Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Are things becoming just a little bit shit?

563 replies

Bloomsburygirl · 08/12/2023 09:38

I was wondering if anyone else has started to notice the deteriorating standards in public services and private businesses. I went to London over the weekend, and I was shocked by the filth and litter. I moved to the UK in 2011, and I visited many times before I moved. I do not remember rubbish strewn across streets like it is now. And every place I seem to go gives off a feeling that there simply are not enough staff anymore. Restaurant toilets and public toilets are filthy, it takes an age to be served, and don't get me started on public transport (I read the recent thread on this and agree with every word). It seems to me like the consequences of Brexit/pandemic are really starting to bite, and to be honest, I miss the way it was pre-2016. AIBU, or do others feel the same? And is this the new normal? Disclaimer - I still adore the UK and would never want to live anywhere else!

OP posts:
Thread gallery
16
DianaTiana · 08/12/2023 16:55

I can guarantee that there will be many posters on this thread who have rung their hands about the UK going downhill, who are also the same people who drop litter, leave litter behind in theatres, festivals etc.

Just why? I don't get it. To have the mindset that 'it's someone else's job' is appalling. How hard is it to put your own litter in a bin?

Respect for other people and our environment starts with each of us individually.

Middlefadiddle · 08/12/2023 16:59

I agree with much of what has been said. But, people don’t appreciate the services there are! I work in a library that has toilets for the public, we have to have them repaired or unblocked pretty much every week. The toilet seats are unscrewed and left on the floor. The toilets are blocked with paper, nappies, sanitary towels. People stand on the toilet seat, leaving filthy boot prints. Nappies are left on the floor of the children’s toilet and the disabled/baby change toilet. The toilets are modern, all have bins, restocked with soap, paper etc as needed & cleaned twice a day. Still usually filthy.

existentialpain · 08/12/2023 17:05

Totally. People don't care anymore. I made a serious complaint after a supermarket delivery driver refused to move his van out of a car park to let out an ambulance containing my very sick relative but all I got back was a stock response 'we are sorry for any inconvienence caused.....we will take your feedback to improve the service we deliver.' It was a load of bollocks and absolutely shocking, total lack of humanity.

jammysocks · 08/12/2023 17:15

@Middlefadiddle I think that's really good of your library. But not all like yours. Ours isn't open every day and certainly doesn't have toilets open to the public

Thecatthatgotthesouredmilk · 08/12/2023 17:33

MiddleagedBeachbum · 08/12/2023 09:42

Yup!!

Theyre driving the country into the ground, chaos will grow and grow, the rich will become richer and the middle class and working class will both become poorer.

They're trying to stop any wealth growing that isn’t in their elitist club.

it’s going to get worse before it gets better - I foresee the total collapse of our government and current systems before it gets rebuilt eventually

Yes! They plan to build back better. Or in the old term, a new world order @MiddleagedBeachbum

Middlefadiddle · 08/12/2023 17:38

@jammysocks I know that many vital services have been cut, and that is not a good thing. Why trash a good service though? A library is one of the few places you can seek help face to face, from an actual person, and we go out of our way to help, to signpost and so on. Yet, people are so rude! Maybe there is a level of frustration at large that just permeates our society now.

MsRosley · 08/12/2023 17:57

BIossomtoes · 08/12/2023 16:56

Sorry, but she’s right. We have the highest levels of taxation since the 1960s.

https://ifs.org.uk/taxlab/taxlab-key-questions/how-have-government-revenues-changed-over-time

Show quote history

But she said we were paying higher taxes than ever. Which we aren't.

Zebedee55 · 08/12/2023 18:00

Fartooold · 08/12/2023 13:01

I agree, in the main.
But dirty toilets have been left dirty by the people who have used them - blaming the stores is only part of the issue, why are people such disgusting pigs?? Same goes for litter and rubbish. WE are responsible. Those of us who choose to just dump their crap anywhere.
And yes, I know there are are exceptions - seagulls pulling rubbish out etc.,, but in the main it is us, members of society, who are making the mess.

As for the rest, I despair.

I honestly don't think it matters who is in government, the problems they face are insurmountable, simply because career politicians are never going to make the tough decisions that need to be made, knowing that us - yes, the same people who can't clean their own shit up - will vote them out at the next election.

There are huge problems, I agree, but we need to look to ourselves before pointing the finger at everyone else.

Edited

This. I’ve lived through a lot of recessions, both governments, and it’s never made me flytip, spit, litter, steal or anything else anti-social.

It’s people that cause a lot of the problems.🙁

Kazzyhoward · 08/12/2023 18:35

Zebedee55 · 08/12/2023 18:00

This. I’ve lived through a lot of recessions, both governments, and it’s never made me flytip, spit, litter, steal or anything else anti-social.

It’s people that cause a lot of the problems.🙁

Show quote history

Exactly this. We need to find ways of making the anti-social lot behave better rather than paying ever-increasing money to look after them and clean up after them.

MotherOfCatBoy · 08/12/2023 18:42

Thank you @beguilingeyes for mentioning Dido Harding - the Tories spent THIRTY EIGHT BILLION on a Test and Trace system that never worked. This is corruption and incompetence of the highest order and that’s OUR tax money!
I have managed IT projects in the millions and there is no universe in which I can fathom how they frittered through 38B. A billion pounds is an almost unimaginable amount of money - this week we are cross about £290m spent on Rwanda, that’s a mere 7% of the Test and Trace money. They would have to pay a thousand people the £1000/ day for 38,000 days to reach that level of spend - that’s a team 1000 strong for 104 years! Where the actual fuck did it go?

MotherOfCatBoy · 08/12/2023 18:47

Then to be fair you’ve also got Labour and Tory PFI deals weighing heavily on health and education budgets for councils; the impact of furlough from Covid which effectively has to be paid back eventually through taxes; rising energy costs because all governments completely failed to invest enough in renewables which would genuinely provide energy security (or they could decouple the cost of North Sea energy from U.K. fields from international markets but the Tories won’t do that); and the cost of interest rates on government debt. Add in demographics and immigration as many have mentioned and we’re fucked. But the fossil fuel industry and the banks keep raking it in whilst the privatised industries have their hands in our pockets and are shitting on us from a great height.

For the record I loathe the Tories and will be voting Labour but they could also be bolder in their vision.

Tiredalwaystired · 08/12/2023 19:30

lkwhjis · 08/12/2023 10:32

Two decades of low skilled mass migration, low productivity, 5 million economically inactive being funded by others, record low 47% net contributors in the economy. And then Covid happened with rampant borrowing, money printing and government corruption. Too many people not contributing enough. Too few holding those people up. This is what you get.

A proportion of those 5m will be early retirees living on private pensions, so not costing you a lot. And good luck to them.

And a whole lot more will be people like my aunt who cannot work while she waits for an operation, which keeps being put back further and further. And every week it does she’s economically inactive. Yet desperate for many reasons to be able to work again.

Surely the biggest priority for this government on that basis should be working with the NHS on both reform but ALSO giving them the finances necessary to get through waiting lists? And the whole visa thing announced last week is bound to have an impact on the numbers coming from overseas to do nursing etc - although they aren’t affected, their families will be so that makes it very unattractive.

But the Tories have a headline story there for the frothing racists, so they’ll push ahead while the waiting lists grow.

Kazzyhoward · 08/12/2023 19:37

@Tiredalwaystired

A proportion of those 5m will be early retirees living on private pensions, so not costing you a lot. And good luck to them.

A large proportion of those pensions will be being paid by the taxpayer if they're unfunded governmental gold plated defined benefit schemes. But what you say is true for funded/defined contribution pension schemes. Hopefully as time passes the unfunded legacy gold plated schemes will taper away so in the long term the cost to current taxpayers will reduce.

EasternStandard · 08/12/2023 19:37

Tiredalwaystired · 08/12/2023 19:30

A proportion of those 5m will be early retirees living on private pensions, so not costing you a lot. And good luck to them.

And a whole lot more will be people like my aunt who cannot work while she waits for an operation, which keeps being put back further and further. And every week it does she’s economically inactive. Yet desperate for many reasons to be able to work again.

Surely the biggest priority for this government on that basis should be working with the NHS on both reform but ALSO giving them the finances necessary to get through waiting lists? And the whole visa thing announced last week is bound to have an impact on the numbers coming from overseas to do nursing etc - although they aren’t affected, their families will be so that makes it very unattractive.

But the Tories have a headline story there for the frothing racists, so they’ll push ahead while the waiting lists grow.

Edited
Show quote history

People were posting on here about the high net migration. Annoyed etc. a fair few threads, not sure they were all frothing racists. With this stuff there’s outcry then people forget they contributed to it when changes come after

Same with lockdown and CoL energy support. Loads demanding it, then a while after why are taxes so high

Kazzyhoward · 08/12/2023 20:05

EasternStandard · 08/12/2023 19:37

People were posting on here about the high net migration. Annoyed etc. a fair few threads, not sure they were all frothing racists. With this stuff there’s outcry then people forget they contributed to it when changes come after

Same with lockdown and CoL energy support. Loads demanding it, then a while after why are taxes so high

Show quote history

To be honest, I think most of the people wanting "lockdown" were actually wanting a halt to unnecessary flights, unnecessary travel, unnecessary gatherings in cramped spaces, etc - the key being "unnecessary", i.e. things that genuinely could reduce the spread of the virus without actually completely knackering the economy, education and health systems! I don't think many actually wanted the severe lockdown we endured where huge parts of the country stopped operating. Why were flights still coming in when we were being fined for having a coffee on a park bench? To varying degrees, I think everyone accepted a degree of "lockdown", but not the illogical mess of nonsensical rules that we ended up with.

EasternStandard · 08/12/2023 20:11

Kazzyhoward · 08/12/2023 20:05

To be honest, I think most of the people wanting "lockdown" were actually wanting a halt to unnecessary flights, unnecessary travel, unnecessary gatherings in cramped spaces, etc - the key being "unnecessary", i.e. things that genuinely could reduce the spread of the virus without actually completely knackering the economy, education and health systems! I don't think many actually wanted the severe lockdown we endured where huge parts of the country stopped operating. Why were flights still coming in when we were being fined for having a coffee on a park bench? To varying degrees, I think everyone accepted a degree of "lockdown", but not the illogical mess of nonsensical rules that we ended up with.

Show quote history

Were you on mn at the time? I saw loads wanting harsher restrictions and demanding we had lockdown

To my dread tbh but also because it was obvious we’d all pay in taxes later

mantyzer · 08/12/2023 20:11

We are paying higher tax than ever. The reason the actual tax revenue is lower than many other EU countries is because our wages are generally lower. And our wages are generally lower because our economy is in such a mess.

NChance · 08/12/2023 20:38

Adding the cost of food
This is my shop with some treats for Christmas (Pringles, coffee and ice cream all on offer)

£55 Angry

Are things becoming just a little bit shit?
wannabetraveler · 08/12/2023 21:30

Ozgirl75 · 08/12/2023 11:29

We’ve been living in Sydney for the past 16 years and came back to the U.K. this year for a “trial run”. There are lots of bits that are brilliant; the countryside, country pubs, national trust, the care taken of heritage places. Some infrastructure is great - we had a power cut yesterday and were receiving texts every 30 mins or so to keep us updated. Shame we have no phone signal so I had to drive 4 miles to pick up the text messages but still.
But yes, the high streets look very run down; litter, graffiti, so many people vaping, loads of shops boarded up (and this is in the affluent south). Equally, everything is insanely expensive: electricity, oil, council tax and eating out, clothes, everything.

Since we’ve been here we’ve travelled to Spain, Hungary, Italy and Greece and the only place that looked a bit run down were parts of Rome. Everywhere else looked prosperous and thriving.
I feel sad for the U.K., it has so much going for it: brilliant universities, an educated and law abiding workforce, kindness, general courtesy, beautiful countryside, interesting arts and science, amazing museums but it feels so let down by the appalling public transport and just generally failing infrastructure.

My kids both have said “England is brilliant for a holiday but living here day to day is much harder than in Sydney” and I tend to agree. Australia has its problems too, of course, but the general infrastructure that makes day to day life quite easy; transport, schools, healthcare, public services, utilities are just cheaper and better run.

That's exactly our view too! Ive lived in the US for 20 years, actually just outside a city that has really had a tough time the last few years. We came back to the UK this summer for a few weeks and although we were enchanted by all the things you mentioned - countryside, pubs, history, architecture - I actually left thinking that I was glad we didn't live there anymore. Life here, with all of its challenges, is easier. The public school education (state) my kids get here is nationally recognized, the healthcare we have is incredible...life in the UK just seems hard. I plan to take a few months each year and work remotely from England but I really don't see us ever living there again.

smileannie · 08/12/2023 21:30

Completely agree with you. It’s the same everywhere I go in London now. I’ve just got back from Xmas night out with colleagues in a supposedly smart area of London and it looked like one of those giant rubbish tips you see people scavenging on in third world countries, outside the pubs, clubs and restaurants .I’ve lived my whole life in London and it’s unrecognizable now. I wonder what tourists think of it and us for putting up with it.

Ladybughello · 08/12/2023 21:34

Elfandwellbeing · 08/12/2023 09:42

Yabu to notice “filth and rubbish” “filthy toilets” but still love it here. I’d move if I lived in filth and rubbish strewn across the street.

Have you moved away, @Elfandwellbeing ? Or were you not in the UK in the first place? Or do you just live in a lovely bubble and never visit the rest of the UK?

Allfur · 08/12/2023 21:37

No, I do not agree, this is just what you are choosing to focus on

EasternStandard · 08/12/2023 21:46

I have seen other threads with people appreciating London (absent from this one) so I don’t think I’m alone but I wouldn’t choose to live anywhere else.

It’s an individual thing, and we’re lucky if we like where we are