Birmingham, Britain's second-largest city, is being forced to dim lights and cut sanitation services due to bankruptcy : worldnews

[-] Apollonius_Cone@lemmy.world 60 points 4 months ago

Years of accumulative Conservative cutbacks will do that to a society. Where's your empire now, Britain? Pathetic.

[-] Rade0nfighter@lemmy.world 23 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

No doubt fiscal policies put this (and other) councils on the back foot, but it’s reductive to ignore that the thing that tipped them over the edge was bureaucratic incompetence combined with being fucked by the Oracle Corporation.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/05/birmingham_city_council_oracle/

[-] PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml 12 points 4 months ago

Earlier this year, one insider told The Register that Oracle Fusion, the cloud-based ERP system the council is moving to, "is not a product that is suitable for local authorities, because it's very much geared towards a manufacturing/trading organization."

I guess no one could have predicted that a public-private partnership would be bad for the public?

[-] JustCopyingOthers@lemmy.ml 7 points 4 months ago

I don't know how valid this is, but I heard county and district councils use government bonds to secure more favourable loan terms. When Liz Truss upset the UK bond market the cost of borrowing rose as the value of their bond assets dropped. The county council where I live is now spending as much on servicing debt as it is on fixing roads. (Roads, although not the most important responsibility of local government, are a visible indicator of their capability.)

[-] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 4 months ago

“See? We proved that democracy doesn’t work!”

[-] UltraMagnus0001@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

Bet those boomers that got all those tax cuts are taking their money to the grave.

[-] regul@lemm.ee 31 points 4 months ago

What's needed here is to sell off the lamp posts to a private corporation and then to rent them back from that same company!

[-] Luvs2Spuj@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago

The expectation of people to have free or subsidised light to be able to see really is some magic money tree problem caused by labor and migrants.

[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 18 points 4 months ago

a failed state

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 5 points 4 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

To claw back $600 million over the next two years, the council has approved a range of unprecedented budget cuts that will see streetlights dimmed and rubbish collected only once a fortnight.

Nick Davies, programme director of British think-tank Institute for Government, says the austerity measures brought in under former prime minister David Cameron have degraded public services across the country.

The austerity measures included a reduction in government spending on welfare, local authorities, police, courts and prisons as well as the cancellation of school building programs.

The dire state of public services in the UK, paired with a cost-of-living crisis, is expected to be a major driver for voters at the general election on July 4.

UK Labour's 'red wall' across the middle and north of England crumbled in 2019, as the Conservative party picked up marginal seats with the promise of "levelling-up" the regions.

The once-popular Conservative West Midlands mayor Andy Street was toppled in local elections last month, a blow to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's hopes of retaining support in middle England.

The original article contains 991 words, the summary contains 175 words. Saved 82%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[+] Old_Geezer@lemmy.ml -41 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

[deleted]

[-] circuscritic@lemmy.ca 10 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Damnit. I hate when my local city government's finances are too fucked to pay the energy bill, but still have money for military weapons procurement.

Wait a minute....local city governments are able to purchase air launched cruise missiles and anti-tank weapons?!?! And they can export them to?!?!

Dude I think you might be onto something, that is pretty wild...makes you wonder what the dog catcher is really up to... probably moonlights with gig economy wetwork.

[-] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

local city governments are able to purchase air launched cruise missiles and anti-tank weapons?!?! And

In Texas maybe.

[-] PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 months ago

In Texas maybe.

Dont' forget NYPD https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/the-nypd-megatruck-that-showed-up-at-hamilton-hall/ar-AA1nZJJZ

[-] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

If only they budget in some courage. There were 400 cops at Uvalde. Not to be a tough guy, but its part of their job.

[-] WHARRGARBL@beehaw.org -2 points 4 months ago

The Birmingham WMD industry is second only to Russia, which is, has always been, and will always be, number one in everything. Do not piss on the nationalist propaganda parade.

[-] Pavidus@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago

Not only does that not have anything to do with the topic at hand, but I'm also much more worried about the very real hostile take over of a nation than some people's fucking street lights.

[-] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 7 points 4 months ago

People forget that the first country the Tories fucked up was their own.

[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 months ago

imagine thinking that spending billions on a proxy war does not have anything to do with the domestic decline in UK 🤡

[-] LarkinDePark@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

It's very relevant to the topic at hand. The ruling class are laundering money using the war they started in Ukraine that they hoped would enable them to pillage Russia again like they did in the 90s.

Ukraine is comprised of several nations, some of which have no interest being part of the fascist dictatorship that tried to ethnically cleanse them before they were saved by Russia.

English citizens have a reasonable expectation to fucking street lights from their state while it pours money into its failed war.

[-] anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net 2 points 4 months ago

1000009752

[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 months ago

lmao chuds downvoting the elephant in the room

[-] zurohki@aussie.zone 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

The UK has spent 12.5 billion pounds on Ukraine in the last 28 months, which at around 5.4 billion per year is 0.4% of the UK's budget. That's not an elephant in the room, it's a mouse under the fridge.

It's not being mentioned because it isn't significant. The downvotes are because obvious disinformation is obvious.

[-] PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 months ago

Hmm 12.5Billion pounds eh? How much would it cost to "keep the lights on" in Birmingham do you reckon?

[-] zurohki@aussie.zone 3 points 4 months ago

They could always tax the rich, but sure, let's pretend that the only possible option is the one that helps Russia.

There's a reason why that government is polling so low that it may not even be the opposition in two weeks.

[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 months ago

15% of UK households went hungry as of February this year, I'm pretty sure 12.5 BILLION pounds could've done a lot of them, but instead that money was spent in Ukraine. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/27/health-emergency-15-of-uk-households-went-hungry-last-month-data-shows

The deplorable regime in UK doesn't give a shit about its own people, let alone Ukrainians.

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