Visiting Barnsley Town Centre

It’s awful but it’s the same everywhere.

I’ve been to Sheffield, Leeds, Doncaster, Huddersfield & Manchester City centre’s of late & see the same things. It’s austerity that’s done it. Public services have been massively cut, people can’t get full time jobs, there’s no police.

It’s the same reason we’re hearing about knife crime so much because there’s no cops on the streets. Teens can carry knifes because they aren’t going to be stopped & searched like they would’ve been 10 years ago.

Countries on its arse but yet we can spend money on bombs whenever we fancy it, money on the shambles that is Brexit, money to the DUP etc.

 

Too easy to blame it on austerity. That's definitely one factor but there is a lot more to it. Why is it that we no longer hold people responsible for their own behaviour? Can't agree on the knife crime comment either.

 

I wouldn't go that far I wouldn't dream of randomly killing somebody and saying it was diminished responsibility because my life was ****.

 

I wouldn't carry a weapon of any kind just because I was 99.999% certain I wouldn't be stopped by the police.

Funnily enough, the only time I've been stopped by the police was wearing a BFC shirt.

 

Our lasses mother was once pulled in her car on boxing day by police and asked to do a Breathalyzer test. The officer asked if she'd had a drink to which she replied yes. He did the breath test and it came back negative. He said you have been drinking. To which she replied yes tea I don't drink alcohol. He was going to do her for wasting police time even though he pulled her over.

 

Funnily enough mate. Been stopped by police numerous times. To peacefully picket and trying to go in home ends when it would save me money. Eg in the olden days . Eg.Oldham me n young un at time. £8 each away end. £5/3 home end. Blagged my way in. ( Lifted him over otherwise)

 

When you are actually specifically looking for something, you notice it. Last week I was working in Leeds. As I walked from the Railway station to the corner of the road near the Slug and Lettuce pub, I had passed 4 different groups of down and outs and/ or ‘druggies’ By the time I had reached The Headrow I had passed another 3 of similar looking groups. My journey ended at the Merrion Centre where I saw about 3 individuals who were out of their heads so to speak. Now, these weren’t figments of my imagination, but I was definitely looking for them simply to compare to what I see in Tarn. Not surprising that a Big bustling City has more of these types of people than Tarn and what I saw was just in a 12- 15 minute brisk walk on a straight route. How much/ many more hadn’t I seen that morning? So I deduced from this that there isn’t anywhere near as many in Tarn as in Leeds I suppose it’s safe to say that those in Tarn are probably ‘ local’ and as Leeds is a bustling City there will be a good number of ‘non- locals’ amongst them. As I said earlier I was specifically looking for them so they will have stood out more.
Moving on, A crime is a crime and they should be suitably punished for any they may commit, but we desperately need to get the support out there to help them and ultimately reduce the potential for the crimes they committ. Prevention is always better than cure, but there has to be a will for there to be a way. It’s so easy to stand/ sit back and castigate places and their inhabitants and offer nothing more than just how we can penalise these people.

 

I l

I live upper sheff Road, which is OK. But when u get down to traffic lights that's were all these scum live it's a discrace they all come out early morning with there bedding and pillows to loiter and beg in town, and on sheff Road outside flats, outside sports direct and people stupidly give them money for there fix, what gets me they all got homes yo go 2 and got best phones on market its a **** hole and a nightmare, all like zombies on SPICE.. Stop giving them money please.. Rant over.

 

We are all of us in the gutter, some of us are looking at the stars.

What we 'see' is a reflection of and and a simple reinforcement of our world view.

Credit to Oscar Wilde and Chrissy Hynde

 

Thing is it’s been inbred into so many generations now, people tell them they have no chance so they don’t bother.
When we left school in the early seventies there were hardly any jobs either but the ones that wanted one found one.
Probably the main difference these days is there are less ‘ better’ manual jobs for the kids who are better with their hands and practical stuff.
Still no excuse for the road some go down though imho

 

My mother, bless her soul, was one of 6 kids born in the 20s. She went through the general strike as well as WW2. She used to go mad when she heard people blaming austerity for the lowlife in society. They had bugger all, no tv, no phone, no fridge, no car, no holidays yet they didn't go out thieving and knifing people. There was no money during the general strike but everyone got on. Today's society want everything, for instance how many of these beggars have got mobile phones.

 

There goes us all but for the grace of God

 

There are white rappers too - Eminem, Vanilla Ice, Beastie Boys etc.

 

Town centre shopping is on it's last legs, it's not something people want to do anymore.

Shopping malls will continue for a a while but ultimately online shopping will kill those too.

Need to start looking at redeveloping town centres for housing or finding other uses for them because town centre shopping is not coming back.

 

The education system is there. Unfortunately a minority have family members and peers who have a very poor outlook on education. Education is resisted as it is seen as a distraction or not important or cool. Many kids today will say “I don’t care about anything”. To me this is heartbreaking, even if it is not true. School can only work if the student is willing or able to engage in the learning.

Money and resources are thrown at the disadvantaged students, but this will never be as good as a supportive and stable family life.

Drugs are a major cause of the issues. Easy to find, relatively cheap, and the strange thing for me.... without the stigma they used to have. Let’s just say the youth are not put off trying the stuff.

We are going through worrying times, but let’s remember it is still a minority that are falling off the bottom.

 

Exactly Ian. And it's worth bearing in mind that Aberdeen is one of the wealthiest and best educated cities in the UK, unlike Barnsley.

 

A common problem across the country Conan

 

Bit of a myth that everyone got

I
Actually they did. Crime has always existed. Violent crime has always existed. The trouble is when it becomes your normalised way of life. You have a job, mortgage kids etc you re less likely to risk it.

 

I like how comments like this imply that you get an entire generation which, for no particular reason, is completely different and worse than the previous generation.

 

I think there is a reason, my dad and grandads generation might not have had much but were by and large upright citizens with far better ethical standards than may have today, yeas there have always been wrong uns but not like today.
The councils haven’t helped,effectively creating ghettos with like for like neighbours leaving nothing to aspire to, and successive negative ‘gene pools’ have brought through kids who were on a loser to start with, effectively schooled to make the best of the benefit system rather than work towards personal success.
Might be wrong but that’s just my opinion