Success, when she calls, never unpacks her bags for a long stay. She is a flighty visitor — promiscuous, even. Britain enjoyed her favors from about 1980 to, say, 2020. Now she seems to have moved on.
During my work years I've traveled many times to the U.K. over the 1980 - 2009 time frame. I have experienced the same observation you described. Although we , America, are much better off than the U.K. I see the same "chock chain" around our necks with regulations and legal games as has taken the U.K. down. I hope this socialist trend sneaking up on us is defeated.
Your last paragraph should be a wakeup call to our country.
I remain baffled why our government doesn't reduce its spending and, to create more taxable revenue, its regulations inhibiting wealth creation.
Surely our elected representatives are aware that our Ship of State is heading for rocky shoals, and has been for years.
Interesting too that the last time the Federal government had a budget surplus, instead of redeeming debt, George Bush The Younger gave it away, literally via $200 checks to taxpayers.
Many of our elected representatives have know idea how money works. Moreover, they have no idea of the unintended consequences of regulations. They have never signed the front of payroll check and never will. Their main focus is themselves; not sure why they call themselves representatives. They are fledgling narcissists on their way to greatness, AOC comes to mind as well as Zohran.
There were pockets of sanity when we resided in England in the ‘70s: villages where tradition and respect were “off the grid,” places that weren’t ruined by the false pride of feigned sophistication. We celebrated the Silver Jubilee with friends, amazed how young and old alike got along joyfully with a sense of heritage. They were long suffering folks. Now they seem to have been consumed by the destroyers of whatever was decent, sanitary, and sane.
So well written yet again, Bill. Even London maintained its “status” by being the place of refuge for tax-dodgers and scallywags from all over while it preached “KYC & AML” to the world through its overpriced and underdelivering class of pompous, pretentious lawyers, bankers and various financial “service” providers, the duplicitous nature of the English shining to its brightest. Couldn’t retain even that status.
Some pictures from the year I first moved to London. I am a similar vintage to you Bill. It wasn't all shabby gentility! Even by the eighties it still took 3 months to get a new telephone line!
Please come to Mississippi and see how much better the standard of living is than, say, Baltimore or Manchester.
During my work years I've traveled many times to the U.K. over the 1980 - 2009 time frame. I have experienced the same observation you described. Although we , America, are much better off than the U.K. I see the same "chock chain" around our necks with regulations and legal games as has taken the U.K. down. I hope this socialist trend sneaking up on us is defeated.
Your last paragraph should be a wakeup call to our country.
Jim Marshall
I remain baffled why our government doesn't reduce its spending and, to create more taxable revenue, its regulations inhibiting wealth creation.
Surely our elected representatives are aware that our Ship of State is heading for rocky shoals, and has been for years.
Interesting too that the last time the Federal government had a budget surplus, instead of redeeming debt, George Bush The Younger gave it away, literally via $200 checks to taxpayers.
Many of our elected representatives have know idea how money works. Moreover, they have no idea of the unintended consequences of regulations. They have never signed the front of payroll check and never will. Their main focus is themselves; not sure why they call themselves representatives. They are fledgling narcissists on their way to greatness, AOC comes to mind as well as Zohran.
There were pockets of sanity when we resided in England in the ‘70s: villages where tradition and respect were “off the grid,” places that weren’t ruined by the false pride of feigned sophistication. We celebrated the Silver Jubilee with friends, amazed how young and old alike got along joyfully with a sense of heritage. They were long suffering folks. Now they seem to have been consumed by the destroyers of whatever was decent, sanitary, and sane.
So well written yet again, Bill. Even London maintained its “status” by being the place of refuge for tax-dodgers and scallywags from all over while it preached “KYC & AML” to the world through its overpriced and underdelivering class of pompous, pretentious lawyers, bankers and various financial “service” providers, the duplicitous nature of the English shining to its brightest. Couldn’t retain even that status.
Some pictures from the year I first moved to London. I am a similar vintage to you Bill. It wasn't all shabby gentility! Even by the eighties it still took 3 months to get a new telephone line!
https://spitalfieldslife.com/2026/06/22/ron-mccormicks-whitechapel-iii/