Have we, in the UK, become selfish, lawless and irresponsible?

[Commencethe]

This Bank Holiday seems to have descended into chaos and honestly I am starting to wonder what is happening to people generally.

This weekend alone there have been reports, tragically, of teenagers drowning in rivers and reservoirs, emergency services unable to reach one incident because of illegal parking, beauty spots gridlocked with abandoned cars, beaches overwhelmed with people drinking and taking drugs to excess, fights, weapons, rubbish left everywhere, police being called because a pair of teenagers were apparently having sex openly in a park, and racist outrage because a tourist attraction acknowledged Eid and invited people to celebrate it.

What strikes me is that this feels much wider than just young people behaving badly. Adults blocking roads and verges because they cannot be bothered to park properly. Families leaving litter behind. People ignoring safety warnings around open water. Whole communities unwilling to challenge awful behaviour because someone else should deal with it.

And every time there is discussion afterwards, the blame immediately goes to lack of education, the police, the council, schools, anyone except the individuals involved, their parents, or society more broadly.

I also wonder whether increasingly populist politics and public discourse have plays a role. Constant anger, division and disrespect towards other people, experts, authority and even basic rules seems to have filtered into everyday behaviour. More entitlement, less responsibility, less thought for anyone else.

At what point did personal responsibility disappear? When did we stop caring about our impact on other people or lose any sense of community?

It all feels increasingly selfish, lawless and entitled. Less consideration, less accountability, less self discipline.

Have standards genuinely collapsed or am I overreacting and being unreasonable?

Ive quiety observing since the early 90s when my kids started school. One summer term the kids in my sons school who had displayed the worst behaviour were treated to a free day trip to Alton Towers while the ones who hadn't misbehaved stood watching with their noses pressed against the window. All it achieved was that some of the diligent kids declared they would no longer behave and learn in class as the alternative was much better

No they havent. I grew up in a famous seaside resort and there was very little bad behaviour (1960s/70s) people had respect for themselves and others. Yes there would be fights at night times when people had been drinking but just the regular punch up and a night in the cells to sober up. Knives and stabbings were virtually unheard of). We used to go on camping holidays and there was never any antisocial behaviour, we all made lots of friends and never saw any bad behaviour, swearing etc. Nobody ever stole anything from our tents.
The behaviour of British people has declined over the years, the me me me culture, I'm gonna jump all over your lovely rose bushes that you have lovingly cultured for years and you cant do anything about it ner ner ner. Once upon a time it would be a clip round the ear, then another one if your parents found out.

My mother told me that if she ever got in trouble at school you’d NEVER tell your parents or you’d get punished again! If you told your parents you’d been shouted at by anyone their response would be “well what did you do??”.

You're spot on!! I remember aged about 8 i was walking down the street and they was a bush hanging over a neighbours fence with some lovely flowers on it. I picked a couple and the old woman came out and started ranting that she would tell my mother. I was literally shaking all day waiting for her to come (she never did) but I knew my mother would go ballistic if she found out 🤣

Every time it gets hot we have terrible news of youngsters drowning, I really think they need a lot more education about respecting the water. Public information films like the ones that scared the bejesus out of us when we were young would be a good start.

I don't agree with celebrating animal sacrifice though, and if that makes me racist so be it.

The vast majority of people quietly went about their business this bank holiday weekend. 0

When I've volunteered to help at our primary school on trips, I've noticed that a significant number of the kids simply will not accept correction from adults. For example, a couple of kids thought it would be fun to rip branches and flowers off plants in people's front gardens as the group walked past - when I told them they mustn't do that their attitude was 'you're not my mum and you're not my teacher so you can't tell me what to do '. They just looked at me, and did it again it again at the next garden we came to.

Another trip, when the kids had play time, two boys got into a dispute involving a large stick - a parent volunteer tried to intervene and told them to stop it and drop the stick and they flat out refused. It took three adults including the main class teacher to separate them.

People have grown to expect everything and give nothing. And their kids are dragged up to be much worse than that. Stop excess benefit culture, encourage the economy to grow - give people hope to make their lives better, start military service at 18 for one year minimum etc

The drownings bother me the most. I'm really taken aback, more than anything, by the spate of drownings. To me, it says our children are being let down.
Those children who were in primary school during Covid missed out on swimming lessons. Those kids are teenagers now. And those lessons are usually the only ones children will get. They should offer swimming lessons again in secondary school.
Every child should learn to swim and they should learn about water safety and how all bodies of water behave. They need to learn why people drown in seemingly serene bodies of water. It's almost always the least sinister looking body of water that'll take a swimmer down.
I grew up on the Pacific Ocean and around nearby lakes and open bodies of water. I lived and breathed water safety. I also recognised that I was, despite all of my lessons and exposure to water, a shitty swimmer. I still am. The majority of my friends grew up to be lifeguards and swimming instructors. All of them own boats. I was not a natural water baby and I learned to be absolutely fine with that. My mum and dad used to always say to me, "Water is way more powerful than you. Never forget this." I think our young people deserve better.

Yes 100%. Don’t let the headlines rule your mood. Turn off the news, stop doomscrolling, it doesn’t make anything better.

500 public swimming pools were closed down during the recent Conservative party's time in power.

I don't know if it is the same Cornish tourist, but most of my family live in a Cornish coastal town and said the behaviour post-Covid was shocking. On his first day as a waiter, when cafes reopened, a friend's son got cut by flying glass because a tourist threw a chair through the cafe window when he was told there wasn't a free table right now. I wonder if that lack of socialisation for so long, combined with money loss, serious illness and for many the loss of a loved one in horrendous circumstances, made people think 'Fuck it. I'll just look out for myself from now on.'

🙄It was mainly a Covid side effect. But despite most reopening, some are still being closed in 2026.

https://www.swimmingclass.co.uk/blog/why-uk-swimming-pools-are-facing-closure-in-2026

Foe us our children learning to swim was non negotiable. We travelled to the nearest pool. It wasn't expensive.

Over 500 public swimming pools and leisure sites have permanently closed across the UK since 2010, with roughly 42% of those losses occurring since 2020 alone.

RNLI offers water safety talks in schools. Every secondary school (especially) should plug into this.

Teenagers (or anyone!) drowning whilst going for a swim on a very hot day is, very sadly, very common here. It’s not new. It is very sad though.

A sad but relevant fact is that teenage boys are much more likely to drown in inland waterways about five times as many boys drown as girls.

Bravado? Peer pressure to get in the water? Overestimating swimming ability?

I live in a seaside town, that is always heaving in spring/summer this doesn’t really bother me, but for me it’s the rubbish that just seems to be everywhere. People seems to just eat something then drop it. No matter how many bins they have dotted around everywhere.
It’s not just that it’s loud motorbikes which hurtle down the streets, completely lawless. Teenagers on motorbikes riding around, it’s just so dangerous for everyone. There doesn’t seem to be any policing around here, unless you do 32 in a 30 and then you know about it.

I live beside a river, there has been at least one or two drownings every summer since the 70’s, probably longer but I’m not old enough to remember the 60’s. I don’t think that’s new. I think the biggest change is the amount of cars and the dawning of snack foods, such as meal deals, we used to have picnics in tubs we would need to take home, the most you used to see was a crisp bag, now it’s all plastic wrappers strewn everywhere.

Acid rain is a good one, because we just...sorted it. The hole in te ozone layer has almost gone. Cooperative action across governments after public pressure. Kinda how its supposed to work. Just like Councils now run mass open water safety campaigns in the summer, because of public pressure. We can do the same with climate change - the UK grid is now running mostly on renewables which was unthinkable even 10 years ago. Caring about stuff does make a difference, so by all means grumble on Mumsnet about the state of the youth today but also tell your elected reps what you want done about it.

This was happening long before Covid, but social media makes it more accessible now.
When I was a teenager there were always deaths in summer whether it was in rivers/reservoirs or through climbing on pylons. Teenagers have always been more susceptible to risky behaviour with tragic consequences.
Parking has been a nightmare in honeypot sites for years. I think I studied this in GCSE Geography in the 90’s.
What’s newer or more visible on social media is the rise of ‘othering’ and social media divisions between us and them, increasing fear and hatred to fuel political agendas.

So true, and if it was local news, you wouldn't hear about it for a week.

Now, we have rolling news channels on tv 24/7and hourly bulletins on radio stations, plus FB etc for stuff that isn't significant enough to make the broadcast news and near instant sharing of incidents via mobile phones.

When a lad I knew in my teens drowned while swimming in a flooded chalk pit, my friends and I didn't even hear about it until September when we were back in school, and news of two people I knew who died in a car crash one weekend didn't come to my attention until the local paper came out on the following Friday.

I saw this in the comment section of a tabloid reporting on the shit behaviour - Are we so addicted to our own enjoyment that we've stopped noticing when we're the problem?

The answer is yes. We are a problem. It's just more prevalent now, how can it not be? Social media 'likes', trying to out do each other, be relevant, no shits given, I'm better than everyone attitudes of people now - where they feel validated by the 'likes' - that's what makes it worse today, IMO.

You're not wrong, OP, and to my mind it began in the 1980s when Thatcherism encouraged people to privilege personal aspiration over collective benefit. For me it's exemplified by the Walkman, which was the first consumer product to encourage people to have the daily experience of wrapping themselves in an individualised bubble, and the signs at the time on the tube - "Keep your personal stereo personal!" - tell you that from the outset that experience was accompanied by a lack of regard for people outside that bubble. Nowadays our social and cultural experience is more individualised than ever, and the focus on self-interest has made our politics tribal rather than collective. Unsurprisingly it's made people more than a bit selfish,

What a load of stereotypical drivel. About right if you are referencing TV shows as a source.