Curious what people's thoughts are on this, it doesn't seem something people are that willing to discuss in person as it's maybe slightly too deep a topic for general chit chat, or its a case of British collective let's bury our head in the sand and ignore it syndrome 🙂
For me, I've been struggling lately to see the direction the culture and society in the UK is going. I feel more than ever before that there's barely any sense of community in a lot of places, hardly any real leisure time for most people and not a great deal of hope for things to improve in the future. Despite earning the most I ever have and having the least commitments I'll ever have (no kids, parents are still fairly independent) I feel poorer than ever and as if I have no quality fulfilling time to enjoy life after work is said and done.
Setting aside the somewhat dire economic situation the country finds itself in, where do you see our societal values headed for in the next say ten years time?
To be clear, I'm not wanting to discuss the economy that much as it's somewhat out of our control on a personal level, I'm really referring to our sense of well-being and relationship with each other as a society. I really feel like we're making less time for ourselves and others than we ever have and we're all very list in our own little world without much time to consider each other and our neighbors.
I'm happy.
I'll continue to be so
Civil war
Famine
Feral tribes battling over resources
Disease
The ruling elite continuing to collect wealth and not give a ****.
Having not lived there for a decade and a half, one of my only insights into life in Britain comes from these pages. Given that people come to forums to moan rather than spread happiness, it’s not surprising that it leaves me a bit concerned for the future of the UK…
However, the people I still know who live there seem pretty happy going about their lives.
Not sure Britain has a future. The Brexperiment has set out to destroy everything that this country was admired for - possibly it never should have been of course.
Equally I’m not sure I care. The country I felt part of has been systematically destroyed* by folk I see as corrupt and self-serving. I don’t understand why Brexies hate Britain so much but they seem to.
However I’ll be ok and probably still riding bikes.
* rule of law, sovereignty of parliament (ok a PhD in itself there), tolerance, resistance to corruption, respect for knowledge and expertise and so on and so forth
Fine in my little bubble, pretty messed up overall.
Fine in my little bubble, pretty messed up overall.
See this is where I feel a lot of us are and I worry that it can't continue like that forever, or maybe it can but it shouldn't.
I feel more than ever before that there’s barely any sense of community in a lot of places, hardly any real leisure time for most people and not a great deal of hope for things to improve in the future.
I'd say the opposite. There seems to be loads more community spirit. Every street or village seems to have its own Facebook or WhatsApp group. I can think of dozens of other community groups; choirs, sports clubs, men in sheds, etc. On the time thing I'm seeing more people working part time or putting more effort into making time for themselves. Both of these elements are on the rise since covid. Maybe it's an age or area thing, but that's my experience
In the bigger picture some things are shit, others ok, but it's always been that way. That's not a cause for doom and gloom (though there is plenty about and I'm sure there will be lots on this thread). Plenty of positives if you don't focus on the negatives
2016 taught us that working together for a common good was a bad thing.
Individualism and stamping other folk down is what we voted for, voted in, and have striven for ever since.
And when you stop and think @nickjb you see you just said exactly the same thing in prettier words.
Sexit
Britain will become increasingly irrelevant in the world. NI will become part of Ireland. The island of GB will become very insular and anyone with the wherewithal will look to better places to live.
Every street or village seems to have its own Facebook or WhatsApp group.
*Shudder*
Royally Donald ducked.
Having taught for 20 years I can say in my experience all kids lack empathy but this crop are like nothing I've experienced. A worrying number care about nothing. There are lots of reasons but I have a real concern that UK society is broken. As always lots moan but fee will do anything but now when you do do something social media rips it and you apart. yet the keyboard critics won't step forward. Education, policing, health, fire, ambulance all being run as businesses but a cut and slash business by people who neither understand business nor the role they have.
I honestly am worried about the youth and the future.
I’d say the opposite. There seems to be loads more community spirit. Every street or village seems to have its own Facebook or WhatsApp group. I can think of dozens of other community groups; choirs, sports clubs, men in sheds, etc. On the time thing I’m seeing more people working part time or putting more effort into making time for themselves. Both of these elements are on the rise since covid. Maybe it’s an age or area thing, but that’s my experience
I'm with Nick on this. This is how I see my local area, except for the social media stuff thankfully. It's a nice place to be full of really friendly people.
This is my experience of living in a 'nice area (this does not mean expensive or gentrified BTW, just friendly people in pretty countryside) Always things going on, and plenty of people giving up their time to make it all happen.
.
One thing I can see happening, and I think it's a bigger divide than any political or economic one, is between what I shall call the 'give a *s' and the 'don't give a *s' for want of a better phrase. People who care about their community, their environment and themselves (by which I mean their health and wellbeing) contrasted with the people who are more concerned with their entitlements, their material wealth and their perceived status. These two groups seem to be getting further apart and more polarised. As a forinstance, let's the group who cycle to local vegan cafe and group who go to McDonald's drive through in their X5 and then deposit their rubbish out of the window tk be cleaned up by the first group (yes, stereotypes, but you know what I mean)
As someone said the other day, the world was supposed to end in 2012. WTF is taking so long?
Civil war
Famine
Feral tribes battling over resources
Disease
The ruling elite continuing to collect wealth and not give a ****.
And that’s just the next Labour Party conference….
Maybe that's the issue I now work in a school with 30% pupils in lowest 10% poverty according to gov indices. And they are being failed. One pupil of mine has unconditional from st Andrews and offers from Cambridge and imperial. But education is cut so much that next year the classes that allowed her to develop the skills that got her there will not run. A pupil in the same boat but two years younger has a bursary to go to an Edinburgh indie school which is 90mins each way (personally think it'll be great for her).
There's us and them outside, the legacy population.
The resurgence of concrete blocks being dropped off flyovers!
The fish rots from the head down
And our present government couldn't be more rotten
I dont think it bodes well
There's an interesting quote in the Robert Evans podcast Winds of Change (great listen btw) - he is speaking to a Russian journalist who says something along the lines of 'when the wall came down we thought we would become more like the west, we didn't realise the west would become more like us'.
The resurgence of concrete blocks being dropped off flyovers!
Never stopped here in Ilkeston
I thought it was a boot stamping on a human face- forever
The graveyard of ambition.
Apathetic. Expensive. Grim.
In need of a revolution.
Fedualism
Fedualism
LOL touché mon cheri 😆
“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.”
Guess which part in the cycle we are in.
Politicians think of the next election. Statesmen think of the next generation.
From here it looks like a bunch of grumpy and disappointed old men…
edit: I’m not renowned for being a ray of sunshine but some of you need a little bit of perspective
Hadrian's Wall will be reinstated as the border between England and Scotland and I will be happy as that puts my house north of the wall/border and means I now live in Scotland.
Increasingly we are a nation of loud and uncultivated scum.On top of that,in many areas, we are one step removed Mad Max.Enjoy yourselves.
For me, I’ve been struggling lately to see the direction the culture and society in the UK is going. I feel more than ever before that there’s barely any sense of community in a lot of places, hardly any real leisure time for most people and not a great deal of hope for things to improve in the future. Despite earning the most I ever have and having the least commitments I’ll ever have (no kids, parents are still fairly independent) I feel poorer than ever and as if I have no quality fulfilling time to enjoy life after work is said and done.
Pretty much how I feel. It doesn't help that I live in a rented flat that's part of an estate that's mostly rentals so lots of transient people who don't really stay long enough to build a community spirit, I've gone from working 4 days a week to 5 for a similar amount of pay so have 1/3 less leisure time and that lots of things I used to enjoy either just don't happen anymore or are massively more popular and too crowded for my liking. I'm basically working more for less enjoyment and to top it all the prospect of me being able to finally buy my own place and invest in my future is getting further away every day. It all seems incredibly pointless.
As for the future of the country? I'm very much a glass-half-empty type of person so I've never held high hopes but currently I see us descending into a hell where the rich get richer and the poor/disadvantaged are left to their own devices. Basically we're turning into the bad bits of the US. I don't want any kids of my own as I couldn't live with the responsibility of bringing one into this world that, on the whole, has treated me badly. That means I look at all the kids and really fear for the world they're growing up in. Add in this:
One thing I can see happening, and I think it’s a bigger divide than any political or economic one, is between what I shall call the ‘give a *s’ and the ‘don’t give a *s’ for want of a better phrase. People who care about their community, their environment and themselves (by which I mean their health and wellbeing) contrasted with the people who are more concerned with their entitlements, their material wealth and their perceived status. These two groups seem to be getting further apart and more polarised.
and I am really starting to despise the country I struggle to call Home.
I’ve been struggling lately to see the direction the culture and society in the UK is going.
Nadine Dorris is Secretary of State for Culture. Nadine Dorris!
I suppose this utterly disgusting government doesn't exactly improve matters.I feel that British society is more like Georgian times than an advanced society.Maybe in the shires things feel different though.
Nadine Dorris is Secretary of State for Culture. Nadine Dorris!
Goodness me, I'd forgotten that. We really are stuffed.
non stop damp never ending expanse of suburban industrial business park artificial light fog
Having not lived there for a decade and a half, one of my only insights into life in Britain comes from these pages. Given that people come to forums to moan rather than spread happiness, it’s not surprising that it leaves me a bit concerned for the future of the UK…
I'm in a similar boat. I look at my contemporaries' lifestyles and as much as I'm nostalgic for elements of the UK, i really feel i have fewer and fewer reasons to return. Admittedly a fair amount of that is because my leisure activities are better suited to the climate here.
I used to think that one day i'd try to find a way of getting work for a year or two back home so i could take the kids to live there, now I realise it would be pretty difficult to make that leap.
Brexit and the way the government has handled coronavirus would definitely have a lot to do with it.
... maybe "It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there."
But then perhaps if i spent a couple of weeks visiting i'd change my mind and think it's just because of all the venting that goes on here.
it’s just because of all the venting that goes on here
+1
For me, I’ve been struggling lately to see the direction the culture and society in the UK is going. I feel more than ever before that there’s barely any sense of community in a lot of places, hardly any real leisure time for most people and not a great deal of hope for things to improve in the future. Despite earning the most I ever have and having the least commitments I’ll ever have (no kids, parents are still fairly independent) I feel poorer than ever and as if I have no quality fulfilling time to enjoy life after work is said and done.
In part it's what you make it, if you aren't pulling your finger out and trying to make your local area a nicer place or finding something worthwhile to do then the solution is close to home.
The country has always been full of people who help and also those who take. You choose who you hang out with.
Nadine Dorris is Secretary of State for Culture. Nadine Dorris!
A successful author who has sold more books than everyone on this forum combined. A former NHS nurse as well.
Jumps the shark at every opportunity. Resembling a cult member when interviewed about Boris
".I feel that British society is more like Georgian times than an advanced societ"
I concur, we're going backwards, I thought Cameron and Osborne bought in a new Edwardian age, very upstairs downstairs. Theresa May was a picture of Victorian prudishness and then we get the madness of King George.
Man, I think we're not in a great place right now. 🙁
I see Britain’s future in the shape of a family, cowering from toxic rain under a battered tarpaulin, eating rat meat and dressing each other’s fetid ulcers.
Someone ought to paint the scene and title it Sunlit Uplands.
Someone ought to paint the scene and title it Sunlit Uplands.
Banksy?
I see Britain’s future in the shape of a family, cowering from toxic rain under a battered tarpaulin, eating rat meat and dressing each other’s fetid ulcers.
summer holidays in Paignton?
Every street or village seems to have its own Facebook or WhatsApp group.
I'm in the FB Group for the town (small Northern English ex-industrial) I was born in and lived until I left school.
It's grim reading, and what is especially grim is the appalling grammar, spelling and shoddily written English - and pretty much all they ever do is complain about foreigners, gypsies and kids.
When I was growing up, and my folks before me - education was prized, and the town was known for decent schools and high attainment. Looks like that's gone out the window.
We live in Scotland now, and hoping for independence - and for the first time in my life, a member of a political party.
