‘Disgusting’ vandals chop down village Christmas tree hours after light switch-on

Cowards. Pointless. Just ruin it for everyone else. A complete lack of respect.

The last two decades have really done a number on this country, between mass migration shattering local communities, to covid making everyone insular and looking after their own, to suppressed wages and inflated prices, repeatedly incompetent leaders, and more exploitation of a formerly high trust society rising by the day, mail failed to be delivered on time, police fire and ambulance stretched so much they’re now dotted lines, hospitals full, job centres full…

We really are in the shit – and then this? I can’t say I’m surprised as much as I am saddened that we cannot even celebrate without someone being a dick.

I don’t care about Christmas in the slightest – BUT – What kind of absolute scumbag does this?

I mean. Seriously – Nothing is achieved by this other than to piss people off and it took a serious amount of effort to do.

I just ignore “Christmas” it doesn’t harm me, it makes people happy, me not liking it is a me problem – I don’t need to try and ruin the enjoyment others get from it to make it all go away.

This is why we can’t have nice things.

When I take my kids to France on holidays, they’ve started noticing and commenting on the little differences. e.g.

* going into supermarket, buying alcohol at the self checkout, and no-one checks my age.

* Well maintained roads without potholes.

* Knives for sale, everywhere, sometimes even left unattended outside a shop. You select the knife you want, then go inside to pay for it.

* General reduction in litter and vandalism.

* public art and decoration is possible because people don’t vandalise it as much, so places look nicer

It’s so simple “The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth”

We’ve defunded Sure Start centres, Youth Clubs, Community Centres. Teenagers not only don’t have a space to meet, they’re literally chased down from parks and outside shops. If they find a bench to sit on, it’s going to get dismantled in short order.

Compare that to a lot of European countries investing heavily in public spaces, sports and community classes and events.

We’re failing the young on an epic scale.

When you read the article- or at least the 3/4 of it that are things people said about it on facebook- it points out that the tree was planted as a war memorial, too. That makes it even sadder

The next day them and their mates were probably complaining about how you can’t have Christmas anymore because of immigrants.

Exactly why this country needs more cctv with facial recognition baked in. It’s becoming a lawless mess and when vandalism is increasing in severity, it needs to be stomped out quickly.

I was in japan a couple of years ago. People take care of their public spaces. As as such they get vending machines, public toilets, nice bits of art. We can’t do that. You can’t have a vending machine on a high street, it would be smashed within hours, like most of the ones in train stations. The studio where I worked installed some big bug sculptures in some shopping centres a few years ago, just as a nice thing. We had to go back within two weeks to remove antennas, because people were snapping them off the sculpts. Some had burn makes from kids trying to set them on fire. Security told us someone had pissed up the side of one. We simply cannot have nice things in this country. 

The tree in our village used to constantly get the bulbs nicked. We ended up having to hide a load of cameras in the tree to catch the culprits. Ended up catching the guy, but never found out why he was stealing coloured bulbs.