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

[blahhhhg]

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.

Sorry but migrants aren't the ones who has ruined the UK. The British government has done that. Migrants on the whole take much less out of the system than an average Brit - mainly that's because they are adult and male....adult males cost little in terms of benefits and facilities, kids, pregnant women, the disable and the old is who costs a lot. Neither of the immigrants people are mentioning here are those either because they wouldn't get a visa to grt into the country or even if illegal - wouldn't be the ones that are able to get here. The older migrants that do need social care and health on the whole have also spent 45 years working in this country and are owed it the same as the white Brits.

Plus the UK needs those able bodied males as we don't have enough able bodied adults to work in this country.

So let's forget about the migrants.

But why did the Tories ruin the local government funding formula, decimated what local governments get from the central governments, created silly incentives for local councils to 8nvest in fra kly financial schemes they are not capable of managing and create a formula whereby councils with fewer business rates fare badly because they end up with a lot less revenue....well on that front....blame the Tories

Drove from Hampshire to Kent a couple of weeks ago. In Surrey, workers were out picking up litter from the sides of the roads. I noticed immediately we entered Kent, that it was recognisable by the sheer quantity of rubbish on the roadside. Everything's out there, cans, bottles, nappies, food containers, lots of lavatory paper. I don't think it's ever cleaned. It's depressing. The country is broke. Its only growth area is millionaires who are, apparently, fleeing the country in case someone asks them to pay for filling a pothole or pay for an extra teacher.

I think this is my town. New ivy (covered in bird poo I noticed this week), only shop that thrives is Primark. Attempt to put in middle class shops like Oliver bonas falls flat because there just isn't anything else in the town to draw you in. The new paved area could have been a space for festivals and special markets but somehow makes it more difficult to walk through. Shops that might be useful (m&s) don't have stock in any reasonable size (no size 10r or size 12r to be seen, try online apparently). Nasons and Debenhams end of town is simply dire. Very much mourning the loss of the independent shoe shop. No idea how I'm going to get my dc shoes fitted this year.

People from other cultures can bring their own values and customs which doesn't always help matters.

The things most of us see in our local areas in day to day life rely on what the local council does. The coalition and then Conservative governments slashed local council funding from 2010 onwards. It has increased a little in the past couple of years but is still down 18% per person in real terms compared to the start of the 2010s.
https://ifs.org.uk/publications/how-have-english-councils-funding-and-spending-changed-2010-2024

This is England-specific although I assume other parts of the UK are also reliant on central funding from Westminster.

Have all the older migrants been here 45 years’ working 🤔 or have they managed to be brought over by relatives would be my question

I just don't think the English realise we have a reputation for being lazy and in my opinion it's generally true. We're lazy in how we raise our DC and take care of each other and our surroundings. We are also quite literally lazy because there are thousands of minimum wage jobs available that we just do not want to do.

We've been told for far too long that we're special and I blame Imperialism for that. We used to rule the world and we cling to that notion of power and importance but the reality is that we're an embarrassment compared to the rest of Europe when it comes to how we behave towards each other. Road rage is a prime example. It is rife.

The welfare state has become a lifestyle choice in itself.

There's not much monetary difference for many between a life on benefits and some minimum wage job. People resent slaving away all day when all their money goes on bills and their tax goes on providing a lifestyle for people who are able to work to lounge at home all day.

The benefits for adults who don't work are tiny and much less than minimum wage which is now also 25k. Yes, disabled single mothers can get quite a bit but honestly are we a society that resents them? With older migrants, even if they have been brought over that means their kids are working and frankly plenty of white elderly British women haven't worked full time for 45 years. Let's not turn this into a nasty thread.

👏🏻👏🏻 This is something that costs people nothing. Why the F do people want to live in their own shit? It is ALL down to parenting.

You are the main role model for your children. If they see you treating other people and your surroundings like crap, they'll do the same. Yes peer pressure might affect them but ultimately if you've done your job as a parent, they have respect instilled into them.

We tried to take our disabled DD to a local park the other day and found that all the play equipment had been smeared with torn open bags of dog shit. What the actual hell.

In the local FB group later, someone had posted about it and a reply said yes a group of kids are doing it. They have also been caught throwing it at people. Nothing has been done about them.

The wrong people are having children and the right people are understandably having less children. Enforced castration of the scummy, aggressive, good for nothing men would sort this country out in so many ways.

In Denmark there was a rule that when it snowed you had to shovel the snow on the pavement outside your immediate house - and many a time I found the lovely Viking like neighbour ( not that I noticed or anything) had shovelled half the street before we even got up!! Outside his house was a lovely green where people often stood and lit a fag - the same guy had popped a silver bucket with sand in it on that very spot - and it was used and no - no one nicked it!! Husband left a beautiful lined beanie hat at the ticket machine in station in error- goes back half an hour later, there it is on top of machine- Along with some kids soft toy- it simply was that kind of place , community mattered, old people didn’t resent their tax paying for lots of great childcare facilities or lots of good quality social housing because their families used it too - lots of older people of all income levels also remained in the city - they didn’t all move out to bungalows in middle of nowhere. The problem is the UK has very much become Americanised rather than look to Europe- so we end up with loads of retail parks, dumpy town centres, a selfish way of thinking and an inability to see why low wages , lowish tax ( till you get up to the middle levels) and low standards of public service have created this wholly mess. We have none of the bits of USA that are actually quite good, all the worse aspects and the non flag shaggers are sneered at by both the ex colonial types or the feral opposite end of the demographic who are quite happy with maccyDs and strip malls, the Daily express etc - if we dare to mention the UK simply isn’t all that these days -

I think this depends, we do have some good aspects and it’s not all like this.

Also true for areas and where you are. If I go a couple of miles in one direction it’s really pretty, nice high st with independent shops. The other way is a different story.

Where I am does actually have a good community spirit but for some reason dog poo and litter has really escalated in last few months. Everyone notices and it’s pretty gross.

And yes as others have said there are lots of small social things that make a difference and cost nowt- can I also mention re immigrants- I confess to having a lovely lady every 6 weeks to do my ironing as have arthritis in neck - she is Polish in her 40s , lovely kids, very well turned out, incredibly hard working ( has 3 jobs) lovely home and always reliable. I would take 5 of her over the ferret faced scruffy white Brits I see around in town. So please don’t tar all immigrants with the same brush - we have plenty of slovenly youths who hang around town and the canal here in gangs being anti social and they are virtually all white British - every area is different -

And I know which bucket people who say things like “it was a nice working class neighbourhood until half of the third world showed up” fall into.

A lot of them have been working. Why do people think all older immigrants were “bought over by relatives”. A lot of “for example the older migrants from the Carribean / Indian have been here since the 40s - 70s. And, yes, working.

You want to prevent people from having varied values and cultures? You know even among White English people there are varied values and cultures right?

What commonplace crimes did not exist 20 years ago that are the sole preseve of migrants?

And what cost to social care?

I think thatcher caused it by dismantling society - “there is no such thing as society” iirc. The slow slide towards me first, started with the tories back in the 80s.

this was then horribly escalated by our relentlessly increasing exposure to America. America is absolutely based on a “me first” approach to every aspect of life and society. A dog eat dog, push and shove to the front, fuck those who fall behind, and make as much money as you can mindset.

those living in the UK are adopting American values - selfishness, small mindedness, entitlement, argumentativeness, proud ignorance.

As this thread is about whether our areas are becoming a bit run down and not as pleasing on the eye as in tidiness/picturesque I personally didn't read the post as other people bringing their values and culture as for instance religious beliefs and more that some don't particularly, for whatever reason, like grass areas and seem to prefer to dig it up and concrete it all over which in turn can make it look less appealing and more hardening the surroundings.

Is there any linkage to preference for grass and immigration? And what does that have to do to the specific comment chain I was responding to?

Linkage...
I don't need linkage....I have eyes.
There's streets where it's been done.

As said its about areas looking unkempt, why do people have to deviate and turn threads into posts that bare no relevance to the original question.

Different cultures is fine, but when your culture is to have groups of men stand on the street all hours then that's a custom we could do without. If you object to it then you get told "it's just their culture" for grown men to stand on the street all evening.

@User32459 Iagree that men standing outside is a bit threatening. Everything I walk past a pub with drunk British blokes outside pissed and mucking about just because there's a bit of sun out - I just wish I was back in France with the civilized people. But as they say in France c'est la vie.

Where on earth is it the “culture for groups of men to stand on the street?”

And also how are “groups of men standing on the street” harmful in and of themself?

And who on earth told you “it’s their culture to stand on the street”?

Is it even alien? For example people have often congregated with their mates to socialise? My old neighbourhood there would be “groups of men” congregating in the seated area of a coffee shop of a late afternoon but I don’t see that as any different to congregating in a pub?

@JHound I guess the pub when the sun is out. The beer bellies are out and the laddy blokes are all having a jolly