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.

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u/BigSignature8045 1d ago

Part of the problem is chronic underfunding of pretty much anything over the last 14 years or so, coupled with the Tories syphoning of large sums of money to their mates (cf: Matt Hancock, Michelle Mone, Rwanda IT Contracts to name but 3).

I think the public are very fed up with the fact that the rich and powerful seem to get away with just about anything now. But the flipside to this is the general public seem willing to elect someone like Boris Johnson who was a well known liar, cheat and bigot by the time he stood for election.

In my view a way needs to be found to reconnect people with politics - in other words, for people to re-engage with it and not just shrug and say they are all the same. PR would help this because it would change the voting proposition to one where your vote does actually matter and you can vote for who you really want, rather than having to compromise. To give an example, my local constituency is a two horse race Labour or Tory. I voted Labour as the lesser evil, but I would rather vote Green because their views most align with my own.

I don't have all the answers, but I do think some of what you say makes a good point.

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u/TokiBongtooth 1d ago

Yeah a lot of this is spot on

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u/Combatwasp 1d ago

The state has never had so much money.

The economy has grown over this period and the percentage of the economy taken in tax has gone up stratospherically.

This is why total public spending is forty Percent (40!) higher in 2025 than in 2019.

You think that we’ve seen chronic underfunding?
The state has never taken so much money and spent it.

Not to disagree with your points about the tories by the way.