To ask how you think social issue arise?

[BloomsburyNook]

I'm nearly 50, so have seen a few decades. When I was young, if you visited a small handful of rough or run down places, you might see a few drunks or 'miscreants' or young lads messing around, but never anything really threatening or visible.
So it might just be me, and I've led a fairly quiet life, but there seem to be a hell of a lot more issues out there now, especially in ex industrial places and urban towns around the UK. I see a lot more homeless people, many who have evident addiction issues: women as much as men, and there are more gangs of teens smashing stuff, shouting, fighting, etc.
However, in many areas you hear that crime rates have dropped over the years. Perhaps it depends where you go, and many people in bad areas won't report to the police anyway.

I often travel with work, and see this across the uk, much more dereliction and dying high streets, and in many towns there's literally rubbish piling up along embankments and street corners that the councils never clear up. And it's not simple enough to say it's because these are run down areas - they were run down decades ago but not like this.

I know there are many lovely places, and I've lived in a few of those, too, and some go downhill a bit, some remain safe. So if you don't get out a lot you might not know it's going on? I don't know. I asked a few older friends recently had they noticed and they did admit that there were elements of this knocking around in the 70's, 80's, etc, but not to this extent.

How did it become worse? What is your opinion? What could be done to help? Are people generally poorer than 20 yrs ago? This is presuming poverty as a causation - is it? The news headlines often affirm this, but I don't really know across the board. I know there are a lot of very closed off towns that might make these issues worse due to people rarely leaving them, but is the issue more cultural than economical?

I think people are generally angrier and less satisfied on the whole, we are all a lot more stressed out even if some of us report we are doing great and don't notice it! It just seems like a different world from when I was in my 20's. And of course, it is! Imma gettin old!

Fewer basic jobs that can be done by people with poor education (inc unidentified/ supported SENs), probably harder to be empoloyed with a criminal record too. Lack of educational aspiration where education is the biggest stepping stone to change. Education didn't matter so much 40+ years ago. Education is less practical and supposedly more "academic", this lets so many young people down where the system clashes against individual needs.

Transport to jobs. Industrial areas were a mix of employment and accessible housing. Not attractive but it was practical. When the slums were cleared post-WW2, many people were moved out to peripheral estates which had fewer opportunities.

Breakdown of communities. Ghettoisation when people move on as soon as they can leaving those who are struggling behind. Familes being less local for support. Loss of community activities and venues, communal religion, pubs, social outlets like Miner's Welfare ( bands, sports clubs...) Life has become more commercial, formal and less affordable.

Stronger, cheaper, more accessible drugs. Alcohol liscening relaxed a few decades ago.

Lack of mental health support. More seriously ill people in the community rather than in specialist units.

Generational trauma. It's always been around, but in the 20th century two world wars caused significant damage to two generations of young men. It can take several generations to break the cycle. There are parents of children now affected by the parenting of their post-war parents. Back to education/ SENs, parents that were traumatised by the education system struggle to support their children.

Northern working class town dweller here from 1970 - no one I saw flew a flag - people worked in steel and car production or had skilled trades - pride came from community and still does on the whole - and no grammar schools either - all comprehensive
Crime and anti social behaviour existed as it does today
I do have an issue with is all being a working class 'problem' it's a state issue - if you don;t invest in jobs, regeneration, education and have ambition for people why DO you expect them to care - the class system needs the poor and disenfranchised otherwise you can't exploit them in low waged jobs and blame them for all your fuck ups

Wages are shit for many people. So many jobs don't pay enough to live on anymore, at least not without government top up. That surely has an impact?

I can't see things getting better frankly. A lot of us will have even less money, so less to spend on nice things like getting hair done or going out for a meal.

How will small local businesses manage to survive if a huge per centage of people have no disposable income?

It's a bit scary.

Yeah, I’m a working class northerner. Don’t remember much flag flying either.

Apart from the National Front. Working class were solidly Labour and not that patriotic. Patriotism was for the well off.

I'm a 60s child.
Lived in a few places due to my dad's job.

I remember many council estates that were neat and tidy and one estate, in particular, that was so lovely. Front gardens kept , flowers, hedges clipped.
Many council ( or rather ex council as they're mostly HA properties) look very run down, front gardens looking derelict, rubbish left out.
There's no pride in one's home , it seems.
I don't know why but it's like 'well it's not my house so why should I look after it.'

Even private rentals near where I live, the tenants can't be bothered, and expect 'someone else' to mow the front lawns or take care of the gardens.
Not being able to afford a home doesn't mean that you can treat the property badly.

That being said, the housing market is ruthlessly different now with people needing vast deposits just to rent a room and then being outbid by someone with even more money.

A pp mentioned life under Thatcher, well I can well remember how awful it was under Callaghan ... no rubbish collections, bodies not buried or cremated, 3 day week, blackouts , endless strikes.

What is so frighteningly different now is food bank usage and how it's grown exponentially.

Why that issue alone isn't being addressed, I don't know.
But to have MPs and ministers saying shite like being able to create 30p meals or get a better job, work more hours whilst claiming over £200k a year in expenses makes my blood boil.

Tgatcher dismantled the heavy industries that employed the working class. She was determined to turn the U.K.( particularly the north) into a low pay, low skill service economy. That’s where it started.

Ans she famously said ‘There's no such thing as society’

@shrunkenhead my dh and i moved to a remote industrial town in the early 80's for work. there was an aluminium smelter, a pulp mill, a dock, and a chemical plant. jobs for everyone. the town had regular "gifts" from the companies; pools, arenas, water fountains etc. people earned well the businesses were profitable and the government covered the bare basics but the companies topped up the hospital the schools almost everything (because of the potential for industrial accidents the town of 10,000 needed higher level of trauma trained staff and equipment for example, because the industries wanted people to stay they paid housing for teachers etc.).
we didn't have a male shelter all homeless men were sent or offered transport elsewhere, we did have a woman's shelter though.
but you can see the problem; first the chemical plant moved, then the mill closed and the dock had little work if any. only the big smelter remains.

homes dropped in value, so did moral, everything started to look dilapidated. alcohol and drug use increased and young people had less and less opportunities.
and when i say remote i mean remote.

I live in an area like this. The general demographic is "skinny man on the brink of death".

The reasons for the increase is that family homes have been broken into bedsits by landlords and rented out via the Council.

Generally it's men who are alcoholics/drug users, who's relationship has broken down and they've been kicked out of the family home.

It is a very weird area to bring kids up in - I always lock the front and back door when we are home but I don't feel unsafe.

Most of these men are too pissed/high/emaciated to harm anyone but themselves. It's very sad.

Sorry, just meant to clarity that is in our area - don't know about anywhere else.

Thanks for contributing everyone, I already had my own opinions and thoughts but this has been an education for me.

I agree that northern working class towns never used to come over as bigoted. I think the right wing press have a lot to answer for, stoking the fire of discontent - and they know their audience, and they know their fears.

I also can't see it getting better, I'm sorry to say.

Wow @BloomsburyNook you really rarely leave your London Town house do you?!

I don't understand how you can't know?!

Thatcherism super charged materialism over community, multiple recessions effectively closing down industries and their respective towns. Then the benefit era where it was easier and more profitable to get pregnant to get a house than to work for it but when your family are more good with their hands then you probably are to so working up to buy a house would be impossible anyway...Benefit squeeze, austerity, broken Britain followed...to the point council's can't afford to remove people's crap and as its on the railway embankment its not their problem...drugs, cheap booze don't help either, exploitation via smart phones of young people and voilà...

There is a genuine one word answer to this OP.

Tories.

I've witness this.

The town we left in 2007 had become just that, most of the council flats that had previously housed a fairly diverse set of residents were taken on by single men, usually divorced or troubled. The area became a hotspot for crime and police involvement, it was unrecognisable within a few years, most flats with boarded up windows. These, in the early 2000's were strewn with flower pots and garden gnomes, etc.

And oddly when you met them out shopping or walking past, they were pretty fucked up but helpful and friendly. Perhaps not so much with each other as lots of fighting, etc. But these were really troubled people, with no hope of work or relationships. What the hell could be done to prevent this happening. And many of these people don't vote, they're not the Brexit flag wavers at all. Most of those, in this particular place, were working class but homeowners that were ok off.

Oh fuck off. I live in the north west.

Apologies, it was just so far off the mark. Lost myself there a bit

Surely my posts don't make look that ignorant?

Depends where you live, but I live in a "bad" town. It's OK. If you mind your own business and stay out of one or two certain streets, you'd most likely be fine. But if you read the news here, you'd think it was a war zone!

I think it's fuelled by poverty, which leads to poorer educational. outcomes (in general), poorer work prospects etc etc.

For those blaming the tories the 70s under Labour were much the same. Winter of discontent, three day week, power cuts, etc. Queuing for the dole, soup kitchens. It really has always been the same back throughout history.

Lack of manufacturing which leads to lack of jobs for school leavers who don't want to go to college or university. The shortage of homes, building homes creates jobs in the building industry but new homes are no good without infrastructure, schools, shops, doctors surgeries which again create jobs. The decimation of the NHS & social care, without good health what have we got & without a good social care system those with chronic illness & disabilities can't receive the care they need & if families are expected to provide care they can't work to provide for their families. Poverty, we have more people living in poverty now than we have had for a long time & this will get worse with the cost of living crisis. Something needs to change because if it doesn't we will be in a bigger mess.

True, although I do witness more erosion of services via Tory gov. And yet Labour had the chance to rectify some of that and didn't. I think with Labour, they don't so much fix things as stop them sinking further. The tories seem to aggressively cut.

Labour may have had their problems in the late 70’s, but Thatcher was the architect of dismantling society and industry.

And that’s where the problems really took root. And now it’s normal to have no society, no aspirations, no decent salaries, no houses to buy or rent. It started with her.

I come from a town that's still feeling the effects of deindustrialisation. Everyone worked in the mills/factories so education generally wasn't valued because they didn't need qualifications to do their jobs. They passed that down to their children and everything was fine as generations of families worked in the same places. There was great camaraderie, a sense of community and people looking out for each other.

Once the mills and factories went, they weren't replaced with anything. People didn't tend to have any qualifications so their opportunities were limited. The only jobs available were low paid with fewer hours. A lot ended up on long term benefits. Community breaks down. This continues through the generations. Except now we also have issues with a lack of social housing as well. Unemployment, having no money and debts cause and exacerbate physical and mental health issues. Funding for key services is cut. Crime and addiction become part of everyday life for an increasing amount of people who see no hope and no future.

The few who get qualifications find jobs elsewhere and move out of the area. This makes things even worse. People like me are part of the problem. I moved because I didn't want to stay in the depressing town and wanted better for myself and my child. I moved away as soon as I possibly could. The more people who have done well move out, the more deprived the area gets.

Now we have the cost of living crisis, things are getting a lot worse. I dread to think what will happen to all those people who were already struggling to get by.

A few weeks ago walking back from shopping I came across a girl who asked me for a light for her cigarette. I apologised as didn't have one and she chatted with me for a few mins. She said she had toothache and was dying for a drink. She looked like she hadn't slept in days. I told her to get in touch with the dentist and she said she couldn't find one. Also she didn't give a damn.

I never saw this at one time. Wtf happened? Perhaps it did, but not here.

Exactly. West of Scotland too.

Sadly it's modern day Sodom & Gomorrah

I told her to get in touch with the dentist and she said she couldn't find one

There is a huge lack of NHS dentists