what are the strongest indicators of current UK decline?

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Everything is falling apart. Literally. Potholes have become a bit of a meme but the state of the roads and pavements is dreadful. Schools and hospitals and prisons are crumbling. We're like those families in old novels who were broke as fuck but still pretending the title and house meant they were as grand as ever.

Police arresting people for saying mean things online whilst not responding to crimes like muggings, which are a regular occurrence now.

The rise in nationalist populism (always a good indicator)

Undermining of the BBC, and a decline in genuine journalism, particularly at the local level

Tax is I think the highest it's been since the second world war, yet I can't get the bins collected / a doctors appointment / visit A&E in an emergency and be seen the same day / call the police to investigate basic crimes / go to the dentist, plus a plethora of other basic services...

While Brexit is seen by many as the event that has triggered, or at least catalysed, social, political and economical problems, there are more recent events that strongly evoke a sense of collectively being in a deep crisis.

Lack of large new tech companies. It's not that there are none but there is no really new big tech companies.

The slow decline of the City of London as a financial centre.

The lack of ability to deliver on national scale infrastructure projects without blowing budgets. (HS2 and the motorway widening schemes are a case in point.)

Laughing about ending funding to poorer regions to help them kick their economy into gear so that it can instead be reinvested into richer zones because.... "then the country has more money", which then is reinvested... in the rich zones, meanwhile the stats show the Rich-Poor region divide is growing and even worse then the German Reunification which is still having significant issues.

UNICEF having to feed hungry children in the UK in 2020 and the government mocking activists urging our government to... feed hungry children.

The fact we keep calling it sleeze when we should be calling it corruption thats deeply rooted in the state.

Lack of actual punishments for those involved in national crisis points/tragedy. Thinking Grenfell for example.

The massive increase in use of food banks being voiced as a "positive thing".

Tens of thousands of excess deaths occured to the sick/disabled as we changed the rules for helping the sick and disabled, without anyone being criminal investigated.

To name a few things.

Hospital and ambulance wait times.

When people are being told their best option is to get a taxi to A+E rather than wait for an ambulance. Or waiting on a trolly in A+E for 90 hrs before getting admitted to a ward, but staying on the same trolly in the ward.

Sick people are now scared of going to A+E.

This is somewhat anecdotal but for me it’s the fact that very few believe things can actually change.

The population seems to have had any optimism about the future driven out of them.

I’ve always been a bit of a pessimist, but compared to a lot of people I meet these days I seem to be more upbeat

Tories.
dilapidated britain is always a sign of tories in power.

GDP per capita in my opinion. It is the real root cause of so many issues.

That a lot of talented people leave the first chance they get.

If you want to see how humane a society is, look at how they treat disabled people.

Roads looking like we've lost a decades long war with an impoverished neighbour.

Thé Simple fact that anyone under 25 can't basically live alone and have a car... Both of which are essentially required for anything from setting up family to working barely any job.

My personal experience has shown me how bad the NHS is coping.

I had an ileostomy a year and a half ago. Was supposed to have a follow up after 2 weeks - but instead it took 6 months to be seen to. It was a life changing surgical procedure and I've had zero support in dealing with it. I was told I would have a reversal after 6-12 months, but in 18 months I've had 2 appointments in total and won't have another for at least 6 months.

Then I see the government trying to clamp down on "sick note culture". Believe me when I say I'd be working if I thought I'd stand a chance - but my mental health has been in tatters and the prospect of walking into a new work environment with a stoma bag protruding from my mid section makes me extremely anxious and uncomfortable. Going ahead with the surgery is my biggest regret, the lack of face-to-face time you get with doctors and spread-thin mental health services has had a real life impact on me. I can't imagine how many others there are struggling with similar circumstances.

The cancellation of HS2 halfway through building it

What kind of country tolerates this kind of behaviour?

A spineless one, we moan and write in comment sections about how terrible everything is and that, someone should do something about it, while doing nothing.

If football, reality shows and soaps were banned, you see people on the streets pretty quick.

Why choose the right option when you can choose the profitable option

Austerity has had a massively negative effect on our society. Coupled with a double whammy Brexit and an incompetent self serving Tory party. Anecdotally, always shocked at the contrast in France, they have their problems but, clean streets with no potholes and public services that work.

I think the old "judge a culture by how it's poorest/most vulnerable members are faring" is useful.

• Poor kids going hungry
• More and more people needing food banks
• Increasing homelessness
• Repeated media and political attacks on disabled people and people with mental illness
• People unable to afford to comfortably start families/have children
• Waiting lists for basic medical care lengthening

The size of the monuments and the level of embellishment on new builds. Pre World War One, we literally spunking money on marble, flute playing, angels for each corner of the local post office.

The education sector has become so much worse in such a short space of time.

End of empire. You can see it throughout history. Inflated sense of self worth coupled with corruption, carpet bagging, moral decline etc

Severely underfunded NHS dentistry and people restoring to pulling their own teeth out. We've seen a review amount of hospitalisations for children ending up with severe infections because they're struggling to get treated.

Real GDP per capita which never recovered to 2007 levels.

The decline in birth rate. We either can’t afford to have kids, can’t physically have them (health system broken) or don’t want to bring children into this crappy country.

The NHS waiting list.

It's gotten to the point that it will take over a decade to clear.

let’s be honest, it started with thatcher, anyone saying otherwise is kidding themselves and will never see the big picture

Public services in general. HMRC, passport office, land registry, pension service and so on.

When I arrived in the UK 20+y ago it was really striking how much better they were compared to my experience in Italy. It all seemed so efficient, much more advanced in digitalisation, clearly explained.

Now it’s gone through a decline that looks extremely familiar. Things never get done first time round, you need to pester them, call and call again, and complain, threaten etc. On their side they blatantly lie to you, fob you off, not pick up the phone, give you incorrect information.

In the meantime Italy hasn’t made great strides but it hasn’t got worse, and sometimes it has got its act together, moved things online etc. Really there is no longer any appreciable difference, and in some respects things are easier there than in the UK.

Rampant shoplifting lack of a Police response and even if they are arrested no real punishment. General decay in the standards of basic respect and decency and behaviour. I work in retail and since the pandemic it's got so much worse.

Poorly behaved kids and falling literacy and general standards among the very young (pre teens and young teens). I appreciate every generation freaks out about this, but there is some real world evidence of kids behaving worse in general. Probably this is a combination of too much access to the internet too young, impact of lockdown on social development and the collapse of the nuclear family in the working classes. Hopefully some of it may sort itself out in time but if not these kids are gonna be big enough mug us soon so watch out!

assaults in schools up 72% in 4 years

Let me start:

Brexit killed the £ sterling. Truss fast tracked it to oblivion. Don't think it's fully recovered.

Covid was a massive transfer of wealth from the general public to the conglomerates and the very rich.

Interest rates were near 0% since the 2008 crash rather than hovering around the 5% mark (which it is now). That meant those who could borrow bought up lots of assets during this period e.g. housing, accelerated during covid period.

The fundamental flaw the Tories did was not capitalise on cheap credit and borrow to invest (Keynesian style economics i guess). I think if they had acted sooner during their tenure we could have enjoyed strong growth and public services to match.

They attempted to try to do mass migration (see post on here) and the report indicates that failed. Now we have lots of people who are not earning enough to contribute to paying for the things we need, long term sick etc. The tories have tried to cut taxes every time, but it eventually reaches a boiling point, which unfortunately is now...

Young people can no longer easily get on the property ladder without help from the bank of mum and dad.

The state of the roads. Potholes everywhere.

The state of our railway system.

Doctors/NHS.. I remember the days of having an allocated doctor, you could easily switch if you didn't like them. You'd get an appointment within a day or two , now it's often weeks. Same with NHS waiting lists for an operation, often 6 months plus now. Need A and E , expect a 12,13+ hour wait. It wasn't like this in the past.

The state of the high streets in many of our towns in the north of England. I'm fortunate as I live in York but it's an outlier, try watching YouTube videos of the town centres in Burnley, Bolton, Huddersfield, Bradford,Rochdale etc , it's like some dystopian nightmare.

NHS going to hell.

Police more focused on mean words said online over actual crime. Frank Zappa would call us a bunch of idiots.

All these along with the waiting lists. A woman fell in the street near me on the weekend, the ambulance turned up 6 hours later.

The loss of greenbelt and biodiversity, along with the accelerating effects of climate change, which is disrupting food chains, are the biggest indicators.
The economic and social impacts this is starting to bring, will in the next decade or two, dwarf the problems we have now.

Strongest indicators?

Literally everything from roads to buildings, employment opportunities, pay, healthcare, food quality and literally any tiny thing in-between has got worse. Massively. The place is fucking disgusting. There is literally piles of trash nearly everywhere I have travelled.

Infrastructure is literally crumbling around us.

I will vote for any political party who puts in their manifesto that anyone who voted for Brexit should be fired out of a cannon in to the nearest ocean.

Before anyone suggest I leave; I would love to. Brexit also made that nearly impossible.

Boris Johnson

The idea a "character" who is "a bit of a laugh" should be "given a chance".

My God if you can't take yourselves seriously enough to elect someone who at least affects competence and morality, is it any wonder what follows?

Layoffs and a decline in jobs. I say this as someone made redundant last year, and still out of a job, it's currently month 11 for me. I have decided to become an Uber driver

So funny you would say that shortage of insulin has a third world aroma. Because my third world country is literally one of the worlds largest producers and exporters of insulin and has some of the highest access at the cheapest price point lol. I think shortage of insulin has a distinctly first world aroma.

Austerity.

It never ceases to amaze me how short term the memory of the nation is. It’s like anything over 10 years in the past is scrubbed from the collective memory

Austerity from 2010 onwards was called out as impacting growth quite quickly. But Cameron and Osborne were ideologically invested in austerity even though projection were showing it had a negative impact

This past 15 years of low growth and cuts should all be laid at the door of Cameron and Osborne. How we let that nincompoop anywhere near government again is enough evidence to realise the Tories have no idea what the fuck they are doing

A programme of investment in infrastructure would have resulted in similar costs but with - surprise surprise - actual infrastructure rather than just debt

Don’t forget that Cameron and the Tories failed on every single goal they set themselves. Fucking joke that Tories are economically literate

The state of our country is directly reflected in the quality of its representatives. So we have liars, thieves, sex pests, gaslighters, fraudsters, murderers and narcissists all out for themselves. The worst people you could possibly entrust with it, so they've made the country and its institutions work for them by changing them however they need to. So now the law only serves to protect them and incriminate the rest. Their waters are clean while ours are full of shit, they don't have to worry about a fine because the amount doesn't even tickle them, their kids get good education's because they're schools are well funded while ours are not. We can't even have a voice on incredibly important subjects, because they change the law to stifle it. Worst of all, these disgusting creatures are protected from questioning, allowed to do and say what they want and avoid being honest with us.

I moved here from abroad Scandinavia about 8 years ago to study and work. I'd visited before. I never got the impression that England was doing well, it always felt like that old timey smoke stacks everywhere industrial dirt central of Europe.

Things never get fixed, queues get longer, quality is never a priority, taxes don't get spent on anything, there's way WAY too many people, the way the country is run seems to be based in what's going on in London rather than the rest of the country, culturally it feels like everyone wants to whinge and whine but do nothing about the issues and instead "keep calm and carry on" while holding others responsible for the shit running down your pantleg.

I don't think it matters who runs the country at this point, you could vote in an inanimate carbon rod and it would probably fuck things up less. There's no national pride in anything, not the racial national pride, but the pride in ones country, in doing things right, in being excellent at anything, you all seem to be ashamed of where you had no choice in being born and its sad.

I have no plans to leave because despite all this: British people are fucking nice, they're awesome and level headed and very polite, you deserve better and should ask better of yourselves and others.

That railway debacle. We can't even build a railway. Or britexit Or mental health services Or the education system failing Or the fact that the housing market is belly up Stagnation of wages

Potholes

Stagnation of the non traditional industry's as well killed the others long ago

Food shortages

Skilled worker shortages.

Unskilled worker shortages

Affordable housing shortages

A short fella in charge

A lack of actual prospects for most folks 30 and under.

Potholes

The complete break down of the 5th estate and a woefully corrupt national press built on the back of some aging old boys club.

The selling of national assets.

The complete failure of government at a policy level.

A decline in our global credit rating. Like anyone even wants to trade with us.

A reduction in countries our passport allows access too

Potholes

The gradual acceptance by society to blame a group or minority for our woes.so sad and weak.

The reduction in benefits as a political point score.

The complete and utter miss management of NHS resources and staff

No fresh veg

Empty shelves

Potholes

A doubling of insurance tax in a decade to drive on roads full of potholes

Increased utility costs

A reduction in civil rights and the use of democratic protest.

The MP expenses scandal.

The planes flying to immigrants to an African nation. So much for the shining light of democracy we where.

Potholes

A waiting list for almost everything.

Interest rates.

Mortgage rates.

The price of baby milk ( you pay vat on it, as apparently no interest to remove it. The man in number 10 doesn't pay vat on his tiny shoes mind)

Tldr. Potholes n shit

That's off the top of my head. Let's be honest it was never brilliant no rose tinted glasses. But it didn't take 6 weeks to see a doctor or cost 300 a month to heat a house.

Boomers that champion the above out of spite.

The issue of dumping of raw sewage isn't a new thing. It certainly isn't a sign of the UK going into decline, but in fact the opposite.

It has always happened, but it wasn't largely monitored until the last few years following the introduction of new regulations making it mandatory.

So the fact that the water companies are now having to do something about the raw sewage dumping is actually a massive sign of progress, a huge step towards fixing something that has always happened.

Most people can't afford a £5.50 pint (often more) at their local pub.

20 years ago you could go out 4 nights a week having beers and it wouldn't be a massive expense.

Today that would send most over the financial edge for the month.

People in wheelchairs on the drink and begging at 8am, human shit in the alleyway by my work. Didnt see that even 5 years ago

Skyrocketing infrastructure costs (energy, transport, water) despite that infrastructure being shit.

Judges giving out incredibly lenient sentences because they've almost run out of space in prison.

The BBC being a mouthpiece / enabler for the government.

Violent crimewaves in dense urban centers.

Chicken has become a treat. Weird for a couple of full time workers.

Small town here. At first, we started noticing certain office types that wouldn’t normally come to Wetherspoons for work lunches, looking more jolly than embarrassed but a bit embarrassed. Then, no one coming at all and finally Whetherspoons closed down. Some of the independent shops down the high street got turned into a poundlound, then the poundlound closed and now it’s boarded windows and doors. Half of the pubs closed down too.

Brexit wasn't the start of the decline. It started when the conservatives won the election in 2010.

a good example for me is the state of our airports. i came back from India with a stopover in Munich. The airport in munich was friggin spotless, kept so well maintained and clean. Birmingham airport was dirtier than Delhi, smelled so bad and just looks old and worn.

Go in Eastern Europe and you will understand. On every aspects, life is better there than in the UK. They were governed by communists 30 years ago and now have a better quality of life than the remains of the “British empire”