Is our town a shithole..

[FroggletTowers]

Or is this happening anywhere else?

I have been discussing this with friends, family and colleagues recently so won't name our town for privacy reasons, but it is a regular, large town in England, UK.
Nothing particularly special or awful about it, previously.

Since the pandemic, the entire vibe has changed. Almost unrecognisable.
Yes, we have some heavy shop closures like many towns, but the council kept it looking decent as much as it could. Some nice buildings and nature areas, etc.

What stands out most, apart from the general vandalism and dog shit is the weird accumulation of male groups hanging around boozing in public.

So far they have taken over the local park, river walks and nature reserves. They often cluster beneath bridges or across paths where people like to run, cycle walk dogs or take children, making it less safe and filling these areas with waste. Off road bikes have ruined the nature reserves, so less people visit

Sadly the authorities don't seem to be doing much about it, it is as if these people don't have to abide by laws that the rest of us have to. Some buildings adjacent to these areas have windows put through on a regular basis, even in what you'd call 'nice' areas.
Many of them cluster at river bridges and block the path for others, most are very drunk or out of generally.
It isn't unusual to see a large man passed out across the pathway, blocking anyone getting past. If you had a pram or bike it would be really uncomfortable to have to rouse a large drunk at 2pm in the afternoon. Most are local men, with a growing amount of middle eastern men. The vast majority of them are unstable.

We see less women out cycling, walking or exercising now, and this encompasses both MC and WC areas. These people seem to have just multiplied and spread across the entire borough and have taken over all public space.
We live in a decent area that is now seeming to go downhill.
It isn't unusual to see day drinkers sat alone, surrounded by cans on a quiet residential street. And they won't move to let you past.

It's really depressing.

Agree, if I went to another country and behaved like that, I would rightly expect there to be consequences. I have Roma gypsies living next door to me and they make my life a misery. I appreciate that bad neighbours can be from any culture but the commonallity here is the filling of the back yard with scrap, the ceasless noise and the misogyny. When I politely asked the men who gather to drink and shout on the pavement outside their home and were so loud I could hardly hear my TV I was called a "mother fucking cunt" and then they threw a fag end down and said "you woman sweep the pavement". Of course anyone from anywhere can be just as vile but this culture does see womn as second class citizens and I think that if you want to settle here you need to take on board that this veiw is generally considered reactionary and wrong

Must be absolutely awful for you.

do they actually pay any tax or council tax.

That sounds awful, you shouldn't have to put up with living like that.

cash economy so I very much doubt it, the ones next door to me do a bit of drug dealing as well as scrap dealing, I have seen people turn up and small packages are exchanged at the front door and the back yard is full of scrap that then vanishes and a new lot arrives, they seem to have a thing about rusty old bbqs and manky baby buggies All very odd.

So how can they be deported when they (conveniently) lose their identification documents in the English Channel , or when their country of origin won't take them back?

What I suspect the government will do to reduce the number of asylum seekers in the hotels waiting for processing is to speed up the processing by letting them all in no matter the merit of their claim. Much faster and easier than deporting them and they will just disperse round the country. It will be interesting to see the figures "going down" in the next 6 months.

The government will just let them in anyway, I suspect.

Why is the funnel always to our tiny island when there are vast areas elsewhere?

Because we are the mugs that put them in hotels with full board, give them free healthcare and "spend" and allow them to wander about unchecked.

They even get free TV and driving lessons

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/news/why-30k-has-been-spent-in-kent-on-driving-lessons-for-asylu-321435/

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/35433288/illegal-migrants-free-tv-licences/

Do you seriously think we are the only country that has refugees, asylum seekers, economic migrants. We aren't even near the top of the list.

Nope, I don’t.

Too late to edit my last post.

Are you’ always so ready to be offended?

We’re a tiny island, we’ve had our fair share. Get over it.

How do you work out our fair share? Why say the funnel is always to this island when apparently you know there isn't a funnel that is always to here?

I'm not easily offended I just like the truth.

I don’t know how to work out our fair share, do you? Do you even care?

And do you believe diversity is our strength? Or agree it’s just psychobabble?

You're the one complaining that we take too many. I'm not unhappy with the numbers so I think you need to tell us what's fair.

Our population has risen far enough, provably from immigration.We cannot feed and house everyone here now. I really don’t get the wisdom of encouraging mass emigration to lands that are already completely full.

These peoples are going to have to recognise the need for population numbers control and look for social solutions at home.

There you go, you’re not ‘unhappy’ with the numbers.

We will obviously agree to disagree then. Or is that not allowed?

I can see that happening too, which in turn will be used by some people as proof that ‘most of the asylum seekers are legitimate, because most claims are being granted’.

@ TheignT

I’m also utterly SICK of being considered racist because of my views on immigration. Thoroughly sick of it but it’s used constantly as a stick to beat some of us with. It’s a LAZY weapon.

Who's 'they'?

You're not racist then Slatterndisgrace?

So you don't only or primarily post about immigration in relation to the things you dislike about immigrants, and that when you're talking about the things you don't like about immigrants and immigrations you're always talking about non-white immigrants?

Because we all know the vast majority of immigrants are law abiding people, pay taxes, came here by invitation, and many make great contributions to our country.

We have refugees, asylum seekers, and economic migrants here but I don't recognise the terrible issues you seem to have in the UK, so something must be different.

We are NOT 'completely full'.

This is just ignorant nonsense.

England alone has 1 million empty homes, 1 in 10 of the population own more than one house, we have falling rolls in schools across the UK, and a rapidly ageing demographic.

If you want economic growth you need workers. If those workers arrive as adults rather than needing the state to pay for 18 years of education prior to them entering the workforce, so much the better.

And as they age how do we deal with that?

Do you mean we just keep going up in population over next few decades? Where would you like to see it rise to