Took two teenage girls shopping in Bristol today.
As we circled the carpark two drug addicts were getting their gear ready. As we walked to the big shopping centre a man high as a kite was trying to pick his phone off the floor and finding it highly amusing that he kept failing to do so.
The ticket machine wasn’t working, the escalator was broken, and numerous shops empty including the massive old Debenhams.
The streets were dirty, the building too. Closing down sales and “to let” signs seemed to be everywhere you looked. Beggars say by lampposts on the pavements.
Even Poundland had a security guard.
Driving back out we saw row after row of shops, the majority shuttered and looking abandoned.
Even a year ago - when I last did the same shopping jaunt - things were better. Not great but nowhere near as bad as today.
I am used to Skegness and the ever increasing number of charity shops and barbers. But in a big city it felt so much worse.
Bristol really brought home the malaise we are suffering from in our country.
It felt like a city that had given up.