Is Britain REALLY worse now than then?

Question

This is kind of a general question, spanning the last thirty years....I have a lot of family that left the UK during the 80's and 90's, saying it was terrible, awful....they emigrated and returned a few years ago and said they loved it. Apparently, it's changed a lot for the better. However, a lot of people say the country is ruined now and has gotten progressively worse. So my question is, what are your thoughts....is the UK a better or worse country than in the 70's, 80's or 90's (not 60's or earlier as I think society was too different to compare). Thanks for replies

Answer 1

No. It's a lie. The 80's and early 90's were bloody awful. I can remember being one of 26 candidates being interviewed that day for a crap job in a video shop. And I had a degree! As for crime, I recall the streets of many towns being considerably scarier than they are now. I don't buy this Broken Britain stuff. There's plenty of things I'd change, but I wouldn't take them back to the days when no-one had a job and there were no street lights on your way home, thanks.

Answer 2

Firstly there's no such word as gotten . Secondly it's not a simple answer , economically it was hard in the 70s 80s and early 90s because Labour bankrupted Britain and then Thatcher had to rebuild it , those cuts that made it that hard are what's coming back soon because DC has got to repair all the mistakes Blair and Brown have made .

Socially it was much better in the 70s , people were generally decent to each other , crime was much lower , children had respect for their elders and the police courts etc , immigrant cocommunitiesere small and isolated , obobesity nut allergies and asthma were vevirtuallynheard of , there was a lot less fear and no go areas .

Answer 3

In the 70's Britain was known as the sick man of Europe, the economy was awful with both very high unemployment and very high inflation. Tough measures by primarily Thatcher have seen union power diminish and a return to a floating exchange rate in the early 90's saw the beginnings of a prosperous 15 year period for Britain.



Some will say we we're due a downturn and perhaps recession, and the global financial crisis certainly made sure of that. Many people come back to Britain when they realise the grass is not always greener. Although the sun might be sunnier :)

Answer 4

Well we're pretty much back to the 70's now but, it's not going to be as "easy" as the Thatcher years. I say easy because the next decade is going to be much much harder on the country.



We need steeper cuts and there are stronger emerging economies now to compete with. India and China are on the up and this will make it much harder for Britain to get a strong footing for the future. So yes, the economic outlook is much worse than the 70's, 80's or 90's.

Answer 5

70's and most of the 80's it was fairly grim. The 90's were good but apart from the euphoria of the new millenium a lot of this century has been going downhill.

It is far less sociable and people are now far more concerned only about themselves. The animosity shown towards anyone that doesn't agree with the populace is disturbing. People, especially the younger generation seem to spend a lot of time being very angry.

Overall I think Society is worse and a lot more dangerous today then it was in the 70's and 80's.

Answer 6

ww2 devastated europe and america spent millions rebuilding it to keep out communism .britain was bankrupt by the middle of the war and had to sell off all our overseas investments (argentinian railway system etc)the american govt gave some aid with big strings attached and britain struggled through 10 years of worse austerity than when the war was on.our industry was tired and worn out and we had no money to invest in new machinery.europe on the other hand was rebuilt with new machinery straight from america .we had five machines to make a bolt .the new american machines fed wire in one end and finished bolts spewed out the other end .one man could oversee 2 machines .our machines needed 10 men for the same output. that is why by the 70s industry was on its last legs .thatcher thought we didn't need to make anything to earn money so she presided over the shut down of british manufacturing.all we have done since is shuffled money round service industries cafes and supermarkets on the proceeds of north sea oil and gas-now that's gone and the banks cant swindle any more out of the rest of the world so we are stuffed.law and order is a joke .many years back dr spock said you mustnt smack your children to correct them .govt and courts took up this policy and a generation of unruly kids were born then they set a bad example to their kids and now we have third generation delinquent parents and a huge number of young thugs who respect nobody add to this mix immigrants from war zones where you dont argue with anyone you just kill them ,and its not surprising that our nanny state cant keep them in order .i mustnt say anything about knife carrying immigrants and why the whole young population now carry knives because i might offend someones human rights which believe it or not is illegal.

Answer 7

Hi Dazedand

From 1979 to the early 1980s there was a collapse of manufacturing. I worked at a homeless shelter and saw people who were literally walking across England looking for work. No-one could believe the scale and suddeness of the collapse. We were all six months away from being homeless. Lose your job, arrears on your mortgage then house repossession. It was as sudden as that.

People who had worked for generations in low grade but highly paid factory jobs were suddenly out of work.

There was rampant social unrest as people had nothing to lose any more.

Then in the mid 1980s we saw the collapse of the mining industry. Whole communities remain socially deprived and long term unemployed.

There is a rise now in the service industry. Also, in the early 1990s they brought in Sunday opening for shops which saw a further rise in service employment.

It was the shock of the suddeness of change in the 1980s that impacted on everyone. People have lower expectations of wage levels now as most of us are just glad we have a job.

Best wishes.

Answer 8

Britain was destitute in the 70's thanks to Labour and is now. those that left in the 80's and 90's left because they were Labour voters and supporters who could not manage the new order. They returned when Blair was elected and so are bound to be happy. For me the worst thing that ever happened to the country was the Beast Blair and his side kick Brown.

Answer 9

well the damage labour has done since 97 wont start to show for a while, they promoted the now dead concept of multiculturalism and opened the doors to out of control immigration in an attempt 'rub the rights nose in diversity'. Ecomically its hard to tell as it seems to come and go in waves, but socially i think people in the uk are facing a bleak future, mainly in urban areas where native brits are forming a smaller and smaller number of the population. We have become far too left wing and it is damaging the nation. The views of the general public are not represented by anyone except parties who are blasted as far right extremists.

Answer 10

worse today

today we have badly trained police

yesterday police were quick to respond today the only time you see them is at football matches

(double pay and a day in lieu)

families today do not take responsibility for there children

yesterday parents had pride in themselves and there families

yesterday the goverment bleed us

now they bleed us and hang us out to dry then blame us for there stupidity

Answer 11

It is a lot better than it was in the 70's that's for sure.

Answer 12

The 80's was hell. I grew up in south Yorkshire at the heart of the miners strikes, it was hell. Anyone who says it is worse today never experienced the hell we did. My family and community was decimated by Thatchers policies. Several family members were left on the empty slag heaps of Dodworth Colliery, forgotten.

Answer 13

Britain is horrible. It's always ruined by whoever runs for the government and the election campaigns. In my opinion, Britain is doomed while we have all these stupid turds running the country.