I Investigated Why British Cities Keep Going Bankrupt

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A video about why British cities are running out of cash.
Written, directed and presented by Tom Nicholas.
Edited by Georgia Burrows.
Chapters
00:00 British Cities are Going Bankrupt
01:46 Act I: Birmingham Goes Bust
12:10 Act II: A Brief Guide to UK Local Government
28:17 Act III: Deceptive Decentralisation
35:06 Epilogue: Community Wealth Building
Bibliography
You can find a bibliography for this video on my Patreon, here: / 104406583
Blurb
British cities are going bankrupt. What was once an exceptionally rare event has become a regular occurance as six city, borough or county councils have announced they've run out of cash over the past two years.
In order to find out why, Tom Nicholas sets off on a four-day road trip around the UK to unpick how local government in the UK works, and how local councils might be empowered to become more sustainable in the future.
Support my work on Patreon at / tomnicholas
Twitch: / tom_nicholas
Twitter: / tom_nicholas
Instagram: / tomnicholaswtf
Patreon: / tomnicholas
Website: www.tomnicholas.com
Select footage courtesy of Getty
Music from Epidemic Sound

[@Tom_Nicholas]

I hope you enjoyed this video! You may have noticed that making it was *a lot* more complicated than usual! It involved a four-day trip around England, arranging interviews, buying in extra kit, and a much more complicated edit process as we attempted to tie the various threads of the video together. I'm really keen to keep pushing the boundaries of what we do with these videos over the coming year. I want to use the opportunity of the platform I've got on KZbin and Nebula to tell important stories in the most engaging ways possible. If you'd like to support me and my team in that, there are a couple of ways you can do so. Firstly, by signing up to Nebula using my personal link go.nebula.tv/tomnicholas Or, by signing up to support the channel on Patreon at patreon.com/tomnicholas Thanks so much for considering it!

[@jesusvasquez4734]

it's ok, gj 👍

[@thecrazycapmaster]

Heck yeah, go wild! It’s usually great to swing for the fences, even if it doesn’t work out every time (and I’m willing to bet this one’s a winner 😆)

[@elliot_729]

Microphone on screen?

[@elizabethdavis1696]

Please consider doing a video on the lifeboat foundation and lifeboat ethics

[@shaunmodipane1]

is this video part of Vapeonomics series?

[@-N0V4-]

This is the weirdest Top Gear special I've seen in years.

[@christopher9727]

.... Jesus Christ is the only hope in this world no other gods will lead you to heaven There is no security or hope with out Jesus Christ in this world come and repent of all sins today Today is the day of salvation come to the loving savior Today repent and do not go to hell Come to Jesus Christ today Jesus Christ is only way to heaven Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today Holy Spirit Can give you peace guidance and purpose and the Lord will John 3:16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Mark 1.15 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Jesus

[@miscellaneousz2681]

It’s top gayer

[@antediluvianatheist5262]

And thus gooder. ​@@miscellaneousz2681

[@J-K-A]

Hahahaha

[@kodragon6531]

Yup

[@peterjol]

Nobody seems to see much connection to the wealth of the Rich and the private corporations going through the roof while everything else is failing.

[@orterves]

It's not a bug it's a feature

[@JAI_8]

The rich do. That’s why they’re so dead set against anyone in the msm talking about it! It’s all “culture”, “identity”, “race”, “traditional values”, “woke” this, “trans” that, “pedophile” moral panics, “BLM”, “migrants” etc. etc. all of it generating massive profits for the rich who’s giant media companies host the entire discussion no matter what you’re side in the “culture war” and mold and shape the form of the discussion by their control of the private algorithms that mediate who we see, what we see, and slowly moderate the terms of the debate to their satisfaction. That is why you’ll NEVER see any radical anti-capitalist revolutionary promoters of working class solidarity on MSM or gaining any significant influence via the main media platforms. A divided working class more or less fully in support of capitalism, and without the ability to form a coherent critique of it, nor the ability to see past culture war categories and form a working class class consciousness suits the needs of the rich ruling class who owns all the significant gathering places on the internet now. When there’s anywhere that the rich Western Capitalists don’t fully own or control … like TikTok for example, the rich lose their minds and start shouting about espionage and privacy concerns (they have no such privacy concerns when their own citizens are subjected to ever more unconstitutional surveillance by the state, or by anyone who will reliably hand over data about US citizens to law enforcement in the US, legally or not. TikTok has them losing their minds because it is NOT owned by a reliable US / western capitalist company who will supply ONLY pro-rich, pro-US oligarchy messages on the platform. And of course the bold, outspoken working class former bank trader and economist, Gary Stevenson, he does too! On his channel “Gary’s Economics” he.l explains it all quite powerfully and convincingly, and explains equally powerfully and convincingly why a massive wealth tax on the richest 1% or 2% or 3% or so of the wealth holders in the world’s capitalist democracies will recreate a healthy and functioning middle class-based society, by redistributing the massive quantities of wealth and assets accumulated and hoarded by the super rich over the last several decades. He implies the current social pathology among the working class, the poor, and the increasingly frustrated and dispossessed former middle class is a result of this massive shift in the economic priorities in our capitalist democracies over the last several decades. The economic interests of the super rich have been favored over those of the middle class and the poor, as well as even the interest of a government possessed of enough wealth and assets to provide the services people need to live in the 20th and 21st century. Gary argues like Tom does here that the bankruptcy of cities is but one symptom of a wider pathological “privatization” of the nation and selling so much of the resources, and even infrastructure already paid for by the taxpayers to the rich so that they may profit from selling access to these services back to the very people who already paid to build the schools, roads, transit, communication, economic system, and many other basic infrastructure elements. These services are forced into artificial “bankruptcy” by the rich taxpayers who refuse to pay into the tax system at all … then instantly have the duly DDS to buy these services they wouldn’t pay to use before, in order to charge criminal rates to use the same systems weeks or months before they had been crying to poor to pay taxes to utilize the service. The scheme is obscene. It’s an invention of the criminal “supply-side” “trickle down” economists favored by Reagan and Thatcher and Mulroney and every other neoliberal crook who saught to destroy the working class by bankrupting it by refusing to pay taxes they claimed they couldn’t afford, only to turn around, use loans from their own banks underwritten by taxpayer guarantees to buy the exact same resources and assets from the government they’d just refuse to pay tax in order to use. Their argument? They were all trustworthy selfless men who could run these services better than the people’s government could. What a scam. To this day we live under the increasing economic strain of this scheme, and are still being encouraged to blame each other; our fellow working class neighbors for either our idiotic retrograde “conservative” traditional values, or our ridiculous, elitist, ideological, doctrinaire “liberal woke” values. The rich don’t care about any of this; they’re laughing giddily as we fight amongst ourselves ignoring the ongoing economic thievery they are perpetrating against ALL of us the whole time. If you want to scare the crap outta yourself to understand what the driving philosophy and the “social values” of the ruling rich oligarchy is today (because they sure don’t care about “patriotiism”, “Christianity”, “traditional values”, “woke values” “social justice”, any of the stuff they sell to us as culture war products. Nope. Try and go search the internet for “Right Accelerationism (R/ACC) and Elon Musk” or Peter Thiel or Jeff Bezos. Or try looking up the Political Philosophy of The Koch Brothers AND “A Treatise on Government” by John C. Calhoun or The Koch Brothers AND James M. Buchanan (economist) and his “The Limits of Liberty” or his “The Calculus of Consent” . . as well as Peter Thiel (again) AND Calhoun’s book or either of Buchanan’s books. These rich men love these theoretical books which elaborate upon a theoretical rationale for destroying democracy as a fundamentally unfair “tyranny of the majority against the “natural” rights of the rich and successful to rule. It’s frightening to think what stuff the rich are planning if only they could remove the pesky impediment of democracy. That’s why they quietly support Trump and the MAGA GOP with millions of dollars. regardless of the ugliness and hypocrisy in some of their cases to do so. Democracy is so “unfair” and a waste of energy that could be better spent making them more rich, if only it could be eliminated for good, and let the natural rights of the rich and successful rule forever uninterrupted.

[@dmwalker24]

And that IS the cause of this. Stagnant or falling wages, increasing prices, reductions in services, but increasing taxes. It's all in service of extracting everything from regular people, and transporting it to the very top.

[@DjDolHaus86]

There is also the massive elephant in the room which is Amazon. They take a huge proportion of the population's money that would otherwise be spent locally and then pay no corporation tax on the profits. Billions are simply disappearing into the ether

[@LWQ15881]

Wealth inequality is a serious detriment to consumer based economies like the uk’s as consumer spending accounts for 60% of gdp. The state should help consumers as the economy wouldn’t be able to function and would completely collapse.

[@hugosaurus]

The fact that public toilets aren’t a statutory service is outrageous. Most older people and a lot of younger people with medical conditions have to use the toilet a lot, and not having working public loos really makes it hard for them to go out.

[@captain_context9991]

I was a Norwegian student in Brum university 20 years ago. It was the exact same talk back then. Every municipal building in the city centre has a blue plaque on them saying "partly sponsored by the European Union" because British cities were getting development help. Crisis-funds from the EU. Money predominantly meant for the exact purpose of keeping EU cities from going bankrupt. I remember they were talking about there being 4-500 000 people in poverty in greater Birmingham back then. I wrote a thing for university back then where I blamed it on... The UK economy being focused almost entirely around London.

[@juliantheapostate8295]

As the second largest net-contributor to the EU (in a fiscal sense) after Germany, that was just us getting SOME of the money back which we paid in the first place!

[@KathyClysm]

@@juliantheapostate8295 Right, which is clearly why everything as been going incredibly well since we left. Oh wait

[@haxor98]

​@@juliantheapostate8295we got the money back but now it's funneled up to the torys and their mates

[@pritapp788]

@@juliantheapostate8295 Britain has been getting money back since Thatcher negotiated a rebate. Has done wonders indeed in funnelling the money back where Britain needs it eh? The NHS is flourishing, the towns are coming to life with brilliant projects.

[@moosky7344]

The UK donated 100s of billions to the EU and took in 6 million EU citizens costing yet even more 100s of billions!!! Now we have a housing crisis and crisis here and there, we can't cope with the influx

[@Prophencia]

If I had a £1 for everytime some modern issue was linked back to Thatcher I'd have enough money that the conservatives would give me a PPE contract...

[@oldishandwoke-ish1181]

Yep.

[@yuglesstube]

It has a lot to do with mass immigration and the decline of North Sea oil and gas. Brexit hasn't helped.

[@AlJay0032]

Many Brits don't understand what Thatcher has done for them and how they are still profiting from her work to this day.

[@golemgolden4670]

Or Reagan

[@yuglesstube]

@AlJay0032 Brits in the City and Home Counties certainly. Mancunians, Liverpudlians and Geordies, not so much. In fact much of the UK really sucks. Whether Foote, in her place, would have been better for Britain is questionable. Losing the Empire, the rise of the US and Japan and multitudinous externalities, including mass immigration, have broken Britain.

[@Alexander-yb1zc]

My thought before clicking on this video. "I bet Thatcher is somehow involved".

[@brianh9358]

Kind of like how a lot of the problems in the states started with Reagan.

[@mauz791]

The milk snatcher's legacy

[@jaxkal9596]

She has been dead for a while gotta search for a new scarecrow

[@davespanksalot8413]

@@jaxkal9596she represents, and is now shorthand for, a particular ethos. Which is why she’ll remain a useful scarecrow for many years to come.

[@davescott7680]

​@@brianh9358Every US video talking about the US's problems. "So all this started when Reagan..." Every UK video talking about UK's problem's 'All this started when Thatcher..."

[@howmanybeansmakefive]

As a Brit currently in America, hearing about 'inadvisably' long distances to drive in England is beginning to sound quite quaint to me haha

[@alexrettig7402]

As an American who's driven the length of Britain I felt the same.

[@SoloAdvocate]

I have a 3 and a half hour drive tomorrow and I am not even leaving my state of Texas nor even driving from one side to the other that would be near 10 hours. You could basically fit the entire UK in Texas with room to spare.

[@quasinfinity]

America is a country where 100 years is a long time, and England is a country where 100 miles is a long way

[@stuartrose2353]

Your a traitor

[@stuartrose2353]

@@howmanybeansmakefiveand did the east India empire control the colonies or did the working class sharing piss Potts?

[@natmorse-noland9133]

Brilliant work, Tom, the extra effort really paid off here. A little addition to your description of privatizing waste removal: I live in Chicago, which, contrary to conservatives' depictions of the city, LOVES to privatize city services, including waste removal; it has contracts with a couple different companies, including the creatively named Waste Management. Now, for several years studies showed that Chicago had one of the worst recycling rates of major US cities. The narrative was that we Chicagoans were too dumb or lazy to properly separate garbage from recyclables, so we kept hopelessly contaminating our bins of recyclables, which had to be dumped instead. TURNS OUT that the aforementioned Waste Management was contracted to deal with recycling as well as garbage. So they'd get paid once when they went to retrieve a recycling bin... and if that bin happened to be marked (by them) as contaminated, they'd get paid a second time to haul that bin to the dump. So there was a direct financial incentive for them to falsely mark recycling as contaminated. Just another example of companies' environmental destruction being falsely blamed on individual consumers.

[@alexjames7144]

'I'm in Liverpool..... and it's incredibly windy' 😱 Truly a staggering turn of events

[@christopher9727]

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Come to Jesus Christ today Jesus Christ is only way to heaven Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today John 3:16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Mark 1.15 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Jesus

[@wpjohn91]

Joe Anderson

[@JJTMStudio]

God bless all you kites in Scouserland.

[@kodragon6531]

Yup

[@NikChillin]

Chemical engineering

[@alexjames7144]

Liverpool is actually a great example of why this is happening, in the last 10 years the conservative government have reduced the amount they give the Liverpool city council by over 90%, forcing them to massively hike up council tax. This video touches on some of the issues but isn't really making any inferences into how we have somehow increased tax to the highest point that it has been for nearly a hundred years on both national and regional levels, and massively reduced the amount of spending going towards public services. And yet, supposedly, we have no money and the government are struggling. We, the fifth richest nation in the world with a relatively small population to support, have no money despite spending less and taxing more. Where the fuck has the money gone? People are getting too bogged down in specific and small scale economic changes and not really questioning how, on a national scale, we are giving the government more and getting less back only for the government to claim that they are struggling. There are only really three possible ways for this to occur: 1) The government are so fundamentally inept that they are simply losing or wasting all of the money by accident in an almost comedic fashion. 2) The government are intentionally throwing money in a huge bottomless pit to the benefit of nobody for seemingly no reason to appease the bottomless pit. 3) The government are weaponising an air of false incompetence to distract from the fact that they are quite literally pocketing the money themselves in huge quantities. Edit: I am loving the response this is getting, calling out corruption and inefficiency across the board. But the take away is that this is based in a broad range of factors that represent institutional failures at every level due to both greed and the inherent problems with capitalism, mainly the blatant inefficiencies and the fact that the end goal is explicitly to funnel money into the hands of the rich for personal enjoyment, and not into public hands for the good of the people. All 3 I pointed out are happening to varying degrees, as well as everything you guys have pointed out, some of which may be a combination of fall into one of the categories, but they're all interconnected regardless and I hope we can all agree that the solution is not minor reform, it's a complete economic overhaul.

[@That0neSkrub]

That's been the trajectory since Thatcher. The sinkhole the British dug by privatizing public services, and subsidizing and bailing them out instead of having them public, along with the Monarchy sapping wealth from the government and you have a recipe for a 3rd world country in the making

[@_.seraphina._]

Possibly all 3 are happening at the same time

[@darkpixel1128]

look into the teesside freeport, an utter s***show of naked corruption. The private eye have done a lot of reporting on it.

[@OncleSpenny]

4) the money all gets sent over to the private sector and funnelled upwards to near no benefit. The neoliberal decline in government capacity means everything must be contracted to the private sector, which can subcontract etc with massive profit margins taken at every step. This would show outwardly as increases in inequality, housing crisis, increasing stocks with declining real wages, etc

[@alexjames7144]

@@OncleSpenny DING DING DING! Sounds suspiciously like the politicians and their mates doing some laundry

[@yayaya6799]

My home town of Woking went bust last year - total corruption, mostly speculating on property development rather than providing services for it's rate payers. If councils were companies criminal charges would be laid. Instead councils just refinance and kick the problem down the street, meaning we have even more suffering to come.

[@tnteachertim]

@yayaya... No. Those "companies" would simply close their "Limited Liability" doors, paying NO debts or taxes, and reopen under a new name the next day....

[@SomeGuyInAWaistcoat]

A lot of councils are involved with dodgy speculation schemes. Weirdly enough, the same people cutting off their money and making them raise their own are the ones who also destroyed the restrictions on council investments, making it easier to get involved in or taken advantage of by dodgy deals.

[@MartijnterHaar]

Uncanny how similar this situation is to the Netherlands. Specifically in 2015 something called the Wet Maatschappelijke Ondersteuning (WMO, Law Societal Support) transferred a lot of power regarding subsidies for things like wheel chairs, cleaning help, pedagogical services, etc. from the central government to the municipalities. Officially to "bring it closer to the people". But with it came of course massive budget cuts. And it also meant there are massive differences between municipalities now between levels of support. In the bigger cities it is usually okay, but in smaller ones a Scrooge-y "they don't need help; they should go work" alderman can make people's life hell.

[@JJVernig]

It's almost a three tier world. If the municipality is big enough you've got the means to build the bureaucracy to do it good, but if you're between 20k-150k it's too small to do that. The 10k almost know all their pappenheimers, and the help also gets mostly where it's needed...

[@Obez45]

But Rishi somehow made 100 million pounds within the last year

[@Obez45]

@@Medusas_Barber Yeah he is a good business man when it's for his own personal gain but when it comes to the country those skills magically disappear and the outcomes for the UK are worse than any other time in history - how many times have cities actually gone bankrupt? We have sewage in our water again; we've gone full circle back to the 19th century. Where is he even getting the time to make so much money for himself while the country he's “serving” implodes? The optics are horrendous, I refuse to believe that there is no conflict of interests when making vast sums of money like that

[@cj.wijtmans]

@@Medusas_Barber I hate it when parasites get called business man. Parasites suck real business men and trades people dry.

[@bobby5678-ck2tc]

@@Obez45 people who are European will always care more about their own people then your people that is human nature to care more about your own people before others it's like people have forgotten that we are different peoples fighting each other for resources that is what life is all about the western world has forgotten what life is about we have been in peace for 80 years that vast majority of the whole time or recorded history we have always been at war with each other welcome back to reality the boomer era is over it was a once in a lifetime thing that will not happen again until we decide to conquer other countries and take their resources.

[@samotter9509]

​@Medusas_Barber successful at giving his wife's company exclusive drilling contracts

[@TomChaton]

​@@Medusas_BarberHow does that one statistic contradict anything they said?

[@bookbagfox]

Any tech person could have told Birmingham to not employ Oracle.

[@silviasanchez648]

Yeah, as soon as he said Oracle I thought "they're fucked" and sure they were!

[@Bobylein1337]

But whoever was in charge of the decision probably got a nice gift from Oracle.

[@moosky7344]

Go for the cheapest quote, they're cheap for a reason

[@etienne8110]

Some probably did. Buy you can t beat corruption with sound advices...

[@kodragon6531]

Yup

[@Antinumeric]

I think that all big IT contractors (Fujitsu, Oracle, IBM etc) should be unable to win contracts in the UK, they have proven time and time again that they are unable to deliver on-time, on-budget, or with quality.

[@Jonathan_Doe_]

Whoever runs the .gov and HMRC websites are really on it though. Find another country where you can do a cash basis self assessment tax return in like half an hour online, or get divorced, or renew a driving licence, with such ease.

[@Antinumeric]

@@Jonathan_Doe_ That'd be GDS and I think HMRC in-house. They developed a set of really decent guidelines for making public facing government websites, when they are followed it's consistent and generally good. For non-public facing it's a minefield.

[@TheSquidPro]

What are some good companies for public systems internal and externally facing? Just to orient myself. @Antinumeric

[@aidy6000]

Same with the privitisation of our armed forces catering, you should see the state of what we are feeding them!

[@MintyFarts]

They should have to prove there are no local/national options before going with international companies. It's not just an issue of competence, but extraction of resources, security, and investment in industry workers.

[@dudere]

"Drive an inadvisable distance", bro I live in the US. We had to put turns in the roads of Missouri because the endless miles of identical corn on both sides of the road kept hypnotizing people into thinking they were not moving. They would go made and pass out from driving through too much corn.

[@spindle7397]

Haha sounds fun

[@MugenHeadNinja]

Non-US people really don't know how ridiculous it is to live in the US sometimes. Try living somewhere with no place to buy food or drink without having to drive 20 miles (32.19 km) one way (40 miles [64.37 km] altogether), and then it's even further for the closest job opportunities. It's unfortunately very normal over here, and we don't have the luxury of having decent public transportation in the majority of the country.

[@elisabethmontegna5412]

As an Iowan I feel obligated to point out that however bad the endless miles of corn are, at least it’s not Nebraska 😁

[@dudere]

@@MugenHeadNinja I think being killed by unending, unchanging, mind melting scenery is pretty ridiculous.

[@tubthungusbychumbungus]

​@@MugenHeadNinja my family keep asking me if I'd like to move to America and I have to keep explaining that this exactly is simply not bearable living conditions

[@LexYeen]

"...and a genuinely interesting pen museum." confirmed brit.

[@Jade_holloway]

😄

[@kipzonderkop1994]

I live in Birmingham and didn’t know it existed lmao

[@kodragon6531]

Yup

[@JB-yb4wn]

@@kipzonderkop1994 Write it down before you forget.

[@kezia8027]

OF COURSE IT WAS FUCKIN ORACLE. As an Australian IT worker, I've been leery of oracle for over a decade now, and it is so saddeningly unsurprising that they've showed up to screw up yet again here. I am a little surprised they've upgraded from company grifts to entire cities now. That must be a nice pay increase for their C-suite.

[@jo2lovid]

Oracle, SAP, whatever ERP is initially selected, will be promoted as a very cost neutral option. The client buys in to the proposal, and then the finessing process starts. Every little "enhancement" adds cost, changes the scope, requires more time and resources, adds complexity. And nekminute you are thousands/millions higher in costs, delays and under delivered deployments. So called client 'experts' are revealed to be thicker than two planks, and sometimes caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Incentives abound for those with signing authority. You can guarantee that a new ERP is going to cost at least 200% initial quote, and delivery will be twice as long as proposed. NZ has had its fair share of failed and wildly over budget systems. Incis, Swift, AT, Kiosk, Novopay Over promised, under delivered, poor deployment, wild scope changes. IT Project Management seems to suck everywhere.

[@aalan4296]

Same applies with SAP. Pay a huge amount for a new SAP system, it cost double what the old system did in support costs and delivers half the capability of the old system. SAP then send in sales reps to try and sell you more SAP software to solve the problem that the original SAP installation caused.

[@user-xi6nk4xs4s]

Not much has changed over the last 25 years it appears. Oracle, SAP or any other ERP software always causes major cost increases and disruption of the operations. Was that way at the end of the 20th century, and still is it seems.

[@christopher9727]

... Do you know Jesus Christ can set you free from sins and save you from hell today Jesus Christ is the only hope in this world no other gods will lead you to heaven There is no security or hope with out Jesus Christ in this world come and repent of all sins today Today is the day of salvation come to the loving savior Today repent and do not go to hell Come to Jesus Christ today Jesus Christ is only way to heaven Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today Romans 6.23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. John 3:16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Mark 1.15 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Jesus

[@StickyGelatin]

@@jo2lovid it's not project management to blame. it is deliberate fleecing. the software is designed to be so bad that it requires additional deployment time and people to make it even work in the first place. most of the software errors I encounter when working with oracle ERP are so simple to fix, some literally one line of code, that there is no possible way that it is anything but deliberate

[@margaretf667]

The system is working exactly as designed

[@theicyridge]

Community wealth building is probably the most important economic development of our times. It gives locals power even when larger levels of government don't support them, and has both left-wing objectives of working-class control and conservative principles of decentralization and efficient use of resources. If larger levels of government ever do support it, it could really change the game. Thanks for this awesome coverage.

[@MostlyLoveOfMusic]

This feels like a Top Gear special

[@Slug99]

Tonight on Top Gear: Hammond finds out the local city council is bankrupt, May sees an old building 'That's it right there' and I move all my financial assets off-shore.

[@kira6149]

@@Slug99 jeremy clarkson would do that, wouldnt he

[@rcnhsuailsnyfiue2]

Presented by Ian Hislop

[@Trenz0]

So I went to the worst city... in the woorrld.

[@kenon6968]

more depressing and less racist, but yes

[@purplemonkeydishwasher5269]

The IT system costs are like everywhere. Lack of knowledge by managers. Full of people with business admin, law and accountant degrees. But no senior managers who understand the systems. So big IT companies can run rings around them

[@daydays12]

not just ££££ costs - peoples' lives: see the Post Office scandal.

[@therealrobertbirchall]

Which is why the German economy is so stable. post ww2

[@AUniqueHandleName444]

@@therealrobertbirchall Yup. Engineers are running everything over there.

[@therealrobertbirchall]

@@AUniqueHandleName444 and look what a fantastic job they do

[@2112jonr]

The model is this: Charge out "consultants" at £1000 per day. Hire fresh out of uni students. Pay them the minimum salary you can get away with. Pocket the profit. Meanwhile, they fleece the decent permanent staff at their victim organisation for knowledge. Making them useful to the IT consultancy at the council's expense. Once council has to cut costs, offer to take over at a quarter of the salary. Then shaft them on support costs. Seen it SO many times.

[@iacopo538]

I studied urban planning and finished both my Bachelors and Masters outside of the UK, which I don't particularly want to return to, at least partly because of the frankly dire state of local authority investment in public sector planning. You captured my sense of local economic depression so effectively in this. Every Christmas, when I go back, it seems my local authority has sold off another childhood memory or abandoned another treasured social space. Certainly my experience of speaking with urban planners who both work and have worked in my local authorities is one of desperation; there is such a sense of hopelessness. I think you could even be more explicit in tying Government's neglect of its local funding obligations to the disenfranchisement of the public and the decay of daily life throughout the country- the grime, the mess... It's really cool to see you briefly touch on the Preston example at the end there, because I think that the LA there also has some unique socioeconomic (and political) characteristics which empower the council to be a little more bold than others. While I've never been, from some further reading it does seem to have had a not insignificant effect- you can see that in the Indices of Deprivation data. If you happen to be in Vienna any time soon, then let me know and I'll very gladly try my best to explain how the post-War generation here was instrumental in the creation of the world's first true still-operating socialised housing system! And also complain about the hell that are town council economic assessment forms in the South of England.

[@Jordan-288]

TLDR: Torries since the 80's at a national level have destroyed local council, with the assistance of a "moderate" Labour government in between

[@SolarFlareAmerica]

moderate being code for rabid, from what I've heard lol

[@terryj50]

Yet it’s all Labour council who have gone under

[@terryj50]

Let’s see how well they all do under Labour not long now until they are in. No excuse then when they go under

[@skurinski]

Let me guess. The answer is more leftism lol

[@skurinski]

​@@terryj50most of these cities are ruled by labour councils and mayors

[@sarbe6625]

isn't it kind of fucked up that a city can even go bankrupt in the first place?

[@richardwills-woodward5340]

Not if you import the Third World. what do you expect? Hardly the calibre of culture that built the industrial revolution, created the scientific method and invented most of the world's modernity. Why import people from cultures thousands of years behind our own and bankrupt yourself?

[@camipco]

sort of? It does play a somewhat useful role of (in theory) protecting anyone the city employs or contracts with, so the city doesn't just keep hiring people to do work only to have it then turn out they never get paid. I mean, I'm generally very much against the fiscal responsibility / austerity perspective on government, but I do think you need at least some of that. It is possible (although very far from the reality right now) to go too far the other direction from austerity, and bankruptcy provides a back stop for irresponsible spending by a city. I'm not saying this to disagree with all the points made in the video or claiming that these particular bankruptcies are the fault of irresponsibility on the part of the cities involved, just to say that eliminating the possibility of a city going bankrupt is not really a safe solution.

[@richardwills-woodward5340]

It makes people responsible, or it should do. Policies matter. It is political. Almost all councils that goes bankrupt are socialist councils. This is statistically noteworthy and significant.

[@exfinen_2919]

@@richardwills-woodward5340 it's because, instead of a publicly owned company, private companies are contracted for the social service, benefiting private shareholders. If public company handled it, then local government would be the shareholder, making the service self-benefiting.

[@Dacijo]

I worked for the council for a little while around 2010, the money they would throw at the wall at the end of the financial year was silly.

[@markroe6799]

I hate that just the mentioned Oracle has me immediately think "ahhh, yup there it is. That tracks."

[@nhgh1756]

lmao i had the same reaction. still salty over how they destroyed sun

[@smalltime0]

IDK what you mean, Oracle DBMS has everything! Wait, you want the parts to work together? No no, that's not how anything works in Oracle.

[@CentristDad155]

Computer projects are complicated. A humanities major like this YT guy are unlikely to understand the complexities. These things fail when boutique requests and bizarre requirements are thrown into the project halfway through. You want an out of the box solution, that goes smooth as silk.

[@smalltime0]

@@CentristDad155 This isn't Sun that we're talking about, its Oracle. Have you ever used Oracle? Of course you haven't. Its God-Awful

[@MarkHershberger]

@@CentristDad155 Of course computer projects are complicated. But when you have contracts that aren't a fixed price (whether it is software or the F-35), you run into cost overruns.

[@baronmeduse]

They go 'bankrupt' because central government throttles financial resources. As a matter of policy; the one they adopted in the very late seventies: monetarism. It's a policy choice since it is impossible for the UK government to 'go bankrupt', it is a sovereign currency issuer, i.e: is the only legal source of the currency it uses. Even though the original principle of this foolish theory was money supply control, this was already abandoned as a reality while Thatcher was in government. The same notion of restricted spending (and use of unemployment as a deliberate inflation tempering tool) is still in operation and also is the core methodology of EU economic policy baked into its treaty.

[@lucasschneider1894]

Love the step up ! Thanks, it's great to see how the channel is growing and how methods are flourishing

[@kezia8027]

Tom: It's got 5 wheels... me: 5 wheels!? Oh right, got to have a spare tyre. Tom: One for steering me: oh...

[@CentristDad155]

I rented a car in Newcastle and it did not have a spare tire. This was appalling to me as an American, when tire had an issue. Is this normal in the UK? I was told it was to save on the mass of the car or some nonsense

[@DjDolHaus86]

@@CentristDad155 Neither of the last 2 cars I've owned have had a spare, just a tin of puncture repair goo. I'm reasonably sure it's just a cost saving measure

[@CentristDad155]

@@DjDolHaus86 cool... And, in rental cars, just go ahead and throw a spare in the trunk. Are you certain the issue here is not a 'scarcity mentality'? ( That is the 4th term I settled on as the first 3 were more pejorative.)

[@DjDolHaus86]

@@CentristDad155 No, I'm fairly sure it's down to squeezing maximum profits from the product. I'm not saying I'm a fan, I'd much rather have a spare tyre than a useless tin of goo, I just think it's basic capitalism rather than any kind of mindset.

[@CentristDad155]

@@DjDolHaus86 Perhaps but I've gotten a spare tire in every other country I've rented a car in. I'm asking for your opinion here. I don't just make up stuff and pretend that it's facts. That's with the far left and far right in America do. I'm just saying I've noticed in the UK there's this mentality of we can have this or we can have that but not both. Hey how about we all just work an extra 10 or 15 minutes a day and then we can have both.

[@bingbangbong5055]

Next time a customer asks me why the library I work at is closing next month, I'll just point them towards this video... (As someone who works in council public services, yes, things are just as awful right now as this video suggests)

[@richardwills-woodward5340]

Because they're unproductive, over-paid and have far too large a pension for the wealth generated in the country. The public sector is 18% too large.

[@alfsmith4936]

Just tell them landlords are struggling so they need more flats for immigrants. It's funny to watch people realise they've been shafted when they thought they were shafting you.

[@Vonononie]

@@richardwills-woodward5340once I would have agreed with you but I’ve been working with a council as a contractor for a few months. They are very focused on reducing costs, everything is up for review, nothing is untouchable. One problem is my team were working to a plan set out by the minister as it’s a government lead project. Then there was a reshuffle, new minister told everyone to stop, he took 6 weeks to get up to date, and has now completely changed direction. I’ve found this frustrating but was told by colleagues who have been there for some time that in the last 5 years this is how it’s been. They’ve never seen such chaos in government, ministers are on a revolving door, and there’s no clear direction. All local councillors wanted to do these last few months is spend money on things which could help them get reelected. All ministers want to do is blow budgets before the general election. All whilst we got an email saying that the council wasn’t going to supply washing up liquid to the kitchen anymore, could we bring in our own! Yes the pension liability is big but they pay less. If you take away benefits then you are either going to get no one or people who can’t get jobs elsewhere. I think many councils can find efficiencies but there are bigger problems at the top

[@PhysicsGamer]

@@richardwills-woodward5340 I see you failed to watch the video. Or think, for that matter. How is calling a library "unproductive" at all sane?

[@richardwills-woodward5340]

@@PhysicsGamer Where did I state such a thing? It is of itself unproductive regardless, but it has a social use that should the individual engage with, could end inn a £42,000 salary which means that person has used the library to obtain knowledge to earn a salary that means they pay in more than they take out. Now, you could also argue it has a social good in that it provides knowledge, but this is just theory and has no proof. The ignorance of young people today and the disgusting views they hold of the country through brainwashing tells me they have never read a book. These libraries don't stop anyone from becoming another useful idiot for communist causes. Therefore, their purpose is in question. Book-reading is dead it seems, and only propaganda from social media seems to hold sway. A library is also only useful if it covers ALL subjects and does not engage in propaganda, as most public former educational establishments do. At best, libraries provide a local focal point for tea/coffee and computers for 'job-searching' by people with zero chance of achieving anything productive at all. They should not be in this position, but they have been hijacked by ideology and the third world. They should be places of learning. They are not. What is a library for if not learning?

[@Findecommie]

It really is appalling how many problems can be traced back to Thatcher and Reagan, hard to think of any two people with a worse legacy in the last 75 years

[@alicequayle4625]

Milton Friedman was their guru. Aka Chicago school of Economics.

[@TAP7a]

Friedman, Kissinger, Murdoch.... But this discussion is limited to people who held legitimate power and influence in the West, there are people like Pinochet, Pol Pot, Putin, Gaddafi and many others who actually had vast amounts of blood on their hands as a direct consequence of their orders, rather than an indirect result of the policies they advocated for. I don't think either are worse, but I do think these western ones have some additional disgust because their mainstream reputation is that of heroes, visionaries or great leaders, whereas the dictators' damage is better reflected in their reputation

[@michaelmcfaul7761]

Yes that’s right. Margaret thatcher who just got ousted from PM last week. No hold on a minute. Swee we at this old trope is so fucking boring

[@alicequayle4625]

@@TAP7a Mrs Thatcher was big friends with Pinochet and they were both running their economies according to the dogma of Milton Friedman.

[@alicequayle4625]

@@TAP7a Murdoch arguably holds more power than most heads of state.

[@aishahb8336]

This was an amazing video, really appreciate all the work you've put in this

[@jwmcq]

It's actually really damn useful to have an accessible, well-researched, source for this stuff. You're doing a service, Tom!

[@kodragon6531]

SO KIND OF YOU

[@christopherwaller2798]

The premise of localism is that local authorities have the legal right to do loads of things, but also the legal obligation to do many of things, and the inability to raise money to actually do those things. And of course, people will blame their Labour council for cuts which are effectively passed on from central Government. What's interesting is that councils have cut staff over the last decade, but central government headcount has actually increased.

[@richardwills-woodward5340]

Councils charge more than ever before. We are taxed the second highest amount in history, yet services decline (in mostly Labour councils). it is a lack of competence not money. They are happy to spend on rainbows, diversity officers and anti-white racist policy, yet can't seem to find the money for the basics.

[@sutenjarl1162]

of course you blame labour they are still the same government entities as every other party that exists

[@grimaffiliations3671]

and the central government could be doing a lot more to fund these localities without raising taxes. Taxes don't actually fund anything the central government does

[@inphowatcher9748]

And how is the central government funded?

[@grimaffiliations3671]

@@inphowatcher9748 Every penny the government spends is created by the government. It simply extends its overdraft with the bank of England. So why does it tax at all? To create demand for the currency, and to control inflation by reducing our spending power. That's it. Taxes can't pay for spending because the spending comes first (or else we wouldn't have the money to pay the tax) and then some of that money is deleted via tax. I highly recommend checking out a book called The Deficit Myth, it mainly covers the US but it applies here as well

[@chqshaitan1]

Excellent video, very informative and eye opening, keep up the great work

[@rrc2141975]

Incredible documentary. Watching and learning here in Baltimore, USA. Keep up the great work Tom!

[@pedrolopes3542]

It is not just the cities, it is the entire country that is collapsing. I know that because I saw that happen to my country in the early 2000's. All institutions managed by the government start to fail partially, taxes rise, but they can't keep up with expenses, people move away, companies shut down, there is a generalized sense of gloom. Decay becomes physically visible, in the facades of buildings, on the potholes in the pavement, the poorly patched infrastructure, in the lack of implementation of new technologies. It is not just the cities...

[@semilorekaji-hausa2078]

Which country? I live in Britain & would love to do some research

[@liverbot4854]

Which country is this?

[@alexwood7678]

Also interested

[@moosky7344]

​@@liverbot4854Greece or Venezuela i think, add the UK next 😢

[@moosky7344]

It's like that up and down the UK, money is being directed elsewhere for other situations 😠

[@algorhythm1337]

As a Nottingham local, Ratcliffe-on-Soar isn't a Nuclear power station; it's a coal-fired one, and they're in the process of winding it down 😅

[@isobelsheene51]

Wasn't sure whether to comment this or not 😅 Tom looked so happy in the behind the scenes video about it being a Simpsons-like nuclear power plant, I feel a bit sad to burst his bubble! It's actually one of the (or the?) last coal power stations in the country. And closing this year, apparently. I think Tom Scott did a video with it in not that long ago, too.

[@MigrantFoodMindset]

Been waiting for your video! Thanks for another great one 😊

[@oldishandwoke-ish1181]

Fantastic video, well done Tom and the team! More please.

[@edis_coffee_lab]

Production value quadrupled! Keep up your great work Tom.

[@El_Rey_247]

I'm not a Brit, and I'm not certain how much of this applies to my local government's budgets, but it's a solidly made video and good food for thought.

[@2112jonr]

It applies to every council in the UK. The gov't has been shafting ALL of us.

[@phyllislovelace8151]

Thank you Tom. Just stumbled across your show today. Very interesting. Thank you.

[@jakek8687]

Hey Tom! Been a fan for quite a while off and on, but I gotta say, this video is an exceptional piece of work and you should be super proud of yourself and the team. This discussion of the long-term costs of corporate privatization vs. traditional job creation vs. explicit wealth reinvestment is an extremely important one and telling this story is quite hard and often horribly depressing. I'm proud of you! Keep at it, brother!

[@matthewblack2379]

That guy from Preston is needed everywhere

[@pfftnuffinpersonalkid1541]

This was Jeremy Corbyn's program. Like usual, the "Left" were 100% correct, as even Militant was, but Centrists and "Moderates" and their media lackies would rather have their teeth pulled than do anything but bend over for the Tories and Tory narratives, because "Centrists" will always view the left as a bigger threat to their positions.

[@harrymccann1054]

He also runs open mic nights at my pub as well as others, and organises lots of local events and always offers opportunities to the local businesses - incredibly active in the community too. Great fella.

[@alicequayle4625]

I've read his book.

[@NovaExeRegent]

*Came here faster than the housing crisis did💀*

[@user-ds8rj2vc4v]

Jokes on you, we've always been in a housing crisis :)

[@kodragon6531]

Yup

[@danke1150]

Housing crisis caused by mass immigration. We're importing more people every year than houses we have built in record years of house building. It's not possible or desireable that Britain build a million homes every year indefinitely. Closing the borders and sending millions home would be great for the housing crisis and benefit the British massively.

[@user-ds8rj2vc4v]

@@danke1150 Not solely caused by that, but yea, made it like 100 times worse.

[@danke1150]

@@user-ds8rj2vc4v It's almost exclusively caused by that. Blair opened the border and the Tories kicked it wide open. We went from an average of 25k immigrants a year before Blair to 250k a year under him and now 1 million a year under the Tories. This is not sustainable. Almost all of them need to be sent home.

[@dylanjaramillo3168]

As an American, I google mapped these locations and was shocked at how close they are. I understand the UK is a smaller place and you guys aren't used to driving but it's an interesting comparison between car centric and public transit centric places.

[@green41011]

And that's exactly why it works over there, but will never work here

[@V8Adam]

Really interesting. Thanks for putting so much effort into this topic.

[@ViolentOrchid]

It's really weird choice to blame the people you chose to discriminate against for your financial issues. If you hadn't broken the law, the settlements wouldn't exist. Blaming the victims is actually continued discrimination.

[@krzysztofkolodziejczyk4335]

i hear you, but the amount of money payed feels monstrously out of proportion, no?

[@rossawilson01]

The equivalent of £16k per adult in the UK was given to private corporations after the 2008 recession. Because they were "too big to fail". Socialism for the rich. That was the largest transference of public money to the private sector in history. And that money, is still with those people, who are buying up assets and increasing prices across the board. And it will not stop until the mega rich, those with more than 10 million or so, are tax far, far more aggressively to get it back. Your council operations and make-up and the way it works have nothing to do with this. It's all about the rich buying assets including government assets and putting up prices. It's actually very simple. Tax is the only solution, not the poor, not the middle classes, (like they want to) not even those with a couple of million pounds in the back. But the 1% of the country that has 20% of the countries entire wealth. If we had even 50% of that wealth back this entire country would enter a new golden age. Tell your councillors to pressure the government to massively increase tax to the 1% of earners and wealth holders.

[@Gr0nal]

Massive transfer of wealth during covid as well.

[@johnassal5838]

Exactly the solution and also the secret to how the massive post WW2 economic boom in the US was fueled. Not losing to the Nazis or suffering direct bombing certainly helped but the top tax in the nineties percent forced the rich to allow money to fall to the working class and be circulated in unprecedented quantities leading to the unprecedented growth. And since that rate was literally keyed to those making more than twenty times the average income it literally meant that the elites had to allow the average to increase to get richer themselves where they freely get richer at everyone else's expense today.

[@johnassal5838]

Exactly the solution and also the secret to how the massive post WW2 economic boom in the US was fueled. Not losing to the Axis or suffering direct bombing certainly helped but the top tax in the nineties percent forced the rich to allow money to fall to the working class and be circulated in unprecedented quantities leading to the unprecedented growth. And since that rate was literally keyed to those making more than twenty times the average income it literally meant that the elites had to allow the average to increase to get richer themselves where they freely get richer at everyone else's expense today.

[@johnassal5838]

Exactly right. The solution and also the secret to how the massive economic boom in the US from the 1940s-60s was fueled. Not losing WW2 or suffering directly certainly helped but it was the top tax in the ninety percent range that forced the rich to allow money to fall to the working class and be circulated in unprecedented quantities leading to the unparalleled growth. And since that rate was literally keyed to those making more than twenty times the average income it literally meant that the elites had to allow the average to increase to in order to get richer themselves where they freely get richer at everyone else's expense today.

[@ziploc2000]

Yes. Same thins has happened in the USA. If we'd had Bernie Sanders as President instead of Trump in 2016 we might be on the way to getting that money back, he's the only politician who is always looking out fore the "little man"

[@thehightower5579]

Just started watching this but it really professionally put together, well done!

[@laldoconcession9748]

Great video as usual!

[@cancerino666]

Why? Nearly two decades of neo-liberalism.

[@RichardEnglander]

We have had more like 27 years of neoliberal Blairite globalism. It has fucked this land indeed. No solutions left within the liberal paradigm.

[@mattysav4627]

Why 2 decades and not 4?Do you think Tony Blair’s new labour, Margret thatchers “proudest achievement” is a break in neo liberal economics?

[@JAI_8]

When are you and Gary Stevenson going to speak to each other in a video on a topic like this, for example; how the “bankruptcy” of a major UK city is an example of the hollowing out and dispossession of government by the rich ruling class? One of Mr. Stevenson’s favorite subjects, the phenomenon of the dispossession of the middle class at the same time as the self-destructive “government” lead “privatizing” efforts to impoverish the government and the state itself at all levels is a worthy topic for you both to share your viewership with. I look forward to seeing anything that might result from your collaboration. Thanks for this video. Unbelievable really for someone born in the 1960s; all-too-believable however for someone who reached adulthood in the Reagan-Thatcher-Mulroney (I grew up in Canada, and Mulroney was an ideological neoliberal privatizer and a close manly best buddy of Reagan … and formed a close friendship of regularly expressed mutual admiration with the Iron Lady too) and I have grown increasingly dismayed to see the nonstop massive accumulation of upper class wealth at the same time as an adoption of an unquestioned identification of the economic and ideological interests of the wealthiest members of our democracies with those of the average citizen, even as the life of the average citizen has gotten progressively measurably worse while the lives of the wealthiest get clearly objectively visibly different, better, and measurably so by orders of magnitude as every decade has passed since the 1980s. Well … let us know if there’s any work with anyone ready to provoke some fiery organization, resistance and efforts to make change that might recapture and redistribute some of the vast wealth and power hoarded among the wage earning, hard working voting supporters of democracy in our countries. Cheers!

[@Timmakesmusic]

The exact same thought was on mind as I watched this, especially where Tom talked about the 'Preston model'. Keeping money circulating between regular people rather than being syphoned off to the very richest fits right in with Gary Stevenson's arguments about the tragic consequences of spiralling wealth inequality. If Gary is correct, local government bankruptcy is an inescapable consequence of an ever greater proportion of the money supply being captured by the super rich. As households have less money, the tax base shrinks while costs continue to rise due to asset price inflation. No matter how prudent they are, no council can remain solvent when budgets are continually falling and prices constantly rising.

[@JAI_8]

@@TimmakesmusicVery keenly observed and explained. I was hoping a little of Gary’s seeming revolutionary spirit and theoretical explanatory power might be suitably combined with some actual people’s experience and testimony like Tom did here. We shall see; and can only hope to look forward to such a combined energy in the near future !

[@richardwills-woodward5340]

Councils charge more than ever before. We are taxed the second highest amount in history, yet services decline (in mostly Labour councils). it is a lack of competence not money. They are happy to spend on rainbows, diversity officers and anti-white racist policy, yet can't seem to find the money for the basics.

[@therealrobertbirchall]

The best work going on to address the failures of the government in London is to breakup the British state int it's component parts. Scotland and Wales can run their own affairs thank you very much. The mess the English have gotten us into is entirely due to their ex colonial hubris where they imagine they are 'special' because they had an empire, of which my friend your ancestors and mine were part the creation of as well as the victims of. They, the Anglo's, believe they won ww2 single handed, forgetting about the millions of Russians, Indians , Canadians, etc who also fought the axis And dont forget they won the world cup in 196?. Free my people

[@richardwills-woodward5340]

@@therealrobertbirchall Without the British the english speaking world would have likely become history. Russians were on the same side as Germany - they were communists. They were not trying to eradicate the tyranny of communism. English speaking culture is unique on earth and in human history. It created the modern world and I am tired of being attacked for our success like Israel. The Canadians are of english stock (or were before the Third World arrived). The same as the US. Its entire Constitution is the expression of the Bill of Rights 1688/9. Its legal system is English in nature - the common law. Everyone had empires, but the British were the best at it and did it in a way that made its ex-colonies want to stay connected to Britain in some way, achieved by no other empire. It ended peacefully, like no other empire. British history is why you eat the way you do, tell the time, turn the lights on, have modern healthcare, universities, museums, tv and an endless list of things. It is also why the world has any concept of rights and has contract law. If you are in Britain then it is England you owe your own liberty to. So get back in your box and close the lid....tightly.

[@samwiseshanti]

This is an excellent video. Well done man!

[@v.e.8885]

It's amazing to get so such an incredible well researched documentary on current issues in the UK when you live in Germany. Thank you for putting so much dedication into your work.

[@IzzyTheDyspraxicArtist]

My council, Stoke, has just put garden waste collection behind a paywall. You have to pay a annual subscription for the brown bin to be collected.

[@thejdemon]

Been like that for over a year in many places, you've been lucky to have free garden collection as long as you have.

[@akatheking82]

Been like that in Sweden since forever - AND we have the highest incomtaxes in the world...

[@damionkeeling3103]

That's good, Auckland, NZ forced everyone to have a bucket sized plastic bin for food scraps instead of allowing those with compost heaps to opt out. 440,000 were sent out to homes and around 40% max of the city actually use them so over 260,000 wasted bins made, paid for and taking up space in people's homes. The 'service' isn't free either, every household is charged the equivalent of £40 a year and given that the city had met its quota for food scrap collection it knew the majority of the city wasn't going to participate and the scheme was just a tax hike.

[@GeoffRiley]

Warrington has been charging for garden waste collection for years. In our case, green bins must have an appropriate sticker for the year, or they won't be emptied. The buying a sticker idea is a little better than a blanket charge on everyone, though, because people without gardens don't have to pay. The stickers have serial numbers to attempt to detect forgeries. 👀

[@steckbrogames]

Me going ‘wait for it, wait for it” when you started breaking down LA income and the government grant. Something so many people just don’t understand.

[@sreeyeshb]

Your effort and analysis is commendable.

[@memyselfiamweird]

First of all - fantastic video; I think this style suits you quite well. I hope it wasn't too stressful overall to produce, though! I went to UCLan back in the late 00s-early 10s; while I enjoyed my time at the Uni itself, I really didn't enjoy Preston as a town. My friends and I joked about how sad and unloved it was, nicknaming it 'Depress-ton". Over the last few years, however, I've been hearing more and more positive news coming out of Preston - whether about the Preston Model, or some other initiatives they seem to have - and it all sounds very hopeful. I hope Preston flourishes; that it does well and does indeed become a model for other places to follow. More power to you, Preston.

[@daibach]

It's late stage capitalism in action. Tory "austerity" (while the deficit has grown) followed by a failing economy = no heavily reduced money from central government, increased costs due to inflation and an ever increased need for the local authority to support it's citizens. Saved you 45 mins of waffle

[@bramvanduijn8086]

Seriously, this could have been a four minute video.

[@Ribeirasacra]

Oops 0:55 Thurrock has not only gone bankrupt it moved. Still great work. First time watching something produced by this channel

[@Gr0nal]

I thought I was crazy, I knew Thurrock was in Essex but assumed the video was just right and I was wrong.

[@alfsmith4936]

what a Thurrock hockup

[@Ribeirasacra]

@@Gr0nal Just a glitch in the Matrix. The other maps it is located in the correct location.

[@thewaywardgrape3838]

Really interesting video. Thanks for sharing! Got my subscription 👍

[@LeeHarrison89]

Quality video Tom! I love what Preston are attempting to do.

[@cinemaipswich4636]

Fujitsu (post office) and Oracle (local councils) were forced upon the Tories for outsourcing to private companies. The Tories foist upon local government all manner of things that Westminster should fund. Westminster would have a lot more income to distribute, if they taxed "The City" and income in Tax Havens. Only the rich and the landed gentry get away with that. The property owners should be assessed to pay a yearly land tax, on investment properties.

[@riadleb7947]

Nice documentary, i like this new direction you're going. The sound, when filming, is a bit down compared to the background sound. We like to enjoy your fabulous British accent 😅 Keep up this type of production Cheers

[@caramelfish1307]

Brillant video, thank you for the information.

[@PerksofQuirks]

amazing journalism - thanks so much!

[@ezralittle]

Great video! Coincidentally, I grew up in Northamptonshire and went to university in Preston, so I appreciated seeing some coverage of both places here! Even back in 2010 when I was a part-time library assistant with Northamptonshire county council, things were bleak for us - most libraries were closed in 2005-2010, and I watched my colleagues go through horrendous cuts to jobs that left us battling to keep the libraries open to our service users with so few of us left. The few people I know still living there have few jobs prospects unless they can drive a long commute/find remote work, and the town centre of Northampton is depressing to say the least. Preston is an underrated little city and if it wasn't for my career choices, I would have been there a lot longer!

[@henrydemonfreid1985]

Northamptonshire County Council went bankrupt twice in 2018. The council also got a lovely new block of offices in 2018. Go figure...!?

[@johnstanton8499]

@@henrydemonfreid1985Yes in the eighties the health authority in Northampton closed St Crispin Hospital tefing the patients out in the community and promptly built a new office block for themselves at Northampton General Hospital

[@eleanorwalmsley635]

Preston and it's people are awesome

[@Rac3r4Life]

What an interesting video. As an American, I didn't know how UK local government works. Its not too dissimilar to what we have in the US.

[@Mitjitsu]

UK government is much more centralized than the US. Central governments meddling with local councils is where the fundamental problem lies. They mandate certain things, while also making it increasingly hard to raise the funds. The most badly run councils are going bankrupt now, but it will extend to the better run ones as time goes on.

[@mharley3791]

It is radically different than the way it works in the United States. In the US, states have the power to raise additional funds to fund whatever they want. They can raise taxes, they can sell bonds, they can sell land. They aren’t obligated to do most services and when they are the federal government requires them to do such a service the the federal government has to provide the funding. States have way more autonomy in the US Than the UK (10th amendment).

[@rachelnotluf4585]

@@mharley3791 This video is about local governance, though (not state/regional).

[@quantummotion]

​@@rachelnotluf4585the comparison is apt for this conversation. The point of the conversation is that in the UK, the federal government dictates things to cities and towns with little flexibility at the local level. In Canada and the US, both have middle tier governments (states/provinces) that have constitutional authority to raise taxes without federal government involvement and it's that middle tier that is responsible for cities, towns, counties. The focus of a state/province is necessarily more focused within the border of that state/province. In the UK, central government dollars for cities are competing with requirements for the Navy, the Foreign Service, etc. Middle Tier government with a focus INWARD, provides SOME insulation to this central competition of dollars.

[@mharley3791]

@@quantummotion exactly this

[@DrBingusCheeseburger]

Wow this was great, thanks for the hard work!

[@RossHbn]

Fantastic breakdown. Subscribed.

[@blu3622]

Just wanted to say that your additional effort was evident in this video. It seems like each video that you make is better than the previous ones 👏

[@antoinee.bachmann6409]

The trip format is a pleasant novelty, cheers!

[@thisismyname3328]

Ok, but the production value, script (in the captions) and overall vibe - not to mention all the background research in this vid are incredible.

[@rhiannonthea]

Another great video! So interesting and informative 👍 props to you for going to the significant effort you did for this one 👏

[@pablodonner5213]

Community wealth and wealth redistribution? What a marvellous nobel idea, if only we had a word for it

[@k-majik]

This might be your best ever video, I was fascinated (and frustrated, in a productive way) throughout.

[@nadine3193]

Loving the new style of video ❤

[@jamesjackson4127]

Great video, I love the effort, it is informative but not 'overproduced' 👍

[@bookbagfox]

I'd never heard of Militant before. Wish we had more politicians in the UK who actually cared about the poor.

[@nathfish8656]

Im thrilled you came to Preston, hope you enjoyed it. Interesting to learn about whats going on here to.

[@permafrostyx]

Nice work tom

[@wen6519]

I apologize for commenting before the video is done. these traveling segments and interviews with experts and common folk are so NICE; I like Tom's general content with explanations and one man show, but this is aldo such a nice addition. Despite this being a sad topic, i am having a really nice audiovisual experience. Thank you for your hard work, Tom and anybody else who collaborates on this channel.

[@Jack0a10]

Ehhyy Preston!! They are also currently rebuilding a historic pedestrian bridge which has been sorely missed for the past half a decade

[@workinprogresssince1974]

Fantastic explanations for the layman. Thank you for your hard work in producing this video. 10/10

[@moosky7344]

Fancy meeting you here 😊 i live in that city with the biggest bankruptcy situation, Labour run cease pit

[@stribb]

I was really impressed by this documentary: thanks Tom and the team!

[@eugenio1542]

Fascinating and well done. Thanks 👍😊

[@professortruffula4889]

Really excellent video, especially getting to hear from people in local government themselves!

[@battenburg6089]

Honestly starting in Plymouth I'm surprised you didn't come over to Dorset, BCP council here recently went into a massive sum of defecit

[@thelatemickb6927]

This is an excellent channel. Brilliant reportage.

[@Matt-es1wn]

So glad for UK content on nebula. might have to subscribe again

[@john_mega]

The Labour council of Glasgow refused to settle the equal pay backlog dispute while in office. This then fell on the SNP council to resolve. Guess who is blamed for the gap in council funds?

[@richardwills-woodward5340]

Equal pay - what a nonsense. This is why they're bankrupt. Economically illiterate.

[@imicca]

Thank you for the video!

[@Acehigh-Jenkins]

Thanks for the wonderful video

[@stevenrowlandson9650]

Fat cats and robber barons mismanaging their bailiwick is part of it. Low pay and extreme home prices and rents is also part of it. Government being allowed to borrow is also a big part of the problem.

[@JackMellor498]

41:28 It’s not a nuclear power station Tom. That’s Ratcliffe on Soar Power Station, and it’s the only coal fired power station left in the UK. I’ve driven past it numerous times heading into Nottingham and you can see the mountains of stockpiled imported coal. I agree though that nuclear power makes me excited and we should build some reactors.

[@leemiles1121]

Great video Tom

[@derpherpblerp]

Stellar work, mate