Everything is wrong in this country

Of course I do not only know people who are disadvantaged - that is not something I said.

But I do know the circumstances of many who are disadvantaged; and I do not allow my relatively comfortable circumstances to stop me caring about them and wanting to live in a society that also cares.

Here are some examples from my own family and circle of friends:

- an adopted child who was brain injured at birth due to parental drug use and has multiple problems, got no help from the statutory services in spite of battling for this and who fell into bad company, had problems with drugs, and is now in prison, where drugs are freely available, suicides are regular, demanding money with menaces is the norm - there are insufficient staff who care at all about any of this and let it continue.
- a teenage GD who has been unable to cope with the rigid educational system and has severe depression with suicide attempts - a year's wait to access children's mental health services - a year!!!
- a sick OH for whom care at home failed and is now in a nursing home where I am having to find £950 a week to keep him there, so my home is to be sold to pay for it. Homes that the SSD might fund (still with large contributions from me) are not fit for use.
- a small local school whose intake has been doubled in the last year and no extra money at all is forthcoming for the additional pupils - none whatsoever. The OfSted troop in and want to know why it is so hard to maintain standards.
- a GP practice that you ring up and are informed that you are number 36 in the queue.

I could go on. But here am I an average middle class person and I am confronted by all this poverty of services and am struggling.

How much worse must it be for those who are mentally ill, poor and underprivileged.

I cannot bear it when people make judgements about the behaviour of those less fortunate than themselves - how can they begin to understand the factors that have brought families to this situation?

The complacency of those who have about those who have not is sickening.

I love this quote from the late Clive James:

‘Among artists without talent, Marxism will always be popular, since it enables them to blame society for the fact that nobody wants to hear what they have 
to say.’

Whitewavemark2,

Is this a party political post for the Labour Party? If you had a different leader you may get somewhere. I do not recognise the country you describe. As one of the most elderly women in this group, over my lifetime we have seen life improve exponentially. You and I must live in different countries!

That was excellent jura thank you?

Wow this poster has certainly been brain washed and wishes to push her views down everyone’s throat.
Opal excellent post.

Life expectancy calculations are rather complex, it does differ according to lifestyle, diet, occupation.

The government, any government cannot be held responsible for people’s lifestyle choices.

She says it so well

www.facebook.com/JeremyCorbynMP/videos/423111158633095/

Surely this begs a question? If we didn't send so much money out of the country we would be able to meet our own needs better? Charity begins at home - but not in GB.

Poverty is measured in a very different way these days so the figures are not comparable to the “good old” days. A lot of child poverty is because of the way parents budget (or don’t), take drugs, smoke or drink. That is not to say that many aren’t suffering but it just isn’t as black and white as some make it.
Our population has risen enormously, not just by immigration, and the balance between older people and the young working population is very different than that golden era we all remember. Lots of working EU people pay taxes, get working tax credits, child tax credits, etc but their money goes back to their home country to support their families and nobody can blame them for that.
I’m all for voting for someone other than Tory but my choice of a spendthrift Red, an Yellow, or an Open Door Green don’t inspire confidence either.

A child becomes homeless in the UK every 8 minutes.

Life expectancy was rising continually until 2014.

Once austerity began to bite life expectancy has now fallen back year on year. It is now lower than it was 5 years ago.

Some cities in the U.K. have a higher mortality rate than Turkey, Romania and Poland. These include Manchester, Hull and Blackpool.

Regional divides in the U.K. are amongst the worst in the developed world, with the South East and London hoarding the lions share of economic and political power.

Notably productivity is one of the worst in the developed world.

@Anniemac Jeremy Corbyn is an honest, honourable man with a genuine passion to restore the country to how it really should be. He has risen above the smears and lies. He has increased the membership and got far more votes than his predecessor. I honestly don’t understand people believing the lies in the MSM. I have seen zero evidence of anything that people say about him.

Well said Opal

I am continually shocked at the fact that some of my generation are still taken in by Corbyn’s rubbish.

I can just about understand younger people falling for it but honestly, aren’t we supposed to gain wisdom as we get older?

Corbyn and his cronies would be a complete disaster for this country.

That is a fact.

"A vote for Johnson is a vote for racism, classism, sexism and religious intolerance. Not to mention mendacity and laziness."

Complete and utter b******t. A vote for Corbyn is a vote for laziness, encouraged by a State that taxes ordinary working people, and ploughs that money into failing nationalised industries and the benefits system which is not fit for purpose and encourages people to stay out of work. Let's have a grown up discussion on how much tax we are prepared to pay, and how much is needed to properly fund the NHS and education, but not funding hangers-on and lazy oiks who don't want to work (and no, I'm not including genuinely disabled people who can't work in that, just the ones who CAN work but DON'T WANT TO - we all know they're out there). And whilst we're at it, we should also discuss what we can reasonably expect from a free NHS service, given the lifespan we can now expect, the advancements in medical sciences, and the cost of drugs. No matter what the loony left tell you, it all has to be paid for and the UK does not have an endless supply of money, or a licence to print as much money as it wants!

I have recently done an analysis of health spending since 1997. It has risen in REAL terms every single year since then. In fact it is now in real terms THREE times as high as it was. The trouble is that most of the rises went into healthcare professionals' salaries and pensions, as well as rubbish PFI deals. Meantime practices are perpetuated which should have been mechanised and digitised decades ago. My father is in hospital at this very moment; I cannot believe that nurses are still laboriously filling in his readings by hand into his paper notes. I cannot believe that his menu choices all have to be done onto slips of paper - and presumably manually input into a computer program somewhere. I cannot believe the staggering amounts of waste and inefficiency tolerated. And I cannot believe that the average GP is so well remunerated that 3 days work a week suffices to pay for an excellent standard of living.

No doubt the rest of the public sector is equally profligate with our money. I don't mind paying for good services, I deeply resent paying for this crap.

I loved your post ‘Rivernana’.
You are exactly right.
My daughter is a frequent visitor to India, a country she loves, but she gets really fed up with people complaining about the NHS. She says we don’t know how lucky we are.
And a final word about the NHS and some people’s attitude toward it.
I have both worked in it and benefitted from its services.
If you approach it with an entitled, critical attitude, as I expect some of these posters do, then you are likely to get the sort of help you deserve.

If JC gets the keys to No. 10 Downing Street the worst is yet to come - make no mistake!

Another polarised thread. Whitewave and others are correct, we have many people in this country, including/especially the working poor who are in desperate straights,
Reading so many smug, judgemental comments suggesting those poor aren't deserving and should just work hard, like they have, reminds me of reading Angela's Ashes.

I agree with the poster (was it MaizieD) who agreed we aren't at quite the same levels as the poor in Dickens novels but if he was alive, he'd be as disgusted now as he was then.

We need a government that will re-build our devastated public services. A vote for the Conservatives certainly won't achieve that.

MaggieMay. You have no idea who votes Tory. You don't know about the teacher who votes for them. But has to keep it quiet. You don't know about the students who are silent Conservative voters.

Not rich.

Not stupid.

Just have different political views to yourself.

The sooner people accept that the better.

Very few people die of starvation in the Western world.

Corbyn = disaster

You all do remember don't you that the Tories have tripled the debt...that the GLOBAL banking crisis wasn't labour. I guess some of those saying about 'Oh its not that bad!' know what its like to see kids actually come to school crying because they haven't eaten, because dad was laid off, because Mum is depressed, because because because. And the Tory Government ARE TO BLAME! 9 years of Austerity, wages stagnating while the prices all rise, of course, if you are comfortable and well off, you wont care, pull the ladder up Jack....
I do care, I care that Jeremy Corbyn has been so smeared, mainly because the toffs are scared he will get in and their money-making days are over, because the Tories don;t care about you or I, or anyone, unless you have a big fat cheque to put in their hands.
Its scary for people who care about those who are in poverty, in our very own country.
I do as much for charity as I can, however, I have to help out my daughters family first, shes a nurse, been working hard her whole life, for next to nothing.
Open your eyes, forget the BBC bias, stop believing everything you read in the papers because you know who bloody owns them!
The rich get richer while the poor are dying.
And I truly believe a vote to keep the Tories in, means you are either too rich to care for others, or so stupid you have believed all the smear campaigns and rubbish they have thrown at the man who has won awards for Peace.

Nice post GranE but I must just add that I would seriously fear for our national security with JC in charge. I watched him from the sidelines as he walked behind an IRA coffin of a convicted murderer then went to the house to sympathise with the family. He spoke at their rallies but never once expressed a word of concern for the victims. Our servicemen.
I could never ever forgive him for that.

Oh dear if this bleakness and austerity means full nail shops, mobile phones for all, then bring it on. Ask takeaway delivery drivers where they deliver to the most ( it’s not the well off areas) at least we have gas and electricity now not like the 70’s when labour were in.

My neighbour, who is married to a Dane, moved back here 4 years ago due to high prices and the inability to purchase homes for their sons.

The boys were in good jobs but it was nigh on impossible to purchase a property.

They've settled here.

All 3 sons have jobs and homes.

We can moan about this country but there's an awful lot worse out there