How deep in crisis is Britain? This Tory heartland knows the answer | Anywhere but Westminster

father we thank you for the food please help us distribute it out wow we ask you to look after our people in our queue we hope that one day everything will go back to normal right okay let's go with this government well is a joke it's very difficult to survive this wasn't here you go hungry at you I don't feel there's anyone at the top to understand this I don't think they care they don't care about [Music] they don't feel very careful in the race to become Prime Minister the starting position as the UK's conservative government has gone through a huge political convulsion we've spent a lot of the last month visiting seemingly middling comfortably off places you wouldn't think of as being disadvantaged or left behind but that tell us a lot about this country's endless state of Crisis we're all feeling it at the moment we could say the quiet machine return when I do my weekly shopping 400 pounds it's gone up to 700 pounds that's nearly double that's nearly double bud [Music] right so how's life life is all right after kovid so it's not too bad I wouldn't say how's life at the minute I mean money-wise and all that stuff it's okay is it do you rent where you live yes and has your rent gone up yes how much around 20 200 pounds a month yes after Kobe like everything changed well it's difficult very difficult you're having to count every penny yes yeah really yes what'd you do I work in as an accountant [Music] this is a dead zone one I think we just have to show this is what affluence looks like in modern Britain [Music] was he was getting bread from it what should we go and just go in and ask him right now that is interesting today a Friday Mondays and Tuesdays we provide free hot food we now get up to 40 individuals that are queuing out there from about 10 o'clock in the morning ready for us to open at 12. I'm on benefits I can't work because when I'm looking after a child full time I just really struggle to because I don't get much and grow so quickly and I have to buy new clothes and I'm like scrounge around for pennies and what about housing I've been here for months I'm on my own with a baby and a refuge for domestic violence like you would think that I was priority they haven't even accepted me right right and your sense are looking ahead I just don't know at this point I feel like there's no hope for anything are you finding things more difficult than you were six months a year ago bloody hell no comparison I'm not even putting the heating all at the moment I'm wearing an extra fleece I'm watching two hours of Television Max God so if you're watching it that closely that you're wrestling the amount of TV you want yeah I would think of basis that was being sort of comfortably off affluent sort of place it was I moved down here in 1994. to work for Motorola and at that time you had IBM Eli Lilly Motorola and that dwindled down we looked at the Town Center look at here you know the amount of places that were closed when we were on Twitter and said we were coming to Basingstoke someone called Damon said my hometown it feels like every time I go back another charity shop was opened the one-time dream of trying to Twin the town with Dallas seriously is now a distant memory oh [Music] wow look that is empty [Music] is that empty as well [Music] we're in Beijing View this was a sort of purpose-built business district of basingstop that at one time were full of people working in big offices and there's a whole suede of this are now completely empty it's like a sort of ghost corner of town this is one thing we resolved we were never going to do again [Music] precisely couldn't keep away man no I could I very much could keep away [Music] if somebody sat down and tried to create the oddest environment imaginable everyone's talking about growth and everyone's talking about they're talking about the plan they're talking about not everybody there's very little Natural Life everyone just about all the men anyway is wearing a suit and nobody's having what you and I would understand to be normal conversation this country is great at getting out of problems like this UK always bounces back and then to cap it all these messages are put up to make sure they sort of burrow into your brain get in Britain moving it's the weirdest thing we've just spent a lot of time in Beijing stuff because that was that you think was very happy are you yes full of empty shops and empty offices and that's after 12 years of conservative government right so basically it's quite a complex story and I mean I'm from basically so I know that I know that I'm not a bedside counselor amazing view yeah Festival place the cameras and the Leisure Park are a completely disastrous outrageous uh literally uh failure wow so did you bugger not you personally I've never been in the cabinet different [Music] I'll not allow the anti-growth coalition to hold us back the live dance the military invested interest dressed up the Talking Heads the brexit deniers extinction Rebellion most political speeches cause a fuss for about two or three hours and then Vanishing into nothing but it feels like that one's pulled off the trick already she's not kind of accelerated Prime ministership isn't it everything happens 10 times as quick as usual um if I really really liked about that speech she talks about growing the pie CE always at these things there is a sense of a yawning gap between what happens in there and the outside world but now it feels like the Grand Canyon usually even the most Workman like political speeches say well the other day in Sutton coldfield I met Stan runs a butcher's shop nothing like that at all sad day for rugby in England Thoughts with all of the Australia's player staff supporters there are a few continuing to speakers the governing bodies of rugby saying something needs to change so this doesn't happen again other news and Liz trust has told the Conservative Party Conference she's ready to make that I wish there's got a particularly bad dose of the British malaise today because this is a city that's just lost its Rugby Union Club I think that's probably registering more than Liz trust his speech around these parts anyway there's a chip shop here yeah I've been here we discussed Hilton we discuss everything we talk about politics in politics everything and if the wasn't here how would you feel if the chipping wasn't it where would I go this is the oldest fish and chip shop in 92 years and never been closed everything that you need to run a fish and chip shop has gone up hugely in price I mean brexit is main probably what I think because lots of these things we import from Europe go on give me an example you could the price will call this double is coming from Denmark are you going to remain in business it must be almost impossible it will be impossible it will be impossible to make this day politicians talk about the cost of living crisis do people mention that a lot does it come up in conversation yeah there they are yeah we talk about prices but you know in England these people are just talking they're not making any changing but yeah if it's true honestly but we never do anything about it but no but what's we done now in the last few months to solve this madness can you tell me let's see It's upsetting yeah very good chips we'll spread the word the Bottom's falling out of everything hasn't it [Music] senior figures in the conservative party are trying to gather the support of at least trust has now resigned after 44 days as the prime minister and We've Come Back to Basics though I think amazing promises to say something very sort of strong and powerful about the state of the country and also why politics is such a chaotic State because it's not just about or mainly about even Intrigue at the top and who's up news down is it as ever there are very deep things going on here I feel like I've been walking around this place for about 10 years we don't just go looking for empty shops but there's usually a bit more going on there's a lot more going on here we make things that go in and out up and down round and round this ultimate is what I'm an animation wow so this all for the film industry these have got a corrosion resistant coating on them it's a service that you can only get in Germany should take four weeks it took six months because the German company don't know and don't want to fill in the paperwork the UK Customs required to get it back into the country your customer a couple years ago basically a thousand pound of shipment now it's in excess of three thousand pounds are you a smaller business than you would have been had brexit not happened great question potentially yeah or we haven't grown as much as I would expect people saying that the key to revive in the economy was deregulation and getting rid of red tape you know diminishing people's rights in the workplace and all the rest of it I mean if that happened would that would that make things better for you well that comes back of a moral issue doesn't it is do you really want to treat people like dirt or do you actually actually respect people we take on apprentices we respect people here we train them we develop them successive governments have always been about self-interest and short term okay and I actually think now that osmosis gone through to Industry and I think industry managers are now scared or bullied to make the right decisions because people are only worried about profits in the very short term it's a cheeky question have you ever vote conservative in the past I have in the past would you vote conservative next time no problem take care I don't think they understand the gravity of the crisis here about just how much we have hit the wall right the nature of it and they haven't got any convincing answers to it standing there saying growth growth growth isn't the answer neither is let's get out of the EU this country's sort of falling over is something that's been slowly build it for what at least 10 years and the rest 15 20 40. this is a long story wow this government well is a joke with all the cutbacks for children's care I foster children it's very difficult to survive what's our bedroom tax I'm in a three bedroom house on my own and I had to pay 150 a month for two bedrooms I don't even go in they won't move me because of rent areas wow so they just got me in a vicious circle a landlady times as well yeah the rent's got up recently financially how are you coping the paper yeah really yeah all of those things that we talked to people about down the years like the fact the benefit system doesn't work the housing is little uh sort of turn critic this way wow this needs it like a paint doesn't it Suburban supposedly affluent Britain isn't it massive branch of waitrose one minute in that direction and here you've got a decaying underpass straight out of the late 1970s excuse me sorry to disturb you how's life at the minute tough tough come on um yeah and without hot water or heating for seven months how come because that way I'm not using any gas so then I can build up a bit of a buffer for the winter I'm stuck in a whole situation um I had four boys and they've left home and I'm being hammered by the bedroom tax it's quite a thin invasive stuff for the bedroom Taps my neighbor over the back she's got the same issue as me her boys have left home and she's being hammered with federal tax I mean I have to go I've been m s at three o'clock every day because that's when they do their reductions that's how I eat I have whatever they're reducing that day do you think the facing stuff being quite a comfortably off sort of town you know a lot of it is but a lot of it isn't that's the sort of central symbolic fact of here in it is that we've had so many conversations with people who are living in the midst of acute housing problems you know their lives are so unaffordable they haven't had the heating on or hot water for months say at the same time as every time you set off and begin to walk around this place all you encounter is empty space this is a real watershed moment for this country isn't it in various ways the thing is we know what's finished but I don't know if we know what's coming along so it's not quite grumpy I'm not gonna quote don't you [Music] I don't understand this to you that's an exercise there where down here yeah proceed to the roof tell me about it I've got mad this is a metaphor for modern Britain the financial markets have reacted calmly to the news that Mr sunak built in Britain's seventh prime minister an economic package prepared by Jeremy Hunt is due to be outlined in Parliament next month

Channel: The Guardian

Views: 376,879

Keywords: basingstoke, brexit, cost of living, cost of living crisis, gdnpfpnewspolitics, guardian, housing crisis, liz truss, liz truss quits, liz truss resignation, liz truss resigns, rishi, rishi sunak, rishi sunak pm, sunak, sunak pm, tory, truss, truss quits, truss resignation, truss resigns, uk housing crisis, worcester, anywhere but westminster basingstoke, anywhere but westminster, john harris, 2022, news, anywhere but westminster brexit, boris, uk crisis, rishi sunak working class, abw

Id: rjkLas2W32g

Length: 15min 36sec (936 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 26 2022

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[u/SW-Dragonus]

Posted because of the section related to Brexit damaging an independent British business.

[u/DutchPack]

Depressing

[u/nicolaS0969]

I didn't vote for it either and I despise those that did... Those that are still insisting that Brexit is a good idea, and the fact that the country is in a mess, is purely down to the fact that the Brexit we've got, isn't Brexit enough.

[u/Dark_Ansem]

Imbeciles and fools.

[u/TheStargunner]

That picture. Tory heartland.

It’s sad to see people buy this rhetoric only to not benefit from the policies they voted for.

[u/goodknightffs]

Don't feel bad for them in the slightest.. They choose their government they choose brexit they allow the monarchy to exist

You have a fucking royal family living in multiple palaces and you have the common folk having cold showers 🤣 i guess they are going backwards

Esit child to cold lel