To think our towns and cities are just so run down lately, and our standard of living has decreased significantly?

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I don't know if I'm just feeling a bit down and bitter lately but I just feel like lately our country seems to have gotten very run down. I went out into town today and couldn't help but notice how grotty and rundown everything looks. Litter everywhere, security guards everywhere - in nearly every clothing shop there is security on the door now, security wandering up and down the high street. It makes you feel really unsafe but they must be there for a reason now? Shops are dirty; filthy floors and used Starbucks cups just left off the shelf for some poor worker to clean up. Clothes for sale that are covered in makeup stains. I just found it really depressing. It's just not one town either, I've noticed it nearly everywhere I've been. I'm in my late 20s so it's not like I've had decades of life experience to draw from and I have a rose-tinted view of yesteryear, but it seems that in the last 5ish years things have really declined.

Immigration is absolutely a factor but there's a reason even the Tories didn't do anything about it.

In the 60s we had 1 pensioner to 5 workers, now it's 3:1 but it's not far off 2:1 which of course is not sustainable. I don't see governments turning away from capitalism anytime soon b

All my grandparents lived in the Bournemouth/Poole area so I went there most summer holidays in the late 70s to mid 80s; it became a running joke how long it would take Grandad to frown and say, "Bournemouth's gone downhill, son"; it would usually be before the kettle had finished boiling soon after we arrived. Grandad wasn't wrong but I think he'd be shocked at how far it has gone downhill in the 30 years since his death.

I've read a few posts about Bristol; I had a connection to that city as well and on a visit in 2012 - 13 years ago, I was surprised to see a tent pitched up on the forecourt of a derelict petrol station near Temple Meads - I took a photograph of it.

I put my photo on Flickr and someone asked me in a comment - "Is that a tent on the forecourt?" - it looked so out of place. Now there's hundreds of tents in Bristol.

Many people are just too comfortable to really notice it. They wfh or not at all and are also supported by government funds, they order their products online, drive everywhere and rarely go to the places now inhabited largely by overseas migrants. Head + sand.

I’m afraid I feel we have a hugely enlarged feral underclass who really don’t give a shit about others - I don’t mean hard working minimum wage earners with standards- I mean a very large contingent of people who know every trick in the book as to how to get the most out of the state whilst doing bugger all . Happy to let youngish kids run wild, no discipline, no morals - no standards when it comes to keeping a house relatively ok, chucking rubbish, will dump anything anywhere, let their dogs shit everywhere and they often have a few, have stonking arguments with partners and/or kids on the high st, perfectly happy to get blind drunk and argumentative and aggressive in public-

im actually socially minded and im not right wing but i do think there’s a section of society that need a few sticks and far less carrots and far less ‘you don’t understand these people’’ yep i do , i come from a mining town originally and there were lots of people who were not well off, but there were standards- people prided themselves on having a nice home with what little they had, being clean and well presented even if it was cheap stuff, and many of the miners prided themselves on being well read, knowing poetry , good political knowledge and if you hit into trouble with school or police you got some real shit when you got home- not blaming teachers or police.

I am sorry but I can’t abide people saying it’s all down to austerity . I’ve “ suffered” the effects of austerity too. I have family and friends who live in “ rough” areas, low paid jobs etc. But they don’t dump their rubbish, spit in the street , threaten people for brushing past them etc . There’s no excusing it

Absolutely right. The run down towns closest to where I am are literally full of immigrants, mostly young men walking round aimlessly.

Half the people who come here don't even work though, or if they do it's off the books with food delivery or money laundered barbers and vape shops, so they aren't paying tax.

@Nutmuncher I’ve been lots of times with work and really dislike Manchester to be honest -find it quite threatening - I know loads love it though so maybe it’s just me, I actually much preferred Liverpool and Leeds ,

Well asylum seekers are not allowed to work

Elephant in the room that hasn’t been mentioned on this thread yet is Brexit.

It was supposed to yield trade deals, control of immigration/borders and growth and it’s failed spectacularly on all. Companies have left or gone under. No new investment.

It created division. It created anger and that anger is still seen as those voters wonder where their magic beanstalk is; this thread is a perfect example.

It occupied all of our political bandwidth and budget for years, ie nothing got done while the country and govt bent over backwards to achieve this pointless aim. And what did we get? Lots of money and energy spent FOR NOTHING

And here we all are wondering where it all went wrong, when it resulted in PMs like Boris fucking Johnson running the country, telling us the law doesn’t always apply, and just do what you like and make it up as you go along as long as you have a laugh. Go figure.

We got the right to pollute our seas and rivers as our (foreign owned lol) water companies see fit. Yay.

We got the right to become the worlds money laundering capital (screw the nasty eu and their financial regulations)

Those coming from our closest neighbours stopped coming anymore, even though they were the most likely to provide positive input to the uk.

Immigration from ROW has skyrocketed

Growth stagnated at this point too and hasn’t recovered, and likely never will.

And here we are, with a batshit US president, and us contemplating accepting chlorine chicken, hormone beef and a sliced and diced NHS

I’ll get flamed for this no doubt. But consider: Brexit was the biggest, most expensive political decision our country has faced in decades. Since it happened our society and economy has been on a downward trajectory.

Wasn’t it supposed to make us better off? Doesn’t seem to have worked does it.

Lord Street was pretty grotty 20+ years ago!

Omg yes. The horrendous vape shops and barbers with bright neon stickers and lights. I blame the councils tbh. There should be local conditions to keep shop frontage windows clear and the fascia’s a certain way.

@Sidebeforeself I do partly agree as per my post below- A lot of this too is about people/attitudes

They are the new population, though. We're funding their keep so that a few landlords are happy, at the same time we can't afford to live here. What even is this? I mean really? What has it come to when it's considered 'controversial' to say that someone who works full time deserves a basic life? Fuck this joke of a country. I'm actually happy to see it fall, because of the fucking morons in charge.

Luton has always been a shit hole. I lived there for years. Couldn't wait to leave

Me too 😊. There's an old saying I remember from my youth. Manchester man, Liverpool gentleman. That was 50 years ago mind.

My sons generation were talking about Chester recently and how down at heel it is these days.

Well the people who presided over the decline of the last 14 years are out of office, at least.

I am hoping Labour find the backbone not to go down the same route as the Tories. Jury is out til 2029, so we shall see.

@Lonelycrab I’ve avoided mentioning Brexit as I know some people will fight to the death that it’s a brilliant idea- but it is causing issues from so many angles as you have stated - many many good employers simply set up elsewhere and got rid of /reduced down uk centres. Many very good European workers decided not to stay as let’s face it they were made to feel unwelcome. This caused issues in staffing many services with jobs Brits simply didn’t want - hence Johnson decided to totally ramp up 3rd world immigration to try and disguise how shit the shortage was- this was an awful lot of families, all needing education, housing, health, unlike the many single Europeans who often shared houses and in the main in recent years have been quite young. None of these families will leave to go back to Pakistan, Nigeria, Phillipines etc and hence we have even more pressure on services. Nothing is actually cheaper because of Brexit- anyone doing a bit of work in Europe now has total pain in the arse situation to work there at all on contracts etc - we basically handed over a lot of our best business to EU competitors on a plate. It’s a pointless excercise that cost £300 billion approx - and was a load of complete bullshit. I wouldn’t invest here if I had a business that had import/export elements and no chance of EU grants/funding -

I’m in the north east and I think most places are much better. Both the rougher areas and the naice areas.

I spent some time there in the 80s and it was not particularly lovely then. I was living in London and had a boyfriend who lived there. He mostly came to mine!

Up until July 2024 the UK had the fastest growing economy of the G7 nations, no?

European citizens have their own problems these days. It's not just us.

Agree. The biggest own goal there ever was.

There is most certainly a feral underclass evident in our area. Shouting at their dogs and DC on the school run while clutching Monsters. They all have English accents though and are generational estate families, not immigrants.

Yes we used to go to our city centre every weekend now we go 2-3 times a year and that is purely to visit Primark. Most of the shops are boarded up, there’s no restaurants left and no night clubs. Litter is everywhere and the main streets are full of monkey dust ‘zombies’. We can’t afford to go for coffee or lunch like before as everything is so expensive as is parking. Public transport is poor and expensive so I no longer visit other cities for days out.

I remember going to Spain in the 1990s and feeling that it was so much poorer and backwards than the UK but I went to the same resort we used to go to last year and couldn’t believe the difference. It is now the other way round. The roads were better than here and everything was cleaner and superior to the UK.

I think there’s now a complete lack of respect for other people and the environment here. There’s no police presence, they won’t come out to most crimes because they don’t have the resources or it’s too much paperwork. No one dares scold anybody’s children anymore, even teachers are threatened by parents.

There doesn’t seem to be any hope for the future. Young people aren’t going to be able to afford a house, or see a dentist. Everything’s so much more expensive and opportunities fewer so I can see why there’s such a gloomy atmosphere.