AIBU to think we are edging worryingly close to anarchy?

[Noras]

Am I unreasonable to believe that we are 2 or 3 steps away from anarchy?

Just that really. We see endless footage of quite aggressive and in the open. Shop lifting. People seem to have no shame eg driving over parkland or chucking rubbish out of car windows. Kids ran amok in Cornwall. People decide to live in caravans anywhere and just poo in parkland. Fly tipping is rife.
People freely wal: around the streets under the influence of drugs. People go to upmarket gyms with ankle tags and no sense of shame. People are more abusive and rude.

That's just it. There is no trajectory into criminality. It's the exact opposite.

The trajectory is statistically proven to be moving out of criminality 🤦

Also, poor living standards... Yes, it's easy to see how relatively poor your own living standards are these days compared to the tiktok set. But in general living standards again have massively improved since the 70s, 80s and 90s.

Again, using actual facts and statistics, child poverty has seen a large decline, and a reasonable relative decline since 2000 even (it was massively higher pre millennium)

Source: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/child-poverty-trends-and-policy-options

Fuck me people. Get outside. Use your eyes and ears. Get off social media. Turn of Gbeebies. Wise up to the reformesque bots on Facebook, etc.

Try living your best life and taking responsibility for your own happiness. As a country we've rarely had it this good in history so bloody well try and enjoy it.

Every time. You people cannot help yourselves!

I'm in my 60s and definitely have seen a decline in more recent years. The country just seems dirty and rundown now. The amount of litter that I see everywhere now and the flytipping. It never used to be as bad.

I see parents with kids swearing either at them or in front of them. Shoplifting is on the increase, organised crime not someone desperate for food. People just don't have pride any more.

I don't think we're close to anarchy but the country is definitely in decline.

Having said that, I still think the majority of people in this country are decent, hardworking people. I try to be helpful and kind and find that people tend to be the same back. I will do a kind act for a stranger and hope that they pass it on.

Rarely had a time in history so good?

what would you say is going great guns right now? I can’t afford a safe and stable home
for my children despite working full time and receiving UC top up. I’m at the brink financially every month, with no real options
for change. My car broke last month and I’ve not got any options to fix it as I have 0 savings after having to move twice in two years due to landlords selling. This means I’m currently left commuting almost 4 hours a day, because of the way buses line up out of my rural village with the ones that run to the industrial park where I work.

my children are all miserable at school because it doesn’t provide them with an environment that suits their needs and certainly isn’t preparing them for the world of work.

I can’t afford a holiday but if I could I’d be too scared to go because of the global uncertainty.

I absolutely am the last person that think Reform would fix any of that, so I’m not coming from that angle at all, but the idea that we’re living in some sort of utopia isn’t real life for many people.

You’re doing it too! Why the assumption that anyone on this thread is going to vote for bloody Farage?

Welcome to Britain.
It's a great, painful shame.
After 25 years here, I cannot wait for my elderly (abusive) parent back in my country to disappear, so I can claim my inheritance and finally FO.
Dreadful.

Most people are not comparing living standards to the 80s when we were either not born or 8 years old (or whatever).

Most people are, say comparing 2026 to 2016.

Take me back to then please. I was working less hours and had far more money than I do now. My mortgage was lower, my bills were literally half, food costs, going out for dinner of to the pub, taking the kids out, all far more affordable.

Things were not perfect back then and a lot of the issues we have now (eg the NHS, immigration hot potato) still existed back then. But life was overall better.

Saying so doesn't make me a Reform voter or GB News / Daily Mail consumer.

”why the assumption that everyone on this thread is going to vote for Farage?” Not necessarily, but wanting us to believe that we are surrounded by anarchy is exactly what the right wing parties want us to believe, probably blaming it on immigrants. Nothing to do with Tory cuts to public services - ahem, nothing to see here, look that way, please. I am well aware that right wing government is not the answer - they have cut law enforcement to the bone, and the shoplifters know it; and a right wing government would probably make even more cuts. What I am commenting on is that “look at our once great nation descending into anarchy” rhetoric is extremely similar to what Reform and the like keep saying.

Landlords are selling because of government policy.

George Osbournes changes to tax relief on mortgages changed everything.

The rent reforms act is going to make things far far worse, please trust me. Your rent is about to sky rocket again, I'm afraid.

But even the most rose-tinted spectacles poster on here can surely see the decline in standards? Or perhaps you don’t care.

Eg on the train yesterday I saw some people eating out of Tupperware boxes. When they’d finished they tipped what was left onto the floor and then packed away their boxes. I could not believe my eyes. How could they think this was acceptable?

My grandparents lived in a council house in a suburb of a midlands town. All the council houses were very neat and had vegetables growing in the front gardens - runner beans etc. I recently went back. Omg. The place was not only a horrendous tip but menacing. What the hell happened…

My first S21 was 2021 and my second was 2023, both owned the houses outright and no new policies had been introduced at that point. Potentially the second thought the RRA might affect him, but he actually ended up reletting it at a higher price when it wouldn’t sell.

My current LL also tried to put this house on the market last year after we’d only been here a year, but couldn’t sell it, so instead increased my rent but I’ve no guarantee he won’t try again in the future.

No reason for the RRA to make my rent sky rocket unless the LL is just unscrupulous. It hasn’t increased his mortgage cost.

But thanks for reinforcing the idea that it’s all doom and gloom and not the paradise the PP would have me believe if I’d just get outside and smell the fresh air 😂

YABU - The government has significantly more power than most of us will have known, even if they cherry pick how they use it, so we're no where close to anarchy. Things have gotten more difficulty lately, and these issues tends to come and go in cycles, and part of it I think is that the government - and those who use the government to keep their power and wealth and many of those who would like be either in government or one of those in power and wealth - encourage these things fester in order to grab even further power for themselves while trying to balance the growing contempt for the government and wealthy.

I don't have any solution for that, but I think calling us two steps from anarchy only plays into the idea that the government needs more power rather than to use what it has in better ways and potentially needs more restrictions on it.

People go to upmarket gyms with ankle tags and no sense of shame.

You've no idea if they feel shame and people on ankle monitors can go to the gym, even upmarket ones.

Most of them will be on doorstep curfews for certain times and/or monitored on restrictions for certain areas only. There are also those where it's an alcohol monitor - they may have no time or travel restrictions, but it monitors for any alcohol in the sweat.

Long gone are the days where they are stuck in one address without prior authorisation for any travel and that authorisation was heavily restricted and often meant they were unable to work. My older brother was on one in the 90s (yes, there were people doing shitty things back then as well) and it basically punished the whole family. With improved technology, we can focus the issue just onto the person and use a wider range of punishments for criminals like the alcohol monitors for DUIs and similar crimes where alcohol misuse is a significant factor.

Rarely had a time in history so good?

Yes - even though things are shite for many of us, when looking over history and globally, things have been and are for many a lot worse. It's not a great barometer and it's too often used to shut down concerns rather drive down the point that we have far better options for what's going on than what most of us are getting.

I don't think we are near to anarchy.

However, since 2016 and the decision that led to two lame duck Prime Ministers and in between the traitor who cannot even acknowledge all of his children, basic functions of government have been starved of resources, especially the police and courts. The lack of accountability (and prison in the case of one Prime Minister) creates a climate where people chance getting away with things they would never have considered say ten years ago.

If you voted for the party he 'led' or did not take part in general elections, you are part of the problem.

Agree totally, your accurately conveyed how I feel.

its a bit like how my boss at work constantly comes in late, leaves early, calls in sick frequently and uses his working day to buy and sell items on eBay…it doesn’t inspire me to be my best either.

It’s everywhere. I found myself in some sort of exchange of words in the supermarket the other week with a woman who must have been well into her 80s. Pushing in when it wasn’t her turn. What the fuck. No one and I mean no one must be challenged. I’m keeping my mouth shut.

I have sold vintage items online for more than 20 years. In the past people who bought antiques and vintage were more honest and I might get an average of 1 "not received" claims in a year. In this past few months Ive had 5 attempted scams - mostly people claiming an item hadnt arrived when the tracking says it was delivered to their zip code. I just get on live chat and have an agent close the cases for me. Then I send the buyer a message - "Im glad to see your package has now been delivered". Do these people think I am stupid enough to refund them and let them have the item as well? My blocked list gets more full by the week.

I feel like this type of response comes from someone who lives in a nice, middle class wealthy area and only shops online.
Anyone who regularly goes to city shopping areas will recognise what the OP is talking about.

It's not social media it's irl. Recently in my area, one man seriously stabbed (4 x afghans arrested) elderly lady ran into seriously injured by a teenager on a bike who rode off. Woke at 1am to police cars whizzing down my road and someone being arrested. Kids talking with fake road man accents constantly hanging in groups and throwing stones, harrasing shop keepers. It didn't use to be like this round here.

I read about these things happening - being respectful of people and places is a basic principle which some people don’t adhere to.
I decided last year to try and do a small thing to try and improve things - if everyone does a little, collectively it can make a change.
I looked into our local Green Party Group. Went to deliver some leaflets and posters, met some really nice people and our candidate won for the first time!
Local issues sorted helps others to see that working together can give hope.
I only do what I’ve got time for but as they say ‘Every Little Helps!’

Exactly. I was saying exactly the same to my OH yesterday. Just fourteen years ago everything was affordable which is why we had kids! We could rent a beautiful house for just over a grand a month. I could fill up the car for £40. Food shopping was sixty quid a week if not less. We could socialise and come home having spent less than fifty quid. Talking about the eighties is like the dark ages when I talk to my teen but 2010 is certainly not a long, long time ago but it may as well be for the standard of living we now have.

And if we are calling this Late Stage Capitalism then I’m fine with it. The bit that really fucking grates though is those that pop up on these threads trying to gas light us into believing either nothing’s big has changed or things have changed for the better. I haven’t lapsed into dementia yet I’m afraid. My memories and receipts know EXACTLY what life used to be like and this, by comparison, is bad.

George Osbournes tax relief was tapered off in 2020 so evictions increasing from 2021 makes sense. Mortgage rates are also now much higher but landlords can't offset this against their tax bill.

RRA will make rents sky rocket due to two main things (a) evicting poor tenants is harder which costs landlords more so need to put rents up to cover this. (b) people leaving any time into their contracts increase fallow periods so landlords need to put rent up to cover it.

I own several BTLs and one actually costs me money to keep because I pay tax on profit I'm not making. I should sell it but still hoping another government might change policy.

Yabu. Yes there is anti social behaviour but no that is not anarchy.

I have to agree. This is either someone who has always been skint and who is now doing very well from Labour’s recent welfare reforms, or the complete opposite and lives in an absolute bubble but when they venture into the nearest city they do so to visit the museum, the theatre or the naice shopping areas.

Na in my opinion things are better nowadays than they were in the 70's/80's/90's. You're just seeing it more because of social media.