🤣

@containsnuts

"Parts of the UK live in poverty levels like Victorian times."

There are people living in appauling conditions. Mouldy, overcrowded flats, kids without food or winter coats. My grandmother used to talk about seeing this in the 1920s. I watched a documentary recently where a guy heated his dinner by balancing the pot above a row of tea light candles! I'm sure this is unusual (I hope!) but still shocking to see in 21st Century Britain.

Yes. Today's society is a horrible hybrid of Dickensian and Huxley's Brave New World.

@bendmeoverbackwards

I can’t vote in the UK. If I could you better believe Boris and his cronies would be out on their asses so quick that their ears would ring if they even heard a word that starts with “T”.

But I wouldn’t stay even if you paid me. I’m a Swedish citizen and my political efforts are better spent in my own country where my children will be living.

I think the British people need to be very hard and very clear with your politicians. They need to learn to respect and fear their constituents. There is no excuse for the behaviour of the politicians here.

They work for the people and it’s time the people showed these people and their cronies the door.

And also I said what I said. If you are a British citizen and shrugging your shoulders now living in Lala land then you are part of the problem. Scumbags like Boris and his ilk of course won’t see a problem and will be living in their little bubble pretending like this is ok. But if your neighbours are suffering then that’s a problem for everyone.

Also why the obsessive focus on EU labour?

We're welcoming 20,000 Afghan refugees. We also have desperate migrants arriving at Dover.

The majority are fully capable of work - and they want to. They don't want to be left to rot in hotels waiting for one of our increasingly scarce social housing properties. Far better to allow them to work - giving them the opportunity of self respect and the ability to self fund their accomodation.

They're not useless. They are normal people with the same abilities as anyone else. Let's offer them training and employment opportunities.

Parts of the UK live in poverty levels like Victorian times.

I know, we have really shocking and shameful levels of poverty in the UK. I remember Jacob Rees-Mogg celebrating this by describing food banks as 'uplifting' wtf! He was then voted back in after saying this!!!
Life expectancy (pre covid) was actually falling in parts of the UK. I can't even imagine it! A government presiding over shortening life expectancy. It's just unbelievable!
And people still shout 'but Labour!' Wtaf! They haven't been in power for ten years.