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Shit life syndrome

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Re: Shit life syndrome

#121

Post by arethuza »

placesalt wrote: post #113
padolsey wrote: post #5

This is quite darkly hilarious tbh. And consistent with my experience of Blackpool. I once went there on couple-week-long driving course when I was a teenager, hoping but eventually failing to get my license. I was put up in someone's house that was run as a sort of unlicensed b&b. The entire place, the curtains, the linen, the pillow,.. all smelled of old nicotine and damp. On my first evening I went out by myself t…

(beautiful writing, as others have said!) > the same depressing crumbling economy of coastal towns all over the UK I'm surprised to hear that coastal towns in the UK are doing poorly. In North America, it's generally the coastal areas that are more prosperous. Was it overbuilding during the era of British sea power? Or a great sucking-up of wealth by London? It makes me wonder if, long term, seaside areas would make…

I don't think it's accurate to say that all coastal towns in the UK are doing badly - I can't help noticing there here on the east of Scotland you have on different sides of the Firth of Forth Methil, which is deprived, and North Berwick which is doing very nicely.

Different histories, reliance on different industries, quality of transport links make a huge difference.

Not even all coastal "tourist" towns are doing badly - I live near Burntisland in Fife which actually seems to be thriving, probably because of the excellent location for commuting by train into Edinburgh, combined with nice beaches, great views (of Edinburgh!)...

Re: Shit life syndrome

#122

Post by scruple »

pjc50 wrote: post #86
Uptrenda wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazing writing. If you have a book I'd read it.

For slightly more optimistic well-written stories about the North, try Stuart Maconie.

Any books in particular? Never heard of him before but I'm keen to check him out.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#123

Post by keiferwiseman »

siwatanejo wrote: post #83
midasuni wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All assets depend on the governemt. You own land, that’s because the government allows it, you own a company, not if the government doesn’t let it exist.

What part of my comment did you miss? I already mentioned government-related stuff. Cryptocurrency is not government related.

Sorry to say the government can take away your cryptocurrency

Re: Shit life syndrome

#124

Post by dazc »

flir wrote: post #82
DrBazza wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's how infrastructure projects are prioritised in the UK. Return on the pound. The south east returns something like 10x the investment versus the north of England. Just look at HS2 - everything north and north east of Birmingham has effectively been cancelled, leaving yet another "national" infrastructure project serving only London. This Government, or the previous one, or the previous one, ad nauseam, continua…

They're almost never hamstrung by the opposition voting against them. If they didn't have a majority, they wouldn't be the government. Right now the majority is, what, 80? They could pass anything they wanted.

But choose not to? I really don't understand why people choose to have a career in politics so that they can achieve nothing at all?

Re: Shit life syndrome

#126

Post by Obscurity4340 »

_dain_ wrote: post #64

This is the original article that won the award: https://www.ft.com/blackpool There's an interesting dog-that-didn't-bark: the word "meth" does not appear. The drug is still not common in the UK[1]. Blackpool has precisely the demographic makeup where, if it were in America, it would be flooded with meth dealers and addicts, and become magnitudes worse than it already is. I dread the day that drug finally makes landf…

Whats the cocaine/crack situation, also other stimulants like Ritalin etc?

Re: Shit life syndrome

#127

Post by KineticLensman »

dazc wrote: post #119
placesalt wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(beautiful writing, as others have said!) > the same depressing crumbling economy of coastal towns all over the UK I'm surprised to hear that coastal towns in the UK are doing poorly. In North America, it's generally the coastal areas that are more prosperous. Was it overbuilding during the era of British sea power? Or a great sucking-up of wealth by London? It makes me wonder if, long term, seaside areas would make…

The advent of cheap flights made holidays within Europe affordable to most people. As a consequence, traditional UK holiday destinations became much less popular. Over time old-fashioned guest houses, B&Bs and cheap hotels transitioned into very low cost housing for people with 'problems'. The inevitable doom spiral began... Destinations on the South Coast were not affected in the same way though and have remained a…

> Destinations on the South Coast were not affected in the same way

Bournemouth (middle of the South Coast) took a slightly different path and some of the accommodation was repurposed to house students from Europe studying English. IIRC the contiguous strip comprising Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch is one of the largest non-industrial conurbations in Europe. I moved to Bournemouth in 1988 for work reasons and it always seemed to me like a large studenty-town that happened to be near the Sea rather than a 'seaside town' (i.e. one that is structured around the beach and bucket-and-spade shops). It's also viewed as Brighton's straight cousin. Christchurch, on the other hand, is known locally as 'the last resort' because of the large proportion of retirees in the population.

I also can't resist the old joke that Cleethorpes isn't twinned with any other town but is in a suicide pact with Grimsby.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#128

Post by dundarious »

DrBazza wrote: post #63
ricardo81 wrote: post #22

The UK has typically had the highest levels of income inequality in Europe. A previous Prime Minister had been quoted 'A pound spent in Croydon is far more of value to the country than a pound spent in Strathclyde', Croydon being in London and Strathclyde being an administrative area in West Scotland that ceased to exist in 1975. The quote was from 2012. WFH has allowed me to continue working from rural Scotland, to…

That's how infrastructure projects are prioritised in the UK. Return on the pound. The south east returns something like 10x the investment versus the north of England. Just look at HS2 - everything north and north east of Birmingham has effectively been cancelled, leaving yet another "national" infrastructure project serving only London. This Government, or the previous one, or the previous one, ad nauseam, continua…

That is certainly the case now, more than ever before in modern history. I am not a booster for Labour at all, but at least to an extent, that wasn't always so: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/aug/05/video-emerg...

> Sunak said: “I managed to start changing the funding formulas to make sure areas like [Tunbridge Wells, Kent] are getting the funding they deserved. We inherited a bunch of formulas from Labour that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas and that needed to be undone. I started the work of undoing that.”

Re: Shit life syndrome

#129

Post by AYBABTME »

pierat wrote: post #120
gooseus wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this would be the same tired refrain of every tankie who will justify atrocities committed under communism by pointing out that bad things also happen under capitalism. I'd call myself a neoliberal (for lack of a better term), but I agree that the OP's comment is naive and is the kind of things that almost always comes from people who have never experienced actual scarcity or desperation for more than a second of…

> And this would be the same tired refrain of every tankie who will justify atrocities committed under communism by pointing out that bad things also happen under capitalism. Oh look. The name callings begin almost immediately. Isn't there some badly applied rule here on HN about insults? Anyways, I never said I was communist either. One can critique capitalism AND communism both. And this is about capitalism and the…

You're stating "capitalism" as if this is somehow a well defined word and as if it's statically implemented in that particular way in the system you have in mind. There's many shades of capitalism, communism, and all sort of -ism along a multidimensional space of economic principles.

The economic system in the US isn't straight up capitalism. Each locale, county, state, is different and many aspects of society are not strictly capitalist. Plenty of govt regulation and intervention goes around.

Plenty of well functioning developed countries have similarly heterogeneous mixes of economic styles, with social or private healthcare, housing, income, utility, business regulation, etc.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#130

Post by dazc »

helveticar wrote: post #108

Brit Boomer. I grew up in a single parent family near the bottom of the heap in England. What kept us going and saved me from early death or a life of crime or drug dependency was the welfare state. The NHS, free school meals and host of other measures meant that there was a safety net in place, even so much was done by charities like the NSPCC. Later there were grants, with tuition fees paid, to go to higher educati…

I disagree, if you are going to be poor then there are far worse places. I had a similar upbringing btw, single mother with 3 siblings.
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