Are things becoming just a little bit shit?

[Bloomsburygirl]

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!

Also, since we told the Europeans that they weren't welcome any more, more people are coming from elsewhere in the world.
This is true. We told Europeans to go and yet look at Cornwall who was given thousands and thousands of EU money and now what do they get? It is alright in your expensive London pad but what about Cornwall?

My friend does this. She covers the entire seat with loo paper because "people are gross and she doesn't want to touch the seat with her bum that people have pissed on". She then doesn't clean the paper up after because "she might touch the seat with her hands" and worst case if the loo doesn't have a sensor flush she sometimes won't flush as "she doesn't know what gross person has touched it before her".
Believe me I have had many conversations about this. Explained she is one of the gross people leaving it like that. She is capable of washing her hands after touching things. Etc etc. But she just shrugs and says she refuses to touch these things in public toilets. She says she has OCD about germs and cannot get over it so has to do as she is doing.

what about Cornwall?

er, what about it ? Voted Brexit, Got Brexit. Happy ever after.

Yes agree, but i also agree with others who say its not recent, where i live its been going on for a while.
These idiots in power are very much "im alright Jack" looking after their own.
Problem weve got and why they keep getting voted back in , is theres no one else with a good set of balls and high morals that are genuinely concerned of how things are going and WANT to sort this country out, reinvest and take on what actually needs doing, all too scared of upsetting anyone, so these muppets get voted back in, under the banner better the devil we know!

Local authorities have been starved of cash by central Govt - some argue as a tactic to hit poorer Labour-led local authorities and drive them into the ground - the lesson being 'vote Conservative instead if you want some funding' - basically, an extortion racket. Worked with the Hartlepool by-election.

Problem with hitting local Council budgets is that most local Councils are corrupt; indeed that's the point of them. I mean, most ordinary folk are not into local politics - to make it happen you have to offer a fiddle on the side. First dibs on lucrative contracts, access to the public purse, the ability to harass and vilify through the courts any non-Council affiliated business competitor.

So not the kind of people who you want in charge when times get rough. They will do everything on the cheap and trouser the difference.

Unfortunately this is also now how central Govt is run! Millions to spend on a NO 10 media conference room that was used just twice! A waste of money - for us - but someone made a nice packet out of that and I just can't see how it would have cost that much. Same with the track and trace billions. Or Chris Grayling's £33m for a ferry company with no ferries. Or PPE contracts to firms with no history of providing PPE. The blatant 'nobody likes us we don't care' attitude of this Govt, the macho bullying culture, the attempts to nobble the press in particular the BBC - these are hallmarks of your average local authority. For a while, MPs have seen them as the inferior relation - only now have they begun to realise that they're the ones who have it easy! After all, most folk don't even know the name of their Council leader, let alone see cartoons lampooning them in the press.

No. I should have done. It's actually about 6.5mil.

More like 3/4 decades.

@Ocelotstripes

It’s also tough to get decent staff because education was neglected for so long. My DM is a team leader in a business that recruits a lot of young people (travel) and she is shocked by a growing lack of I’m sorry to say, intelligence, social skills and personal care skills. Never before have they had to speak to staff about personal hygiene, washing and ironing uniform on a regular enough basis but it is quite commonplace now.

I agree with that. "People" generally seem to have much lower standards than previous generations, particularly as you say, BO, lack of hygiene, general scruffiness - all completely unnecessary. And yes, whatever league tables show, we seem to have an ever increasing proportion of the younger generations who are less intelligent, less common sense, less social skills, etc. It's not recent, it's been happening for a few decades now and just getting worse and worse.

Just had our son home this weekend. He graduated in the Summer and started his first "proper" job in a multinational company in a different city 3 months ago. He hated school, he hated university - he didn't like the "yob" culture, the drunkenness, drugs, partying, etc., the way they didn't care and just threw litter everywhere, and so ended up quite reserved and lonely at Uni - yes, you could say anti-social. Now he's in the "real" world, surrounded by "respectable" adults, he's massively changed - he goes out all the time with work-mates - not to get drunk, just to do pub quizzes etc., goes socialising with them, goes to local attractions/events with them, etc. He absolutely loves spending time with "adults" who know how to behave, understand they need to get washed every morning (a couple of his uni flat mates apparently stunk of BO constantly), he loves being able to have "grown up" conversations, etc. He's a youngster himself but hates being around other youngsters because of their behavior, and as he says himself, many are thick!

Something has gone badly wrong with society, education, values, etc., and it's been on a downward spiral for decades.

&User135644
Without a strong press, corruption is easy in plain sight. The likes of the Daily Mail would never allow a Labour government to get away with what the Tories do. Look at the amount of front pages devoted to Starmer's curry.

Oh come on, Keir Starmer brought all the media attention upon himself - even John Crace of the Guardian described one of Starmer's interviews on the subject as 'borderline shifty' - because he couldn't give a straight answer.

Starmer was making a big fuss about Boris Johnson's 'cheese and wine meeting' - which was seen as hypocritical when the photograph of his own 'curry and beer meeting' surfaced. Starmer then tried to cover up how many people were with him in Durham - he first suggested 'about 6 people' - a few months later he changed his answer to '15 or so' - but only after the curry delivery guy came forward and said the curry order was for many more people than 6 (it later transpired there were 17 people there, including Starmer).

Starmer lied when he said his hotel was 'not serving food that evening' (the hotel confirmed they were serving evening meals on the terrace until 9pm), he lied when he said 'all the restaurants and pubs were shut' (they were open for outside service - Starmer ate at a restaurant the evening before, in Hull) and he lied when he suggested the curry had not been pre-planned (it was diarised in advance). Not to mention that Labour HQ had twice stated that Angela Rayner was not there - when it turned out she was.

You can't blame the media for smelling a rat - anyone who thinks Keir Starmer is an honest politician is sadly deluded.

And he had a beer. It was outrageous. He definitely was not working hard enough on vital national business to deserve it, unlike the Westminster people who needs birthday cakes, karaoke machines and suitcases of wine for their morale.

And the police have got it all wrong by fining the hard workers whilst finding Sir "Party Hard" Starmer had not broken any laws.

What is the world coming to.

AdamRyan
And he had a beer. It was outrageous

Starmer made a big fuss about the 'cheese and wine' meeting first - that wasn't one of the fined events either.

And the police have got it all wrong by fining the hard workers whilst finding Sir "Party Hard" Starmer had not broken any laws

That doesn't explain why Keir Starmer felt compelled to tell so many lies about his evening - therefore he only has himself to blame for the media attention.

Yep. Definitely. I hope the Covid enquiry look into his terrible beer drinking antics. That's definitely a priority for the country right now.

Yes, fuck his policies. Let’s keep focusing on the curry that was eaten when Downing Street was having parties with suitcases of wine and karaoke machines. Thanks for so successfully proving the point, Clav.

Kazzyhoward - what a ridiculous generalisation - I know loads of young people who are lovely, hard working, intelligent human beings, maybe it's just who your son hangs out with

I love it when legal curries are brought out again. Makes me laugh as well as demonstrating that that's all the government supporters have now. No rationale for why they have allowed things to become shit, and no plan to allow us to unshit ourselves. No plan, no clue, no hope. A six word slogan for you (inflation gets everywhere).

Went in a pub and ordered a gin and tonic

'we've no ice and no lemon'

Okay then, so basically a glass of tepid dishwater

Great

People care about paying their rent or mortgage and their fuel and food bills. They care about whether they can get a GP appointment and whether they will need to wait for years for NHS treatment. All of these issues have been caused by 13 years of Tory shittery.

Clav, no-one cares about curries and beers now, and no amount of resurrecting that incident will save a single Tory vote. The Tory party is a dead party walking ⚰️ ⚰️ ⚰️ and Starmer is PM in waiting.

Coxesorange, order something else?

BIossomtoes
Let’s keep focusing on the curry that was eaten

Blame the other poster - it wasn't me who raised the topic. The previous poster was claiming that Starmer was unfairly picked on by the media. No he wasn't - he told a pack of lies and sounded 'shifty' - he brought the media attention upon himself.

IClaudine

I'm not forcing you to read my posts - scroll on by if you're not interested. This is a public forum with a range of opinions - not a Labour Party echo chamber.

The Tory party is a dead party walking

You hope
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/boris-johnson-nigel-farage-election-pact/

They think a Johnson/Farage combo can save them? I know they’re deluded but really? 😂😂😂😂

Hehe yes I read something about that on Twitter - right wing groups putting in Patel or Clark as a placeholder PMs, wining an GE (!) and then funnelling in Johnson Farage.

Have at it I say. 👏

Covid (and to an extent Brexit) has just accelerated the decline. For many Brexit was a protest vote as well, particularly in red wall towns that have been left behind for decades, while Lab/Tory governments did nothing for them (the EU probably did more funnily enough).

Even Corbyn gaining huge popularity with many was a result of disillusionment with the system. Rot set in in 2008 with the crash - which was a long time coming - and austerity from 2010 just made things worse for people.

OP, I noticed this at least two years ago. I would not use the word 'a little bit', that is an understatement.

Though some organisations never provided what I would call adequate customer service to begin with, most banks, estate agents and BT come to mind.

The Cornish voted for Brexit (which was bonkers).

Strong majority of Londoners didn't.

The point is the amount of front pages devoted to it, while the Tories are excused and defended for open corruption by the same press.

They went after Starmer to take the pressure off Johnson and the Tories for all the parties.