This is probably been touched on before by previous posters, but as a newbie this is my first contribution.

Basically I'd like to flag up how Hayes has descended from being a workmanlike, worthy but dull kinda place pre 1990's into a dangerous, unpleasant, second rate, cesspit.

There are many of my acquaintance who've left, those waiting to leave and a lot of people stuck there against their will who don't have the means or wherewithal to get out. I know full well there's a race / asylum seeker / immigration aspect to this debate, however, if all these people left tomorrow, what sort of White British person would '' 'ayes'' attract? Travellers and Jeremy Kyle-heads for the most part.

I reside on an estate that used to be immaculately maintained with close and friendly social bonds, this has been replaced by 'beds in sheds', overgrown hedges, and mattresses and three piece suites piled up against walls.

Coming out of the train station at night time is like a pandora's box of what you're going to hit up against, usually the best bet is to hot foot it down to the cab office, a bus ride or walk through Hayes isn't something I'd wish on anyone.

Shopping in Hayes means Icelands or a Poundshop.
Eating Out in Hayes means Greggs Bakers or a Dixy's Chicken Shack.
Drinking or Socialising in Hayes means one Wetherspoon's which is even rubbish by their standards or a miserable Foster's swilling, Pool tabled, 'wot u lookin at?' sticky carpeted dosshouse.

If Hayes was a suburb of Bradford a house there would cost £45K such is the non existent quality of life or environment, If I go into Central London for a few hours for a meal and a few pints going back to Hayes is as depressing and soul crushing as coming back to Heathrow from three weeks in Spain.

No point writing to your MP, the local MP John McDonnell proudly states that he represents 'the United Nations of Hayes and Harlington' to those who ask. He seems to think it's all wonderful.

It's easy to say 'well, just move then', It's not that easy if circumstances beyond your control are preventing you from upping and going.

Very well written and very true.

I've still got a few years to go then I'm out as well.

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Lets be careful out there !

Hayes Pre 1997 was a very different place to what it is now.

That 1997 date is significant. Ask yourself what happened that year.

Then there is the council which are not fit for purpose..

As a young lad moved into Hayes in 1938 to escape the urban sprawl that was overtaking Fulham where we lived. a breath of fresh air! Trams ran along the Uxbridge road, then the trolley buses, Belmore farm was a working farm, before with the transport café and Dutch barns, along with two show houses by Gough the builders on the corner of Shakespeare avenue, the blue pool swimming baths was the old Savoy cinema car park, what is now the Doctors surgery lived the first Indian family in Hayes the Patels, a timber yard Newbold & Stevens was part of the scene, the other side of the road were the underground air raid shelters, then peace broke out, the war over, then it all fell apart, the new age of Socialism swept the country, everybody had rights, Spivs and Drones took over, police were losing control, soldiers coming home from the war, all of a sudden it was getting overcrowded, and the decline set in, all in the name of progress, as Father Ted says Basically I'd like to flag up how Hayes has descended from being a workmanlike, worthy but dull kinda place pre 1990's into a dangerous, unpleasant, second rate, cesspit. has it done full circle yet? or has the worst to come, at least 1939 t0 1945 we had a common cause, now dog eat dog is the name of the game. R.I.P. Hayes.

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Its not always the biggest and the bestest, its them that make the least mistakes.

We used to have an Aberdeen steakhouse in Hayes Town and good Indian a few doors down from it and a reasonable Chinese up by Blockbusters.

Even the Grapes Tandoori has gone downhill and not what it was.

Other than fast food what do we have today?

Edit to add.... It is the fast food operators who have chased the reasonable scofferies out of town.

I don't think we ever had a pie and mash outlet, even the guy who used to come around the streets with a bell selling jellied eels, cockles and mussels is in the distant past, with all this elf and safety soon things will go! the way of buying biscuits out of the tin, sweets out of the jar, beer out of the barrel, chips out of a newspaper, don't see no difference in the death rate though.

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Its not always the biggest and the bestest, its them that make the least mistakes.

Thanks for your replies, it's a shame there's decent folk stuck here who don't deserve to be, as I touched upon earlier it's not wholly a race or immigration thing either,( I even know Asians who are seliing up and getting out because of the way the place has gone ) places like Chiswick or Ealing are every bit as diverse ethnically but the environment and quality of life differentials are shocking. We're encouraged to dislike the French or the Germans by elements of the press and popular culture in the UK, yet if I went to Bordeaux or Dusseldorf I'd see a load of White, Christian, Northern Europeans like myself walking around the streets and the shops.

Although their behavior and ways of expressing their views were unacceptable people like Jacqueline Woodhouse ( the drunk Central Line racist ) or Emma West ( the other one on the Croydon Tramlink ) are not hardcore ideological racists, they're simply people driven nuts by their surroundings and New Labour's 'social experiment' which Harriet Harman or Ed Balls don't want to live in for some strange reason.

Go on Jim, you'll be telling us you can cut cheese with a bit of wire next!

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When a crash seems inevitable, try to hit the softest, cheapest object in the vicinity as slowly and gently as possible.

even butter was weighed and shaped with a couple of bats. sugar with a scoop and a home made packet, while you wait. bacon cut to whatever thickness you wanted, the kids of today don't even know what its like to eat fish n chips out of a newspaper, no wonder so many of us died before our 21st

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Its not always the biggest and the bestest, its them that make the least mistakes.

Used to read the newspaper articles with a mirror from the batter on the fish, didn't hurt me, I don't think.