These days everyone one seems to have an excuse why it’s not their responsibility, but look at what’s happening around us. Activists blocking main roads, not caring about the harm they do, train and tube strikes yet again, not caring what harm they’re doing to those who have been encouraged to use public transport. If you drive into London it will cost you at least £15 (congestion charge) before you even think about paying to park.
The list is endless: teachers strikes, nurses strikes, doctors strikes, airports in chaos. Students not given their degrees as the teachers are on strike, many roads are still riddled with potholes, illegal immigrants housed in four star accommodation while many of our homeless are living on the streets. Why hasn’t human trafficking on the French border stopped, after all we stopped Hitler!
What’s happening? No one seems to care or to get a grip of what’s going on and on with no end in sight.
This Tory government was once a no-nonsense, strong political party but not any more.
Even the other main party would be as bad. I don’t think any MPs are brave enough to approach the situations and get to the root cause of many of our problems.
I would imagine the world is laughing at us. What is happening to our once proud and strong country? No one seems to care or be bothered anymore – what happened to the Great in Great Britain?
Image Credits: Vic Vicary .
Perhaps it might be more helpful to consider why people go on strike? It’s never a decision taken lightly (and there are now very high legal thresholds to cross before industrial action can be taken); workers strike out of desperation, not for fun, but all you seem able to consider is the brief, minor inconvenience to you. I would also suggest you consult an independent fact-checking organisation like Full Fact before making claims about “illegal immigrants housed in four star accommodation”; as a side note it’s worth remembering that this government, together the right wing press, deliberately conflates “illegal immigrants” with asylum seekers – but seeking asylum is perfectly legal, whether you like it or not, and Britain has a legal obligation under international law to consider asylum applications. Lastly, Britain did not “stop Hitler” alone: we had many, many allies and historians generally agree that Britain could never have stopped Hitler without the tremendous support of international allies.
Rye news encourages local people to write their feelings obout current affairs, and what I admire is that Vic Vicarey puts his name to his beliefs, whether people like the content or not, he doesn’t hide behind keyboard,like others on Rye news, I do sometimes wonder why they cannot give their full names,and one wonders if it is their political beliefs, that they are embarrassed about.
People often have good reasons for “hiding behind a keyboard” — fear of harassment is one of them. Perhaps commenters could be encouraged to stick to the topic of the article rather than attacking other commenters? I’m surprised at the moderator for allowing such a comment through.
John many thanks for true and honest comments.
AmyB
Yes I do know why people go strike ive been on strike myself, all I was highlighting was nothing seems to done it goes on and on for ever { 16 months rail workers }
Yes and I also know about Illegal Immigrates and Asylum Seekers, in my comments who mention Asylum Seekers if you read it again it say Illegal Immigrates.
Yes of course Asylum Seekers is perfectly legal, and of course as for stopping Hitler it was just a figure of speech ( Understatement ) we All know the facts from the war.
And for being inconvenient to me all I’m ever concerned about people who gets caught up with it.
Vic vicarey
The points Vic makes merit some unpacking. It’s safe to say the UK underwent political and social upheaval between 2016 and 2022 owing to Brexit and the pandemic, and also owing to Tory austerity policies which slashed public spending. While Brexit has caused a 5% drop in GDP and other economic difficulties, austerity has led to a myriad of problems — in the NHS, social care, crumbly concrete in schools, prison underfunding, inadequate infrastructure, calls for better wages, etc. Political mistakes by various governments, namely privatisation of public utilities, have resulted in adverse consequences, such as uncontrolled sewage pollution by water companies and very high rail ticket prices. The economic chaos created by the short-lived Truss administration has had a lasting impact.
Despite all these problems, the one issue that makes the others pale into insignificant is global heating and the environment. It’s an existential crisis. This past week, when we’ve experienced several days over 30C is nothing to what will happen, when we’ll get weeks on end with temperatures over 40C. It’s not surprising that activists are blocking roads to try to get the government to take more urgent action.
Industrial action is largely occurring as various sectors attempt to reset their wage levels to pre-austerity levels. For example, few people would deny that junior doctors have a case in arguing that they deserve more than £14 an hour. We urgently need to prevent our doctors leaving to work in the US and Australia, where they know they’ll receive far better pay and conditions. Nurses, teachers, rail staff and so on have also sought to protect their previous standard of living by chasing pay rises as the cost-of-living crisis continues. The congestion charge and ULEZ involve other issues.
The thorny issue of people arriving illegally on British shores has not been solved. The problem is that the vast majority of those arriving are NOT genuine asylum seekers. They are illegal economic migrants seeking a better life, or escaping drought ravaged lands in the global south. Because they wish to remain in the UK, most of them claim asylum. The fact that most of the individuals arriving are young men, with relatively few women and children, proves the point. What is needed is a more efficient, fit-for-purpose immigration system which identifies genuine asylum seekers and which rapidly repatriates illegal immigrants. The current system is broken.
All of these problems can be solved, or alleviated, with political will. We urgently need to make our society fairer and more inclusive and this can only be done by reversing the growing gap between the haves and have-nots. The solution is not more houses, more growth, more population, more consumption of resources. Also, what’s needed is wholesale reform of our political system — making the House of Lords a much slimmed-down elected chamber, for example. Rather than declaring that the other parties would be just as bad as the Conservatives, I say it’s possible for politics to make a difference. Even a slight improvement would be welcome amid the current chaos and mismanagement.
Vic is right to say that other countries are laughing at Britain. We were once admired in Europe and the world, but now we are seen as a country that’s foolishly self-harmed —our economic strength has diminished, our reputation for common sense and pragmatism has vanished, we cannot control our borders and we cannot even prevent foreign countries from spying on us and stealing our industrial secrets. We need a massive programme of reform, political, social and economic.
Jane makes the excellent point that people should not be criticised for failing to leave their full names when making a comment. The fear of harassment (and, in some cases, violence) is very real, I can attest to that. It’s not their political views that people are embarrassed about, simply the intemperate and violent reaction that certain other people have to them. Sometimes I think that as global temperatures rise, so do people’s tempers. So long as Rye News comments are not libellous, vulgar or grossly offensive, they should be welcomed in the interests of democracy.
Agree with a lot of what you say, Alan, but on migration, it’s not true to say, “…the vast majority of those arriving are NOT genuine asylum seekers.” The Home Office itself tell us the reverse is actually true. This is a problem of perception that’s enthusiastically propagated in some quarters, but is factually incorrect. I’m not accusing you of bad faith, by the way, Alan, lots of people have been confused by the cynical rhetoric that’s out there.
The steep increase in economic migrants from Albania in the last 18 months has clouded the issue of asylum and been framed as a reason to question the validity of all claims. It’s true that Albania is not at war. It’s also true that the vast majority of young Albanian men who claim asylum won’t be granted it. But asylum isn’t granted on the basis of a nation’s conflict status, but whether an individual has a ‘well-founded fear of persecution.’ So, as said, while young men will probably be returned home (the UK now has an agreement with Albania), the vast majority of Albanian women and girls do qualify for protection in the UK bcs they are found to have valid claims. So like most of these challenging issues, it’s not as simple as it may be presented.
I find, zooming out helps provide a bit of context. If you look at where these desperate people come from, their origin tells its own story – Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria… These are parts of the world we’ve very recently spent our own blood and treasure on destabilising and destroying. These people are fleeing a post conflict environment, just as 2 million Brits did after WW2. Environmental challenges will provide a further powerful stimulus for migration in years to come. So part of solving the problem is, doing our bit to stem climate change, restoring our foreign aid budget, and thinking carefully about the full cost of foreign wars, bcs they cast a very long shadow.
Lastly, perhaps we need to have an objective discussion, as a society, as to why Britain helped build the international rules based order after WW2 and why people like Churchill supported The European Court of Human Rights etc. We could also discuss whether we still want to uphold inalienable individual rights and international law and what the odds are of us or our children ever having to seek their protection… To be honest, it’s not a coin I’d be willing to flip, though the Home Secretary seems to want to…
But I’m conscious that when ‘bleeding hearts’ like me say things like the above, it might appear I have no sympathy for the concerns around migration etc. I do. I get it – we have finite resources, failing infrastructure, people choosing to heat or eat, we have security concerns, anxieties about social cohesion etc etc etc. All those things are valid issues that can be discussed in measured, objective terms. But what I would say is, I hope people understand that the benighted souls in dinghies aren’t the cause of our problems, and vilifying brown folks in boats or incarcerating them on prison hulks won’t grow our economy, won’t increase social mobility, won’t stop effluent being disgorged into our waterways, and won’t rebuild schools or save the NHS. It will, of course, distract us from all of the above…
I’m sorry you and Vic feel so despondent, but my feeling is that if we focus on the real causes of our problems, we can quickly find solutions and restore a bit of hope.
I wonder who were blaming here for the state of our country, perhaps 13 years of Tory rule?
Vic speaks of a strong Tory, no nonsense government probably the Thatcher years and her policies- selling off council houses and not building new like she promised. Selling all our nationalised industries to foreign companies. We’re now seeing the damage privatisation has caused, sewage in our rivers, a railway system that’s broken, energy companies that are making massive profits while we pay eye watering bill.
Our schools are deprived of decent funding as is the NHS.
Let’s not forget Brexit! A decision that has plunged us back into the 1950’s with no foreseeable benefits unless the rise of nationalism is a bonus.
It’s broken Britain and Vic is right, the world laughs at us and we’re not Great Britain we’re Little England.
Some interesting comments here. John and Vic are well known for hankering after what they perceive as a better world they remember from the past; Alan makes some very good observations but proves that the Tories distraction techniques are working when it comes to immigration; Guy does his best to correct some basic misconceptions re immigration but also hankers after a Utopian future that is a long way from achievable if desirable; Steve blames the Tories but should perhaps blame our biased electoral system and the electorate themselves, he also highlights the failure of Thatcher’s policies due to broken promises. What we all agree on is that the country is broken and the rest of the world is laughing at us. Fraser was right – were all doomed !!
Hi, Simon.
You’re very much mistaken about me. I’m a realist. And I don’t know what’s “Utopian” about hope, focus and faith in one another? If we don’t believe we can do better, what’s the point?? Let’s all stay in bed, eh? I mean, were the Chartists, Reformers and the Suffragists all dreamers? Are Net Zero campaigners of today ‘utopian’? What would our young people make of your counsel of despair, I wonder? Not much, I hope…
You’re entitled to your world view, Simon, but I think there’s enough jaundiced cynicism and despondency in the world. Give me a bit of energy and aspiration any day…
Interesting that Vic Vicary accuses ‘activists blocking main roads, not caring about the harm they do’ under a heading bemoaning that ‘no-one seems to care anymore’ when in fact it is those very activists who are making consdierable sacrifices, possible even risking imprisonment, to show that they DO care – about the future of the planet, about the future for your children and grand-children. Again, I find it ironic that Vic bemaons ‘lack of responsibility’ when he cannot see what is in front of us: the reason activists feel forced to take direct action is precisely beause the government is NOT stepping up to take responsibility for the environment. Quite the opposite, in fact (‘drill, drill, drill’ – Rishi Sunak).