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…???

And we are to overcrowd. Not a popular opinion but it’s true especially in the southeast.

It makes me genuinely concerned for what this country will be like for our kids

It’ll bounce back. It was like this during the Thatcher ‘80s. With riots. Predictions are the downturn (not even a recession, apparently) will be shorter this time.

The NHS, though ☹️

We can't bounce back with our NHS in such a state. One of reasons we have so many on benefits is that sick people are not treated in a timely manner so they can go back to work.

Instead they are left languishing on waiting lists and their conditions are deteriorating.

Do you feel like your area is well maintained/roads in good condition/litter not a problem etc? Is there much trouble / police have a presence / people still respect the law?

Councils have no money. Government have cut their budgets expecting them to make up the deficit from business rates. Local businesses aren't thriving so no deficit relief. Do the sums.

Well yes but aren't you contradicting yourself? We need more houses because we are overpopulated and don't have enough. We only have limited space, so we have to build on the countryside. Houses are made smaller now in part so they can build more because demand is so high.

You can't keep the countryside untouched, deal with a housing crises all whilst simultaneously stopping building small 'slum' houses. Where does the space come from otherwise?

We need better planning and zoning. It doesn't have to be like this! We do not need more disconnected horrid estates in the middle of nowhere adding more people to country lanes never designed to hold them. Write to your councillors now. Get involved in understanding where the money is spent and keep writing to them. Get involved in campaigns. It's the only way or the country will continue to be raped for the benefit of the very few.

yes, it's all down to the migrants. sigh.

You know whats depressing? How you've blamed the country's decline on one group of people. Judgemental and illogical

We can't bounce back with our NHS in such a state. One of reasons we have so many on benefits is that sick people are not treated in a timely manner so they can go back to work

We have less people “on benefits” now than we did in the Thatcher ‘80s. What do you actually mean by “on benefits”? Pensioners? People claiming in-work benefits? Lazy language, lazy thinking.

Country has gone to the dogs. Last one out please switch off the lights.

Last one out please switch off the lights

Sun headline from 1992.

Do you know what happened next?

I don’t think it’s comparable. The West as a whole is in decline

13 years of a Tory government who don't give a shit about the actual country...

Sorry, can’t agree. Everything looks pretty fine where I live.

We do have a problem locally with taggers, they seem to tag as fast as the council clean up their mess. Apart from that there is clearly still money being spent. A lot of roads have been upgraded locally, the foreshore was revamped a few years ago with lots of new facilities and a new playground. They just replaced the free barbeques at the lake in my estate and put in new ones at he beach. And I got an email from the council last week asking if I wanted a tree planted on my grass verge (for free).

I do feel safe here, the only crime I have experienced in the ten years I've lived in Oz was a stolen bike. I dropped my purse on the bus a few weeks ago ad it was returned intact, even the cash was still in it which did surprise me. I'm not saying its perfect, nowhere is, but from what I hear from my mum in the UK, things are a lot better here than there.

Things are fine where I am but am in Jersey.

Like it was a bed of roses before Thatcher with shit and rubbish literally piled high in the streets and rats running everywhere. The smell made you gag. The Unions were running or ruining the country, not the government. Thatcher got voted in three times for a reason. But then Blair flooded the country with mass immigration and dragged us into an illegal war with his fake 45 minute dossier. Gotta be a word for that ?.

I’m in the East Midlands and my local towns are all really poor. The pavement on my street is terrible and litter everywhere. Theres lots of abandoned shops lay empty and even some of the ‘parks’ just look sad and worse for wear.

I agree. Dirty algae covered road signs, worn road markings, no flowers. Everything grubby

The thing that is getting me down is the amount of rubbish on the streets, now I know in a ideal world that the council would have a squad of road sweepers out cleaning it up, but if people had any pride they would not throw rubbish out there car windows or just drop litter on the pavements.

I am now one of those mad old ladies that now takes a plastic bag out with me every day when walking the dog so I can pick up rubbish, every day I fill up a carrier bag fall , I could fill up loads more it’s just so depressing. People just don’t care. I often think if every city and town had a let’s clean our space weekend and if every one fill up one black bag worth of rubbish it would really help.

People just don’t care they just think it’s not there problem, it’s the councils. Stop moaning about it and join us mad old woman who pick up other people’s rubbish.

Shiny new flats in East London, still a lot of wealth here. Litter everywhere though.

Austerity started it, cutting corners, then spiralled, local council near me declared bankrupt recently 😞 having to be bailed out by the county council, place was already a dump 80 0/0 considered in poverty, jeeez terrible