Our Crumbling Economy

Good post.

Every public service is now on the point of collapse. We see life expectancy going into reverse and rising infant mortality rates. The homeless fill our shop doorways, whilst a country as rich as ours should be absolutely ashamed that over a million people use food banks.

Walk down any street - broken pavements, potholed roads. Half the shops are boarded up, the other half comprise charity shops, betting shops and fast food shops. We are rapidly becoming a third world country with dilapidated services and crumbling infra-structure.

Just depressing.

NHS in crisis.
Education in crisis.
Prisons in crisis.
Probation in crisis.
Councils in crisis.
Police in crisis.
Railways in crisis.
Housing in crisis.
Care services in crisis.

Don't worry, Nigel will sort it all out.

Or alternatively we could have a post where we mention that actually, our economy is thriving - far far more than in most other EU countries.

Oh and we could also mention how unemployment is at its lowest level for decades.

Wouldn't all that be far better than some incorrect pronouncement that 'our economy is crumbling' when it quite clearly isn't?

I agree jennifereccles. All this talking the country down makes me really angry. I dont suppose it will be done if/when Jeremy and Co are doing their best to destroy us.

Urmstrongran - yes, agreed.

And how on earth do you think Brexit or Nigel will fix that!?! It will make it all 100, 1000 times worse

Perhaps ones view of the ecconomy depends on where one lives!
Have you ever seen Grimsbys town centre- boarded up shops and seedy massage parlours etc. It is difficult to see it as booming.
I suspect the UKs imports far outstrip our exports- not exactly sustainable. Rather like an unemployed person with a credit card...

A fresh pair of eyes? A new take on policy?

The Labour/Conservative crews haven’t exactly had stellar results to date with their austerity measures.

This country is becoming unrecognisable against how it once was. We were once the best education system and NHS and the envy of many other countries. What the dickens has happened ??
Things have deteriorated at break-neck speed and pride is now a thing of the past. Why people would now want to live here God knows !

Businesses including financial sector have eyes - and they can see that the UK is not the place to be- how many more jobs are going to go, and % of income for the country?

Fresh eyes- how are they going to stop carers, doctors, nurses, teachers - and employees in every sector from a) leaving to better climes, be they EU or British, or other - and b) not come in the first place?

Do you think Nigel could train sufficient Brits on the dole to become Brain Surgeons in a few week, months, years ...with his 'new eyes' (must they they don't look new- he looks years beyond his age).

My first post was in the spirit of the thread.
Thanks to Lily then my reply it is morphing into another Brexit thread.

In fairness to the OP let’s try to keep on topic.

Urmstongran Thu 02-May-19 13:00:21

Such a good summary but so depressing isn't it.

Labour are not in government they have anti austerity policies and a costed manifesto Voting Labour for the;
Disabled
14 million in poverty
1.5 in destitution
230,000 homeless
Waspi women
Windrush
State schools
NHS
Police
Fire service
Grenfell
Mental health services
Councils
Social care
Bus services
Climate change

Urmstongran- surely, honestly, you must know that it is all linked - whatever the 'spirit' of the thread.

The lack of stability is 100% linked- and the destruction of the EU, which we will have started - will add to instability all over the EU and beyond. A very dangerous situation.

Wouldn't all that be far better than some incorrect pronouncement that 'our economy is crumbling' when it quite clearly isn't? JenniferEccles (Thu 02-May-19 13:05:06)

I am pleased for you if this is your lived experience, but it seems so different from the one that many people feel.

Statistics have their uses. They can give an overall picture. However, what if you are part of the growing percentage who feels life is very insecure, that things have only worse and yet the government and a small group of people say it is better. You might ask why things have only improved for that group while they have got worse for so many.

How about giving people space to say what they see and what they feel?

The thread is basically saying the UK is in a mess. Presumably those who support NF believe he will help the country.

I think that for those of us who are living in leafy villages or decent suburbs, much of the sort of areas which have been so badly hit by this government are like a foreign country, and often difficult to imagine or believe that they exist, but they do and no amount of denial will wish them away.

All this talking the country down makes me really angry. kittylester (Thu 02-May-19 13:14:29)

It may not be your experience; if not then tell us what is but why denigrate people who may have very different lives.

I agree Whitewave and that is why so many people feel disenfranchised and more than ready for a shake up of the politics in this country. You’re right of course jura in that they are linked. We just disagree on how we could improve things!
?

There was some research done Whitewave and Urmstongran that saw the problems as being in the towns rather than the cities. It seemed they have not benefited from globalisation. I'm not sure it can be that simple, although I can see the issues in nearby towns. It may just be different problems in different places as Rachel711 (Thu 02-May-19 13:18:56) was suggesting.

Could it be that governments are just not up to dealing with the complexity of modern life?

We can all look at the same image but see a different view. It depends on where you are standing.
My AC are all in f/t employment and have been in the same areas of employment since the age of 16 with no breaks.
9 GC are in f/t work since leaving school and 1 at college working p/t.
They live as far apart as NW, N, S, SW, SE, Wales and 1 lives/works abroad for part of the year.
Only 1 in rented accommodation and no financial help from parents.
There will always be grotty areas as there always have been in fact, there are two empty shops near where I live, one used to be Disking (computers etc) the other a restaurant but no doubt they'll be filled this year. Online shopping is the death of the High Street, not just the economy.

Exorbitant business rates, on-line shopping and out of town retail parks are the demise of the High Street.

There are pockets of growth in the UK particularly in the south and south east.

The City of London has had an enormous amount of investments and new businesses, some doomsayers will attribute this to the low value of the pound.

There is a saying in and around the M25 that you can judge how well the UK economy is doing by the amount of cranes in London (i.e. new builds / renovations) and there are an abundance of cranes at the moment and numerous building sites / renovation projects from Canary Wharf all the way through to West London.

I appreciate that there are pockets of deprivation in other parts of the UK but surely that is down to local and county councils development programs?

It's good to hear about your experiences. GabriellaG54 (Thu 02-May-19 14:41:54) I remember the old meme that used to be raised about perspective. One person is standing at the top of a number that is on the ground, and one at the bottom. The one at the top sees a 9 and the one at the bottom sees a 6. Underneath you usually find something along the lines of "just because you see it differently doesn't mean they're wrong".

One of my family used this for a short while on a course he teaches. The students were soon adding to it, however. What, they asked, if you were the person standing at the bottom and you could see a 4 to the left of the number and an 8 to the right. You have more information which reinforces your opinion that the number is 6.

His answer, of course, was that this is why you need to keep an open mind and listen to any further facts available while respecting the fact that the other person may not have those facts.

What it tells me is much the same. Listen and research. Listening to what you say and the information I have seen, personally and reported, about the worsening of the life experience of others, it confirms for me that we are a divided country.

How, why and what we do about it is another question.

And how on earth do you think Brexit or Nigel will fix that!?! It will make it all 100, 1000 times worse
I assumed that Lily65's post was a joke? Tongue-in-cheek? British irony?

I hope so, anyway

Exorbitant business rates, on-line shopping and out of town retail parks are the demise of the High Street.
That was what was told to me too, by the owners of a large department store in our town when it shut down last year.

'We just can't compete with the internet and people going to the nearest shopping mall' was what they said and certainly the nearest shopping mall appeared to be thriving when I went yesterday.