Just tried to read through some of the replies. Seems like a lot of people agree, so I’m glad I’m not going mad! It’s also good to see people ARE bothered.
With the littering I completely agree about taking the initiative and picking up litter / people not littering in the first place. BUT I think peoples attitudes towards littering are generally better than when I was younger, I would be mortified to litter now. But there will always be those that do it. And, ultimately, in my area we definitely do not have street cleaners, nor the street cleaning machines clearing up the muck at the sides of the roads any more, which are clearly needed, if only for the muck on the roads. I remember street cleaners always used to be around. I remember roads being retarmaced frequently when I was younger too - which literally never seems to happen now - it’s just patching over craters in the roads which seem to reappear weeks later.
I only responded on some of the immigration comments and it definitely wasn’t involved in my initial post. Our nhs virtually relies on immigration now for staff! Many worthwhile people moving here. However, we are all allowed an opinion, and personally I am starting to think that actually, yes, there is an increase of the volume of people here that don’t have an interest in looking after this country which MUST have an impact - for example teachers trying to manage primary school classes where 70% of children don’t speak English at home (inner London figures). However, that is only a small part to play in why things have changed. For some reason I also think many, many Brits have less interest in taking pride in this country / their homes etc. The snow prior to Christmas - myself and my elderly neighbour were the ONLY people on our street to clear the snow off of the pathway outside our house. It’s a 2 minute job! When I was younger it was standard for everyone to clear snow on the pathway outside their house which resulted in there being clear pathways the entire way down the street that weren’t too icy etc. “it’s someone else’s problem” attitude.
Definitely agree the lack of Government investment is the biggest element - if they had invested in the nhs, schools, services etc to maintain them (and to cope with increase in population) things wouldn’t have got as dilapidated as they are now. I recently had to call an ambulance for my mum who had a stroke and we waited EIGHT hours for the ambulance. I genuinely couldn’t have got her in the car to the hospital which 999 kept suggesting.
Im not sure who to vote for next time. I can’t see the wood through the trees these days. My elderly FIL used to say “tories, labour, bankers are all the same people they just wear the same hats”. I used to roll my eyes. But now I’m starting to think he is right. I’m not sure why we all just roll over and allow this to happen. The government just seem to bank roll their friends, whilst the rest of us suffer. I used to think of myself as “middle class” as we over 100k income, but in reality these days middle class is just an illusion. You are either part of the “1%” or you’re poor, not much in between anymore!!!
….I’m ranting but anyway I am just annoyed at what a mess everything is. I work hard, why should we put up with such crap services etc? Thanks for all the replies though!