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 wow we ask you to take care of our people in our queue we hope that one day everything will return to normal okay, let's go with

this

government well it's a joke it's very difficult to survive

this

was not here you're hungry for you I don't feel like there's anyone at the top to understand this I don't think they care they don't care they don't feel very careful in the race to become Prime Minister, the initial position as the UK Conservative government has gone through a huge political upheaval;

We've spent much of the last month visiting seemingly halfway comfortable places that you wouldn't consider deprived or abandoned, but that tells us a lot about this country's endless state of

crisis

, we're all feeling it right now, you could say the silent machine returns. When I do my weekly shopping, £400 has gone up to £700, that's almost double, that's almost double, what's life like? it's okay after kovid so it's not that bad. I wouldn't say how life is right now. I mean money and all that. Alright. Do you rent where you live? Yes, and your rent has gone up.

Yes, how much around? 20,200 pounds a month yeah, after Kobe, like everything changed, well it's hard, very hard, you have to count every penny, yeah, really, yeah, what did you do? I work as an accountant. This is a dead zone. I think we just have. to show what wealth looks like in modern Britain, if he was getting bread from there, what should we go and just walk in and ask him right now? That's interesting today, Friday, Monday and Tuesday, we offer free hot food. 40 people who have been queuing since 10 in the morning, ready for us to open at 12.

I have benefits, I can't work because when I take care of a child full time it really costs me because I don't receive much and I grow up very quickly and I have to buy new clothes and I'm looking for pennies and what about housing? I've been here for months. I'm alone with a baby and a shelter. for domestic violence like you would think I was a priority, they haven't even accepted me well and your sense is looking forward. I just don't know right now. I feel like there is no hope for anything. Are you finding things more difficult than that? you were there six months ago a year damn there's no comparison I'm not even turning on the heat right now I'm wearing an extra fleece I'm watching two hours of TV Max God so if you're watching so closely you're fighting for the amount of TV What do you want, yes, I would think of a base that was to be comfortably located in a wealthy place.

I moved here in 1994 to work for Motorola and at that time you had IBM Eli Lilly Motorola. and that went down we looked at the city center look here you know how many places were closed when we were on Twitter and said we were going to Basingstoke someone called Damon said my home town feels like every time I come back it's another charity organization. The store was opened. The old dream of trying to twin the city with Dallas in earnest is now a distant memory. Oh, wow, look, that's empty, that's empty too. We are in Beijing.

See, this was some kind of purpose-built shopping district. Basingstop which at one time was full of people working in big offices and there are a lot of this is now completely empty it's like some kind of ghost corner of the city this is something we decided we were never going to do again precisely we couldn't stay away , man, no, I could, I could stay away if someone sat down and tried to create the strangest atmosphere imaginable. everyone talks about growth and everyone talks about, they are talking about the plan, they are talking, not all, there is very little Natural.

In life, everyone, almost all men, wears a suit anyway and no one has what you and I would understand as a normal conversation. This country is excellent for getting out of problems like this. The UK always bounces back and then to top it all off there are all these messages. to make sure they get into your brain, walking into Britain, moving around, it's the strangest thing, we've just spent a lot of time in Beijing, because that's what you think you were very happy about, are you full of empty shops and offices? and that's after 12 years of Conservative government, so basically it's a pretty complex s

tory

and I mean I'm from basically, so I know I'm not a backbencher.

Amazing view, yes, the festival site, the chambers and the leisure park. a completely disastrous outrageous uh literally uh failure wow, so you didn't get personally screwed? I've never been in a different cabinet I won't let the anti-growth coalition stop us from dancing live the military invested interest disguised the Speaking Heads the Extinction Rebellion of Brexit deniers, most political speeches cause a scandal during about two or three hours and then they disappear into nothingness, but it seems that one has already achieved the trick, he is not accelerated as Prime Minister, is he? everything happens 10 times fast as always um yeah I really liked that speech she talks about growing the cake CE always in these things there is a feeling of a huge gap between what happens there and the outside world but now it feels like if the Grand Canyon generally even the most working class political speeches say well, the other day in Sutton Coldfield I met Stan who runs a butcher shop, none of that at all, a sad day for rugby in England.

Thoughts with all the Australian player staff supporters, there are some who continue to be government speakers. Rugby bodies say something needs to change so this doesn't happen again. Other news and Liz Trust told the Conservative Party Conference that she is ready to say she wishes there was a particularly bad dose of British unrest today because this is a town that has just lost its Rugby Union Club I think that probably registers more than what Liz trusts in her speech around these parts anyway there's a chip shop here yes I've been here we discuss Hilton we discuss everything we talk about politics in politics everything and if it were like this Here, how would you feel if it weren't for the chipping?

Where would I go? This is the oldest fish and chip shop at 92 years and has never been closed. Everything you need to run a fish and chip shop has gone up massively in price. I mean, Brexit is main, probably what I think because a lot of these things we import from Europe. Go ahead and give me an example. Could you call the price? This double comes from Denmark. Will you stay in business? It must be almost impossible. It will be. impossible, it will be impossible to get politicians to talk about the cost of living

crisis

today.

Do people mention that? It comes up a lot in conversations. Yes, there they are, yes, we talk about prices, but you know, in England, these people are just talking. We're not going to make any changes, but yeah, yes it's true, honestly, but we never do anything about it, but no, but what have we done now in the last few months to resolve this madness? Can you tell me, let's see? It's annoying, yes, very good chips that we will spread. The word that the bottom is falling out of everything, isn't it? Senior Conservative party officials are trying to rally support from at least the trust.

Now he has resigned after 44 days as Prime Minister and we are back to basics, although I find it incredible. promises to say something very strong and powerful about the state of the country and also why politics is such a chaotic state because it is not just or even primarily about intrigues at the top and who is on top, on the bottom, it is as always, there are very Here they are Deep things happening. I feel like I've been walking around this place for about 10 years. We don't just look for empty stores, but they usually happen a little more.

There's a lot more going on here. We do things that work. in and out up and down going around and around this last one is what I'm an animation wow so all this for the film industry they have a corrosion resistant coating it's a service that you can only get in Germany it should take four weeks. It took six months because the German company does not know and does not want to complete the paperwork that UK Customs required to return it to the country. Your client a couple of years ago basically a thousand pounds of shipping is now more than three. thousand pounds Are you a smaller company than you would have been if Brexit hadn't happened?

Great question, potentially, yes, or we haven't grown as much as I expected. People say that the key to reviving the economy was deregulation and eliminating bureaucracy. You know, diminishing people's rights in the workplace and everything else. I mean, if that happened, that would make things better for you. Well, that is due to a moral issue. It is not like this? Do you really want to treat people like trash? o you really respect people we hire apprentices we respect people here we train them we develop them successive governments have always focused on self interest and the short term okay and now I think osmosis has come to the industry and I think the Industry managers are now scared or intimidated to make the right decisions because people are only concerned about very short-term profits.

It's a cheeky question. Have you ever voted Conservative in the past? In the past, would you vote Conservative next time? No problem, take care of yourself. I don't think they understand the severity of the crisis here, the extent to which we've hit the wall, the nature of it, and they don't have any convincing

answer

by standing there, saying that growth, growth, growth, is not the

answer

, either. it is. let's leave the EU the kind of fall of this country is something that has been slowly building for at least 10 years and the rest 15 20 40. This is a long s

tory

, wow, this government, well, it's a joke with all the cuts for the children.

I take care of adopted children, it is very difficult to survive. What is our room tax? I am alone in a three bedroom house and I had to pay 150 a month for two bedrooms. I don't even go in, they don't want to move me around rental areas wow, so they put me in a vicious circle also in landlady times, yes the rent has recently increased financially, how are you dealing with the role, yes really, yeah, all those things that we've talked to people about over the years, like the fact that the benefits system doesn't work the housing is small uh kind of getting critical like this wow this needs it like a painting , It is not like this?

Supposedly prosperous suburban Britain, isn't it a huge offshoot of Waitrose? One minute in that direction and here you go I have a decaying underpass dating back to the late 1970s. Sorry, sorry to bother you, what's life like right now? Hard, hard, come on, um, yeah, and with no hot water or heat for seven months, how come I don't use gas that way? I can create some protection for the winter. I'm stuck in a whole situation. I had four kids and they left home and I'm getting hit by the bedroom tax. It is something quite invasive for the bedroom.

It's my neighbor's back, she has the same problem as me, her children have left home and they are hitting her with federal taxes. I mean, I have to go. I've been in at three o'clock every day because that's when they do their reductions. that's how like, I have whatever they're reducing that day do you think the things in front are a pretty far city? you know a lot of them are, but a lot of them aren't that's the kind of central symbolic fact here is that we've had so many conversations with people who live in the midst of severe housing problems that you know their lives are so unaffordable. who haven't had heat or hot water for months, say at the same time that every time you go out and start walking around this place all you find is empty space this is a real turning point for this country, isn't it? in several ways?

The thing is, we know what's finished, but I don't know if we know. What's coming so it's not at all grumpy I'm not going to quote right? I don't understand this. that's an exercise down there, yeah, proceed to the roof, tell me about it. I got angry. A metaphor for modern Britain, financial markets have reacted calmly to the news that Sunak built into Britain's seventh prime minister an economic package prepared by Jeremy Hunt that will be presented to Parliament next month.