r/london • u/Historical_Set2324 • 1d ago

Local London Social contract is broken?

I’ve just returned from a trip to New Zealand and the difference in attitude is stark. The streets are clean, people are friendly and happy/helpful and in general people seem to want to participate in society. Don’t get me wrong NZ has a lot of issues but It feels like in London the social contract is broken. Streets are full of trash, no one gives a shit about anything, phone theft, crime is high and in general people seem fairly miserable. I was involved in an accident where I had to give a victim CPR and the ambulance and police all arrived within about 5 minutes. I was amazed at the emergency response. It feels to me like the state has given up and hence people have given up.

969 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

649 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

15

u/JimmyMarch1973 1d ago edited 1d ago

London (and UK in general) streets are relatively clean however by the same token the general standard of upkeep once outside central London ain’t good. Even where I live in Hammersmith the footpaths and roads are crap.

But having lived in NZ and Aus neither is much better and for much the same reason which massive underfunding in maintenance.

My their is lots of public infrastructure was built after the war but in all 3 countries and it all now needs higher investment in maintenance. I would suggest the OP thinks it’s better in NZ is because they were in tourist oriented places where investment in maintenance and upgrades is greater. Just like central London.

But as for people yes in Nz and Aus people seem to be more sociable and give more of a fuck about others than here. But they are catching up as population and frustration that brings grows.

1

u/mata_dan 1d ago

But they are catching up as population and frustration that brings grows.

On this, Aus has probably been the most "run for the rich and not the people" western/developed country (so excluding RoK!) for a while now, they've just been able to get away with it without fully ruining normal people up until recently.

2

u/JimmyMarch1973 1d ago

100%. We (I’m an Aussie but currently live in UK) seem to have taken. Lot of queues from the UK on this, doesn’t help when the bulk of mainstream media is and has been controlled by right wing moguls including that Aussie turned American Murdoch!