Britain Won’t Rebuild Itself With Paint and Press Releases
A nation stripped bare. Assets flogged at knock-down prices to investors who bled them dry, piled on debt, then queued for taxpayer bailouts when it all went bust.
I walked through town this week and saw another boarded-up shop. The council had slapped a bit of colour on it — fresh gloss, new shutter — but behind the paint it was still dead. Empty. No life, no trade, no future
That, apparently, is what the government now calls “Pride in Place.”
Spin on the High Street
“Pride in Place” — a shiny new slogan from a desperate government. The promise is £5 billion to tart up high streets and “empower communities.” Councils will get powers to paint derelict shops, block vape and betting outlets, and form local boards to sign off projects.
In theory, neighbourhoods will be reborn. In reality, it’s the same old levelling-up trick with a fresh lick of gloss. A crazy exercise designed to win votes, not rebuild a nation.
Because pride doesn’t come from a shopfront. It comes from work. From making things, building things, and running a country that actually functions. Until we stop flogging off our assets, importing tat, and relying on slogans, Britain will stay busted.
Pride vs Spin
The government thinks a few tins of Dulux will save the nation. Slap paint on a cracked front, call it “Pride in Place,” job done. Britain reborn.
Pull the other one. That isn’t pride. That’s spin.
Real pride comes from work. From making something with your hands, your head, your skill. Pride is seeing “Made in Britain” on a product you know will last. That’s pride you can bank.
We once led the world: Sheffield steel, Stoke pottery, ships on the Clyde, cars in Coventry. Goods built solid, built honest, built to compete. Look at Germany today — they still believe in quality manufacturing, and the world pays a premium for it. Why can’t we?
Instead, we import junk. Cheap, flimsy, disposable junk. Our industries die while our high streets choke on pound shops and knock-offs. Pride doesn’t live in a warehouse of tat. Pride dies there.
Papering Over the Cracks
The government boasts about spending billions. But spread across a whole nation, it’s chicken feed. In your area, maybe a handful of refurbished shops and a mural that looks good for a year or two before the paint peels.
That isn’t rebuilding Britain. That’s papering over the cracks.
And for most of us? It won’t make a blind bit of difference — except we’ll have to watch the political class descend on our towns with their false smiles, grinning into cameras as if a new shutter is the second coming. That isn’t pride. That’s theatre.
The Political Class
We’ve ended up with a political class so detached from life it’s laughable. Half of them have never worked outside of boot-licking and back-slapping, slipping their way up the greasy pole. They don’t build, they don’t fix, they don’t serve. They perform.
And what have we got for it? A nation stripped bare. Assets flogged at knock-down prices to investors who bled them dry, piled on debt, then queued for taxpayer bailouts when it all went bust. We were told to trust the clever money. We did. And they bust Britain.
Meanwhile, the basics rot. Coppers who don’t copper. GPs who can’t see patients. Potholes that swallow wheels while the tax bill cripples us. Regulators who “listen” but rarely act. Everywhere you look: inertia. Nothing works.
But we aren’t mugs. We see it. And I reckon it’s the end of the line for this shallow, smiling politics. The polls say change is coming. On that score, they’re right — but they don’t realise it’s their own fault.
Building Britain Back Up
If we want real pride, then it has to be earned. That means putting Britain back where it belongs — as a manufacturing champion.
We still have the know-how. Rolls-Royce builds engines that power the skies. JCB shifts earth across continents. Jaguar Land Rover makes cars the world wants to drive. Aerospace in Bristol, pharmaceuticals in Cheshire, advanced engineering in the Midlands, shipyards that can still turn steel into warships. The pride is there. What’s missing is the will.
Germany never gave up on manufacturing. Japan never gave up on precision. They built strength on quality. Britain chose financial tricks and quick profits. Look where it left us.
So how do we turn it round?
Treat trades and craft as equal to university degrees.
Teach skills that give young people dignity and wages.
Offer real apprenticeships, not token schemes.
Back firms that build here, not just import.
Put British-made goods back on our high streets.
That’s how you build a nation. Not with slogans, but with steel, sweat, and skill.
Closing
So yes, paint your shopfronts if you must. Put up your press releases, cut your ribbons, pose for the cameras. But don’t kid yourself. Britain won’t be rebuilt with gloss and spin.
It will be rebuilt when we remember how to make. When pride lives not in place but in product. When the people running this country start serving it, instead of serving themselves.
Paint doesn’t rebuild a nation. Factories do.