# Politics and News > UK, Canada, Oz, NZ >  The worst places in the UK? How it feels to live somewhere voted a crap town

## Neo

The British rejoice in ranking the UK's bleakest places - but locals greet our views of their hometowns with a mix of horror and twisted pride




Fury as Skegness ranked worst seaside town destination, ran the story in, youve guessed it, the _Skegness Standard_. 
It is a formula almost as old as local newspapers themselves: write something really terrible about the town, await the furious responses from appalled locals and the local MP or mayor, and fill your pages with free content the following week.
But is there something peculiarly British about these polls that rank the worst seaside resorts and the 10 worst places to live.


Every year there is another survey that puts the boot into, variously, Hull, Skegness, Thanet, Dover, Grimsby or maybe Huddersfield, Bodmin and Greenock. 
Some are thorough and exhaustive studies, using data from the Office for National Statistics; some are run by humorous websites in search of clicks. 
The Skegness poll was published by _Which?_, the consumer organisation. But whatever the result, they tend to be met with a strange mixture of glee and horror by former residents and current locals.
The one man who can be held responsible for giving this genre a new lease of life is Sam Jordison, co-author of _Crap Towns: The 50 Worst Places to Live in Britain_, which came out nearly 20 years ago.

https://inews.co.uk/news/long-reads/...rimsby-1205539

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Brat (09-22-2021),dinosaur (09-21-2021),donttread (09-21-2021),Lone Gunman (09-21-2021)

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## UKSmartypants

Skegness is ok, but it only has seasonal jobs, its more a place you go to retire, as are the surrounding Villages of Chapel St Leonards, Ingoldmells and Anderby Creek/ I know the area intimately, i used to service the schools in the area then later we had a static  holiday caravan at Anderby.

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Neo (09-21-2021)

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## donttread

> The British rejoice in ranking the UK's bleakest places - but locals greet our views of their hometowns with a mix of horror and twisted pride
> 
> 
> 
> 
> “Fury as Skegness ranked worst seaside town destination,” ran the story in, you’ve guessed it, the _Skegness Standard_. 
> It is a formula almost as old as local newspapers themselves: write something really terrible about the town, await the “furious” responses from appalled locals and the local MP or mayor, and fill your pages with free content the following week.
> But is there something peculiarly British about these polls that rank the worst seaside resorts and the 10 worst places to live.
> 
> ...


Do your slums look like ours? I hear you have high rates of rape and assault but not murder?

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## Old Tex

I hate those lists of worst & best places to live. Out of the top 10 best places there's never a place that I would willingly live & that includes in Texas.  But I will say that out of the 10 worst places, there's never a place that I would live either.

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Brat (09-22-2021)

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## Gator Monroe

The New Troubles are far worse than the Troubles of the 70s

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Brat (09-22-2021)

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## Neo

> Skegness is ok, but it only has seasonal jobs, its more a place you go to retire, as are the surrounding Villages of Chapel St Leonards, Ingoldmells and Anderby Creek/ I know the area intimately, i used to service the schools in the area then later we had a static  holiday caravan at Anderby.


And I had a wooden holiday  cabin somewhere off the Magda mile, a farmer rented it us. Nearest Tesco was at Market Rasen.

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Brat (09-22-2021)

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## Gator Monroe

> And I had a wooden holiday  cabin somewhere off the Magda mile, a farmer rented it us. Nearest Tesco was at Market Rasen.


These sound like the Places that had Motorbike Tracks ( Trials /Motocross/Scrambles) back in the 50s 60s & 70s

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## Neo

> These sound like the Places that had Motorbike Tracks ( Trials /Motocross/Scrambles) back in the 50s 60s & 70s


That part of England is very sparsely populated, from there we rented a bungalow, heated outdoor jacuzzi, huge bedrooms, luxury kitchen, no neighbour for a mile. The cost of this was £200 a week. Cheap as chips.

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## Moonie

.
Cheltenham gets such shtick from Gloucester and from anywhere west of the Severne estuary it stands no chance.
.

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## Northern Rivers

I watch the TV syndications selling real estate in country Britain...love it.

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Brat (09-22-2021),Neo (09-22-2021)

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## UKSmartypants

> That part of England is very sparsely populated, from there we rented a bungalow, heated outdoor jacuzzi, huge bedrooms, luxury kitchen, no neighbour for a mile. The cost of this was £200 a week. Cheap as chips.



Market Rasen is so name becuase it has a Market Day which was chartered by the Crown waaaaaaaay  back, something like from the 14th century. Its a very weird market, nothing gets sold off any of the stalls until midday, then the stuff is auctioned off, not sold like a normal market. Also just on the outskirts is Market Rasen racecourse.  Market Rasen is otherwise literally a one horse town, the houses are dirt cheap, because as Neo says, its largely the middle of nowhere.

Also there is a massive Secondary School, which also takes private boarders. The headmaster of the time was Tony Neale, rumour used to be he kept the School Fund in an offshore account and used it to play the money markets.....the school was never short of cash...and he did used to get a new Rolls Royce every three years.......

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## Gator Monroe

Is Scotland the UK still ?

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## Moonie

> Is Scotland the UK still ?


Who cares other than Mel Gibson?
.

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## Neo

Burnley…..I worked in Burnley for 8 months, the town centre is just like any underfunded council town. The fact it’s an old mill town raised my eyebrows when I was first told we had a contract there, all the things I’d remembered came flashing back to me as I have worked in Blackburn and Oldham.
Asians, thousands of them, white people just drifting in and out of pound shops, all the young men wear trainers (sneakers) the obligatory black leather jacket.
Unless you are temporarily working in any of these northern towns there is no need to even think of going within 100 miles, and then I’d have to think about it.

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## ruthless terrier

> Unless you are temporarily working in any of these northern towns there is no need to even think of going within 100 miles, and then Id have to think about it.


jesus .. that is depressing. looks like something out of a science fiction novel.

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## patrickt

Do you still have to license your television?

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Neo (09-28-2021)

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## Oceander

> Burnley..I worked in Burnley for 8 months, the town centre is just like any underfunded council town. The fact its an old mill town raised my eyebrows when I was first told we had a contract there, all the things Id remembered came flashing back to me as I have worked in Blackburn and Oldham.
> Asians, thousands of them, white people just drifting in and out of pound shops, all the young men wear trainers (sneakers) the obligatory black leather jacket.
> Unless you are temporarily working in any of these northern towns there is no need to even think of going within 100 miles, and then Id have to think about it.


Wow.  That is really desolate.  I've been in some dodgy parts of Jersey City, Elizabeth, and Newark, and haven't seen anything that depressingly desolate.

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## Neo

> Do you still have to license your television?


Yes! 

It pays for 
BBC1. BBC2.  BBC3. BBC4. Iplayer radio stations 1-2-3-4. And regional stations.  And lots more 

You guys have been brought up watching adverts.   BBC channels don’t have them, nor radio, nor iplayer.  :Smile:

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## Oceander

> Yes! 
> 
> It pays for 
> BBC1. BBC2.  BBC3. BBC4. Iplayer radio stations 1-2-3-4. And regional stations.  And lots more 
> 
> You guys have been brought up watching adverts.   BBC channels don’t have them, nor radio, nor iplayer.


Instead, you get political indoctrination straight and unfiltered, via government control.

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UKSmartypants (09-28-2021)

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## Neo

> Instead, you get political indoctrination straight and unfiltered, via government control.


Only if you watch the bbc news.

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## Moonie

.
Anywhere you find an escaped Geordie telling you how wonderful Geordieland is?
.

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## Neo

> .
> Anywhere you find an escaped Geordie telling you how wonderful Geordieland is?
> .


One piece of good news however, when I worked on ship I fell out with a Geordie chippy,  a boxing match was set up on 2 deck aft, a proper ring, I had the choice of heavy or light gloves, the bout was over 3x3 minute rounds. The Geordie was  3” taller, he had a longer reach and outweighed me by possibly 20lbs.

Needless to say I won the bout by the 2nd round and was only interested in marking up his face by then.
When the final bell came thd ref raised both hands and declared it a draw. Fair do’s  it kept the rest of the Geordie chippies happy, but they saw me taking it easy in the last round, besides, we all went for a pint in the pig and whistles as soon as we had dressed. 
The Geordies didn’t behave high and mighty after that as you’d expect.  :Smile: 

One of our plumbers took pics of the bout, when I have time I’ll post them.

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## UKSmartypants

> Wow.  That is really desolate.  I've been in some dodgy parts of Jersey City, Elizabeth, and Newark, and haven't seen anything that depressingly desolate.





> .
> Anywhere you find an escaped Geordie telling you how wonderful Geordieland is?
> .



the scots are the same, but notice half their nation prefers to live in England.

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Neo (09-30-2021)

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## Moonie

.
In terms or northern England, Carlisle and the Lake District and Durham are socially acceptable.

The cities of Scotland are as exciting as Michigan City and the highlands not a patch on the Welsh hills.
.

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