It was an excellent and colourful piece Matt, hit the nail on the head. Regarding the Ship of Theseus , again that is exactly right , we are becoming something else entirely . Losing so much in terms of culture, history, way of life, widely agreed norms , rule of law . Unfortunately London is a blueprint for the whole country if the tide isn’t stemmed and reversed. The process is already well underway in our other major cities . I cannot understand people who seem unable to see this
Unfortunately too many had ostrich mentality and sheep still not waking up. Not only Blair and his disciples, but Lib Dems and their present attitude are leading us down a route of cultural and quality of English life irreversible catastrophe.
That perfectly describes all the idiots who chant trans women are women, from politicians, doctors, academics etc all the way down to Queers for Palestine. Was there ever a stupider group.
If we are to return to any semblance of what we had before people who are here illegally , criminals who have been allowed to remain in the most spurious human rights grounds , those whose visas have expired need to be removed. And those who have come to take advantage rather than contribute should be made less comfortable. The allocation of social housing needs to be looked at
Yeah and I am sure the people in the cities of the US where Trump is doing something like you describe are having a ball! Not! In fact Americans are flocking to London which is still despite this silly diatribe, a magical city, to get away from the traumas there.
I should have been clearer, I don't agree with abruptly removing anyone who is legally here on a visa, or who has a British passport (unless they've committed a serious crime and have dual nationality, in which case they should be deported). I'm just saying we should allow existing visas of low skilled migrants to expire and have those people leave. In addition, illegal immigrants and failed asylum seekers should also be removed.
Those "existing visas" of certain migrants should never have been given in the first place. What proportion of the Home Office and Passport Office are foreign within two generations of their forbears? Rather scarily high. So much for their assimilation.
I completely agree. But given that they have and given that we don't want to alienate the mass population, letting them expire ( before they're entitled to the idiotically quick to qualify ILR) rather than revoking them, letting them expire means they can leave without kicking up a fuss. It seems that once you have a visa, you have citizenship. Why don't these visas have a two year limit or even one year. It's ludicrous. And your point about foreign staff working at the passport office is a good one. I quietly shook my head when I got mine renewed just recently, not an English person in sight. Just wrong.
And regarding you "magical" city of London comment. I have lived here for a few decades and I can assure you "magical" does not come into it, unless you live in Hampstead or other least North London suburb and never venture into town.
I have lived north, south and now west and I think there is plenty of magic outride of Hampstead. Though of course all big metropolitan cities have a downside and they always did how I wonder would Matt have liked the East End in 1890!!! He might like to check out Booth's poverty map of 1886!
Your derisive comment about "Trump" shows you are believing distorted media reports about the "traumas" inflicted by immigration authorities actually enforcing immigration law. Here in the US, the vast majority of people approve of the US finally dealing with the problem of illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants were given the opportunity of self-deporting, with a free plane ticket and $1000, so they could then reapply legally (which I did when I immigrated here). Over a million have taken that offer. The ones that remain are in many cases criminals who have been lying low and trying to avoid deportation, aided and abetted by misguided activists who are the ones causing trouble and creating the trauma. Democrat politicians actually preventing criminals from being detained represents the height of the lunacy over here. That's the real "trauma".
Actually it was only 51% approve 46% disapprove Trump's immigration policy in a poll conducted before all the trouble in SF , hardly a ringing endorsement and meanwhile his overall approval is plummeting. , The president's net approval rating is -12%, down 3.3 points since last week. 41% approve, 53% disapprove (Economist poll) so he is getting into record disapproval territory.
And don't forget the hate rating! In the old days disapproval might have meant you don;'t like a President's politics, but if you dig down into these figures a huge percentage of the US actually hate him.
That simply is a progressive cherry picking of polls I live in a purple city with many moderates his policies are very popular even by people who don’t particularly like him. All partisans typically see what they want to see and ignore unpleasant truths. But today’s progressives I think are amazingly out of touch and blinded by anti Trump syndrome
What happens in London today will happen in the rest of the Yookay tomorrow. Many of the indigenous population are being pushed to the edges of the country.
It's already happening. Until last year I was living in Sheffield and in the past few years the majority of children seen in many schools are no longer white and many Muslims are seen on the streets and there are quite a lot of Mosques. Now I live in Bristol and the same is happening. Both cities are run by a coalition of Labour and Green councillors. Both cities used to be well run and relatively clean but they are deteriorating too.
I’m currently in the middle of listening to a lecture by Dominic Cummings at the Pharos Foundation on YouTube. He has some interesting observations on how change can be achieved by removing and changing all the unelected bureaucrats who hold all the power at Westminster.
We need to dismantle the hundreds of unaccountable quangos that do elected MPs jobs for them. Reform have talked about this and need to spell out what they will do which is a necessary part of getting our country back.
And we should also act more like Switzerland who deport people who take out more than they contribute. Revoke visas for anyone who doesn't speak English and just get rid of any low skilled workers who do not have a British passport. It's not that hard. A visa should have a limit.
I’ve been watching that too and he has done an interview for the Telegraph. Interesting stuff. Some of what he says seems a bit ‘out there’ but maybe, in view of where we are, that is what it will take to turn things round?
Agreed, tinkering around the edges won’t work and the Civil Service will block any changes. We need total reorganisation and a taking back of power to those who are elected.
I agree. We have a political system which is run by PPE graduates, many of whom have no knowledge of business, for example. They bow to the unelected blob of civil servants who are faceless nameless entities as far as the electorate is concerned. The quality of politicians needs to improve and the power of civil servants needs to decrease.
Mind you, I'm listening to Yes Minister on Audible just now.... enough said!
😂. The problem is that no big organisation should have as its majority people with the same knowledge and skills. Diversity in its true sense is what makes an organisation effective.
IMO that depends on the nature of the business of the organisation, and the degree of the level of the knowledge and skills involved. For example, many people in the Civil Service, (and for that matter in Human Resources departments of corporations) know little about business or of the actual product (be it manufacturing/selling/farming or service industries such as law).
Indeed, I know of many people in the Civil Service who are moved between departments periodically so that they become jack of all trades and actually know too little of the subject they have to deal with in any real depth.
Politicians (where a minister for Education in one year might be Minister for Work and Pensions in another) may themselves be ignorant of the complexities of "their" subject-matter, plus too many of the people in the departments that deal with the day-to-day implementation of policies are also really not up to scratch.
In my experience, too few ministers have conviction. They are driven by personal ambition and will thus do anything to curry favour (not necessarily with us). They are easier to persuade because they are so vacuous. Civil servants, on the other hand, certainly at senior levels, have very clear ideas on the direction of travel. It's almost as if they have been told by some other body, what the agenda is for the long term.
I agree. MPs are too busy wanting to polish their credentials with the wokerati while the people with the real power are carrying out the work of the global wokerati. They’ve got it all stitched up.
Yes. Universities are no longer educating in the traditional way. They are training / brainwashing students to have an activist mentality which is why Civil "Servants" (and also MPs in my opinion) are behaving as you say, and why so many businesses are now run by people who use their marketing budget to promote their ideology (DEI, or whatever) rather than promoting their products. 👍
I stopped going to London a few years ago. I stopped going because I no longer felt that it was MY city, the city that I was born in. I stopped going because I felt like an alien. I stopped going because the litter and graffiti disgusted me. I stopped going because the immigrant people with whom I came into contact had no manners, making catching a train or bus a horrendous experience, because they all pushed and shoved their way to the front of the queue. I stopped going because I felt afraid. I stopped going because immigrants were spitting everywhere. I stopped going because the museums and art galleries were making great efforts to make me feel unwanted. I stopped going because immigrants were ranting on in their language into their mobile phones while on the train. I stopped going because London had become a Third World s*** hole.
Yup I agree and still live here sadly. I especially can't stand it when shop keepers don't understand my English, not strong, but not Southern, accent.
What a tragic fall from grace this country has suffered in just a quarter of a century. The decline you describe isn’t merely economic or infrastructural; it feels existential. These are symptoms of a deeper national unravelling. The sense of duty, dignity, and shared moral responsibility that once held institutions together has quietly disintegrated. We’re witnessing the slow death of the social contract — a loss of seriousness, of coherence, of any real connection to what came before.
What troubles me most is that many still cling to the hope of some great reckoning. But the darker truth is that in 25 years, none of this will matter — not because the problems will be fixed, but because the country that once cared will no longer exist.
Britain is being reshaped by mass immigration, demographic upheaval, and the cold logic of AI and digital life. The values we once assumed were self-evident will soon seem quaint, even incomprehensible. And no one will remember why any of this once felt worth saving.
I’m sad to read your conclusion but can’t help agree. The talk of taking back our country seems wishful thinking at best and I see no stomach in average Brit’s for the upheaval necessary to rebalance the UK. For all the progressive attacks on Trump he is at least being serious in legal battle here and there dismantling DEI eg and disclosing the utter rot of democratic hypocracy as is doing similar push on RINOs
Consider his decision to treat Iran regime they way it deserves every President after Reagan failed to follow his doctrine of peace thru strength until Trump
The millions of middle people who have suffered because the west failed in this regard is sad indeed
My fear is that Trump may only be a speed bump on US decline slowing it down for a while
Without a spiritual and civil national revival soon we too will follow Europes sad escalating decline
You are absolutely correct to refer to "a model of low-skill, low-wage, non-European immigration that simply does not make sense for Western nations".
But this model does make sense to our ruling elite. They welcome record numbers, legal and illegal, with open arms. They discriminate against the natives with social housing, employment and law enforcement. Critics of mass migration can lose their jobs and, if careless with their words, can even be locked up.
This is not accidental. It is repeated across Europe and the countries that were behind in this process, notably Ireland, are being made to play catch up at breakneck speed.
The objective, in my view, is to destroy us and to make us pay for our own destruction. Our advanced civilisation, born of thousands of years of struggle and fortitude, of indomitable curiosity and courage, of ingenuity and creativity, is a threat to those who would enslave us all and make of us mindless drones, so we must be dumbed down, our history erased and our land given over to people who will not cherish it as we have done. In my view, we did not survive the Ice Age to allow for such an ignominious death.
Sadly I agree with all of that. If you haven't read Brave New World you'd probably find it interestingly relevant to what's happening. It seems like "1984" is much more commonly referenced, but in a way the two books are almost like a pair. Simplistically, "1984" is control by fear, "BNW" is control by pleasure and/or distraction.
I agree. In fact the sexualising of children via the materials now going into schools under the lgbtq+ and coming down from the WHO and the UN, point to BNW being one avenue for control, alongside fear as in 1984. The idea is to replace the nuclear family with state control so children are being taught that sex is for pleasure only, not for raising a family.
Badger, it occurs to me that I see a pattern which started in business, years ago, when employers saw a way of saving money by farming out, for example, IT helpdesk work to countries like India and Malaysia etc. Suddenly, as an employee in a oil company I had to call a number in India to get help with an IT problem. I was given a ticket number and asked to wait. The responder struggled to understand the problem (poor English skills) and was obviously pressed to "close the ticket" as soon as possible (whether the problem was resolved or not). Almost all our local IT staff lost their jobs. This caused endless difficulties but the "bottom line" seemed to be improved (to the finance dept.). Other companies (eg Marks & Spencer) discovered they could get their products made more cheaply abroad. So thousands (? millions) of jobs disappeared while more finance people (privileged elite) praised the economic model (got richer themselves).
So now the strategy seems to be moving towards getting rid of the pesky British people, with their demands for a decent life, to work hard for a good salary/wage, to be treated with respect and to be able to afford a family life - to replace them with a dramatically cheaper workforce who can't demand anything because they have no rights in the United Kingdom, since many of them speak no English or are in the country illegally.
I thought the Great Replacement was a conspiracy theory. I'm changing my mind.
London is lost, many of our major cities, particularly in the North, are lost. Hard to imagine them coming back from this. My fear is that it will seep into the suburbs and out into the countryside, spreading its crime and degradation. It is all a far cry from the elitist myth of a vibrant, flourishing future.
I travelled through London by rail last weekend too. On the Tube I read one of Khan's poems for Londoners - in Jamaican slang, just to reinforce the message of replacement.
It is seeping into the suburbs and countryside already am afraid . It’s like pollution , it goes unnoticed and tolerated until it rises above a certain level and starts having consequences for people’s everyday lives
I was born and raised in South London, as were generations of my family. All but one member have moved away due to the decline of the city. I regularly travel back to where I grew up. It is unrecognisable and dangerous. Absolutely heartbreaking.
We're ruled by Fabians, which is a problem because they don't believe in rules, faith, God, family or community. They have no concept of shame and no conscience. The decline of Britain can be traced back to the 1880s apparently when this society first got into power. Its members have permeated every level of government and all our institutions. The only cure is to remove them. Starting with Starmer. Then we can begin to repair the damage.
We would love to take our kids to London to see the sights but no way. Not until Khan is expelled and some form of law and order restored. Its a cesspit.
Spot on. A recovery is unlikely but won’t happen without the removal of scumbags like Khan. And King Charles if he really believes Khan is doing a good job.
True. The work started under Ken Clarke then Blair and Brown and everyone since. They don’t belong to different parties or any party really. It’s been a movement designed to change society and replace hierarchies.
I've been doing some research about the Fabians. They go back a long way, to the 19th C. Followers of Marx but not affiliated to any particular party, they're everywhere. This managed decline is their work. Of course other opinions are available but the disintegration of the UK has been a long time in the making, it's just only now we can see the skeleton as the rest of the remains have rotted away.
Fabians have captured the media and their ideas of socialist society is difficult to argue against conceptually until you realise it doesn’t work in practice and generates a smaller economy to share around - albeit shared more equally in theory at least. Fabians also have more than their share of hypocrites. Take Blair. Extremely wealthy and extremely greedy. Also he’s a devout Catholic which is incompatible with being a Fabian. Or take Margaret Hodge. Practicing Jew and very wealthy but sits alongside many who hate Israel. I struggle to understand how they can compromise their core beliefs to build a society they must know won’t work.
The number of Londoners up here is Cumbria is extraordinary. It’s a diaspora of British born from the capital to the countryside. The cities are becoming lost causes, London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leicester. What are they for anymore? Who are they for? I used to go shopping but I think I’m buying directly online 99-100% of the time. My food is delivered except for meat that we buy locally. The cities have little to offer except violence.
I often think how nice it would be ti have a colony of Brits, not in another part of the country but leave the country to say Poland, buy up a load of land which is in abundant supply and create New New England away from this sinking ship. The Poles may object but wouldn't it be great to start again as English people somewhere new. One can dream.
A comprehensive report on the failings of successive governments in dealing with the crime and violence in the capital and other cities. We need a strong national police force with detention centres for first time offenders using a new system of outdoor camps to deter second time offenders. Stop pussyfooting around this human rights. We have laws, so you have no complaints if you break them. Theft is a crime , in Saudi Arabia you will be really punished. Why are we putting illegal economic migrants in hotels. Too many migrants are being put in Hotels and our scarce housing stocks. They were happy to live in tents in France. We are overdue a good government who puts the citizens , taxpayers and the elderly FIRST.
This may be a controversial view but I do not think we can fix this unless we, as a people, rediscover the soul of our nation, which was always the engine that powered us. We have been demoralised and downtrodden because we do not have a sense of who we are, where we belong and why it matters. We need a spiritual revival, an indomitable and indefatigable confidence in ourselves which used to be upheld by a spiritual underpinning. The Church has abandoned the spiritual welfare of its adherents, sadly, and we are left now to discover this inner core for ourselves. In current parlance, we need to find our mojo once again.
My workplace is based in London, but I am fortunate enough to live outside of London. An arrangement I can only manage courtesy of hybrid working by the way (please tell Farage and other senior Reform members it can be a good thing). My regular visits to the capital do much to make me feel glad I moved out after living there for seven years. Even one of my very closest friends who would defend London to the hilt wants to move out now, such is the state of it.
Excellent article Matt. I live near the Old Kent Road but by a quirk of circumstances also spend a lot of time in 1% London and the differences are stark. Even for the rich, London is slowly getting worse. As they feel the downward trend, they will leave London and probably the UK because they have the resources and it’s easy for them to do which will simply increase London’s rate of decline. At the same time the left leaning elite don’t acknowledge any issues and simply double down on current policies. Once the declining subsidy from a fleeing rich meets the growing cost of supporting the incoming global poor, the decline will feel unstoppable. I’d like to think that a change to government and civil service might halt the decline, but so many here don’t see London the way Matt has, so I don’t see there being the will to change. If some of Dominic Cummings ideas were adopted, all I foresee is trouble on the streets and deadlock in administration and ultimately further decline. I hope for something that will wake the majority here in London from their sleepwalk to disaster, but don’t see attitudes changing fast enough. Unfortunately, I am also planning to escape the UK and don’t feel that anywhere in the West is currently safe from the decline we’re seeing in London, just that London is at its vanguard. Matt, you and others here are my hope against hope, but this Monday morning the future of London and our country feels very bleak indeed.
It was an excellent and colourful piece Matt, hit the nail on the head. Regarding the Ship of Theseus , again that is exactly right , we are becoming something else entirely . Losing so much in terms of culture, history, way of life, widely agreed norms , rule of law . Unfortunately London is a blueprint for the whole country if the tide isn’t stemmed and reversed. The process is already well underway in our other major cities . I cannot understand people who seem unable to see this
Unfortunately too many had ostrich mentality and sheep still not waking up. Not only Blair and his disciples, but Lib Dems and their present attitude are leading us down a route of cultural and quality of English life irreversible catastrophe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfekgjfh1Rk
This is an interesting piece about Dietrich Bonhoeffer's theory of stupidity.
That perfectly describes all the idiots who chant trans women are women, from politicians, doctors, academics etc all the way down to Queers for Palestine. Was there ever a stupider group.
Even if we stem the tide the damage has been done. We need to reverse the tide and remove people from London. Revoke visas and deport ideally.
If we are to return to any semblance of what we had before people who are here illegally , criminals who have been allowed to remain in the most spurious human rights grounds , those whose visas have expired need to be removed. And those who have come to take advantage rather than contribute should be made less comfortable. The allocation of social housing needs to be looked at
Yeah and I am sure the people in the cities of the US where Trump is doing something like you describe are having a ball! Not! In fact Americans are flocking to London which is still despite this silly diatribe, a magical city, to get away from the traumas there.
I should have been clearer, I don't agree with abruptly removing anyone who is legally here on a visa, or who has a British passport (unless they've committed a serious crime and have dual nationality, in which case they should be deported). I'm just saying we should allow existing visas of low skilled migrants to expire and have those people leave. In addition, illegal immigrants and failed asylum seekers should also be removed.
Those "existing visas" of certain migrants should never have been given in the first place. What proportion of the Home Office and Passport Office are foreign within two generations of their forbears? Rather scarily high. So much for their assimilation.
I completely agree. But given that they have and given that we don't want to alienate the mass population, letting them expire ( before they're entitled to the idiotically quick to qualify ILR) rather than revoking them, letting them expire means they can leave without kicking up a fuss. It seems that once you have a visa, you have citizenship. Why don't these visas have a two year limit or even one year. It's ludicrous. And your point about foreign staff working at the passport office is a good one. I quietly shook my head when I got mine renewed just recently, not an English person in sight. Just wrong.
And regarding you "magical" city of London comment. I have lived here for a few decades and I can assure you "magical" does not come into it, unless you live in Hampstead or other least North London suburb and never venture into town.
I have lived north, south and now west and I think there is plenty of magic outride of Hampstead. Though of course all big metropolitan cities have a downside and they always did how I wonder would Matt have liked the East End in 1890!!! He might like to check out Booth's poverty map of 1886!
Your derisive comment about "Trump" shows you are believing distorted media reports about the "traumas" inflicted by immigration authorities actually enforcing immigration law. Here in the US, the vast majority of people approve of the US finally dealing with the problem of illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants were given the opportunity of self-deporting, with a free plane ticket and $1000, so they could then reapply legally (which I did when I immigrated here). Over a million have taken that offer. The ones that remain are in many cases criminals who have been lying low and trying to avoid deportation, aided and abetted by misguided activists who are the ones causing trouble and creating the trauma. Democrat politicians actually preventing criminals from being detained represents the height of the lunacy over here. That's the real "trauma".
Actually it was only 51% approve 46% disapprove Trump's immigration policy in a poll conducted before all the trouble in SF , hardly a ringing endorsement and meanwhile his overall approval is plummeting. , The president's net approval rating is -12%, down 3.3 points since last week. 41% approve, 53% disapprove (Economist poll) so he is getting into record disapproval territory.
And don't forget the hate rating! In the old days disapproval might have meant you don;'t like a President's politics, but if you dig down into these figures a huge percentage of the US actually hate him.
That simply is a progressive cherry picking of polls I live in a purple city with many moderates his policies are very popular even by people who don’t particularly like him. All partisans typically see what they want to see and ignore unpleasant truths. But today’s progressives I think are amazingly out of touch and blinded by anti Trump syndrome
What happens in London today will happen in the rest of the Yookay tomorrow. Many of the indigenous population are being pushed to the edges of the country.
It's already happening. Until last year I was living in Sheffield and in the past few years the majority of children seen in many schools are no longer white and many Muslims are seen on the streets and there are quite a lot of Mosques. Now I live in Bristol and the same is happening. Both cities are run by a coalition of Labour and Green councillors. Both cities used to be well run and relatively clean but they are deteriorating too.
I’m currently in the middle of listening to a lecture by Dominic Cummings at the Pharos Foundation on YouTube. He has some interesting observations on how change can be achieved by removing and changing all the unelected bureaucrats who hold all the power at Westminster.
We need to dismantle the hundreds of unaccountable quangos that do elected MPs jobs for them. Reform have talked about this and need to spell out what they will do which is a necessary part of getting our country back.
And we should also act more like Switzerland who deport people who take out more than they contribute. Revoke visas for anyone who doesn't speak English and just get rid of any low skilled workers who do not have a British passport. It's not that hard. A visa should have a limit.
A Herculean task but hard to see any other way.
Exactly.
I’ve been watching that too and he has done an interview for the Telegraph. Interesting stuff. Some of what he says seems a bit ‘out there’ but maybe, in view of where we are, that is what it will take to turn things round?
Agreed, tinkering around the edges won’t work and the Civil Service will block any changes. We need total reorganisation and a taking back of power to those who are elected.
I know people in the Home Office and they are completely against any limits on migration. The Civil Service now rules the country.
Indeed and there is a strong Muslim group who have influence…..Islamophobia bill?
I am fairly convinced that civil war is a strong likelihood unless radical change is enacted.
Frankly, if we could deport the wankeratti as well, the country would benefit.
Great phrase!
Even many my sensible intelligent peers don't agree with any deportations of any kind. It's baffling. Some, not even for criminals.
I think more and more of us are discovering that the Civil Service has always ruled the country, we just didn't know.
Yes, otherwise any reset will be blocked at every turn.
I agree. We have a political system which is run by PPE graduates, many of whom have no knowledge of business, for example. They bow to the unelected blob of civil servants who are faceless nameless entities as far as the electorate is concerned. The quality of politicians needs to improve and the power of civil servants needs to decrease.
Mind you, I'm listening to Yes Minister on Audible just now.... enough said!
PPE 🤮. They love diversity of skin colour so much but woe betide you if you ask for diversity of thought.
I'm a PPE graduate but I went rogue decades ago.
😂. The problem is that no big organisation should have as its majority people with the same knowledge and skills. Diversity in its true sense is what makes an organisation effective.
IMO that depends on the nature of the business of the organisation, and the degree of the level of the knowledge and skills involved. For example, many people in the Civil Service, (and for that matter in Human Resources departments of corporations) know little about business or of the actual product (be it manufacturing/selling/farming or service industries such as law).
Indeed, I know of many people in the Civil Service who are moved between departments periodically so that they become jack of all trades and actually know too little of the subject they have to deal with in any real depth.
Politicians (where a minister for Education in one year might be Minister for Work and Pensions in another) may themselves be ignorant of the complexities of "their" subject-matter, plus too many of the people in the departments that deal with the day-to-day implementation of policies are also really not up to scratch.
In my experience, too few ministers have conviction. They are driven by personal ambition and will thus do anything to curry favour (not necessarily with us). They are easier to persuade because they are so vacuous. Civil servants, on the other hand, certainly at senior levels, have very clear ideas on the direction of travel. It's almost as if they have been told by some other body, what the agenda is for the long term.
I agree. MPs are too busy wanting to polish their credentials with the wokerati while the people with the real power are carrying out the work of the global wokerati. They’ve got it all stitched up.
Yes. Universities are no longer educating in the traditional way. They are training / brainwashing students to have an activist mentality which is why Civil "Servants" (and also MPs in my opinion) are behaving as you say, and why so many businesses are now run by people who use their marketing budget to promote their ideology (DEI, or whatever) rather than promoting their products. 👍
I stopped going to London a few years ago. I stopped going because I no longer felt that it was MY city, the city that I was born in. I stopped going because I felt like an alien. I stopped going because the litter and graffiti disgusted me. I stopped going because the immigrant people with whom I came into contact had no manners, making catching a train or bus a horrendous experience, because they all pushed and shoved their way to the front of the queue. I stopped going because I felt afraid. I stopped going because immigrants were spitting everywhere. I stopped going because the museums and art galleries were making great efforts to make me feel unwanted. I stopped going because immigrants were ranting on in their language into their mobile phones while on the train. I stopped going because London had become a Third World s*** hole.
Yup I agree and still live here sadly. I especially can't stand it when shop keepers don't understand my English, not strong, but not Southern, accent.
Very sobering piece — thank you.
What a tragic fall from grace this country has suffered in just a quarter of a century. The decline you describe isn’t merely economic or infrastructural; it feels existential. These are symptoms of a deeper national unravelling. The sense of duty, dignity, and shared moral responsibility that once held institutions together has quietly disintegrated. We’re witnessing the slow death of the social contract — a loss of seriousness, of coherence, of any real connection to what came before.
What troubles me most is that many still cling to the hope of some great reckoning. But the darker truth is that in 25 years, none of this will matter — not because the problems will be fixed, but because the country that once cared will no longer exist.
Britain is being reshaped by mass immigration, demographic upheaval, and the cold logic of AI and digital life. The values we once assumed were self-evident will soon seem quaint, even incomprehensible. And no one will remember why any of this once felt worth saving.
I’m sad to read your conclusion but can’t help agree. The talk of taking back our country seems wishful thinking at best and I see no stomach in average Brit’s for the upheaval necessary to rebalance the UK. For all the progressive attacks on Trump he is at least being serious in legal battle here and there dismantling DEI eg and disclosing the utter rot of democratic hypocracy as is doing similar push on RINOs
Consider his decision to treat Iran regime they way it deserves every President after Reagan failed to follow his doctrine of peace thru strength until Trump
The millions of middle people who have suffered because the west failed in this regard is sad indeed
My fear is that Trump may only be a speed bump on US decline slowing it down for a while
Without a spiritual and civil national revival soon we too will follow Europes sad escalating decline
You are absolutely correct to refer to "a model of low-skill, low-wage, non-European immigration that simply does not make sense for Western nations".
But this model does make sense to our ruling elite. They welcome record numbers, legal and illegal, with open arms. They discriminate against the natives with social housing, employment and law enforcement. Critics of mass migration can lose their jobs and, if careless with their words, can even be locked up.
This is not accidental. It is repeated across Europe and the countries that were behind in this process, notably Ireland, are being made to play catch up at breakneck speed.
What is the objective of this deliberate policy?
The objective, in my view, is to destroy us and to make us pay for our own destruction. Our advanced civilisation, born of thousands of years of struggle and fortitude, of indomitable curiosity and courage, of ingenuity and creativity, is a threat to those who would enslave us all and make of us mindless drones, so we must be dumbed down, our history erased and our land given over to people who will not cherish it as we have done. In my view, we did not survive the Ice Age to allow for such an ignominious death.
Sadly I agree with all of that. If you haven't read Brave New World you'd probably find it interestingly relevant to what's happening. It seems like "1984" is much more commonly referenced, but in a way the two books are almost like a pair. Simplistically, "1984" is control by fear, "BNW" is control by pleasure and/or distraction.
I agree. In fact the sexualising of children via the materials now going into schools under the lgbtq+ and coming down from the WHO and the UN, point to BNW being one avenue for control, alongside fear as in 1984. The idea is to replace the nuclear family with state control so children are being taught that sex is for pleasure only, not for raising a family.
Badger, it occurs to me that I see a pattern which started in business, years ago, when employers saw a way of saving money by farming out, for example, IT helpdesk work to countries like India and Malaysia etc. Suddenly, as an employee in a oil company I had to call a number in India to get help with an IT problem. I was given a ticket number and asked to wait. The responder struggled to understand the problem (poor English skills) and was obviously pressed to "close the ticket" as soon as possible (whether the problem was resolved or not). Almost all our local IT staff lost their jobs. This caused endless difficulties but the "bottom line" seemed to be improved (to the finance dept.). Other companies (eg Marks & Spencer) discovered they could get their products made more cheaply abroad. So thousands (? millions) of jobs disappeared while more finance people (privileged elite) praised the economic model (got richer themselves).
So now the strategy seems to be moving towards getting rid of the pesky British people, with their demands for a decent life, to work hard for a good salary/wage, to be treated with respect and to be able to afford a family life - to replace them with a dramatically cheaper workforce who can't demand anything because they have no rights in the United Kingdom, since many of them speak no English or are in the country illegally.
I thought the Great Replacement was a conspiracy theory. I'm changing my mind.
Agenda 2030. The Kalergi Plan. Bilderberg Group. Look them up.
London is lost, many of our major cities, particularly in the North, are lost. Hard to imagine them coming back from this. My fear is that it will seep into the suburbs and out into the countryside, spreading its crime and degradation. It is all a far cry from the elitist myth of a vibrant, flourishing future.
I travelled through London by rail last weekend too. On the Tube I read one of Khan's poems for Londoners - in Jamaican slang, just to reinforce the message of replacement.
It is seeping into the suburbs and countryside already am afraid . It’s like pollution , it goes unnoticed and tolerated until it rises above a certain level and starts having consequences for people’s everyday lives
I was born and raised in South London, as were generations of my family. All but one member have moved away due to the decline of the city. I regularly travel back to where I grew up. It is unrecognisable and dangerous. Absolutely heartbreaking.
We're ruled by Fabians, which is a problem because they don't believe in rules, faith, God, family or community. They have no concept of shame and no conscience. The decline of Britain can be traced back to the 1880s apparently when this society first got into power. Its members have permeated every level of government and all our institutions. The only cure is to remove them. Starting with Starmer. Then we can begin to repair the damage.
We would love to take our kids to London to see the sights but no way. Not until Khan is expelled and some form of law and order restored. Its a cesspit.
Spot on. A recovery is unlikely but won’t happen without the removal of scumbags like Khan. And King Charles if he really believes Khan is doing a good job.
This is driven by Liberal Capitalism/ oligarchy across all of the West/ the Global American Empire.
The Left are just useful idiots.
True. The work started under Ken Clarke then Blair and Brown and everyone since. They don’t belong to different parties or any party really. It’s been a movement designed to change society and replace hierarchies.
I've been doing some research about the Fabians. They go back a long way, to the 19th C. Followers of Marx but not affiliated to any particular party, they're everywhere. This managed decline is their work. Of course other opinions are available but the disintegration of the UK has been a long time in the making, it's just only now we can see the skeleton as the rest of the remains have rotted away.
Fabians have captured the media and their ideas of socialist society is difficult to argue against conceptually until you realise it doesn’t work in practice and generates a smaller economy to share around - albeit shared more equally in theory at least. Fabians also have more than their share of hypocrites. Take Blair. Extremely wealthy and extremely greedy. Also he’s a devout Catholic which is incompatible with being a Fabian. Or take Margaret Hodge. Practicing Jew and very wealthy but sits alongside many who hate Israel. I struggle to understand how they can compromise their core beliefs to build a society they must know won’t work.
The number of Londoners up here is Cumbria is extraordinary. It’s a diaspora of British born from the capital to the countryside. The cities are becoming lost causes, London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leicester. What are they for anymore? Who are they for? I used to go shopping but I think I’m buying directly online 99-100% of the time. My food is delivered except for meat that we buy locally. The cities have little to offer except violence.
The Londerners are also in the nicer bits of York, pricing out the locals who now commute in creating dreadful traffic jams.
I often think how nice it would be ti have a colony of Brits, not in another part of the country but leave the country to say Poland, buy up a load of land which is in abundant supply and create New New England away from this sinking ship. The Poles may object but wouldn't it be great to start again as English people somewhere new. One can dream.
And Sadiq Khan has just been knighted...
Excellent article Matt.
A comprehensive report on the failings of successive governments in dealing with the crime and violence in the capital and other cities. We need a strong national police force with detention centres for first time offenders using a new system of outdoor camps to deter second time offenders. Stop pussyfooting around this human rights. We have laws, so you have no complaints if you break them. Theft is a crime , in Saudi Arabia you will be really punished. Why are we putting illegal economic migrants in hotels. Too many migrants are being put in Hotels and our scarce housing stocks. They were happy to live in tents in France. We are overdue a good government who puts the citizens , taxpayers and the elderly FIRST.
This may be a controversial view but I do not think we can fix this unless we, as a people, rediscover the soul of our nation, which was always the engine that powered us. We have been demoralised and downtrodden because we do not have a sense of who we are, where we belong and why it matters. We need a spiritual revival, an indomitable and indefatigable confidence in ourselves which used to be upheld by a spiritual underpinning. The Church has abandoned the spiritual welfare of its adherents, sadly, and we are left now to discover this inner core for ourselves. In current parlance, we need to find our mojo once again.
I grew up in London but left some years ago.
I walked home as a teenager and young adult at all times of night without any issues.I never heard of anyone being stabbed or sexually assaulted.
My capital city has degenerated beyond recognition. when I do visit I come away feeling depressed.
I lived in the USA for a while,the urban areas were often no go zones and everyone that could moved away, this is the future I feel for London.
The only problem is that the UK is tiny compared to the USA, we haven’t got the space.
My workplace is based in London, but I am fortunate enough to live outside of London. An arrangement I can only manage courtesy of hybrid working by the way (please tell Farage and other senior Reform members it can be a good thing). My regular visits to the capital do much to make me feel glad I moved out after living there for seven years. Even one of my very closest friends who would defend London to the hilt wants to move out now, such is the state of it.
Excellent article Matt. I live near the Old Kent Road but by a quirk of circumstances also spend a lot of time in 1% London and the differences are stark. Even for the rich, London is slowly getting worse. As they feel the downward trend, they will leave London and probably the UK because they have the resources and it’s easy for them to do which will simply increase London’s rate of decline. At the same time the left leaning elite don’t acknowledge any issues and simply double down on current policies. Once the declining subsidy from a fleeing rich meets the growing cost of supporting the incoming global poor, the decline will feel unstoppable. I’d like to think that a change to government and civil service might halt the decline, but so many here don’t see London the way Matt has, so I don’t see there being the will to change. If some of Dominic Cummings ideas were adopted, all I foresee is trouble on the streets and deadlock in administration and ultimately further decline. I hope for something that will wake the majority here in London from their sleepwalk to disaster, but don’t see attitudes changing fast enough. Unfortunately, I am also planning to escape the UK and don’t feel that anywhere in the West is currently safe from the decline we’re seeing in London, just that London is at its vanguard. Matt, you and others here are my hope against hope, but this Monday morning the future of London and our country feels very bleak indeed.