How is it that in this day of people supposedly having a lot more than previous generations I feel life is crapper now than it used to be?
Local parks not having the money to up-date/ maintain, public conveniences are closing to save money, street lights being switched off to save money.
Surly everything is now relatively cheaper than it was 30 years ago, we should be in an age where we are looking to make life more comfortable, implementing more social measures, not cutting back on them. Why is it that the NHS is struggling, and pensioners can’t get into a care home unless they have a stack of money set by?
I’m sure I’m going to get the ‘it’s the Tory’s or Labour’s fault’ but this has steadily been going on for decades, through both Tory and Labour governments. It just seems to me we have become a nation of people looking out for themselves.
Do you think we would have gotten through the war with this attitude, or has it always been like it to a degree?
Maybe it’s just me being a bit over nostalgic, or having just turned 50, but I’m sure this country used to be better.

Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere, but it just struck me earlier as I was driving around.

People do have more than they did in generations gone past. Manual workers in the old days wouldn't have had a car or telephone and holidays used to be a fortnight in Paignton, Skegness or Southend

One of the biggest reasons for the problems in the NHS is that people are living longer coupled with a huge population growth. It isn't just immigration responsible for the growth as in the 20th century we could rely on the Germans to kill off a huge percentage of our population.

Care homes are also a relatively new phenomenon as in the old days the elderly used to be looked after by their families but nowadays for a variety of reasons the elderly are now the responsibility of the state

what twaddle.
public toilets used to be open , clean & often had an attendant.
parks would be well maintained, have tennis courts, bowls, well maintained borders & were generally nice.
kids would be put in order if they stepped out of line, by not just their parents but other adults, called to task for throwing litter or generally getting on & there was not any concern about getting hospitalised if doing so.
people dressed tidier & cleaner, nobody would consider shuffling down to a corner shop in a dirty onesie, tracky suit etc.
they had more respect for themselves.
people used to go out smart & clean.
The smell of spliff was not common on the streets.
Sure there were rough areas, always have been, but often a straightner would occur in the pub car park, split lip or busted nose being it not a pack of vermin stamping on somebody.
Even seen to fella's give a begrudging hand shake after ones lost and go their own ways.
it used to be regarded as pretty w***y to take liberties once you'd got the better of somebody in a punch up, you'd lose respect for spite.
Christmas, the shops closed for days & all the better for it, families had parties Christmas night, together
No, things were better , a lot better.

Kids,tired of being bothered by your pesky parents?
Then leave home, get a job & pay your own bills, while you still know everything.

You mean, you preferred it.

Public toilets - Yep those are sorely missed, but then they were always dodgy as f**k after hours - and I definitely remember most of them stinking of p*ss, and the floor often being wet. I don't remember seeing attendants, maybe I'm not old enough.

I remember that rubbish was everywhere on the streets, infact there was a massive campaign about disposing of litter in bins. Plus there was dogs**t everywhere. No one picked up their dog sh*t and people often just let their dogs out to s**t and piss where they wanted.

Violence in pubs was far more common place, racism, football hooligansism etc. These days you just don't see it kicking off like it used to. Parks weren't much different round our way than they are now, except there less of them. I definitely remember that basically people were bullies, none of this fancy gentlemanly conduct you talk of. It'd be some c**t starting on you for the most absurd reasons.

Plus there was problems with people getting stabbed. No one I've known has been stabbed in the last twenty years. But in the eight years between being 18 and 26, three people I knew were proper stabbed.

And the choice of drinks in pubs was s**t. F**king awful, you put up with it, because you had no choice, but the chance of getting something other than the brewery's choice of two or three variant bitters and some generic p*ss lager, along with some s**t house branded spirits was unlikely. Plus no food, how s**t was that. KP peanuts, and maybe some golden wonder crips.

Christmas would be two days off, none of this modern stuff of closing down for a week, and you had to bloody go to the stores to buy presents, none of this fancy amazon delivery. Family Christmas parties, Jesus wept, who misses having a party with their family. That's like going to an AA-New Years Eve party.

As for better dressed, boring. Men's clothes have always been a bit s**t, but f**k me, the past was a bland place except for the goths, punks, mods etc. At least now the kids aren't so generic. F**k me, what was all that nonsense with Pringle jumpers and Filo.

Granted people who go out in onsies should be shot, but go back a couple of decades, and going outside wearing anything more exotic than a plain shirt, jumper and slacks, was licence for some drunk c**t to try and start a fight with you.

Plus you had to actually go into work to work, none of that working from home business.

As for things like p***. Jesus, what a hassle that was. God that gives me the chills, to think that if you wanted to see some actual action, it'd set you back upwards of a days wages, involving a trip to a specialist shop - and you'd have to watch it on VHS.

Its all just swings and roundabouts. Something's are better, something's are worse.

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
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Yep.
Remembering how good things used to be is a luxury provided by selective memory.

For some reason the roundabout in Lloyd Park has been removed. But some of the new kit is ace, like a huge rope that four people can swing from and a pirate ship mast.

By the way, why isn’t Lloyd park iconic like Hampstead Heath? Blooming nice place and it has its own tram stop.