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.

@Crikeyalmighty "you are thinking about things arse over backwards"

Very succinctly put !😆

Well as a boomer we weren't asked if we wanted public services sold off. We didn't want public services sold off. We knew well that selling off social housing was a huge mistake. The newspapers left, centre and right said it was a huge mistake. Experts said it was a huge mistake.

We were proved right.

Ha. ha, I would love to get all my former spud picking mates together and tell them we were exploited children. You really are an idiot if you think a bunch of kids - mostly working at their own pace - in the school holidays, should have been paid a full adult wage. 😆😆😆

@alikelylass I couldn’t get beyond the wages need to be at the level we can all buy - well yes that would be ideal and nice but given we don’t have standard fixed house prices simply not possible - I’m all for a strong social net , as I say I saw how it worked in Scandinavia- however I’m afraid I can’t go along with airy fairy frustration ( which I get) taking a pop at those who had no say in decisions that have contributed to issues we have today - it kind of reminds me of comments back in my home town when I moved ‘down south’ ( ex mining town in the midlands ) with the ‘those down south get everything’ - yep, we get pretty average wages in lots of cases outside of a few highly paid professions, high house prices and rents and frequently overlooked when it came to handing out money for regenerations etc -

Yes it’s terrible isnt it wanting the same social deal you had.

Handouts for that generation in the past included no-questions-asked benefits culture before the late 1990s, including the availability of council housing and right to buy. Free training - not just uni grants but free training and an expectation of employer responsibility for that and equipment. Surestart support and child tax credit on top of wages up to £50k pa (back when minimum wage was £10k and skilled but below professional work got £15k). Easy house prices. Low expectation of skills and qualifications, a qualified 90s professional would struggle to meet the same expectations of an entry level job on minimum wage now, in either quals or skills or effort involved. Encouragement to buy up houses on buy to let. There was a reason why that generation retired earlier out of the same jobs we get paid minimum wage for. In retirement, winter fuel tax, free transportation. I know more pensioners who are landlords or who are living individually in houses than I do those who are anywhere near working poverty and I know several who say they are better off in retirement than working. As usual any changes put in place will not affect that golden age group, but those of us just behind it who had it all stolen from us.

I don’t know what the claimants to the contrary have done with your money. I don’t much care. You had it all, and are still taking it all. You still lie and laugh at us who fund it, just as you always did.

So I'll ask again.

Why are the Boomers being blamed for government decisions that they weren't consulted about ?

Exactly 💯

@alikelylass

"Why are the Boomers being blamed for government decisions that they weren't consulted about ?"

'Boomers' repeatedly voted in Thatcher and Cameron, who campaigned on a 'personal responsibility' (for working age people) and 'let's shrink the state' (for working age people) manifestos.

'Boomers' are the people buying the Daily Mail, the Telegraph and the Express - all papers that have campaigned relentlessly to cut public spending on benefits for the working age population.

'Right to buy' was a hugely popular policy, it benefited those people who bought, and absolutely fucked the generations that followed.

64% of over 65's voted to leave the EU, compared to 29% of 18 to 30 year olds.

Retired people now have higher disposable incomes than working age people. They hold most of the housing wealth. They're all fucking nimbies.

If you can't look at your generation and accept that it has responsibility for the shit show it created through its political priorities then there's no hope for you.

Your generation voted for it. Time and time again. And told us to shut up because it was all for your pensions and we were selfish and needed to be more change positive. It was ypur generation that implemented the ‘decisions of central government that you weren’t consulted about’. Central government did not force so many of you to be of private landlords, much less tell us to stfu all the time, much less tell us you were doing us a favour by forcing us into damp pest-infested rentals and handing over our work to your ill gotten lazy brats who never worked for any of it. At work you were happily complicit in watching youngsters getting paid half the wage for jobs that you’d done badly and enforce us having to run around. The old threads and the old conversations on other websites may still be around with your generations denials, minimisations and lies.

All your whataboutery and denials merely show those of us who were there what you are, all over again, and what you have turned Britain in to. The war generation who birthed you must be rolling in their graves in disgust - the dystopian literature they left you in the 50s and 60s were meant as warnings, not as guides.

Im through now. We never got truth, fairness or justice out of your generation. Just shit out of your arses.

"Well as a boomer we weren't asked if we wanted public services sold off. We didn't want public services sold off. We knew well that selling off social housing was a huge mistake. The newspapers left, centre and right said it was a huge mistake. Experts said it was a huge mistake.
We were proved right."

Right to Buy was actually one of Thatcher's most popular policies and was lauded by the right wing press, which dominates print media.

Thatcher was repeatedly elected on a manifesto of continued privatisation of public services, humbling the unions, freeing industry from regulation, and cutting public spending.

Boomers repeatedly voted in David Cameron, while blaming local authorities for the inevitable decline in public services created by huge cuts to local authority funding during austerity.

Do Not not even get me started on the cashing in on all of the Public Sector sales and the shares that came with flogging British gas etc and all the redundancy packages that came with it.
People were Mortgage free at 30, If the cards fell well for them right to buy combined with employee share options and low house prices
Some people were very very lucky

I think people forget that in 1975 we had North Sea Oil & Gas coming ashore from the BP Forties Field.

The UK was richer and we could reduce our borrowing, as it was a time of economic strength. Hence people had a better standard of living.

I have no issue with people being very very lucky and having a nice life.
What I have issue with is them claiming to be extremely clever and that’s how it’s turned out for them when actually it was just a complete frigging accident

I don't think it's as straightforward as just calling it a complete accident. If somebody puts in the graft to get a law degree and then does the ungodly hours as a trainee to get into a firm then it's not purely coincidental. Although obv there are factors making it more difficult for some individuals to do this.

And today if somebody put in an equal amount of effort with an equal amount of intelligence, would they get an equal result?

Would you like a piece of fried fish on your left shoulder to go with the chip on the other one ?

Personally, I haven't really ever felt part of "a generation". I have just done my best for myself and my family under the rules of the day. I am quite well-read and financially fairly savvy, and to date I haven't got anything catastrophically wrong. But I was born in 1956, so a peak Boomer.

Yes, I have a house without a mortgage. And yes, the "value" now is considerably more than the price we paid in 1997. But if I leave it to my heir, I would have to consider reverse equity unless they are going to pay a shedload of IHT. There will be some to pay regardless, but I am going to vote Tory at every opportunity because there is at least a chance that they might uprate the thresholds in line with inflation.

Well, they’ll be inheriting that money a lot quicker under a tory government if you need any nhs assistance 🤣🤣

When did surestart and childtaxcredits start, I don't remember them in the 70s.

Same with minimum wage, my first fulltime job was 44 hrs a week for £5.

Like many of my age I never claimed any benefits, I got paid a pittance as I was a woman, not allowed in the pension scheme for years. Having said that my husband was a police officer, they were getting paid a pittance in the 70s before Edmund Davis so even men weren't getting paid a fortune, many of his colleagues whose wives didn't work outside the home were on benefits, can't remember what it was called but like Universal Credit it was a benefits for people who were working but on low pay.

Scrimped and saved to buy a house, two up two down that was a wreck and friends and family helped us to make it liveable.

I left school at 15 and I retired at 70

Apart from all that you do realise that the WFP is between £100 and £300 per annum, i.e. just under £2 a week for some of us. Honestly I was fine with it being means tested but it really isn't worth all the angst. I go to Costa once a week for a coffee with a family member I meet up with and my £100 doesn't even buy me a coffee every week. I actually donate it to 3 charities alongside the donations I make to them every month but still it wouldn't buy me a coffee every week if I wanted it to.

It’s not supposed to pay for coffee? It’s intended to make heating in the winter more affordable. The clue is literally in the name.

I feel like you’re proving PPs point with this

They are on a different planet, aren’t they?

So instead, we'll sell, relocate and downsize. DC will get a very large bung out of the proceeds! The book about The Inheritocracy stings for good reason.

No, we're not on a different planet. Yes, we were fortunate -- but equally we tried to make sensible, logical decisions about work, property, family size and pensions during our peak earning years, as I am sure you do too. Inflation, quantitative easing, an increased population and multiple/serial relationships have added up to create vast additional housing pressure for anyone under 40. But the resentment towards previous generations is particularly venomous. We all try to do our best given the circumstances of the time. And I won't apologise for continuing to try to stay one step ahead of the game in the best interests of my child.

Oh dear, you missed the point didn't you. It's a small amount of money for all the angst. I bet most of the people getting upset about this spend more than £2 a week on stuff that isn't really necessary. Hope that helps you understand.

I thought I'd do a fact check for you. Sure start started in 1999. As a boomer my "babies" were in their 40s at that point. The two I had as an older mum were getting ready for transitioning to senior school. I really don't think you can throw sure start in my face.

Child tax credits started in 2003, I don't think boomers were the main beneficiaries of that although some will have had it for a while. They only just ended this year, I wonder how many boomers were benefitting for those 22 years?

I think generation X probably benefitted from both, are you having a go at them?