The Decline

Everyone can see that England is in decline. I often go out of my way to engage with people in non-political spaces in conversations about the world around them. I strike up conversations with taxi drivers, cashiers, sales assistants, bus drivers, and people in queues - whomever. Whenever I am in the prolonged presence of a member of the general public, I try to understand their thought process and pry out some of their perspective on their country.

I try not to be overly directive with this conversation. Usually, I start, in the traditional English manner, with a comment about the weather. This is often followed up with a comment about the shared activity we are both involved in or waiting for. If time permits, such as on a taxi ride or if the queue is particularly long, I will gently prod about "how things are going," in some way. The answer to this, as one might expect, is never very positive, nor is it very negative. Things are going ‘okay’.

It is usually without being prompted that people will volunteer that the country is in outright decline. Very rarely do I have to ask "How do you think the country is going at the moment?"; although, at times, I will do so. The answer to this question is always very negative. Things are not going well, and everyone seems to be able to see it.

There is a distinct pall that has fallen over us, and nobody seems to know why. Whenever a stranger points out our decline, I ask them what they believe the cause to be. They usually return a shrug and appeal to some greater, ephemeral force with no apparent connection.

I have had immigrants tell me that they plan to leave because the decline of this country is so palpable. One man told me that his uncle had planned to sell property in India, but he had advised him to keep it because soon people will be emigrating en masse. "Why would anyone want to stay in a country in such obvious decline?", he asked me. I replied with a simple “Good point.” It is a good point.

Whenever I ask if anyone has ever attempted to explain the decline, the answer is always no. None of our politicians dare even acknowledge it, and the media steadfastly ignores it, so there is nobody of great wisdom available to the general public to inform them why we are in decline and what can be done about it.

Some of the more politically minded will make an inference and give me what they believe to be a concrete reason without providing detail. It is the government, or the sheer number of people, or corporate greed. They may well be right and have identified at least one facet of the cause of the decline, but they cannot articulate the precise connection that these things have with the general degradation of the country around them.

They can see that the buildings are falling into disrepair, the roads are full of potholes, the shops in the high street are boarded up, the streets are filled with foreigners, the waiting times for public services are abominable and often failing. They can see that prices are skyrocketing and they have less money in their banks than before. There is no point in even mentioning house prices and rent.

Everything is being squeezed, everything slack is being pulled taut, and nobody can explain why this is happening to them.

Needless to say, this is something that many people have noticed. In Swindon, where I have lived for 25 years now, it used to be a regular occurrence that I would bump into friends and family when walking through the town centre. This essentially doesn't happen any more; on those rare occasions when it does, it is like meeting someone from another time and place. One friend I ran into six months ago, Swindon-born-and-bred, just looked at me amongst the crowd of foreign strangers and said, "Mate, I feel like I woke up in a different country." He's not wrong to feel this way, either; I haven't gone anywhere, but our town has changed dramatically.

This state of confusion tells on the faces of the English people I observe walking by. Recently, an American friend visited and I took him for a traditional English breakfast at a café called The Octagon. This small building is faced entirely with windows and is nestled between the Tricentre office blocks; it is very close to the bus station and is on the route to the train station. We sat next to a window and ate our breakfast while discussing the state of the world.

I began telling him what I am telling you now—that the people of Swindon looked sullen and beaten down, despondent and locked into a cycle of quiet despair at the state of their town and the wider state of the country, and nobody seemed to know what to do about it. To prove my point, I looked out of the window and pointed to the English walking by.

"See how they walk with their heads bowed and a sad look on their faces?" I said. He watched for a few minutes as I pointed out the English carrying their burdens. Every single one of them was hunched over, looking at the floor as they passed, as if they were carrying a spiritual weight around on their backs. "I see it," he said after a few moments.

It isn't just that we can see the decline, it's that we can feel it. I remember what this town was like only five years ago. It was quite jolly; people would chatter and laugh as they wandered through the town centre. They walked with their heads held high, and they would be looking forward. Now people look isolated, unhappy, and unsure of what might lie ahead. They know that it wasn't always like this and that the change has been rapid and sudden.

I don't believe this phenomenon is limited to Swindon, either. I think people right across England feel it in their hearts, even if they can’t properly describe it. The feeling came to me that we are living as a nation under occupation from a foreign power; everywhere there are strangers, each person is suffering a kind of emotional damage, and everyone is getting poorer. Our leaders don’t feel accountable to the people and faith in the political system has collapsed. Everywhere on TV we see minoritarian concerns represented, but none of the concerns of the English people. The possibility for improvement, for a change in this state of affairs, seems locked out of the public dialogue.

As far as our leaders and the institutions that surround them are concerned, Britain is on the cusp of a bright new future; however, on the ground, there seems to be no evidence to support this. Instead, things are falling apart and people despair of the systems they don't understand and don't expect to change.