[Closed] What does the future of Britain look like for you?

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.

@csb plus 1

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.

Depends what you're prepared to invest in it. If it's only about you then you're only going to be disappointed. Raise your perspective a bit and see how bad life could really be. I'm fed up with the media and selected vox pops with an agenda running my country down. I love my life and everything in it.

I reckon the unwritten social contract is beginning to get scrunched up. The current batch of elderly have delivered the young a miserable inheritance: broken services, brexit, over ten years of gloom, crippling house prices, an environmental catastrophe and a responsibility to fund the care of those that brought it all on. I’d be pretty miffed: bad care home for you lot.

It’s probably not that bad (please tell me it’s not that bad?).

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.

It probably says more about the members of that Facebook group than anything

I don't suppose the decline in social attitudes you identify is in anyway due to the beneficiaries of the previously decent schools leaving the area?

where do you see our societal values headed for in the next say ten years time?

Downhill in general. It will become ever more important to cluster yourself and your family with others having similar values - where you live, your kids' friends, where you work, which companies you buy from. It will be more polarised, although that's not the right word as there will be many such clusters not just two opposites.

Not having kids. I don't have the confidence that I could shepherd them through all the shit. Some grandparents even today must feel terrible about the ways at least one of their descendants' lives have turned out.

England 'gonna England, it'll take Wales with it as it's just too small. I have a glimmer of hope of an independent Scotland to which I'd like to move (at their invitation), but that doesn't fix everything and England's gonna' be Englandin' next door spilling over forever. I'm too old to be risking my assets in all this and losing it all in some messy revolution, basically I'm invested in the system of the UK.

Divided, divisive, regressive.

The autistic world isn't really connected to the real world,and although that sounds a bit self centered, from what's being described above it's probably the best mindset to have.

In a generations time the Brexit voters will be voting pro immigration as they'll need someone to wipe their arses in their retirement homes. Their children will have managed to escape the country via one of the various underground networks that have been established.

SSS
Free Member
“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.

the joe rogan bullshit cycle? 😆

I read a stat that the number of people in london that were were below the poverty line was larger than the total population of greater manchester.

The young people i know seem pretty cool, i wouldn't write them off just yet.

If we don't acknowledge the huge sacrifice they have made, they will be mightily pissed off about it, that i do know.

In a generations time the Brexit voters will be voting pro immigration deceased

ftfy

I was talking to a guy on site the other day (Although as a rule I generally avoid talking about anything serious at work) and his theory was that the people who grew up in the 50's & 60's - post WWII - saw us having it "so good" in the 70's & 80's that when they finally got the chance, they knocked us right back to 1950 with its ration books and bare shelves, to teach us a lesson . . . .

The guy was a carpenter (if that makes any difference).

The country is inward looking and full of idiots who vote for terrible governments and those governments are making it a bit worse year by year.
However it is probably not that different to most other countries, grass is greener and so on, so I just get on with it and ensure I am happy enough. I can't change the culture/society/government when the majority are after something different than me.

Saying that, I would like to give NZ a go if it was so bloody hard to get in.

Not having kids. I don’t have the confidence that I could shepherd them through all the shit. Some grandparents even today must feel terrible about the ways at least one of their descendants’ lives have turned out

You assume you can have kids 🙁

In the darkest times there can be light.

Even more fly-tipping and relentless culture wars

I stopped my car to let a family of four cross a residential road next to a school yesterday. Twenty cars coming the other way drove past before another person also stopped.

I see selfishness, greed, pride in ignorance and a disdain for others everywhere.

Maybe it's always been there but right now, they have the upper hand and the loudest voice.

The kids are alright, let's focus on them.

I see selfishness, greed, pride in ignorance and a disdain for others everywhere.

This. Everyman for himself. F*** everyone else. Most people seem to go out of their way to look for a fight, verbal or otherwise, over the most menial things. We've been done over by a generation of politicians who wanted everything for themselves and to hell with the rest of us. I fear for this little rock. I consider myself extremely lucky to have what I have, but if I could relocate my family overseas, I would do it in a heartbeat. New Zealand seem to have got their house in order pretty well and the likes of Norway & Iceland are doing very well for themselves too. We're going to rot unless something dramatically changes.

Every time I visit my local town centres I see arguments and/or violence.The atmosphere in the area feels incendiary.I can't see it getting better anytime soon.

This country is so awful that people flee France in small boats to cross the channel in mid winter

The country is very diverse and England the most diverse part of the UK. It's not a monopopulation of Nigel Farages

I see selfishness, greed, pride in ignorance and a disdain for others everywhere.

You can change the people who you hang out with, there are plenty of people who are positively contributing the their community, who care, who go out of their way to help others.

Be one of them.

No one is fleeing France in small boats. There are no French asylum seekers. They are fleeing failing countries further away, and heading to all European countries. A small percentage head for the UK.

Of course we can help ourselves in our local communities, but the question was about Britain. Making things better in our own little bubbles, or “clusters” as someone puts it, and ignoring what is happening to, or being done to, others outside our immediate sphere, is a great way to feel better about things.

🙈

I read a stat that the number of people in london that were were below the poverty line was larger than the total population of greater manchester.

Yep, it was a moronic statement by Chakrabati in the Grauniad to support his assertion that there is no north south divide.

"Huge city with 16 times as many people as a relatively tiny city contains more people of x circumstance than the entire size of the comparatively tiny city" shocker

Utter bilge

Making things better in our own little bubbles, or “clusters” as someone puts it, and ignoring what is happening to, or being done to, others outside our immediate sphere, is a great way to feel better about things.

🙈

It is. I can do bugger all nationally but I can make my village a bit nicer, just little things like looking after a footpath and fixing a bridge for example. Lots of other people here do similar.
If everyone does that for their own area everywhere gets better🤷‍♂️

Hiya,

I like to think more positive than some of the comments. It is easy to look at social media for a reflection of the UK, you'll just see negative in this. OK, it is pretty bad at the moment but I see glimmers of sunshine. Boris is a dead man walking, the good news is the public are beginning to see him for his lies. As for the state of the country I see kids that are generally good and will have good future's. Boris will be gone in the next 6 months for sure when the amount of disasters he has created catch up with him. The conservatives will transcend into a smaller party and people won't vote for them like in the past, they won't forget the mess he created, and so I see it that he has done us a favour.
In summary we're in for a rocky ride the next 18 months but it will get better...

JeZ

This. Everyman for himself. F*** everyone else. Most people seem to go out of their way to look for a fight, verbal or otherwise, over the most menial things. We’ve been done over by a generation of politicians who wanted everything for themselves and to hell with the rest of us. I fear for this little rock. I consider myself extremely lucky to have what I have, but if I could relocate my family overseas, I would do it in a heartbeat. New Zealand seem to have got their house in order pretty well and the likes of Norway & Iceland are doing very well for themselves too. We’re going to rot unless something dramatically changes.

I'd agree with this. The problem is, our happy little colonial past* has unravelled and we are transitioning to an island of people unable to stamp our identity as a culture because we don't know how to do so without violence and argument, with a withering place in the world order and with an egotistical leadership focussed on its enjoying the benefits of the public riches. Look at Barbados, having to recently overthrow a very similar Government that was driving the Island to waste yet relying almost on an individual to resurrect it from the ashes, having recently establish independence as a republic - it can be done.

"We" are being treated with disdain in the global arena because of our ego and cultural far right conditioning, we've a long way to go to learn how to be an attractive independent Island nation. The UK & Ireland as an island has a lot to offer, but thats not the first thing people see about us.

*Worth remembering there were have and have nots, poverty and class superiority in England way before today.

*Worth remembering there were have and have nots, poverty and class superiority in England way before today.

There have always been the less well off in society, there has never been a period with anything else in some form or other

Well put Kryton

It will be every man for himself where the majority will happily screw over anyone to step up another rung on the ladder or even just to knock others down a rung so your position seems comparatively better, people will happily intimidate you, swerve at you and run you off the road just to get to work five seconds earlier. Oh wait that's now isn't it? Welcome to Tory Britain.

It will be every man for himself where the majority will happily screw over anyone to step up another rung on the ladder or even just to knock others down a rung so your position seems comparatively better, people will happily intimidate you, swerve at you and run you off the road just to get to work five seconds earlier. Oh wait that’s now isn’t it? Welcome to Tory Britain.

Are you joining in or trying to make a difference?

I'm upbeat in negative way.

I'd like to think that there's a (small) majority of the population who are prepared to sacrifice a little in order to improve the wider social situation of those struggling. Whether that's a philanthropic desire or the realisation that if they don't there could be riots and a complete dystopian breakdown of society doesn't really matter.

The problem is that there is no "untainted" centre left political figure/party for that small majority to get behind to make it happen, so we run the risk that it splinters into factions and the head banging right wing minority will continue to lead us to their sunlit dystopian uplands.

There are three groups you can split people into

Those who are self centered and just take and screw everyone else or some group they have othered

Those who moan about the first group and stay in their little bubble

Those who try and make their community a better place and help people regardless of whether they are in one of the first two groups or not

As with a lot of other posters I live in a bit of a bubble, and it's a pretty nice bubble to live in. I have lovely family and friends, a roof over our heads and food on the table. We don't have everything we'd like but we have enough.

I do see a lot of selfishness, entitlement, and intolerance in wider society which saddens me. More than anything though I look at the pressures on the young and I worry. As per the thread about house prices, I just cannot see a way for my kids to get a decent and fair start in life. Every aspect of our lives in the UK seems to be geared to extracting as much money from us as possible, leaving the bare minimum to get by on, so unless I can find a way to get them started financially then they will be at an immediate disadvantage.

Over the years I have had several very real opportunities to relocate (Australia, Canada, USA) but I never went because I thought I would miss my family and friends too much, and since the kids came along I didn't want to take them too far from family. We haven't had the conversation yet but at some point I will make sure that if my kids get these opportunities they do not let them slide because they are worried about upsetting me.

I understand the sentiment about the grass being greener, but I have good friends in many countries where they enjoy excellent quality of life. Sure, they have their problems there too but I think the fundamental approach to life in a lot of other countries is much better.

In answer to your question OP, I think we will see a lot of young people leaving which will make the problem worse for those that are left.

There are three groups you can split people into

And none of those groups will help beyond the little bubbles they inhabit - some will be highly detrimental.

We will have some nice communities in ghettos perhaps - but not a decent country overall.

And yes, go help your nice little community and folk on the margins of it. I do. But I’m honest enough to know that it’s a marginal, negligible even, effect at best.

And the country has been clear it doesn’t want people working together. We vote folk in who actively try to spread division - outside and within the country - because that how they maintain their grip on power. And it works.

I guess I'm feeling more positive than most. The times, they are a-changin'

I know OP didn't really want to discuss the economy, but I don't think you can really discuss society without mentioned the combined evils of the economy and politics.

It feels to me that Britain needed to go through this painful period at some point, too many people feeling isolated from the rest of the world, being fed a lot of bullshit formed a lot of very dark opinions, it's been simmering for decades. For me, the situation we find ourselves in today is the logical conclusion of that, we're lead by a populist idiot and his lackies and I think, finally the veil has been lifted.

This current age of populism is coming to an end, it's more than just Labour v Tories, Johnson is willing to take the ship down with him, but for me, it doesn't matter, the Tories time is coming to an end, they'll be out at the next GE and will spend a decade or more in the wilderness, it just seems to be part of the natural cycle of things in the UK.

As for society in general, again, I feel most positive. Yes, it's more digital, but local FB groups, school groups, etc - yeah the internet is still full of bullshit influencers and all that crap, but I see more and more 'real' people who aren't afraid to share their real lives and feelings.

There are some difficult times ahead, inflation, is going to make our lives a little less easy, and yes very hard for some and we could be entering a 2nd Cold War with Russia and China, but perhaps become of our age most of us think the 90s was some kind of cultural high point, it's not such a bad thing? 😉

Those who try and make their community a better place and help people regardless

That's great and I and others do that where I live but generally we are just making our bubble even nicer. Not saying that's a bad thing but it isn't really fixing anything.

we could be entering a 2nd Cold War with Russia and China

Sad thing is it seems we are genuinely happier when we have a common enemy/threat to unite us.

Grum and igm just said everything I was going to say.