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!

There was post some months go on a similar topic, the pp said that we were still paying for the WW2 munitions that we got from USA in 1970s and did not finally pay off WW2 debts until about 2000.
I had not realised that. It was a terrible imposition on us. The NHS cost us much more than forecast. New technologies in health care developed in 1960s and introduced widely from 1970s kept so many more people living well not just alive.

The average age of population so much improved.

The only way you could achieve change with social issues is to get people from all different backgrounds working together to help improve areas. A lot of people who make these decisions which have caused social problems, have no idea how their decisions can impact day-to-day lives because there's a lack of diversity in these sectors. They always assume what they think is best is what is best for communities, but they don't often understand.

Since you ask OP 😁
What we need is:

Adequate police force with resources who are not corrupt, sexist and racist amongst other things.

Jobs. Real careers that pay people enough money to live on, without the need for benefits and food banks.

Education, which is free to access. Inclusive of university education to help folk who do not have families who can pay for it.

A government who are not self serving, power hungry and corrupt to the core. They could actually choose to do these things and stop doing dumb shit like having parties in pandemics.

Councils who support things like libraries, community centres and sports facilities. Things for kids, teens and adults to actually do, community projects that mean something instead of building shitloads of houses on greenbelt land that most people can't afford anyway.

Health and social care that actually works. Pay carers a decent wage and there will be enough of them, which will impact on the hospitals. Make healthcare truly accountable when they get it wrong. Let the government pay all staff appropriately and encourage training and development.

Tax corporations as they should be. Stop the endless loopholes for the billionaires to avoid taxation and stop making the working classes pay via taxes to scoop up the likes of that massive knob that bought BHS and stole the pension funds.

Windfall tax on energy companies....

I could be here all night. You could give me the job and I'd do a bloody better one than the whole of parliament. I'm just a bit busy at the moment 😃

Thank you <3

1. Care in the community - so unsupported vulnerable people
2. destruction of public services especially police and mental health
3. lack of welfare support : food banks WTF?
4. selling off council houses - not biting us on the area big time

Just after WW2 this country was nearly bankrupt but the government still managed to make the welfare state, form the NHS & build thousands of council houses, why can't we do the same now? Because this government doesn't want to spend money where it matters, they prefer to keep it in their own pockets.

Neoliberalism. The pursuit of material gain at any cost to others/the environment, and the utter shamelessness of this to the point that the words wealth and success have become interchangeable.

Imagine if we didn’t fawn over vacuous celebrities, or kowtow to the wealthy or privileged. Imagine if every person was treated with dignity and respect, if we treasured our babies and our elderly, if we valued social support systems over consumerism and giving over getting.

Interestingly I think there is n appetite for this. In a week when we have blanket coverage over 2 WAGS utterly absurd little lives, when a celebrated figure has been exposed as a backstabbing, underhand, dishonest character devoid of any morals, it would be understandable to assume that this epitomises British life.

Yet we also see enormous interest in and support for a woman of extraordinary strength, dignity and character, Deborah James, which makes me think that actually there are a lot of good people who would like a return to a more civilised society. I just wish they’d all band together and form a political party that takes over and leads positive change.

Yeah, that's the issue (I know this too). Austerity has made it a lot worse with cuts, I agree. But I mean, for the future, as what OP says - we probably do need to bring that back, but we do need sectors to become reflective of the communities they want to help. I can't see that happening anytime soon, which is a shame.

I have noticed way more issues in Labour areas too

Look at the areas with grooming gangs.

Any government (national/regional/local, of any colour) which stays in power for too long will rot. Good governance requires a strong opposition. In many of these towns Labour has been in charge for decades with little in the way of competition so corruption has become endemic.

Most welcome! All of it is quite easy to identify, and probably not that difficult to solve.

Just the people who can don't want to, because they profit from all of this. And get away with it whilst laying the blame anywhere else

I have noticed most newspapers fail to mention any of this.

@Nat6999 after ww2, the vast majority of people didn't own their homes, London was covered in rubble, many middle class families had lost their money due to the war; even upper class families would have suffered due to their staff/men going to war. People supported an egalitarian state because people had little and they learnt during the war that the only way to survive was to lean on each other.Wars are actually quite effective in redistributing wealth.. now, 66% of the population own their home and for the older people who form the larger percentage of voters, it is much higher. They now feel like 'asset owners'.. and the ageing population has less incentive to vote for a change in the status quo as they have already amassed assets.. and their heirs are also less likely to vote for change.

Things won't change because we have a huge looming problem which is the ageing population. Our demographics are going to completely change & there is little planning for that change.

I live in a leafy suburb of north London so I don't see any of this in my high street. I do see homeless people in central London and there are more women than there used to be..What I do see is an alarming reliance on parents for my generation (I am in my 20s). I know of no one my age in London who has not received substantial parental help as an adult to buy their home. Even DH and I lived at home for 3 years to buy our flat. So if you are poor and don't have local parents, I don't know what one can do. This must create a lot of bitterness and anger. And the common refrain 'leave London for somewhere cheaper'... Well it doesn't really help genuinely poor people right? A cheaper area may not have a lot of jobs; if you are renting, it will still not be cheap; I have seen apartments in Manchester for higher rent than my mortgage. I had a friend in Yorkshire whose outgoings were the same as mine despite her household income being 25% of our household income (due to needing to run 2 cars and private rental). The moving to a cheaper area works better if you already have savings and some sort of career but that doesn't really apply to people who are struggling; and it's more of a question of preference. Poor people need max job opportunities (so they can work max hours to make up for low pay) and affordable housing in areas with good public transport (urban areas), near lots of amenities (this saves money and means that they can access cheaper retailers and supermarkets). You can only get that in cities which have become very gentrified. So a lot of poorer people are forced out to towns with fewer job opportunities and this impacts on their future... And there is also no investment in these towns to make them more attractive to businesses so it's like a downward spiral..

If I was the government, I would invest in high speed rail to connect many northern towns to Manchester and even London. Give each low income earner a discount off a rail season ticket (many lower paid jobs cannot be done from home). As for housing, I would build more social housing. The government can also partner with builders to build subsidized housing to be sold to FTB with the caveat that the FTB can only sell onto other people earning below a certain income threshold; these would be modest 2-3 bed maisonettes with shared gardens. And they are not allowed to be rented out unless the owner has a legitimate reason to leave the area; job or divorce etc. They would not appreciate as much as normal houses but that is what would keep them 'affordable'. Some people might think renting a house with garden for life is preferable to owning a government subsidized maisonette but I guess that is their choice.

Yes I’ve noticed this also. I think there has always been violence, homelessness, drunkenness. However I grew up in a rough area of London, and there wasn’t a feeling of ‘meanness’ on the streets. People did get attacked or mugged. But generally there weren’t gangs hanging around taking up the centre of places.

I think it’s similar level of problems, but it looks different.

@basketb immigration should theoretically help to balance out the ageing population.A big issue however is balancing the elderly's healthcare needs using a healthcare system that was devised in the 1940s! I actually think we should start means testing the NHS. I know they say that would mean the rich have less of a stake in the NHS but there isn't really a system outside the NHS for the serious difficult stuff so they have no choice but to use the NHS.and even if they could go private，NHS would still charge them less than the private healthcare provider would. I have private medical insurance and there are plenty of exclusions so most rich people would have to pay a bomb for private medical care so we might as well redirect that money to the NHS where it is needed.

@onthefencesitter immigration isn't popular though & personally I think it's naive to assume we are as attractive as we once were. An immigrant will face high taxes & high cost of living & don't forget other countries will be vying for immigrants too not to mention the immigrants own country may become more prosperous & there will be less reason to leave.

There is a major crisis within social care & the NHS & if it's like this now what will it be like with millions more elderly.

I agree the current NHS model is unsustainable but what would means testing look like. Based on income or assets?

I have money in the bank but currently a low income. A means tested NHS would wipe me out financially with one illness.

blanket free prescriptions over 60 is ridiculous though

I grew up in East Lancashire and honestly I couldn't get away quick enough.

It just seemed so poor, depressed and a general sense of menace anytime you went into town.

I've travelled a lot but honestly the most scared I've felt and the roughest places I've ever been are in the North of England.

I do think education is one of the main keys, but anti intellectualism is rife.

@basketb in my home country, it's based on a mixture of property value and income. My late grandma did not benefit from this system as her registered address is a house worth the equivalent of £4 million (she lives with my parents) but at the same time my parents do have the money to pay for her medical bills. There are people who are v rich but put their parents (who were also rich) in government flats for this reason and get generous subsidies.

@lecreusetpeppermill I think if your income is low, it would override the money in bank. I don't think it would be based on money in bank as that is hard to prove..it would be based on income (can tell from NI band)/council tax band. For older people in band E and above but who get state benefits, they can get free healthcare as well. Might also encourage people to downsize.