To think a lot of the Uk looks like a state

[Novembermummy88]

Not sure if I am being dramatic or if years of austerity are really starting to show…? Lately I’ve really started to notice how filthy, run down and falling apart everywhere looks! I live in a town in the south east on the borders of the M25. Every where there are gapping pot holes (can hardly avoid the volume there are now and genuinely concerned I will lose a wheel at some point!), broken lamp posts, the volume of litter / filth on the roads seems very high and can’t remember the last time I saw a road sweeper, and things like pathways are a state, road markings worn out, SO many closed/dilapidated shops….the town just looks awful as do many of the nearby towns! Is it just the South East looking like this? Aibu?! Or have I watched too much Selling Sunsets and setting my expectations too high…???

Close to where I live, so, so many high rises are being built and now, because they can't be sold, they are up for monthly rental, great if you are renovating, split with a partner and need a breather but also great for drug and sex explotation

Whereabouts do you live op?

Trying to gauge if people in nicer areas aren’t posting on this thread

@GenXxx

All of this. Nail on the head.
And nothing will improve until you have a Government that invests in improving productivity. This means decent education, infrastructure, and industrial strategy for key high-margin growth sectors, and removing ridiculous bottlenecks in the tax system at £50k, £100k etc and equalises it to remove the penalisation of single adult households.
No chance this will happen because the average British citizen has no grip of even the most basic economics so there is no pressure on MPs to do so. People seem happier fighting over how they divide up the remaining crumbs or resorting to xenophobia.
I guess you get the politicians you deserve.

I fully agree. Especially the tax cliff edges that are massively damaging and disincentivise business growth, working more hours, etc. We need a tax system that encourages people to work more, businesses to grow, etc. It's crazy that people are punished by the tax system for improving their lot! Take the VAT registration threshold of just £85k that's not changed for a few years now - that's a massive problem for the smallest of businesses who get penalised by tax bills if they grow to just over that threshold, especially shops, cafes, guest houses, tradesmen, etc as they have to pay VAT on ALL their income, not just the amount over the £85k limit. And yes, the £50k and £100k cliff edges where you start to lose child benefit and the personal allowance - it's caused people to work fewer hours, not take promotions, etc. But as you say, the average person is full of envy and can't understand that the country needs small businesses to grow, it needs people who are able and willing to work more, to do so, or to accept promotions they are offered!

Years of under investment in public services have resulted in this. Instead, this corrupt government are filling their pockets with tax payers money before they are voted out. They disgust me. They already have a well paid full time job as an MP but instead of putting the hours in they should they are neglecting their job to take lucrative second jobs to get even more money.

I don’t want to be too outing but in London / Essex border and is generally an “affluent” area which in reality isn’t very culturally diverse at all. I wasn’t born here though - was born in an area that definitely was deprived the other side of London. So I wouldn’t personally describe myself as a wealthy person moaning, I’ve seen nice areas and bad ones too!! But I wanted to check I hadn’t started to get blinkers so thought I’d post my first thread on mumsnet!!

….so as I grew up in a “rough” area but now live in a “nice” one, I’m surprised to see even my current area starting to look pretty grim and run down. Just wanted to see what people in other areas were experiencing.

I'm on the other side of E Sx from you @MumOfOneAwesomeHuman , and it's just as bad over here. When I went out earlier today, I noticed that the road that leads to the main road from my house appears to be developing a crack right down the middle. That'll be fun if we get another icy spell.

The council is in a very difficult position though. By the time you deduct the amount that has to be delegated to schools under a prescribed formula, and the amount they spend on social care because of the elderly population, there's not a huge amount left for everything else.

I live in Wales where there is a devolved Welsh Labour government and everywhere is rundown here too! The first minister Mark Drakeford has been detrimental to Wales but Labour will never get voted out here unfortunately.

I was quite engaged with this thread but when you started blaming immigrants I was so disappointed OP. I don't think that comment is constructive at all. How can you blame immigrants for litter and potholes?! Did they bring sledgehammers over with them? We are definitely in some kind of crisis and decline - brought on by poor planning, a reluctance to reform the NHS, short-termism, lying politicians who are only interested in how to stay in power rather than serving their country, a making it up as you go along mentality, losing a lot of our workforce post-Brexit, the aftermath of the pandemic - but I can't see how this has been caused by immigrants.

YANBU.
I think this country has gone to hell in a handcart during the last couple of years really. Our public services especially, cannot cope with their workload and appear to be completely overwhelmed.
We can't continue like this, but to be truthful I can't see that a Labour government being able to fix these problems.
We need a completely new Government with fresh ideas to get us out of this mess.

I guess it depends where you live. I live in a Cotswold hamlet of about 20 houses, it's beautiful and probably hasn't changed much in 200 years. Towns and cities have gone downhill. I lived in Cheltenham which has become a run down dump in the day and a feral hell hole at night. That's why I moved to the countryside.

I'll give you all a fresh idea: removing those fucking unnecessary, harmful barriers to trade with our closest neighbours (guess what? No shortages of fresh veg across the Channel), let FOM resume so our businesses & hospitals can finally get staffed properly again and never let toxic liars back into power.

Sorted.

It looks a right state.

And the supermarket shelves are empty.

The whole country’s an absolute disgrace. Everything’s got much worse since Brexit. Nobody wants to work, no staff to fill jobs to keep the economy going and keep money moving, food shortages that are not happening in Europe despite the lies this government is peddling. We’re becoming a third world country!

Throw a shedload of money at it. Funding was there for the Olympics, Crossrail, HS2, Covid, and so on.

Under investment locally is a very big issue. All because of current Government policy.

I think people being a bit dim doesn't help sometimes.

Example - mum lives in a place that is quite nice. I passed an outdoor sports event in summer en route to the station. They maybe hadn't got enough bins at the ground. The litter bin outside was stuffed full. People were exiting, putting their rubbish into a stack next to the bin....then I looked on in puzzlement as some got into cars, but most continued on my path to the station. There are at least three or four more bins on that walk, then bins when you arrive at the station.

Do we need to stick signs above bins saying, "if I am full, please find another bin or take your rubbish home"?!

I think that it's the ministers and PM's who are the bigger problem as they're the ones who'll be walking into hugely well paid jobs once they're thrown out. They could usually get a much better job due to their connections, qualifications, etc., so there's clearly an ulterior motive for them being a senior minister or prime minister, often for only a short period of time.

"Normal" MPs are in a different league and their pay is more reasonable for what they do, their abilities, etc. They're more likely to stay many terms as an MP and less likely to beggar off to huge salaried jobs when they're thrown out.

Look at Rishi - if anyone thinks he weaselled his way into the job of Chancellor and then PM for the good of the country is deluded. He has people behind the scenes pulling his strings as he literally came from nowhere to get the Chancellor job. He's doing someone's bidding. As soon as he's thrown out (sooner rather than later I hope), we won't see him for dust. He'll be back in a multi million pound job, which is where he came from. He was parachuted into a safe Tory seat, almost immediately given the top job besides PM and got "promoted" to PM after a couple of years' of fouling up the country's finances.

It's the top jobs which are where the problems lie, not "normal" MPs. It's the top jobs that are grossly underpaid, so there has to be an ulterior motive for people wanting them.

Any government who can prioritise the basics - bins and broken bones and potholes - will be fine. There's basic admin stuff that should be separate from politics. I seem to have upset my local MP pointing this out, but really, if you can't rely on the state to sort bins and broken bones, what the eff are they doing?

the "fresh idea" is just efficiency, as opposed to "gravy train from whoever can figure out how to make money from stuff".

Badbadbunny which top jobs do you feel are underpaid?

It's the financial markets and overseas investors who pull the strings. They were happy to finance crossrail, HS2, covid, etc. They're not happy to finance public sector expansion, tax cuts, pot hole repairs, etc. As Liz Truss found out, the financial markets and foreign investors didn't like her tax cutting agenda and got her removed from office to be replaced by their pet puppet, Rishi!

I’m really starting to dislike it here. I think an improved environment would make such a difference to all of our mental healths. I wonder what tourists must think when they arrive in the UK because I think it looks disgusting. Most of the comments have listed exactly why… Each week I have to get my car washed and it’s filthy inside & outside around 4 days after doing so. And I’ve probably only used it twice or so in those 4 days. I think I say every day how miserable it is here. Really wish it was easy to just uproot me and my kids and leave.

All the senior ministerial positions. When you have a PM earning less than the chief executive of a quango or local council, it's clear there are problems with pay structures!

Who do you want as PM?

I wouldn't say the countryside had escaped either.

The fly tipping and littering is horrendous.

Thirty years ago there was none of that. Now we get McDonald's cartons at the end of the farm drive on a daily basis.

Thirty years ago the diesel tank was emptied on a periodic basis - rota'd
Around the local farms if you like. Really rare though. 4 break ins in 18months on our farm alone now.

What i didn't add was 30 years ago PC plod on the village beat knew everyone and who was up to no good, when and why.

Police haven't even come out to our recent break ins.