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…???

There is zero long-term planning in every aspect of public life in this country, from health to social care, to infrastructure, transport, utilities etc. etc. which is why everything is so crap. It's been worn down by decades of no future planning coupled with a whammy of under-investment.

Want change? we need to look at getting rid of FPTP.

You're not wrong. I spend much of my time out of the UK - having lived abroad for decades. Driving back the first thing that hits you is the casual scatter trash-trail on the verges all the way up the motorway from Folkestone; often spilling onto the motorway itself - and it appears never to be cleared. It's as if every driver tosses something out of the window as they pass by. There's a shabbiness and third-rate vibe that seems to have pervaded the public services and just life in general. Of course re. the roads, recent harsh contrasts in weather haven't helped, leaving potholes etc... but French, Belgian and Italian roads all seem to be in a better state. While the Italian roads do have some trash and potholes it's not everywhere, the way it seems to be in the UK. As for public toilets, the UK's are increasingly grim, competing with the worst I remember on the continent 30 or 40 years ago. Since the Millennium there's an increasingly exhausted vibe, as if the country has burned-out; leaving little pride in anything - settling comfortably into second-rate status, with London sinking into a quagmire of roadworks, diversions, charges and fines for almost everything you do - if you drive. Regardless, it's also horribly expensive - costs of everything going through the roof. It also hits you how things are in the UK when you land at the airport or go to an NHS hospital and see the astonishing plaques on the wall warning you not to physically threaten the staff - as if that's an instinctive urge you experience upon entering Passport Control - or A&E!!! I can't imagine anywhere else in the so-called free world where such signs are seen. The impression that must leave of Britain on visitors from abroad, is beyond embarrassing.

I can't disagree with you there.

I am sure you have a valid point. No need for litter or broken down/ derelict things or litter. Grey skies are here to stay though but they certainly make the rest look worse!

@Sarrho3 an alarming number of our foreign family are really shocked when they get here. The most common comment we get is "it looks like a developing nation". I don't think your average brit realises how the U.K. is perceived now or how it ranks in comparison. It's a sad state of affairs.

You are completely right.

I came home to visit family recently as I am currently working abroad and the litter on the roads and in the countryside actually made me cry. It was literally a shit-hole. Absolutely loads and loads and loads of litter.
In the town center there was dog shit smeared on the pavements in front of the high street shops. Drug addicts everywhere.

I am grieving the beautiful country I once knew. What the bloody hell has happened to our country!!!? I don't want to bring my kids to visit anymore.

So depressing.

If I wasn't so old I'd move abroad. This country is absolutely shocking. Decades of Tory rule have devastated the working classes. (The last Labour gov were just Tory Lite).

What I can’t fathom from among people I know, is the sheer number who have consistently voted Tory, including a couple of Brexiters, who now make comments about wanting to leave the UK. It’s like there’s a complete disconnect. All of them, including myself are old enough to remember the absolute state of the country just before Blair took office. Shit on beaches and filthy hospitals.

But nothing will change because sadly many people are professional cap doffers and will never accept ‘their betters’ have done this. They also genuinely believe in English exceptionalism so will convince themselves things are ok or make stupid comparisons about WW2 and romanticise the blitz spirit (which was fiction anyway as all crimes including murder and rape shot up during the blitz).

Unfortunately you are far more likely to see the majority rioting over who has bought their football club than over the fact the shelves are empty and their kids schools are falling down.

I also wonder if roads could be made bigger? It’s just not fun to sit in piled up traffic on main roads that have only 1 lane. We spend a lot of time in single file queues. The amount of time is takes to get to nearby places is ridiculous. Traffic lights are something else. When you set out there is a high chance you’ll sit in unexplainable traffic.

Looks like you are against the democratic will of the British people. These are the Brexit benefits and freedoms of a sovereign nation that is free to make its own laws and invest the vast wealth generated by being out of the EU into the country and help the wealth generators of this fair nation. The Tories who democratically won an 80 seat majority are carrying out their free market, small government, low tax agenda that the great people of the country voted for.

South East London yes it’s awful there

@Toomuchtrouble4me can I ask when you last went to Europe? Last summer we went to Spain (northern Spain, Santander to the Costa Brava, via the Spanish Pyrenees, so West to East) for the first time in 30 years, and the roads, tunnels and infrastructure that have been built, thanks to EU investment, since we last went in the early 90s, are transforming. Somebody somewhere in Spain stopped to think through what was needed, and built it. The roads are fast, so all the supercars and superbikes are there on driving holidays. But I don't believe that much of the superstuff is stopping to explore charming villages and ancient Spanish history. They aren't there to potter about, chat to people and shop in the markets and buy local specialities. They stop in the big towns, which have posh hotels where their valuable vehicles can be safely garaged underground (because vehicle theft and chop shops are a significant issue) and move on for the next day's exhilarating drive. They move through the landscape but never engage with the people.

I agree too, so much rubbish around. Went from south wales to Wiltshire today and noticed how much rubbish there is everywhere!

NorseKiwi
I live in a lovely suburb in Auckland and I am so pleased I made the move when I did. Of course I miss my friends and family but my day to day life is so pleasant.
You've just had a cyclone and a national state of emergency!

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11746685/New-Zealand-declares-state-emergency-huge-cyclone-strikes-North-Island.html

when I walk down the street, I rarely turn round to see who is behind me, I don't worry about having my handbag stolen when I am sat in a bar or restaurant

Neither do I, but you've had several major stabbing incidents in Auckland in the last two years, so it's not a paradise;

www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/23/four-stabbed-in-random-attack-in-auckland-say-new-zealand-police

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58405213

Please don’t troll people for their opinion. It’s unnecessary. And a cyclone is out of anyones control! Where as our councils etc definitely CAN control muck and pot holes.

Last summer we went to Spain ... and roads, tunnels and infrastructure that have been built, thanks to EU investment, since we last went in the early 90s, are transforming. Somebody somewhere in Spain stopped to think through what was needed, and built it

Spain has built Europe's largest shanty town near Madrid:

www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/01/europe-shantytown-canada-real-madrid-spain
www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/27/you-kind-of-die-life-without-power-in-the-canada-real-spain

I didn't go to Madrid on this trip, so I can't offer any insight here. But as Madrid has been Spain's capital city since about 1485, I suspect that the shanty town has been built by the people displaced from where they grew up searching for work. Spain has a massive unemployment problem. There are vacancies crying out for people in the North, but there's insufficient affordable accommodation.

It sounds as though I don’t live too far from you OP. The state of the roads, lack of street cleaning and rubbish on the verges are all too familiar too.

The majority of people generally don’t seem to have pride in their immediate environment. There a few local schools that litter pick the local area but although it makes a difference it really shouldn’t be up to schoolchildren to clear up the detritus of others. There is a local fast food drive through and there is always rubbish thrown from cars, it seems to be the norm rather than to bin it.

When I head further into rural areas, which I do regularly, there is noticeable pride in the villages and although there is fly tipping occasionally thankfully it’s delt with in a timely manner.

It makes me so sad to see the state of the country in general and the environment that our children are growing up in.

I find Paris to be a bit grotty. The area around Brussels Midi station is very grim too. People often use rose-tinted glasses when they look at Europe. Differences in weather won't help your impression either. If you walk through a UK city on a typically grey February day, it will feel dull and miserable. On your summer holidays and walking through a European city with direct sunlight lighting up the buildings then it will look bright and cheery.

Very possibly.

I live in a commuter belt area. No litter problems, occasional potholes which are filled within days, and dead badgers or foxes in the roads are removed within 24 hours. Our borough council website has a link to report dead animals, fallen trees and potholes, which probably helps! No empty boarded up shops either. Borough Council is Conservative.

@Clavinova I could afford to move there but won't, as it's too hot for me in summer, but my ability to do so displaces a person or family who can't afford international city property prices.

Novembermummy88
Please don’t troll people for their opinion

I don't know what you mean - and the cyclone is current world news. You didn't challenge the other posters who disagreed with her opinion about Auckland - you are trolling me.

And I missed quoting this from NorseKiwi's post;

NorseKiwi · Today 03:52
I left the UK in 2015 as I could see where the country was going, in fact I found it utterly painful what the Tories were inflicting on people.

The lovely clean streets of Sydney, Australia were mentioned up thread;

www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/chaos-as-rubbish-collection-in-city-of-syndey-ceases-for-24-hours-for-second-week-in-a-row/news-story/cbbf04cde6ed32282b3d437df474f6f5
www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/maggots-and-rats-run-a-muck-as-sydney-garbos-strike-again-20230213-p5ck6a.html

Same here. Feel very lucky to live here really.

I see the problem as the council and quango chiefs are overpaid.