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Broken Britain?


LondonLax

Is Britain Broken?  

81 members have voted

  1. 1. Is Britain Broken?

    • Yes
      45
    • No
      37


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Binge drinking and general anti-social behaviour - now I like a few drinks as much as the next man, and certainly was no saint in my younger days, but many towns in the North West where I spent much of the last 20 years are like the bloody Wild West. When I first moved to Wigan in the early 90s, you go out and have a laugh with your mates without any fear of trouble. Now thanks to the dozens and dozens pubs in a tiny area, you take your life in your hands. Every time I go back now there are police and paramedics everywhere seeing to the consequences of fights. Again, far worse than it was 15 or so years ago.

Yet, I went out on Saturday night in Worcester for the first time in a couple of years and, apart from the ill behaviour in the pub where I was watching the game, it seemed pretty much the same as it used to be a few years ago (actually Wetherspoons was quieter and better behaved than it used to be).

I didn't hang around until club kicking out time so I can't vouch for whether that was any worse than either a few years ago when there were large amounts of rozzers, drunks and fights or twenty years ago when Worcester was an exceptionally violent city on a Friday and Saturday night (pretty regular stabbings in the Crown passage, meat wagons stationed at either end of town all night, i.e. from about 8pm onwards, and various other things).

I'm not doubting what you see has happened in the North West but I thought I'd chuck in a viewpoint of somewhere else.

On the 'binge drinking' business, I'm firmly with Frankie Boyle - it's what we used to call drinking; and as for 'preloading' being a new phenomenon, well, that's what I was doing twenty years ago as a teenager and we used to call it budget management.

Definately agree with your last paragraph (see, I can agree with you occasionally)

I can't comment on Worcester these days but my sister lived there about 10 years ago - in a village a couple of miles out anyway, and we used to regularly head off from her local to the centre and I never saw any trouble there. Compared to Broad St it was a walk in the park which is the main reason I used to go there. Can't remember the name of the nightclub we used to go to but it was rough as **** and let any old peasant in no matter how they were dressed. I loved the place, got in there in bermudas and a vest once on a hot summer night, must have looked a right word removed but I didn't care. Even better when we got in there the ground floor had been sectioned off for lap dancing :D

Hmmm, I remember now why the bermudas were a mistake.....

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see, I can agree with you occasionally

:mrgreen:

Can't remember the name of the nightclub we used to go to ... when we got in there the ground floor had been sectioned off for lap dancing :D

Images (also previously known as 'Images on glass' and 'The Barn')

Same bloke on the door (at least the last time I went which was about 6 years ago) as was doing it when I was a teenager twenty years ago, a pleasant bloke called John (only difference was that he had gone grey).

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I am one of the 42 per cent trying to emmigrate. I am fed up with the nanny state, the corrupt politicians who are out of touch with the majority of us and the debt that is constantly sitting on our society as a result of bad decision making and relaxed banking laws. Change just isn't around the corner and I want out.

Amen. I'm off on Monday the 15th and can't wait. Literally dozens of the people I went to Uni with have left for Oz, the US, Canada or NZ in the last three or four years - loads of people I served with have done the same.

People who think that Britain is not broken, but bad and declining across many spheres of life (and have the option to leave) have been voting with their feet for a while now. It'd be interesting to know the main reasons given for leaving by recent UK emigres.

Yet so many Aussies, Kiwi's, South Africans and Europeans keep moving here, well to London anyway. Perhaps we could set up some sort of official exchange programme :P

I'm open to a swap deal with anyone looking to expatriate to the USA. :D :D :D

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Yet, I went out on Saturday night in Worcester for the first time in a couple of years and, apart from the ill behaviour in the pub where I was watching the game, it seemed pretty much the same as it used to be a few years ago (actually Wetherspoons was quieter and better behaved than it used to be).

Perhaps that's because the folks who would binge drink decided it's more cost-effective to buy a case of Amber Jack or whatever than to go to the pub.

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Serious question: When exactly were the good old days?

I don't know. Before that clearing in the woods Bliar and his witless chum Brown got in?

The entire reason Blair got in were because those "good old days" were **** dreadful!

Indeed.

Mart's gone very non-committal there.

*The dark days of devaluation and the crash under major? Nope.

*The Maggie T years, and all the civil unrest and unemployment and unpopularity oif those times. The minors strikes. The poll tax riots.

*Pre 1979 - the labour government, rule by the unions and the winter of discontent?

Before that? Ted Heath and the 3 day week (rule by the unions again)

maybe we have to go back to the 60's or 50's?

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Have to say I don't recall the years 91-97 being "**** dreadful" at all, mostly the opposite in fact.

ah, good old selective memory. :mrgreen:

if the opposite of "**** dreadful" could be seen to be "**** wonderful" then why did Major not last longer, rather than get beaten by one of the biggest landslides ever?

Good/popular governments don't lose by landslides ....

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Perhaps that's because the folks who would binge drink decided it's more cost-effective to buy a case of Amber Jack or whatever than to go to the pub.

zing!

Take that Roberto :lol: :winkold:

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maybe we have to go back to the 60's or 50's?

Take the median age of the population.

Go back to when they were say, 6-12 years old.

That's when the good times were, since those were the years that a large block of the population viewed the world through the eyes of a protected child (especially if they grew up middle or upper class).

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maybe we have to go back to the 60's or 50's?

Take the median age of the population.

Go back to when they were say, 6-12 years old.

That's when the good times were, since those were the years that a large block of the population viewed the world through the eyes of a protected child (especially if they grew up middle or upper class).

John Stuart did a good bit on that the other week on The Daily Show.

It's probably on youtube somewhere...

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It is breaking.

Give it 5 years.

Absolutely spot on.

There will be civil disobedience followed by public disorder on an unprecedented scale.

'Tis coming....

Could you elaborate on why this is to come to pass?

I really can't see it on any level and I'd be interested to see where the idea is coming from.

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Can't see there being much public disorder as the majority of the population are a bit wiser than that. However I can see the rise in some of the far-right parties being a real threat in Britain over the next 10 years and it's the publics reaction to that which will determine the level of public disorder.

Thankfully most people are wise to the BNP's act, but if they found a leader who can deliver a persuasive arguement then I can see them nicely filling the void people are feeling with politics these days, no one really knows who to vote for as no one is giving a sensible answer, but after enough time sense will be abandoned for the next best thing.

That's my interpretation of the public disorder shite anyway, a lot, and i mean a lot, of people are disillusioned with how their society, economy and government have turned out.

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see, I can agree with you occasionally

:mrgreen:

Can't remember the name of the nightclub we used to go to ... when we got in there the ground floor had been sectioned off for lap dancing :D

Images (also previously known as 'Images on glass' and 'The Barn')

Same bloke on the door (at least the last time I went which was about 6 years ago) as was doing it when I was a teenager twenty years ago, a pleasant bloke called John (only difference was that he had gone grey).

**** me is he still working there? He must be in his 50s now?

I used to DJ at The Barn years ago, stopped just after it became Images and the crowd changed.

You couldn't drag me into that place nowadays, if it's a good scrap you're after, then Images is the best place to find it.

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It is breaking.

Give it 5 years.

Absolutely spot on.

There will be civil disobedience followed by public disorder on an unprecedented scale.

'Tis coming....

Could you elaborate on why this is to come to pass?

I really can't see it on any level and I'd be interested to see where the idea is coming from.

Do you not sense a separation between the state and the populace?

Are you not aware that people are starting to question your masters?

For example, Broon wanted to keep the inquests into the deaths of our soldiers secret. Broon wanted to keep the Silcott enquiry into the attack on Iraq secret. Broon wanted to bar the right of UK residence to Ghurkas. On all counts he failed because of public disquiet. People are starting to say "Whoa, hang on a minute, this aint right". This, I believe, is because politicians have lost their moral authority, partly I suspect because of the expenses disgrace.

You live in a state where the police can confidently and openly assault and kill members of the public in broad daylight in central London. Then the Home Secretary, our very own Jacquie whatsername, grants the police force an extra 10,000 Tasers. A state where politicians claim parliamentary priviledge when caught red handed thieving? I could go on, but I won't bore you. I don't wish it, but I do honestly believe that after the next election, there will be serious civil disturbance.

It's nailed on. Beware the rise of the BNP.

The UK aint the place it used to be unfortunately. I, for one, am pleased to be outa the place.

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It is breaking.

Give it 5 years.

Absolutely spot on.

There will be civil disobedience followed by public disorder on an unprecedented scale.

'Tis coming....

Could you elaborate on why this is to come to pass?

I really can't see it on any level and I'd be interested to see where the idea is coming from.

I think a lot of it rests on whether you believe the country is likely to suffer another (probably even more serious) financial crisis or not in the next year. If you do, then history provides plenty of evidence showing how quickly social order can disintegrate until the imposition of draconian authority.

There is a strong chance Greece will riot en masse next weeks at spending restraints measures they have to introduce. More worryingly, under the Terms of the Lisbon Treaty, the UK is legally bound to help bail out any eurozone country that gets into financial difficulty (Article 122). That could amount a to contribution of scores of billions from the UK alone with zero hope of ever seeing it again.

If we somehow manage that (and assuming the eurozone doesn't tear itself apart first) there is no guarantee that the same thing won't happen in Spain, Portugal, Ireland or even here. Until the next goverment see the billions owed that is currently off the books under schemes like PFI, then we don't know whether we're in an even weaker position than suspected. If it is as bad as feared then the necessary public spending cuts and tax hikes will trigger all sorts of trouble.

I hope that's all proved wrong but i wouldn't bet against it.

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