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!

This applies to goods too. The amount of stuff I've bought for the house in the past year which has something wrong with it is shocking. I'm talking companies selling off seconds without saying. Also much more difficult to get refunds nowadays.

Still love Britain for all the reasons you’ve said and the people, but I totally agree.

I think NHS waiting lists play a part as well as I know multiple people waiting for procedures or appointments which mean they’re left with niggly reoccurring issues and/or pain. Navigating the systems is stressful and that’s before we get to mental health services. Lots of people in pain and having to take time off adds to the general gloom and disorganisation.

We have a 700 strong team of volunteer litter pickers in our area. Council supplies bags, hoops, litter picking sticks, gloves and tabard.

Various levels of engagement from the 700 but it does make a difference. It shouldn’t be that way, but it is in our own power to at least improve that.

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.

@Tiredalwaystired that is very inspiring!

Totally agree. Business have cut so many corners they’re now circular.

Public behaviour is worse too. It’s totally standard now for people to listen to tiktok or music on trains and buses with no headphones, completely oblivious to how annoying that is for people around them. People barge onto trains before letting others off, kids screech and yell on buses and supermarkets all the time, it’s rare to hear please and thank you.

@Ploctopus you are so right! I have definitely seen more barging onto trains. And on my way back from London earlier in the week, a person was playing music on his phone with no headphones. Just weird!

This!

it’s been like this for several years at least - but it has accelerated over the last 2/3. It’s like a damn bursting - little holes here and there you can paper over in different services but eventually everything collapses

I visited Toronto earlier this year and felt it had declined similarly since my last visit in 2019.

Empty premises, poor service, litter, beggars and people sleeping in the street, generally very depressing for what used to be a beautiful city.

Not been to London in years but imagine it to be quite similar nowadays.

The world does seem like quite a dark place at the moment and that’s without even watching the global horrors every night on the news.

When I came back from a holiday in Norway a couple of years ago (beautiful litter free streets and very clean facilities), I was actually embarrassed by how much litter there is everywhere.

I left the UK three months ago and I'm sure to return in two weeks for Christmas. Since I've been away our council have had a two month refuse workers strike. My son is experiencing regular power cuts and issues accessing his prescription medication. My bin gets empty daily and I've had a full health MOT for around £50. No country is perfect and it will be interesting to see how I feel about the UK on my return as an expat.

Try moving to the south east (if the trains are running and the buses aren't late), I spoke to someone the other day who said this country is the cleanest he's ever been to as there is never any litter in this city. The high street is bouncing back and independent businesses have been open for decades. Just don't expect to be able to buy a house or get a GP appointment

Totally agree. How did we become a country that needs food banks? Now even the food banks can't cope as people can't afford to donate.

If we want better public services, we have to pay higher taxes. And renationalise the trains and utilities to stop them siphoning out all the cash to shareholders.

Food banks far more prevalent in France and Germany, so not unique to UK.

It's the lack of civil pride that gets me about the UK. I think some people actually like living in shitholes, for it's "edgy" vibe etc. Well if a walk through Stratford station at rush hour is where we are headed, this country is fucked.

This

The UK has been stuck in an economic limbo, almost paralysed by comparison to our near neighbours, because our hooky economy based on enormous amounts of personal borrowing and debt, and governmental borrowing and debt, was far less able to deal with, and recover from the 2008 crash than more sensible, prudent countries.

2008, Brexit, Covid, C.O.L, mismanagement and malfeasance by clownshoes government, war in Ukraine etc, all of it factors in the UK's decline, but the truth is the UK has been broke and in decline since the 1950's, people in the UK were afforded an entirely unrealistic and unsustainable standard of living for decades thanks to profligate borrowing, and now we are finally being hit with the bill.

Don’t get me started.

I said YABU because they already have become very 💩.

@XDownwiththissortofthingX

but the truth is the UK has been broke and in decline since the 1950's, people in the UK were afforded an entirely unrealistic and unsustainable standard of living for decades thanks to profligate borrowing, and now we are finally being hit with the bill.

I agree with all this. We've been sold a lie for several decades. It's all coming home to roost now. We're paying more in interest on the national debt than we spend on education! Developing countries are getting richer at our expense and we've just sleep walked into it. At the end of the day, Britain was just "lucky" for a couple of centuries with natural resources, the empire, etc. Tables have turned and we're in managed (or MIS managed) decline. It's not going to get any better folks!

No we don’t. If we want better public services we need a government that spends the existing money wisely. £290 million on Rwanda would fund quite a lot of public service improvement.

I've never known things so bad.

My husband travels a lot for work and he says he really notices when he comes home how rundown, dirty, and scruffy everything is here these days.

He never used to say that.

I think you can still make a credible argument though that the profligate privatisation of formerly nationalised services from the 1980's onwards has, in terms of quality of service, been an unmitigated catastrophe, with the only benefactors being the short-term cash infusion to government from the sell-off, the dividends paid to shareholders, and the profits extracted by way of salary and perks by senior employees.

There were plenty of nationalised industries where service was rank rotten in any case, but the ones that do or did function well tend to pass off unnoticed because they just tick along in the background without bringing much attention to themselves.

One obvious example is the difference between Water services in Scotland, where that has never been privatised, and the absolute shambles of provision, service, and cost in England in Wales, then the utterly contemptible way in which the privatised firms have no regard whatsoever for environmental concerns thanks to virtually no oversight by intransigent government. It's night and day.

I can’t bare going out to attractions as it’s SO busy. Everywhere is rammed full of people. I honestly feel so crowded out

Definitely! Even trying to get issues sorted over the phone or email, feels like a long drawn out process. I feel like customer service has gone down the pan generally. Then the stuff our tax pays for like street cleaning, grass cutting, medical appointments and accessing services. Everything is poorer, harder and takes longer. Still, we mustn't complain or we'd be labelled as moaners or Karen's 😒

I can't tell anymore if our government are mad or they're saying these things because they think we are. (And they want our votes)