EVen within Greater London there is huge wealth disparity. Is not the City that is rich but a subset within the city. That subset needs servants nearby hence the size of Greater London.
Central London have similar incomes to Monaco, Outer London is closer to Germany, but the rest of Britain is similar to Spain and Cyprus. Thats why HS2 will likely lead to those incomes spreading outward as people in Birmingham have access to London jobs. That’s the plan anyway.
Agreed, only why the young start every sentence with 'literally' I'll never grasp.Annnnd, we 'reach out' rather than 'contact', 'discuss' or 'speak'. And we'll all 'guys'.
I'm originally from Kent, moved to Canada as a young adult. Every time we visit family, I think: we should go see other areas. And then I get caught up on the cost of travel. It's relatively inexpensive to visit my family and day trips to London. Leaving the southeast suddenly increases the costs to visit so much each time that I decide maybe next time. Seems silly the furthest north I've traveled the UK is Oxford.
Speaking as a Northener who was born in the 1970s, the idea that the people who run the country think that everything north of the M25 can go to hell really doesn't come as a surprise.
MP's have to look on a map to find " the north " and see where it starts , Sunak was pissed off when the Tories said he could stand as a MP in Richmond , Sunak thought it was Richmond on Thames , not Richmond in " the north "
Oddly, we used to think that way about 'London' up in Scotland but having SNP in charge for 17 years has taught us that there are actually worse things, than having a single government UK in London.
Thank you for this video, we need more voices talking about this! Britain... 6th richest country in the world where healthcare staff are using foodbanks while not being able to heat their homes while the richest hold more than half the wealth, absolute disgrace
@@mrguyall2740 you mean the incompetent sloth that was wealthy himself and benefitted greatly of it? Not one communist or even socialist country worked out , many capitalist ones did . The issue is not capitalism but greed and corruption (which was more common during communism lol) . You can do the "they weren't truly communist" thing but technically neither is england , they have welfare therefore aren't true capitalist . Poland , slovakia , germany , sweden , denmark , norway , finland , singapore , japan , korea , china now even (their economy is not communist let's be honest) they're all succeeding - then only losing a little due to matters not due to capitalism .
@@nelyyisoppy6509 But Scandinavia is much more socialist than the UK, and yet richer than the UK and even most parts of the US. Mixed economies work better. An interesting interesting fact is that you are far more likely to become rich in Norway than even in the US!
I’ve thought about this a lot recently, and I think there’s basically two problems here: 1. We’re a phenomenally backwards-looking country that just doesn’t want to engage with the modern world or future, content to just tread water. Not one of the top 100 tech companies in the world are British. We’d much rather sit around talking about WW2 and how great we /used to/ be. We are slowly rotting away because we have no vision of a Britain that isn’t going backwards. 2. We find ambition embarrassing. If someone says “I want to start my own business, I want to do something amazing”, we cringe. We see it as a bit empty-headed and American and chavvy. We’d much rather keep our heads down and just get on with it. Perhaps it’s due to the class system. We need to reindustrialise, desperately. We need a generation of people who are aggressively, desperately futuristic in their thinking, don’t care what Britain was, and only want to build. Imagine if the entire North was covered in multi-billion-pound factories building world-class AI chips and scientific equipment. We have the education system, we have the manpower - that’s where we need to be.
So what the UK needs to be is to stop expecting the country to be as culture and to accept you will live in a state owned cyberpunk hell hole where everyone is depressed. People aren't starting businesses because the start up is too expensive and the paperwork to long with to many hoops to to jump through.. I would say we need the opposite , rather than focus on business we need to focus on culture and grant people agency through that. The society should be driven from the bottom up , not top down like both the conservatives and labour want
"multi-billion-pound factories building world-class AI chips and scientific equipment" Yeah talking about cringe.... I don't think you have any idea how difficult producing the latest computer chips are, even America and China can't keep up with Taiwan currently. You're going to have to think again.
@@raven-sf3di This. Bottom up not top down. The UK has always been a top down culture. Everyone do what the king says. But since the 80's everytime the torys get into power they cut funding to counsels (no wonder they started going bankrupt). I mean they have made it clear they don't want them to exist and we should be a centeral goverment. Issue is they made cuts and then loaned out money. The only reason our ecconomey is going up is due to us collecting that debt. Theres no insentive to invest and when your life is just a number on a spreadsheet to them. Unless you cause issue with sqular they have no reason to change it
The availability of cash for investment from capital markets crucial. Do not see it happening, makes more sense for investors to diversify their investments abroad.
It's funny that they scrapped the northern leg of HS2 and this project was supposed to be about leveling up even though most of the investment is now going into the south east...
@@Dominate955 imo it was always about benefits to a few people in the se. That's why they started at the London end. Instead of improving transport across the n where its needed.
Thatcherism in the 1980s fundamentally shifted the UK’s economic landscape towards free-market capitalism, deregulation, privatization of public assets, and a reduction in the power of trade unions. While these policies aimed to boost economic growth, they also significantly increased income inequality by favoring the wealthy and large corporations. By reducing social safety nets and public investment, the gap between the rich and poor widened, creating a more polarized society that still affects the UK today. Thatcher's legacy of neoliberalism set a precedent that continues to influence government policies and exacerbate inequality.
This isn't a glitch..... It's a feature. It's deliberate. This is how things have been for most of history. It's really only post ww2 when the ordinary workers had a sniff of the good life. Since then capital has been working overtime to push us back into the gutter.
People overestimate how wealthy the aristocracy was back then. There was not much technology back then so the gap in comfort was not that high. Plus they had more responsibility back then. They largely served in military and could die alongside the grunts. Before you say no they stood in the back and barked orders; that is only true if they survive charging in as cavalry when they are young. When they get to old age, they command from the rear.
From what I understand, it’s not just one specific issue but more like a mix of several underlying problems that are creeping up on the UK-things like economic inequality, stagnating wages, rising debt levels, and even problems within the housing market. They all seem to be interrelated.
Exactly, and that’s what makes it such a tough problem to solve. It’s not like one clear-cut issue, and because it’s "hidden," a lot of people are struggling, but the full extent of it doesn’t always make the headlines. For example, look at housing prices. They’ve skyrocketed, and so many people, especially younger generations, are being priced out of the market
And it’s not just housing. I think rising living costs in general are pushing people to the brink. Utilities, groceries, transportation-it’s all getting more expensive while wages aren’t keeping pace.
Exactly! And then there’s the issue of debt. Personal debt is rising, and that’s putting even more pressure on households. People are using credit cards just to cover basic expenses. It’s scary how close many are to financial disaster if something unexpected happens like losing a job or an unexpected medical bill
Sort of. But there is a tipping point. A community is probably more easily depressed than an individual. Where as an individual can be lifted out of depression by a community, a community can not be lifted out of depression by an individual. Which goes to explain the need for community scape goats like foreigners, and god
@Itriedtobe-wq9lj there are only so many places that rich people who want to hide money need to hide money. Another tax haven in the world is not necessary. Also, there are 5 million people in Ireland, and 66 million people in the UK
The people of Britain no longer have any sense of civic responsibility. All civic responsibility has been taken on by the state. The state wanted a dependent population and they have achieved it.
@@homodeus8713 No. Just funny. I see nothing sad about the UK slowly returning to nothing but it's true value, which is purely agricultural. In a world where everything moves fast and faster, living on an island with difficult and expensive (time-wise and money-wise) crossings is killing it, plus the extra import/export difficulties now with Brexit.
By productive he means if you make more money for your company you'll earn more because you are then worth more to that company. I think you're confusing being hardworking with being productive.
@jopearson6321 that is true. However it is also true that if your productivity actually brings value for the company. Your wages will go up. Simple supply and demand.
Main reason for the inequality is the collapse in nationwide manufacturing in favour for London services but on top of that for over a decade we have had a government that either believe trickle down economics works when it does not or are corrupt and therefore favour policies that move money from the working class to the rich. They do this through the tax system, privatisation of services, unfettered cheap labour through immigration, weak regulations against business owners unloading dept, crashing companies whilst withdrawing huge profits and allowing tax loopholes holes for the rich.
nice, you mix concepts that are typical on the left (privatisation, tax loopholes) but you add argumentation that the left over looks intentionally to get the votes from migrants (mass immigration, manufacturing gone)..how refreshing from the binary view of the politicians
The thing that really bugs me is... that this is easy to see. Yet people are still not protesting, still voting for the same parties (at least that is changing but for how long?). People should have protested this 10, 20, 30 years ago... now the younger generations are f***** times 10. And don't be fooled, this happend in Germany and many other countries too. We're just 5 years behind.
Wealth inequality, the fact that it's all geared toward the wealthy getting wealthier through acquiring assets and not paying enough tax is the scourge of our society. We could fix everything if this inequity was addressed properly.
@@aries6776 nahhh that's the marxist reaction that brings poverty to everyone. One needs industry, manufacturing, long term strategy for energy/technology/food independence, good education promoting excellence, safety / stability, controled/good immigration with assimilation (not integration with parallel culture like the UK has been doing for 40 years) THEN one needs equality, every one needs to pay tax fairly but not making it a disadvantage to the hard working folks, you've got to get the balance right to promote work, inovation and risk. Low wages should be less taxed too, to promote work, affecting less the low earners.
In London every bus journey is £1 no matter the length. Where I am in Scotland it's just under £6 for a bus return ticket to the next town only 2.5 miles away. Working people can't afford public transport.
Those free prescriptions in Scotland though 😅 ...£9.90 per item in the UK, free dental care (UK check up £26.80 highest band of care per tooth £319.10 ontop), eyes tests (£20 check up) and glasses, water costs included in council tax under Scottish water (and no raw sewage dumped in beaches or rivers) and tuition fees paid for. It's £9,250 in the UK (excluding maintenance) per year.
Something has to give in the UK, people are watching their wages remain stagnant as costs go up every year, public services no longer work, a post code lottery whether you get a good gp, rents increasing, house prices increasing, less jobs out there, hundreds competing for one job. This country is well and truly broken. There will reach a point where the youth leave the UK because how bleak their future looks
I know a substantial amount of people moving out of the UK going to Australia, or other European countries post university. The only decent thing the UK has got going is it's access to quality education. Besides that life here is pretty depressing.
The UK has enough money for their population to live well, but nine tenth of the cake, if you like, is consumed or hoarded by the ones sitting as the biggest welfare beneficiary of the country. The one tenth is divided amongst the have nots.
My job involves looking at regional innovation and economic development through R&D and this is actually a very good introductory video that captures the issues pretty well. Decades of govts of both colours have failed to address this. It is no surprise the nation is struggling when most of the country hasn't been harnessed.
My friend who is a Doctor Moved away from a posh part of Richmond to Stoke on Trent 1 Gets the same wages with the NHS 2 Housing is Vary Cheap 3 Pint is Cheaper
@roaaarrryStaffordshire (Stoke on Trent) is a vast and beautiful county (area). Just because he works at hospital in Stoke doesn’t mean he lives in the “inner city”. Stoke on Trent is made up of “six towns” with beautiful country side and affluent towns nestled between the original six towns. Stop making lazy assumptions.
@@michellekeeling3392 correct and if you can afford private school the problem is later on. For example, if you have children they may have to move away to get decent jobs unless they work in the public sector.
Excellent video, which is tapping into my own thoughts on what is so wrong with the UK. It's a shame that politicians aren't aware of this stuff. They are too busy lining their pockets and smoozing with millionaires and other government ministers.
Mostly correct. Don't forget, though, that the mining industry was very strong in The South. There were quite a few mines in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and WIltshire. Swindon was a very industrial town. The issue isn't North vs South. Notherners and Southerners are pitted against each other. The real problem is Thatcher and Neo-liberalism. Swindon and Devon are a proper mess and they are very much in the south. Think this needs to be remembered. By the way, my Grandfather worked on the train lines in Swindon. Place is now very rough and dead.
The fact that in a generation London has become a minority English city definitely fuels resentment. Whole parts of the city are compl changed forever. Mass migration has changed the social fabric and has benefited the upper class at the cost of working class English people
People from Rural and Deprived areas go to University, but never return to their home area. They get jobs in the big cities. Therefore the non-city areas remain deprived due to less educated workers in poor paying jobs, struggling to get by. This happened with 4 of my children. Who now live so far away they will be unable to help me or their father as we get older, so more poorly paid carer jobs where we live.
Watch Gary’s Economics. As a former forex trader he explains how the financial- political system works to create inequality and how raising taxes on the ultra rich is the way to fix it
Its not hidden, the problem is massive migration, low skilled workers being exploited and black economy not paying taxes... the indigenous folk who are priced out of buying their own homes, longer waits for health care and public services.. is a massive strain on the standard of living. London statistics are not broken down correctly... You fail to mention how many people living/working in London with the High Cost of living means they're living in worse relative poverty than the rest of the country... I'd rather have average wages and live in the north than average wages and live in London.. Yes most of the wealth is in London and the southeast, but it doesnt mean if you live in London youre more wealthy or better off...
I felt their was a glossing over of the migration problem. 9.5 million economically inactive people, 8 million of which ate in receipt of government money means we don't need more. We need better educational outcomes, industrial strategy, focus on AI and robotics, overhaul of the benefits system and a move from low skill, low paid work to high paying high skill work.
Yes indeed. London has a microcosm of the problems in some ways. The richest and poorest areas are here. Their lives are far apart despite being in the same city. Even people who live a few miles from the centre have no concept of what it's like in the suburbs - and are derogatory of them. I was born in the former and if I want more than a one bed flat, have to live in the latter, dependent on the privatised rail service rather than the tube which only reaches the North and West really.
@@paulleighton7078 No it hasn't. We have the lowest benefits in Western Europe. He means we need to stop punishing people by withdrawing ALL benefits as soon as anyone tries to gain paid work.
@@mattsawyer343😂😂😂 total cognitive dissonance. The benefit scroungers have holidays abroad paid by the Government, that's how generous the welfare is in the UK. That's why southern Spain and Portugal are invaded every summer by thousands of vomiting loutish british on benefits.
London as a service based economy actually has low productivity, but high profit margins. They don't 'produce' anything, really, debentures, commercial paper, debt etc, are products of the financial market, but they're not produce in the way a teak table may be, or a well made set of cutlery.
My thoughts precisely. There's a difference between profitability and productivity and they get confused many times even by people that should know better. London is profitable, not productive.
The UK embraces poverty in my opinion, it has been normalised amongst people. Post a photo of some run down terrace street saying it looks bad; people will defend it.
Investing in alternate income streams should be the top priority for everyone right now. especially given the global economic crisis we are currently experiencing. stocks, gold, silver, and virtual currencies are still attractive investments at the moment.
Everyone needs more than their salary to be financial stable. The best thing to do with your money is to invest it rightly, because money left for saving always end up used with no returns.
Am looking for something to venture into on a short term basis, I really need to create an alternate source of income, what do you think I should be buying?
The most recent kick in the teeth is that upper middle class London office workers have moved to areas with cheaper housing but kept the higher city income via working from home. The lock downs were the biggest wealth transfer of the last century.
I was one of those naive people who believed that joining Europe would bring much more egalitarianism, better public transport, cheaper home rents, cleaner, safer streets and a willingness to adopt best practices that were obviously benefitting our European neighbors. All my hopes were shattered by a total disregard for any social policies in preference for private greed. I'm in my mid seventies now and really feel for upcoming generations. They are sunk.
@@Gaspo123 I am loving it here. I am much better off in all ways and have far more friends. I feel that I was born Australian on the wrong side of the world!
UK just needs to focus on feeding its own people on land. Once food is dealt with then the populous can have the luxury of time to focus more on innovation. It is not a difficult problem. Just jeeds investment. However, politicians are chomping at war. For too long politicians have seen the voters as the problem. "Too many people" Boris johnson is classic for it he openly held distain against tue very people he pandered towards, and yet he gots voted in. It is mind-boggling
So why is there not more thought and planning used to deal with these issues? Because most of the National Wealth is in private hands. That is the fact of the matter and this fact is indisputible.
I mean the internal economic border between London and the rest of the UK is essentially one of the massive issues that have allowed London to build up far more than it could have done otherwise and attracted talent from all over the UK to it in a way that the rest of the uk cannot compete with. The issue is actually the hyper focus on London over all other areas that has been going on for decades
Most people in London suffer as well. The only difference is the work more closely/directly to the wealthy elites. They live nearby, but pay higher rent, COL etc etc.
@MbisonBalrog oh I get that the system works badly for Londoners as well. The hyper focus on London is not for the poor/lower middle class people, though there are good events in a reasonable distance. I imagine if you're not rich in london, simply get pushed further out or into what are nearly ghettos. It's just that it tends to mess up the economy outside of London far more over a long period of time.
@@samuelsharp2342 as a Northerner I felt that the poverty in East London, cited as the reason the Olympics Games were held there was a bit (forgive me), rich. I am an art lover, it would take me a day to go to see the paintings I love, but for a Londoner the greatest art in the world is a short bus ride or train ride away, same with much music, shops even Prem. football teams though they cost a packet to buy tickets for.
What makes it even more deplorable is that it was a conscious decision. There was a fear in govt that London would become a second class world capital and so many decades of investment were concentrated there at the expense of the rest of the country.
@@mattwright2964 yep. the fear of the power of the working classes vested in Trade Unions (very broadly speaking, oop North), whereas when Thatcher moved the power totally to London, she knew she was giving jobs to the privately educated few who agglomerated around the capital. And the thing about the privately educated is, they are loyal (to her), they know what side their bread is buttered ....
The amount of foreign owners of housing by millionaires and billionaires in unacceptable in London and drives up house prices as many of them own not one but multiple properties.
Some important facts have been omitted. Most notably the outsourcing of jobs to Asia in the early 2000s. Secondly, the demise of the cotton industry in the late 1960s.
Your videos are absolutely incredible! Very accurate, analytical, and not biased politically, which is hard to find these days. Keep up the great work!
@TheInvisibleHandCo is there any hope for people who move there that are homeless? I don't like how it is living in the United States with people being able to control homeless people. In my situation I didn't know that I was adopted out of China
London is not just a financial capital to the world with a lot of incoming profit from abroad, but is also Britain's Insurance, legal, and political capital. These sector's are like the British East India trading company, but totally international in scope. Just how focused could these sectors be on local manufacturing when it's clearly outside of their business model?
I am leaving the UK and returning to my country. I wish I decided to leave sooner, I stayed here for 8 years and put effort in my studies and job all thinking it will be worth it. Socially, culturally I don't belong here, I don't have the same values as my peers and I have felt more and more alone the more people I have met that I cannot connect or bond with because of the culture. I wish at 27 I had a different more rich and fulfilling personal life with a loving partner. I have been alone here the entire freaking time.
Hang on. Yes, southern England is generally more prosperous than the UK, and salaries are higher, but then, so is the cost of living. A house in London will cost FAR more than a house anywhere else in the UK, and can in fact be worth double the equivalent value in other areas. As a retired civil servant, I know that if I had worked in London, I would have earned a higher salary, but in fact it would have been inadequate to cope with the difference in the cost of living.
We are a people with a deeply ingrained feudalistic mindset, which doesnt mean we sit around dreaming of becoming peasants, however we carry over the values of feudalism in our beliefs. We dont question these beliefs or even examine them enough to acknowledge their existence. I think a lot of Britains think that tbe rich know best, especially if they have some kind of title. We think it's better to leave the important stuff up to them. There is a contradictory to reality narrative about the rich, that they worked hard for what they have and that they must know what is best because of it. Everyone else who isnt rich just hasnt worked hard enough for it. Then there is 'the devil makes work for idle hands' morality. Work became a moral issue during feudalism, because telling people that if they didnt work themselves to the bone while being humble and meek would land them in hell worked a charm. The meaning of life was to work, you will be rewardrd in the afterlife, but for now work, suffer, reproduce and die. The clergy told people to not do this was a sign that they were evil. Guilt is a very affective way to control people, as well as all the violence and poverty. Kings and lords however were god given, as in they were assigned by God, and therefore inherently righteous and didnt have to suffer guilt for being idle. Dont get me started on the education system. Obviously you had to be rich to have an education, but also it took a long time for the bible to be translated from latin into a language lay people could read, and even then most peolle could not read. The only english revolution came about at a time when people were sick and tired of inequality. Back then religion was politics, religions carried political ideologies, and protestantism had been brewing as an opposition to catholicism. Catholicism believed in a hierarchy of priests who gatekept access to god, and kept incredible riches in their holy sites as a display of power. Only priests could read the word of god and understand it, only they could have riches, only they could have power, only they could have a clear guiltless path to heaven, everyone else had to work and suffer for it. Protestants however believed that everyone should be able to read the bible and have access to god, that no one man should be above the other when it came to acces to god. They believed you could practise worshipping god in your in home with your family, you could be an individual with a personal relationship with god. The bible was also used to teach people to read, and for a long while it was literally illegal to have an English translation bible. People were also becoming more ambitious, many rich merchants were protestants, these were people who were not lords but had built wealth (though most certainly off the backs of those under them). There were many different kind of protestant's who believed different things, the puritans were more conservative and authoritarian than say, the anarchistic and liberal ranters, or the more communistic diggers (yes silly names i know). The world of christianity was very different than it is now, i view it as proto politics, what political ideology came out of. Basically the rich hated that ordinary people were become more educated, and did not rely on them to dictate God and what he meant to them. If everyone had a personal relationship with God, that could mean anything, and people could stand up and say "well actually god says I don't need to work all day!" or "Well actually god is in all of us so we should be equal and share our wealth!". People got outcasted, tortured and killed for these beliefs, but they persisted. Some of these factions were completely erased, with their beliefs being mischaracterised completely as debased and devil worship, which people believed because the sheer ammount of it was hugely disproportionate to that actual size of these factions. This especially happened to those factions that believed in equality, even sexual liberation (in the15 -1600's!), very very modern concepts. Then ofcourse like everything there's always some rich guy who goes wow I like that and then takes whatever it is and makes it into his own tool for power, who was ofcourse Henry the 8th who adopted protestantism and created his own church (the church of england) which is just a hybrid between catholicism and aspects of protestantism. How does this translate today? People work themselves to the bone even if they have physical disabilities (these injuries often the result of overwork, and therefore should be cared for), believing that if they dont they will be bad, that their families and society will disapprove. Look at the stigma around unemployment, whether you are unemployed because there is no work, or you are unemployed because you cant work, you are seen as a drain on society and an example of what not to be. The afterlife has been replaced by retirement, a fantasy that keeps some of us alive. If we work hard enough then we'll get enough money to have a good retirement, but if we dont work hard enough then we dont deserve that rest. In reality there are people working their asses off far more than any eton boy will ever, who are in physical and mental pain, and still dont get enough money to have anywhere near that nice retirement fantasy. Many will be forced to retire due to old age and ill health and made to freeze to death in the winter with barely anything to their name. Which is why many people have kids, so this wont happen, but still these kids just enter the same work force and are taught the same stories by their parents. Yet we still idolise the rich, we fantasise about being them, imagine that one day if we work hard enough, are smart enough. The education system is abysmal, so no one's going to veer away from these feudal ideas around work. People who believe in equality and the rights of all people are seen as morally reprehensible, and tearing apart the nation. Etc etc. I would mention angle british nationalism here, but that's another topic for another day, and another ideology we carry around without thinking about. I am not a historian but the way Britain is now is explained in its history, something that we think is only "how we won" ww2 and how 'glorious' the empire was, the monarchy, or any other delusional nonsense that we cant quite connect with in any emotional way.
Yay right Blane all the problems of UK today in Latin language bibles 600 years ago. Reading???? UK was one of the last European countries to establish free compulsory government supported primary schools. Not until 1870s. And there was a massive objection that came from the poor workers. “ How will the children earn their bread if they’re in school until they’re 12?” Yay right blame the problems of the 21st century on a religion that was outlawed almost 600 years ago.
A friend of mine had an electronics business in Essex. To expand he took a govt grant to build a bright modern new factory in wales. After 5 years he shut it down, The welsh are lazy & so riddled with the union mentality that inspite of the factory being more modern he got less work from the welsh workers due to their laziness than the essex workers. The essex staff also shunned the unions & were generally much happier for it.
Transport for London has so much money it can spunk 134 million quid on updating Old Street tube and the roundabout nearby. Mean while there is no high speed rail link between Manchester and Leeds, two of our most important Northern cities.
Britain’s class war is utterly ignored today after being a major part of the political conversation a few decades ago. The ruling classes exploited the poor for millennia. You had to own property to vote until WW1. The rich spent good money to separate themselves from the poor to the point where they developed a separate accent. This history needs to be told, clearly and loudly. There is a reason that the poor built the Labour Party, and there is a reason why at its birth it was so heavily left-wing. Our British ancestors understood their daily needs and built something to directly go after them. Modern Britain refuses to look its problems in the eye, and when it does it shrugs its shoulders and blames someone like Immigrants. As if a group poorer than the mainstream could hurt the mainstream.
Regional disparities definitely exist and contribute to Britain's differential geographical decay; however there's a sense that Britain is somehow unique in its current and recent experience of immigration and its impact on these social and economic dynamics; you only have to look at the European Union to observe an increasing "concern" (massive understatement) about this issue. *Incidentally, the general standard of written and spoken English used by people in Britain is very gradually and subtlely going down.*
It's not just about equality but a deep historical cultural one along with other awful problems that mass worldwide immigration has caused to this once homogenous nation that is being torn apart by millions of forced most; from third-world and some from ex-communist bloc nations! We have never had all these awful problems since mass post-1947 immigration!
If people choose a "degree" that does not require the student to achieve degree level outcomes, the qualification will certainly have little value. Blairs policy of treating higher education as a source of revenue rather than an investment in the Country's future is the basis of our current problems!
Most graduates working in London aren't from London. The opportunities for work in London sap all the talent from everywhere else. What needs to happen is for these opportunities to be outside of London.
From Belgium : Belgians have voted for Federalism : Flanders keeps her income, Wallonia keeps her income, Brussels keeps her income, there is some income left for the state functionning. For 150 years, Brussels has been spending 80% of the country taxes on lavish and stupid projects. Now, Brussels can beg to EU institutions for a bit of financing, the debts generated by their Metro, Hospitals, Museums are their own debts, and they starve paying them... Flanders and Wallonia found this way to close the running tap and start developing infrastructures for the future of their economies.
The problem is the societal classes, prompting the notion of entitlement which then rationalises greed as a good thing, when it is actually a destructive thing
Giving (Greater) Manchester a proper underground heavy rail metro system would massively increase efficiency and GDP, and would turn it into a real powerhouse, giving some geographic balance to the UK economy
One cannot function in London if one’s work requires a car.For instance,those working in theatre ,which by the way,indirectly brings a lot of money to London,struggle to do their job.London for me has become a nightmare to avoid.
I always wish the Thames Estuary and Medway towns were mentioned in videos like this. They are in a pretty similar state to Northern towns, both presently and historically. Culturally, economically and voting wise.
It's an elaborate explanation but the real cause inequality is where it is (and not just in the UK) is because of government & monetary decisions. The former has made bailing out big companies normal, creating a riskless environment for company owners while the latter increases their asset portfolio through artificially low rates. After all the biggest reason most are poorer (relatively speaking) is because of the higher share of cost relating to accommodation. A factor explicitly driven by a decade of unjustified low rates that propped up asset values and money printing that permitted (bailed out) large institutional investors to become owners of the majority stock. We like to blame free markets but our system is anything but that. It's crony capitalism driven by institutions and career policy makers that require a complex interconnected web of them.
It's not all great in London though either. A quarter of Londoners are living in poverty. Look at places like Tower Hamlets were around 48% of children live in poverty, the highest rate in the country. 1 in 50 Londoners are homeless, with more homeless children in London than rest of England combined. If you are wealthy London is great, But for lots of working class Londoners its not great. (I've always worked in Engineering and Manufacturing in London my whole life too, which seems to confuse some people. Many don't seem to think we have factories in London).
Poverty is grim wherever you are. But even then, if you have to live in poverty, you're better off living in poverty in London than living in poverty in Blackpool. There's more investment in the public infrastructure around you, and the opportunity to escape that poverty is more accessible.
I work for a company that started from Bradford but as Leeds has better transport links then I work in Leeds. You can plant seeds in places but you have to water them for the plants to grow.
London has prospered at the expense of the scant comfort of the rest of the UK. This spurs discontent amongst Brits elsewhere, especially the working class.
Fair enough, but don’t try to suggest it’s the income inequality and not the importation of masses of third worlders with a starkly different culture causing most strife in the U.K. and threatening its future.
If social cohesion is reduced by inequality, and this leads to the unrest we saw recently, why did the rioting not occur in Scotland where the average earnings are even lower than England and Wales? I don't deny the link, but I'm keen to hear theories on Scotland's exception from this summer's unrest.
Scotland consists of a defeated people, distracted and hooked on drugs, alcohol, fast food, and sectarianism….they are a weak and feeble people, socially violent, but politically docile…it is entirely dependent on the largest of the Westminster Government so is happy to sit on the sidelines sniping whilst receiving disproportionate benefits….when the money runs out, and it will, the unrest begins….
They always talk as if serfdom persisted in England into the late C18th. But the last serfs in England and Wales were freed in 1575. By then the institution had been in decline for just over two centuries. By contrast Russia and Sweden still had serfdom in the mid C19th. Early modern England was one of Europe`s more advanced countries at the time. From the last quatre of the C19th we started to fall behind. We have now gone from the world`s first industrial society to the world`s first post-industrial society.
Plenty of places like Jaywick within London. Just hidden behind the veneer of unfit for purpose ‘luxury’ apartments. Corporate greed is the rot at root of British society.
When Britain was a rich country,it does not mean that the workers were well off ,far from it,they were low paid cheap labour,who had to live in very poor overcrowded conditions,a lot were undernourished,kids had rickets,TB was rife.i can remember this in my lifetime,and that was in London
we do have running water, there are no bombs going off, and help is available for those who need it and are willing to seek it. I might be idealistic, but people in the UK are still better off than those in places like Yemen or other war-torn countries. That's why so many people risk their lives on rubber boats to get here."
You don’t really factor in the cost of living in both London and the north east, for example you can rent in the north east for around £500 per month whereas in London it would probably cost around £2,000. So even tho the salary is much different this is just adjusted for the crazy cost of living in London. I guess this is probably a loophole for people who own property in London so that they can earn big salaries and not have to pay inflated rent but it’s the same like that in pretty much the majority of countries. I was thinking of moving to Japan and I wanted to live in Tokyo but the cost of living compared to my salary would be almost unliveable because rent of the big popular cities is notoriously high. I also considered Switzerland because they pay 4x my salary compared to England but that’s only because they charge 4x the price for basically everything so essentially I would be earning the same.
They could solve inequality of cities and housing crisis in a month if they wanted to, not just in UK, but worldwide... How? Using the Swiss model where poorer cantons have lower taxes. Both on company and individual level.
The poorer regions don't want lower taxes. They want higher taxes on everyone and everything. They blame low taxes for them being poor. That's the UK left.
So imo a big deal is centralisation of political power. The UK treasury refuses to invest in poorer areas because of their return on investment formula. Even though better infrastructure (eg more trains and stations) and educational facilities would massively improve the economy in the regions. Most of the tory levelling up fund never got spent because treasury turned down most of the proposals. These treasury rules need changing. Also, the EU was doing some infrastructure investment in the uk regions so that has gone too.
Have you heard of “Les Trente Glorieuses”,? After 1975 the French, like the UK, the US and most other developed economies were screwed, however, the French decided to invest in their entire country unlike the UK which only ever funds its capital city !!
This video perfectly captures how I view the country, brilliant job. The only thing I would add is that government doesn't seem to get it. Labour has just come in because of how hated the Tories were (corrupt, useless and full of nepotism) but I think few people have faith in them changing anything. And some of the recent things they've been saying like banning smoking outdoors to protect the NHS is hardly inspiring confidence.
By definition, all MPs are Londoners, that is where they ALL live. Hence the bias. There was a very imaginative scheme to re-home the House of Lords in York while the place was renovated, a vital task for the whole building. But the Parliamentarians rejected it, I mean, where are the wine bars, and the theatres and concert halls, heavens don't they have Yorkshire accents up there?
Britain a rich country, with a three trillion pound national debt . The late Fred Dibnah put it best , Britain was built by men in overalls and has been ruined by men in suits. We don’t even make our own steel anymore, as an Engineer myself,this says it all .
Go to ground.news/invisible for on-the-ground perspectives on global issues. Save 40% on the Ground News unlimited access Vantage plan with my link.
Indians
Their is no “shared purpose” where others oppose your purpose.
It's British Leyland not Layland
@B0rnles13 haha I was gonna point that out
@@B0rnles13 Was British Leyland. Past tense.
The UK isn't a rich country. It's a middle income country attached to a very rich city.
Low income
That city isn't anything to crow about. In fact it's a garbage hole.
EVen within Greater London there is huge wealth disparity. Is not the City that is rich but a subset within the city. That subset needs servants nearby hence the size of Greater London.
I've heard the saying, "The UK is a third world country attached to London"
Central London have similar incomes to Monaco, Outer London is closer to Germany, but the rest of Britain is similar to Spain and Cyprus. Thats why HS2 will likely lead to those incomes spreading outward as people in Birmingham have access to London jobs. That’s the plan anyway.
Literally costs more to get a train down to London from North West than to fly out of the country...
Says it all
Agreed, only why the young start every sentence with 'literally' I'll never grasp.Annnnd, we 'reach out' rather than 'contact', 'discuss' or 'speak'. And we'll all 'guys'.
That's so true that
I'm originally from Kent, moved to Canada as a young adult. Every time we visit family, I think: we should go see other areas. And then I get caught up on the cost of travel. It's relatively inexpensive to visit my family and day trips to London. Leaving the southeast suddenly increases the costs to visit so much each time that I decide maybe next time. Seems silly the furthest north I've traveled the UK is Oxford.
@@somebloke5565 in this instance, they were using 'literally' literally...
Speaking as a Northener who was born in the 1970s, the idea that the people who run the country think that everything north of the M25 can go to hell really doesn't come as a surprise.
Well, they are welcome to their London Hell hole.
I would not live there if they paid me treble.
MP's have to look on a map to find " the north " and see where it starts , Sunak was pissed off when the Tories said he could stand as a MP in Richmond , Sunak thought it was Richmond on Thames , not Richmond in " the north "
Oddly, we used to think that way about 'London' up in Scotland but having SNP in charge for 17 years has taught us that there are actually worse things, than having a single government UK in London.
Thanks to devolution, London is effectively a different country.
@@ICHall-og5zk LOL..... and he's educated?
Thank you for this video, we need more voices talking about this! Britain... 6th richest country in the world where healthcare staff are using foodbanks while not being able to heat their homes while the richest hold more than half the wealth, absolute disgrace
Canada US the same too.
@@Kalatakieta it's like capitalism doesnt work or something, i think there was a guy called karl who figured that out early... or something like that
@@mrguyall2740 you mean the incompetent sloth that was wealthy himself and benefitted greatly of it? Not one communist or even socialist country worked out , many capitalist ones did . The issue is not capitalism but greed and corruption (which was more common during communism lol) . You can do the "they weren't truly communist" thing but technically neither is england , they have welfare therefore aren't true capitalist . Poland , slovakia , germany , sweden , denmark , norway , finland , singapore , japan , korea , china now even (their economy is not communist let's be honest) they're all succeeding - then only losing a little due to matters not due to capitalism .
@@nelyyisoppy6509 But Scandinavia is much more socialist than the UK, and yet richer than the UK and even most parts of the US. Mixed economies work better. An interesting interesting fact is that you are far more likely to become rich in Norway than even in the US!
@@mrguyall2740the bearded fool whos practice resulted in a estimated 450 million people being killed, what a brilliant man
I’ve thought about this a lot recently, and I think there’s basically two problems here:
1. We’re a phenomenally backwards-looking country that just doesn’t want to engage with the modern world or future, content to just tread water. Not one of the top 100 tech companies in the world are British. We’d much rather sit around talking about WW2 and how great we /used to/ be. We are slowly rotting away because we have no vision of a Britain that isn’t going backwards.
2. We find ambition embarrassing. If someone says “I want to start my own business, I want to do something amazing”, we cringe. We see it as a bit empty-headed and American and chavvy. We’d much rather keep our heads down and just get on with it. Perhaps it’s due to the class system.
We need to reindustrialise, desperately. We need a generation of people who are aggressively, desperately futuristic in their thinking, don’t care what Britain was, and only want to build. Imagine if the entire North was covered in multi-billion-pound factories building world-class AI chips and scientific equipment. We have the education system, we have the manpower - that’s where we need to be.
100% agree
So what the UK needs to be is to stop expecting the country to be as culture and to accept you will live in a state owned cyberpunk hell hole where everyone is depressed.
People aren't starting businesses because the start up is too expensive and the paperwork to long with to many hoops to to jump through..
I would say we need the opposite , rather than focus on business we need to focus on culture and grant people agency through that.
The society should be driven from the bottom up , not top down like both the conservatives and labour want
"multi-billion-pound factories building world-class AI chips and scientific equipment" Yeah talking about cringe.... I don't think you have any idea how difficult producing the latest computer chips are, even America and China can't keep up with Taiwan currently. You're going to have to think again.
@@raven-sf3di This. Bottom up not top down. The UK has always been a top down culture. Everyone do what the king says. But since the 80's everytime the torys get into power they cut funding to counsels (no wonder they started going bankrupt). I mean they have made it clear they don't want them to exist and we should be a centeral goverment. Issue is they made cuts and then loaned out money. The only reason our ecconomey is going up is due to us collecting that debt. Theres no insentive to invest and when your life is just a number on a spreadsheet to them. Unless you cause issue with sqular they have no reason to change it
The availability of cash for investment from capital markets crucial. Do not see it happening, makes more sense for investors to diversify their investments abroad.
Investment down, income down, trade down, health system collapse, opportunities lost. How did the conservatives help us? Anyone?
The root of the problem is the people who vote for them. You're not getting rid of Tories without dealing with the people who vote for them.
Do you think Starmers labour will be the answer to those problems?
its globalists that have caused the problem. both parties are the problem, stop being dumb and realise that.
Starmer is literally doing the same thing the tories did but with more oppression
@@dbz9393 The only people that are being oppressed are the nat-C cnts organising pogroms against British minorities.
It's funny that they scrapped the northern leg of HS2 and this project was supposed to be about leveling up even though most of the investment is now going into the south east...
Yes and Scotland still had to pay a portion because Westminster holds the purse strings
HS2 is nothing more than a clever deception. The real reason for it is the relief of local commuter train paths into and out of London terminals.
@@Dominate955 imo it was always about benefits to a few people in the se. That's why they started at the London end. Instead of improving transport across the n where its needed.
Apparently 1 million people come to the U.K. every year, how can that not have an effect
And 900,000 go on life long benefits. The other 100,000 set up little “ businesses “ that are just fronts for crime.
And almost exclusively for the worse.
You people are obsessed with immigrants holy heck.
@ that’s because we’re literally being over run by them. “You people” just don’t want us to point it out
being poorer than Mississippi is insane as someone from America
Mississippi ain't that bad buddy.
That's a bit rude, not everybody from America is insane, its just that some of them cannot construct unambiguous sentences.
Yes, if you took away London.
@@marcv2648have you been there? Mississippi is shit
@@osamataha336 No it's not.
Thatcherism in the 1980s fundamentally shifted the UK’s economic landscape towards free-market capitalism, deregulation, privatization of public assets, and a reduction in the power of trade unions. While these policies aimed to boost economic growth, they also significantly increased income inequality by favoring the wealthy and large corporations. By reducing social safety nets and public investment, the gap between the rich and poor widened, creating a more polarized society that still affects the UK today. Thatcher's legacy of neoliberalism set a precedent that continues to influence government policies and exacerbate inequality.
The difference was reduced under Labour and increased again since 2010. Thatcher was 40 years ago
train drivers make 70k in the UK due to their trade union let that sink in
Very well said
@@dbz9393and it’s far too much
She always said her greatest achievement was causing labour to become a reformed centrist party and not a more socialist party like it used to be
This isn't a glitch..... It's a feature. It's deliberate. This is how things have been for most of history. It's really only post ww2 when the ordinary workers had a sniff of the good life. Since then capital has been working overtime to push us back into the gutter.
Yes, the classless Swinging Sixties were a total anomaly. Britain always reverts to feudalism, like a dog returning to its own vomit.
@@johnkeane1419 neo serfdom
People overestimate how wealthy the aristocracy was back then. There was not much technology back then so the gap in comfort was not that high. Plus they had more responsibility back then. They largely served in military and could die alongside the grunts. Before you say no they stood in the back and barked orders; that is only true if they survive charging in as cavalry when they are young. When they get to old age, they command from the rear.
@@MbisonBalrog This. It's worse than it ever was because capital is power. The problem is capitalism, not any UK specific thing.
@@johnkeane1419Every nation does. Not just Britain.
From what I understand, it’s not just one specific issue but more like a mix of several underlying problems that are creeping up on the UK-things like economic inequality, stagnating wages, rising debt levels, and even problems within the housing market. They all seem to be interrelated.
Exactly, and that’s what makes it such a tough problem to solve. It’s not like one clear-cut issue, and because it’s "hidden," a lot of people are struggling, but the full extent of it doesn’t always make the headlines. For example, look at housing prices. They’ve skyrocketed, and so many people, especially younger generations, are being priced out of the market
Oh, the housing crisis is a huge part of it. I’ve read that in some areas, average house prices are 10 to 15 times the average income
That’s insane! It’s becoming impossible for people to own property without taking on enormous debt, and even then, many can’t afford it.
And it’s not just housing. I think rising living costs in general are pushing people to the brink. Utilities, groceries, transportation-it’s all getting more expensive while wages aren’t keeping pace.
Exactly! And then there’s the issue of debt. Personal debt is rising, and that’s putting even more pressure on households. People are using credit cards just to cover basic expenses. It’s scary how close many are to financial disaster if something unexpected happens like losing a job or an unexpected medical bill
Litter streets has nothing to do with poverty, it is a lack of civism. You can be poor and clean and organized at the same time.
civility
Sort of. But there is a tipping point. A community is probably more easily depressed than an individual. Where as an individual can be lifted out of depression by a community, a community can not be lifted out of depression by an individual. Which goes to explain the need for community scape goats like foreigners, and god
@@donkeyDangerMouse Ireland turned its fortunes around. Why can't the UK?
@Itriedtobe-wq9lj there are only so many places that rich people who want to hide money need to hide money. Another tax haven in the world is not necessary.
Also, there are 5 million people in Ireland, and 66 million people in the UK
The people of Britain no longer have any sense of civic responsibility. All civic responsibility has been taken on by the state. The state wanted a dependent population and they have achieved it.
Britian is Romania with Monaco attached
Funny and sad.
If only.
@@homodeus8713 No. Just funny. I see nothing sad about the UK slowly returning to nothing but it's true value, which is purely agricultural. In a world where everything moves fast and faster, living on an island with difficult and expensive (time-wise and money-wise) crossings is killing it, plus the extra import/export difficulties now with Brexit.
except it's possible to make ends meet in Romania
A good analogy. However under this current government we will soon achieve a perfect parity. With a starving village in Kazakhstan.
“If you are more productive…you’re going to receive a higher salary”.
Oh, my dear sweet summer child.
By productive he means if you make more money for your company you'll earn more because you are then worth more to that company.
I think you're confusing being hardworking with being productive.
@@pierzing.glint1sh76But actually, productivity has been decoupled from wage growth for over two decades now, so they're right by either measure.
@jopearson6321 that is true.
However it is also true that if your productivity actually brings value for the company. Your wages will go up.
Simple supply and demand.
@@pierzing.glint1sh76 Often, yes. But far from always. Speaking from bitter experience.
@jopearson6321 that's office politics for you lol
Not sure whether to put that at the doorstep at the government
Main reason for the inequality is the collapse in nationwide manufacturing in favour for London services but on top of that for over a decade we have had a government that either believe trickle down economics works when it does not or are corrupt and therefore favour policies that move money from the working class to the rich. They do this through the tax system, privatisation of services, unfettered cheap labour through immigration, weak regulations against business owners unloading dept, crashing companies whilst withdrawing huge profits and allowing tax loopholes holes for the rich.
nice, you mix concepts that are typical on the left (privatisation, tax loopholes) but you add argumentation that the left over looks intentionally to get the votes from migrants (mass immigration, manufacturing gone)..how refreshing from the binary view of the politicians
The thing that really bugs me is... that this is easy to see. Yet people are still not protesting, still voting for the same parties (at least that is changing but for how long?). People should have protested this 10, 20, 30 years ago... now the younger generations are f***** times 10. And don't be fooled, this happend in Germany and many other countries too. We're just 5 years behind.
Wealth inequality, the fact that it's all geared toward the wealthy getting wealthier through acquiring assets and not paying enough tax is the scourge of our society. We could fix everything if this inequity was addressed properly.
@@aries6776 nahhh that's the marxist reaction that brings poverty to everyone. One needs industry, manufacturing, long term strategy for energy/technology/food independence, good education promoting excellence, safety / stability, controled/good immigration with assimilation (not integration with parallel culture like the UK has been doing for 40 years) THEN one needs equality, every one needs to pay tax fairly but not making it a disadvantage to the hard working folks, you've got to get the balance right to promote work, inovation and risk. Low wages should be less taxed too, to promote work, affecting less the low earners.
@@732daven If things continue as they are then the majority of workers may well prefer the "Marxist Reaction".
In London every bus journey is £1 no matter the length. Where I am in Scotland it's just under £6 for a bus return ticket to the next town only 2.5 miles away. Working people can't afford public transport.
Those free prescriptions in Scotland though 😅 ...£9.90 per item in the UK, free dental care (UK check up £26.80 highest band of care per tooth £319.10 ontop), eyes tests (£20 check up) and glasses, water costs included in council tax under Scottish water (and no raw sewage dumped in beaches or rivers) and tuition fees paid for. It's £9,250 in the UK (excluding maintenance) per year.
@@happyfayez3723 What about the higher income tax we pay?
Bus journeys in London haven’t been £1 for about 10’years
@@petc8504 cost of disalusionment and disconnect - priceless 😂
@@happyfayez3723income tax is MUCH higher in Scotland. Nothing is free.
Something has to give in the UK, people are watching their wages remain stagnant as costs go up every year, public services no longer work, a post code lottery whether you get a good gp, rents increasing, house prices increasing, less jobs out there, hundreds competing for one job. This country is well and truly broken. There will reach a point where the youth leave the UK because how bleak their future looks
genuinely a lot of people already have moved abroad or are wanting to!
I know a substantial amount of people moving out of the UK going to Australia, or other European countries post university. The only decent thing the UK has got going is it's access to quality education. Besides that life here is pretty depressing.
@@benstirling9324which is why I will leave this place once in my mid twenties or early thirties. Not many opportunities for my generation.
How much of your sentence is made up LOL ,
@@gutinstinct4067 ratiod
All I know about this is that absolutely nothing is going to change.
The UK has enough money for their population to live well, but nine tenth of the cake, if you like, is consumed or hoarded by the ones sitting as the biggest welfare beneficiary of the country. The one tenth is divided amongst the have nots.
Boaties are costly 🤷
My job involves looking at regional innovation and economic development through R&D and this is actually a very good introductory video that captures the issues pretty well. Decades of govts of both colours have failed to address this. It is no surprise the nation is struggling when most of the country hasn't been harnessed.
My friend who is a Doctor Moved away from a posh part of Richmond to Stoke on Trent
1 Gets the same wages with the NHS
2 Housing is Vary Cheap
3 Pint is Cheaper
@roaaarrryStaffordshire (Stoke on Trent) is a vast and beautiful county (area). Just because he works at hospital in Stoke doesn’t mean he lives in the “inner city”. Stoke on Trent is made up of “six towns” with beautiful country side and affluent towns nestled between the original six towns. Stop making lazy assumptions.
@@michellekeeling3392 correct and if you can afford private school the problem is later on. For example, if you have children they may have to move away to get decent jobs unless they work in the public sector.
Stoke on trent is a shithole though
There are myriad good reasons to get out of London. The Air quality, congestion, rip offs of every hue etc etc.
This is a real issue. I live between Manchester and Liverpool. I work in Liverpool it takes me 2 hours and thirty minutes to get home.
Why not re train and work from home?
@@ed61730 fuck up
Better to leave the UK and cut your losses. The standard of living in the UK will be lower in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years than it is today.
@@marcv2648 that's the idea
@@ed61730 Why not take the train instead of walking home?
Excellent video, which is tapping into my own thoughts on what is so wrong with the UK. It's a shame that politicians aren't aware of this stuff. They are too busy lining their pockets and smoozing with millionaires and other government ministers.
British politicians are fully aware of what they are doing. They just don't care.
Mostly correct. Don't forget, though, that the mining industry was very strong in The South. There were quite a few mines in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and WIltshire. Swindon was a very industrial town. The issue isn't North vs South. Notherners and Southerners are pitted against each other. The real problem is Thatcher and Neo-liberalism. Swindon and Devon are a proper mess and they are very much in the south. Think this needs to be remembered. By the way, my Grandfather worked on the train lines in Swindon. Place is now very rough and dead.
It's deliberate divide and rule, yes.
The fact that in a generation London has become a minority English city definitely fuels resentment. Whole parts of the city are compl changed forever. Mass migration has changed the social fabric and has benefited the upper class at the cost of working class English people
People from Rural and Deprived areas go to University, but never return to their home area. They get jobs in the big cities. Therefore the non-city areas remain deprived due to less educated workers in poor paying jobs, struggling to get by. This happened with 4 of my children. Who now live so far away they will be unable to help me or their father as we get older, so more poorly paid carer jobs where we live.
hear hear
Watch Gary’s Economics. As a former forex trader he explains how the financial- political system works to create inequality and how raising taxes on the ultra rich is the way to fix it
We need to block tax havens and keep taxes in the Uk
@@Yangking-z9d You mean you want to invade the Cayman Islands?
Gary is a fraud. There is more than one way to avoid those taxes and rightly so.
@@Yangking-z9dcity of London is a tax haven too
@@OnlyNetEdits That's where we start first
Its not hidden, the problem is massive migration, low skilled workers being exploited and black economy not paying taxes... the indigenous folk who are priced out of buying their own homes, longer waits for health care and public services.. is a massive strain on the standard of living.
London statistics are not broken down correctly... You fail to mention how many people living/working in London with the High Cost of living means they're living in worse relative poverty than the rest of the country...
I'd rather have average wages and live in the north than average wages and live in London..
Yes most of the wealth is in London and the southeast, but it doesnt mean if you live in London youre more wealthy or better off...
I felt their was a glossing over of the migration problem. 9.5 million economically inactive people, 8 million of which ate in receipt of government money means we don't need more. We need better educational outcomes, industrial strategy, focus on AI and robotics, overhaul of the benefits system and a move from low skill, low paid work to high paying high skill work.
@@hilarygibson3150now this is the cause of the real problem! No one seems to want to discuss .
Social welfare has caused dysfunction in Britain 🇬🇧
Yes indeed. London has a microcosm of the problems in some ways. The richest and poorest areas are here. Their lives are far apart despite being in the same city. Even people who live a few miles from the centre have no concept of what it's like in the suburbs - and are derogatory of them. I was born in the former and if I want more than a one bed flat, have to live in the latter, dependent on the privatised rail service rather than the tube which only reaches the North and West really.
@@paulleighton7078 No it hasn't. We have the lowest benefits in Western Europe. He means we need to stop punishing people by withdrawing ALL benefits as soon as anyone tries to gain paid work.
@@mattsawyer343😂😂😂 total cognitive dissonance. The benefit scroungers have holidays abroad paid by the Government, that's how generous the welfare is in the UK. That's why southern Spain and Portugal are invaded every summer by thousands of vomiting loutish british on benefits.
London as a service based economy actually has low productivity, but high profit margins. They don't 'produce' anything, really, debentures, commercial paper, debt etc, are products of the financial market, but they're not produce in the way a teak table may be, or a well made set of cutlery.
My thoughts precisely.
There's a difference between profitability and productivity and they get confused many times even by people that should know better.
London is profitable, not productive.
@@truthismycause2800 Ironically, London is profitable by dealing in debt, that's how unproductive London is.
The UK embraces poverty in my opinion, it has been normalised amongst people. Post a photo of some run down terrace street saying it looks bad; people will defend it.
The state forced dependency on the population to maintain control. NHS mentality is now the ethos of the nation.
@@marcv2648 very true
The UK is probably the most feudal of all developed economies.
...apart from Japan.
Investing in alternate income streams should be the top priority for everyone right now. especially given the global economic crisis we are currently experiencing. stocks, gold, silver, and virtual currencies are still attractive investments at the moment.
Everyone needs more than their salary to be financial stable. The best thing to do with your money is to invest it rightly, because money left for saving always end up used with no returns.
Am looking for something to venture into on a short term basis, I really need to create an alternate source of income, what do you think I should be buying?
Cryptocurrency investment, but you will need a professional guide on that.
Facebook 👇
Evelyn C. Sanders
The most recent kick in the teeth is that upper middle class London office workers have moved to areas with cheaper housing but kept the higher city income via working from home. The lock downs were the biggest wealth transfer of the last century.
I know one of these she is a doctor and works from her 'cottage' in the South of France
I was one of those naive people who believed that joining Europe would bring much more egalitarianism,
better public transport, cheaper home rents, cleaner, safer streets and a willingness to adopt best practices that were obviously benefitting our European neighbors.
All my hopes were shattered by a total disregard for any social policies in preference for private greed.
I'm in my mid seventies now and really feel for upcoming generations.
They are sunk.
As an ex-Englishman the problem is dumb policies of central government. I was lucky enough to be accepted to live in Australia at the age of 55!
Australia has a much fairer and democratic electoral system too.
How are you liking your new homeland?
As a fellow Aussie I hope its going well for you brother
@@Gaspo123 I am loving it here. I am much better off in all ways and have far more friends. I feel that I was born Australian on the wrong side of the world!
@PeterMullinger I'm glad it's going well for you. You're home now so all is as it should be by the sounds of it.
@@PeterMullinger Good on yer mate.
And this is why so many people from the UK are moving to Australia.
It's the best professionals that are going
@@rogermccallum4466 So the UK is experiencing a brain drain now? Wow
For a growing channel, I highly appreciate all the animations you've done!
Thanks so much!
For a growing channel, there a lot of idiots prepared to risk it in a home made rubber dinghy
@@TheInvisibleHandCo You spelled 'Leyland' wrong though
UK just needs to focus on feeding its own people on land. Once food is dealt with then the populous can have the luxury of time to focus more on innovation.
It is not a difficult problem. Just jeeds investment. However, politicians are chomping at war. For too long politicians have seen the voters as the problem. "Too many people"
Boris johnson is classic for it he openly held distain against tue very people he pandered towards, and yet he gots voted in. It is mind-boggling
Impressive analysis so spot on wish those UK govt folks could see your work
So why is there not more thought and planning used to deal with these issues? Because most of the National Wealth is in private hands. That is the fact of the matter and this fact is indisputible.
The fact is that 75% of the UK is foreign-owned and 74% of jobs in the past few years have gone to foreign migrants.
London isn’t rich , a small part is
Exactly most Londoners are struggling as well. They get the privilege of paying higher COL to live closer to their bosses.
Income has to be higher in London than other UK areas because housing, travel, commercial rent etc is much higher in London
@@lin90210 most still not paid enough live comfortably even in Londontown
London is rich, the people living there aren't.
Same in all major capitals @@joshbrown2217
We all paid attention
Our governments didn’t listen
I mean the internal economic border between London and the rest of the UK is essentially one of the massive issues that have allowed London to build up far more than it could have done otherwise and attracted talent from all over the UK to it in a way that the rest of the uk cannot compete with. The issue is actually the hyper focus on London over all other areas that has been going on for decades
Most people in London suffer as well. The only difference is the work more closely/directly to the wealthy elites. They live nearby, but pay higher rent, COL etc etc.
@MbisonBalrog oh I get that the system works badly for Londoners as well. The hyper focus on London is not for the poor/lower middle class people, though there are good events in a reasonable distance. I imagine if you're not rich in london, simply get pushed further out or into what are nearly ghettos. It's just that it tends to mess up the economy outside of London far more over a long period of time.
@@samuelsharp2342 as a Northerner I felt that the poverty in East London, cited as the reason the Olympics Games were held there was a bit (forgive me), rich. I am an art lover, it would take me a day to go to see the paintings I love, but for a Londoner the greatest art in the world is a short bus ride or train ride away, same with much music, shops even Prem. football teams though they cost a packet to buy tickets for.
What makes it even more deplorable is that it was a conscious decision. There was a fear in govt that London would become a second class world capital and so many decades of investment were concentrated there at the expense of the rest of the country.
@@mattwright2964 yep. the fear of the power of the working classes vested in Trade Unions (very broadly speaking, oop North), whereas when Thatcher moved the power totally to London, she knew she was giving jobs to the privately educated few who agglomerated around the capital. And the thing about the privately educated is, they are loyal (to her), they know what side their bread is buttered ....
The amount of foreign owners of housing by millionaires and billionaires in unacceptable in London and drives up house prices as many of them own not one but multiple properties.
Some important facts have been omitted. Most notably the outsourcing of jobs to Asia in the early 2000s. Secondly, the demise of the cotton industry in the late 1960s.
Good Old Mrs Thatcher much loved by the Daily Mail, Look upon her works and weep
Very good video :) desperately needed in these times! This is coming from someone from the South East and is currently struggling 🤖
There is so much money been spent in London. They is nothing left for the rest of the country
Your videos are absolutely incredible! Very accurate, analytical, and not biased politically, which is hard to find these days. Keep up the great work!
Thankyou!
@TheInvisibleHandCo is there any hope for people who move there that are homeless? I don't like how it is living in the United States with people being able to control homeless people. In my situation I didn't know that I was adopted out of China
@@TheInvisibleHandCoChina had some type of agreement with Great Britain and these 2 countries have been dealing with each other for a long time
London is not just a financial capital to the world with a lot of incoming profit from abroad, but is also Britain's Insurance, legal, and political capital. These sector's are like the British East India trading company, but totally international in scope. Just how focused could these sectors be on local manufacturing when it's clearly outside of their business model?
The voice over keeps talking about Britain and the UK but every graphic seems to think that northern Britain ends at the Scottish border
They tried to picture Scotland but everytime they did a Salmon came and took them for themselves
@@alaskanmalamute101I think the same salmon also took Wales and Northern Ireland as well
I thought the UK was a group of countries, not only England. I don’t see any information about Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland 😅
@@patpr-scot They're all poor. So what's the difference?
It's said that as far as London is concerned nothing exists north of the Watford gap.....
I am leaving the UK and returning to my country. I wish I decided to leave sooner, I stayed here for 8 years and put effort in my studies and job all thinking it will be worth it. Socially, culturally I don't belong here, I don't have the same values as my peers and I have felt more and more alone the more people I have met that I cannot connect or bond with because of the culture. I wish at 27 I had a different more rich and fulfilling personal life with a loving partner. I have been alone here the entire freaking time.
Telling comment. Great English!
Hang on. Yes, southern England is generally more prosperous than the UK, and salaries are higher, but then, so is the cost of living. A house in London will cost FAR more than a house anywhere else in the UK, and can in fact be worth double the equivalent value in other areas. As a retired civil servant, I know that if I had worked in London, I would have earned a higher salary, but in fact it would have been inadequate to cope with the difference in the cost of living.
We are a people with a deeply ingrained feudalistic mindset, which doesnt mean we sit around dreaming of becoming peasants, however we carry over the values of feudalism in our beliefs. We dont question these beliefs or even examine them enough to acknowledge their existence.
I think a lot of Britains think that tbe rich know best, especially if they have some kind of title. We think it's better to leave the important stuff up to them. There is a contradictory to reality narrative about the rich, that they worked hard for what they have and that they must know what is best because of it. Everyone else who isnt rich just hasnt worked hard enough for it.
Then there is 'the devil makes work for idle hands' morality. Work became a moral issue during feudalism, because telling people that if they didnt work themselves to the bone while being humble and meek would land them in hell worked a charm. The meaning of life was to work, you will be rewardrd in the afterlife, but for now work, suffer, reproduce and die. The clergy told people to not do this was a sign that they were evil. Guilt is a very affective way to control people, as well as all the violence and poverty. Kings and lords however were god given, as in they were assigned by God, and therefore inherently righteous and didnt have to suffer guilt for being idle.
Dont get me started on the education system. Obviously you had to be rich to have an education, but also it took a long time for the bible to be translated from latin into a language lay people could read, and even then most peolle could not read. The only english revolution came about at a time when people were sick and tired of inequality. Back then religion was politics, religions carried political ideologies, and protestantism had been brewing as an opposition to catholicism. Catholicism believed in a hierarchy of priests who gatekept access to god, and kept incredible riches in their holy sites as a display of power. Only priests could read the word of god and understand it, only they could have riches, only they could have power, only they could have a clear guiltless path to heaven, everyone else had to work and suffer for it. Protestants however believed that everyone should be able to read the bible and have access to god, that no one man should be above the other when it came to acces to god. They believed you could practise worshipping god in your in home with your family, you could be an individual with a personal relationship with god. The bible was also used to teach people to read, and for a long while it was literally illegal to have an English translation bible. People were also becoming more ambitious, many rich merchants were protestants, these were people who were not lords but had built wealth (though most certainly off the backs of those under them). There were many different kind of protestant's who believed different things, the puritans were more conservative and authoritarian than say, the anarchistic and liberal ranters, or the more communistic diggers (yes silly names i know). The world of christianity was very different than it is now, i view it as proto politics, what political ideology came out of. Basically the rich hated that ordinary people were become more educated, and did not rely on them to dictate God and what he meant to them. If everyone had a personal relationship with God, that could mean anything, and people could stand up and say "well actually god says I don't need to work all day!" or "Well actually god is in all of us so we should be equal and share our wealth!". People got outcasted, tortured and killed for these beliefs, but they persisted. Some of these factions were completely erased, with their beliefs being mischaracterised completely as debased and devil worship, which people believed because the sheer ammount of it was hugely disproportionate to that actual size of these factions. This especially happened to those factions that believed in equality, even sexual liberation (in the15 -1600's!), very very modern concepts.
Then ofcourse like everything there's always some rich guy who goes wow I like that and then takes whatever it is and makes it into his own tool for power, who was ofcourse Henry the 8th who adopted protestantism and created his own church (the church of england) which is just a hybrid between catholicism and aspects of protestantism.
How does this translate today? People work themselves to the bone even if they have physical disabilities (these injuries often the result of overwork, and therefore should be cared for), believing that if they dont they will be bad, that their families and society will disapprove. Look at the stigma around unemployment, whether you are unemployed because there is no work, or you are unemployed because you cant work, you are seen as a drain on society and an example of what not to be. The afterlife has been replaced by retirement, a fantasy that keeps some of us alive. If we work hard enough then we'll get enough money to have a good retirement, but if we dont work hard enough then we dont deserve that rest. In reality there are people working their asses off far more than any eton boy will ever, who are in physical and mental pain, and still dont get enough money to have anywhere near that nice retirement fantasy. Many will be forced to retire due to old age and ill health and made to freeze to death in the winter with barely anything to their name. Which is why many people have kids, so this wont happen, but still these kids just enter the same work force and are taught the same stories by their parents. Yet we still idolise the rich, we fantasise about being them, imagine that one day if we work hard enough, are smart enough. The education system is abysmal, so no one's going to veer away from these feudal ideas around work. People who believe in equality and the rights of all people are seen as morally reprehensible, and tearing apart the nation. Etc etc.
I would mention angle british nationalism here, but that's another topic for another day, and another ideology we carry around without thinking about. I am not a historian but the way Britain is now is explained in its history, something that we think is only "how we won" ww2 and how 'glorious' the empire was, the monarchy, or any other delusional nonsense that we cant quite connect with in any emotional way.
Yay right Blane all the problems of UK today in Latin language bibles 600 years ago. Reading???? UK was one of the last European countries to establish free compulsory government supported primary schools. Not until 1870s. And there was a massive objection that came from the poor workers. “ How will the children earn their bread if they’re in school until they’re 12?”
Yay right blame the problems of the 21st century on a religion that was outlawed almost 600 years ago.
Thank you for this video everything you said is correct from a northerner living well in the countryside
Actually, I see, this is not just a British problem. It is also the current European situation.
And afaik the US too. Everywhere these neoliberal "trickle down" ideas went. Trickle down my a** amirite
A friend of mine had an electronics business in Essex. To expand he took a govt grant to build a bright modern new factory in wales. After 5 years he shut it down, The welsh are lazy & so riddled with the union mentality that inspite of the factory being more modern he got less work from the welsh workers due to their laziness than the essex workers. The essex staff also shunned the unions & were generally much happier for it.
13:58 , damn hope those 4 people are ok
*Almost* 4 people
@@harukiito8655 3 people and a dog
hahaha
Amazing work! Happy for you to acknowledge the inequality as a possible reason for the anger!
Transport for London has so much money it can spunk 134 million quid on updating Old Street tube and the roundabout nearby. Mean while there is no high speed rail link between Manchester and Leeds, two of our most important Northern cities.
Britain’s class war is utterly ignored today after being a major part of the political conversation a few decades ago. The ruling classes exploited the poor for millennia. You had to own property to vote until WW1. The rich spent good money to separate themselves from the poor to the point where they developed a separate accent. This history needs to be told, clearly and loudly. There is a reason that the poor built the Labour Party, and there is a reason why at its birth it was so heavily left-wing. Our British ancestors understood their daily needs and built something to directly go after them. Modern Britain refuses to look its problems in the eye, and when it does it shrugs its shoulders and blames someone like Immigrants. As if a group poorer than the mainstream could hurt the mainstream.
I agree but it's not sustainable to let in unlimited amounts of Immigrants.
And now the Labour Party is run by middle and upper class mid-witsz
"When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich" ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau
That was when the rich were fatter than the poor. There has been a roll reversal.
unless the rich convince them that it's all some immigrant's fault
Regional disparities definitely exist and contribute to Britain's differential geographical decay; however there's a sense that Britain is somehow unique in its current and recent experience of immigration and its impact on these social and economic dynamics; you only have to look at the European Union to observe an increasing "concern" (massive understatement) about this issue.
*Incidentally, the general standard of written and spoken English used by people in Britain is very gradually and subtlely going down.*
Planning and careful investment is something UK governments are incompetent at unfortunately
It's not just about equality but a deep historical cultural one along with other awful problems that mass worldwide immigration has caused to this once homogenous nation that is being torn apart by millions of forced most; from third-world and some from ex-communist bloc nations! We have never had all these awful problems since mass post-1947 immigration!
If people choose a "degree" that does not require the student to achieve degree level outcomes, the qualification will certainly have little value. Blairs policy of treating higher education as a source of revenue rather than an investment in the Country's future is the basis of our current problems!
Most graduates working in London aren't from London. The opportunities for work in London sap all the talent from everywhere else. What needs to happen is for these opportunities to be outside of London.
From Belgium : Belgians have voted for Federalism : Flanders keeps her income, Wallonia keeps her income, Brussels keeps her income, there is some income left for the state functionning. For 150 years, Brussels has been spending 80% of the country taxes on lavish and stupid projects. Now, Brussels can beg to EU institutions for a bit of financing, the debts generated by their Metro, Hospitals, Museums are their own debts, and they starve paying them... Flanders and Wallonia found this way to close the running tap and start developing infrastructures for the future of their economies.
Over centralisation is a big factor in the uk.
The problem is the societal classes, prompting the notion of entitlement which then rationalises greed as a good thing, when it is actually a destructive thing
Giving (Greater) Manchester a proper underground heavy rail metro system would massively increase efficiency and GDP, and would turn it into a real powerhouse, giving some geographic balance to the UK economy
If that's such a good idea why has no organisation provided it? UK taxpayers' money is not the answer, but that of Manchester's might be? As if !
There was an underground proposed for Manchester they may have even started it but hey. tight-fistedness put paid to it (SHOCK)
One cannot function in London if one’s work requires a car.For instance,those working in theatre ,which by the way,indirectly brings a lot of money to London,struggle to do their job.London for me has become a nightmare to avoid.
I always wish the Thames Estuary and Medway towns were mentioned in videos like this. They are in a pretty similar state to Northern towns, both presently and historically. Culturally, economically and voting wise.
It's an elaborate explanation but the real cause inequality is where it is (and not just in the UK) is because of government & monetary decisions. The former has made bailing out big companies normal, creating a riskless environment for company owners while the latter increases their asset portfolio through artificially low rates.
After all the biggest reason most are poorer (relatively speaking) is because of the higher share of cost relating to accommodation. A factor explicitly driven by a decade of unjustified low rates that propped up asset values and money printing that permitted (bailed out) large institutional investors to become owners of the majority stock.
We like to blame free markets but our system is anything but that. It's crony capitalism driven by institutions and career policy makers that require a complex interconnected web of them.
I would give it another name. I would call it Keynesianism and the central banks' rule since 19
It's not all great in London though either. A quarter of Londoners are living in poverty. Look at places like Tower Hamlets were around 48% of children live in poverty, the highest rate in the country. 1 in 50 Londoners are homeless, with more homeless children in London than rest of England combined. If you are wealthy London is great, But for lots of working class Londoners its not great.
(I've always worked in Engineering and Manufacturing in London my whole life too, which seems to confuse some people. Many don't seem to think we have factories in London).
It would help if the people of tower Hamlets got jobs....
Poverty is grim wherever you are. But even then, if you have to live in poverty, you're better off living in poverty in London than living in poverty in Blackpool. There's more investment in the public infrastructure around you, and the opportunity to escape that poverty is more accessible.
London just shows the massive divide between the rich and the poor. Wealth inequality is the root cause of nearly all our issues.
I work for a company that started from Bradford but as Leeds has better transport links then I work in Leeds. You can plant seeds in places but you have to water them for the plants to grow.
London has prospered at the expense of the scant comfort of the rest of the UK. This spurs discontent amongst Brits elsewhere, especially the working class.
Fair enough, but don’t try to suggest it’s the income inequality and not the importation of masses of third worlders with a starkly different culture causing most strife in the U.K. and threatening its future.
It's both.
If social cohesion is reduced by inequality, and this leads to the unrest we saw recently, why did the rioting not occur in Scotland where the average earnings are even lower than England and Wales?
I don't deny the link, but I'm keen to hear theories on Scotland's exception from this summer's unrest.
Scotland consists of a defeated people, distracted and hooked on drugs, alcohol, fast food, and sectarianism….they are a weak and feeble people, socially violent, but politically docile…it is entirely dependent on the largest of the Westminster Government so is happy to sit on the sidelines sniping whilst receiving disproportionate benefits….when the money runs out, and it will, the unrest begins….
Because it's the English Defence league and not the Scottish.
The Scottish blame the English for their problems, the English blame the Muslims......
No africans living in Scotland murdered 3 little girls age 6,7, and 9. Which is the reason there were no riots in Scotland.
They always talk as if serfdom persisted in England into the late C18th. But the last serfs in England and Wales were freed in 1575. By then the institution had been in decline for just over two centuries. By contrast Russia and Sweden still had serfdom in the mid C19th. Early modern England was one of Europe`s more advanced countries at the time. From the last quatre of the C19th we started to fall behind. We have now gone from the world`s first industrial society to the world`s first post-industrial society.
Plenty of places like Jaywick within London.
Just hidden behind the veneer of unfit for purpose ‘luxury’ apartments.
Corporate greed is the rot at root of British society.
When Britain was a rich country,it does not mean that the workers were well off ,far from it,they were low paid cheap labour,who had to live in very poor overcrowded conditions,a lot were undernourished,kids had rickets,TB was rife.i can remember this in my lifetime,and that was in London
Even though this video has 194 views now, trust me it will have 200k+ soon.
Those with power, media barons and the super rich have every interest in maintaining the differential. Differentials give them leverage to exploit...
This is a very good video! Hats off!!
There's nothing great about Britain these days. The governments have seen to that..
Leyland not Layland 😂
we do have running water, there are no bombs going off, and help is available for those who need it and are willing to seek it. I might be idealistic, but people in the UK are still better off than those in places like Yemen or other war-torn countries. That's why so many people risk their lives on rubber boats to get here."
Not to mention the open invitation to the third world since 1948.
It’s a horrible place to live to be honest
You don’t really factor in the cost of living in both London and the north east, for example you can rent in the north east for around £500 per month whereas in London it would probably cost around £2,000. So even tho the salary is much different this is just adjusted for the crazy cost of living in London. I guess this is probably a loophole for people who own property in London so that they can earn big salaries and not have to pay inflated rent but it’s the same like that in pretty much the majority of countries. I was thinking of moving to Japan and I wanted to live in Tokyo but the cost of living compared to my salary would be almost unliveable because rent of the big popular cities is notoriously high. I also considered Switzerland because they pay 4x my salary compared to England but that’s only because they charge 4x the price for basically everything so essentially I would be earning the same.
They could solve inequality of cities and housing crisis in a month if they wanted to, not just in UK, but worldwide...
How? Using the Swiss model where poorer cantons have lower taxes. Both on company and individual level.
The poorer regions don't want lower taxes. They want higher taxes on everyone and everything. They blame low taxes for them being poor. That's the UK left.
So imo a big deal is centralisation of political power. The UK treasury refuses to invest in poorer areas because of their return on investment formula. Even though better infrastructure (eg more trains and stations) and educational facilities would massively improve the economy in the regions. Most of the tory levelling up fund never got spent because treasury turned down most of the proposals. These treasury rules need changing.
Also, the EU was doing some infrastructure investment in the uk regions so that has gone too.
Why didn’t the UK didn’t build high-speed rail links in the early 70s like they did in France and Germany?
All chances of that were lost under Thatcher and her neoliberal experiment.
Because the country was in the gutter with mass strikes taking place along with a three day working week.
Have you heard of “Les Trente Glorieuses”,? After 1975 the French, like the UK, the US and most other developed economies were screwed, however, the French decided to invest in their entire country unlike the UK which only ever funds its capital city !!
Probably had some potholes we needed to fill.
Because people vote for tax cuts now, not good infrastructure later. When it comes to voting, most people are like turkeys voting for christmas.
This video perfectly captures how I view the country, brilliant job. The only thing I would add is that government doesn't seem to get it. Labour has just come in because of how hated the Tories were (corrupt, useless and full of nepotism) but I think few people have faith in them changing anything. And some of the recent things they've been saying like banning smoking outdoors to protect the NHS is hardly inspiring confidence.
By definition, all MPs are Londoners, that is where they ALL live. Hence the bias. There was a very imaginative scheme to re-home the House of Lords in York while the place was renovated, a vital task for the whole building. But the Parliamentarians rejected it, I mean, where are the wine bars, and the theatres and concert halls, heavens don't they have Yorkshire accents up there?
The Royals should try what successful Middle Class do, "Give Something Back"!!! In real terms, as a percentage of wealth.
Britain a rich country, with a three trillion pound national debt . The late Fred Dibnah put it best , Britain was built by men in overalls and has been ruined by men in suits. We don’t even make our own steel anymore, as an Engineer myself,this says it all .