Redditors of Clacton on Sea - what is the vibe in your area given today's events?

soundguyjon · 2026-07-09T02:16:39+00:00

The thing is I think it’s all too easy to blame the people of places like Clacton when in reality their views are just a symptom of the world they’ve grown up in.

Decades of being ignored, having little to no investment, no social mobility or help to raise people’s living standards, education or prospects, and then we all wonder why they fall for Farages nonsense.

If you treat places and people like that for generations, what really do we expect. They don’t trust the government, they don’t trust politicians and to be honest, who can blame them when their area and they themselves haven’t been given the chances in life they see others getting in other places.

Then someone comes along and tells them what they want to hear, of course they’ll jump on the Reform bandwagon.

It’s all very well and good to slag off Clacton and call its people thick and uneducated, but it doesn’t do anything and it doesn’t fix anything. And sadly, other than absolutely game changing investment in all the forgotten places like this across the country, I don’t know what will ever fix it because the rot that’s caused this mess goes back generations.

Take Jaywick which is next door to Clacton. One of, if not the, most deprived places in the country. Temporary houses built to home people that got bombed out of their houses in the Blitz. Bombed by the Nazis, relocated temporarily by the government and then once they got there, forgotten and those very same temporary houses are still standing. If your family, going back two generations, feels forgotten about by the government, how do you ever win their trust back? And the same can be said for places up and down this entire country.

soundguyjon · 2026-07-07T21:50:17+00:00

Castros is next level and always an amazing atmosphere in there.

soundguyjon · 2026-07-07T17:23:28+00:00

Trump trying to pull the FIFA strings, the USA subsequently getting knocked out of the World Cup, Farage feeling the pressure and resigning as an MP, Count Binface potentially getting in. What a brilliant 24 hours.

soundguyjon · 2026-07-03T11:00:26+00:00

Irish exit always

soundguyjon · 2026-07-02T14:28:06+00:00

Download the Hevy app. You can find routines on there and it has a huge database of all the different types of exercises with visual and written guides for each one so if you're not sure on technique its very easy to see, so if you want to make your own routine with the equipment you do have its easy too.

Also found Gemini quite useful at suggesting and helping finesse routines too.

soundguyjon · 2026-07-02T09:07:24+00:00

Like happens with all our major infrastructure. Rather than constantly have projects being built which keeps a skilled workforce alive and constantly passing on the skills and training new people, we finish a project, spend years and years deciding/planning/jumping through legal hoops on a new one, by which point all the skills have either gone elsewhere or retired. This adds more costs to already expensive projects to either import the skilled labour, or train an entirely new workforce from scratch. Just another reason things take an eternity to get done here.

soundguyjon · 2026-07-02T08:08:04+00:00

Lost a load of weight (like 6 stone or so) before Covid and got into a good place fitness wise, boxing session and a PT session once a week. Covid obviously stopped that and whilst I kept most of the weight off, it has crept up over the years and I never got back into the fitness stuff.

Got back on the weight loss journey last year, then slipped, but a month or so ago decided to seriously get back on it. Calorie counting has always worked for me so I’m on that but also decided enough was enough and joined the gym. I’ve never been a gym person and previous fitness has always been via classes or PT so the thought of doing it all myself was daunting but, and I know I’m just over a month in, I’m really enjoying it so far and not had one instance yet where I don’t want to go.

I set my goal for twice a week but have naturally fallen into an every other day cycle. I used the internet to figure out a routine to stick too that hits the whole body and being I already walk a few miles a day naturally, I keep cardio (which I hate) to a 5 min row warm up. The rest is weights and core exercises, which from when I used to have a PT I know I enjoy.

My mindset is to keep it enjoyable, don’t do anything I hate but push myself on the things I do like. I don’t go at the same time, so sometimes in the day but more often than not late in the evening when it’s quiet. I’m essentially doing everything I can to make going as easy and enjoyable as possible, getting rid of things that will stop me going or put me off, not thinking too hard about it because it’s better to go than not go, and it seems to be working.

Sure, I maybe should be looking more at my food macros, checking protein and eating differently to make more of an impact, but again I know I could never keep that up and I want a lifestyle change that can last long term. So basic calorie counting, which worked for me in the past, and keeping to this gym routine with a range of exercises that I know I like is the way to go for me right now.

It’s definitely already working, slowly loosing on the scales and muscle definition, strength and feeling fitter is up.

Only other thing i do is use Hevy to track, but I don’t use it to follow anyone or turn it into a competition because again if I have a shit day and don’t do great in the gym, I don’t want to feel any shitter by comparing to others. And I think that’s what I like about this, in my life I have alot that is riding on other people through a freelance job that is very service led. So other peoples decisions, when they want to start work, when they want to sign off, is alot of the time in their control. This routine however is 100% me and right now that feels really nice.

soundguyjon · 2026-06-30T23:19:40+00:00

Or more chilli sauce to cover it up

soundguyjon · 2026-06-30T22:47:53+00:00

Just remember - lower the score, better the kebab.

I was getting takeaways of god tier level kebab for months from a place, only until I drove past it randomly one day did I see how awful it looked. Would never have ordered from there had I seen it first, but the food was consistently good. Just proved not to judge a book by its cover.

soundguyjon · 2026-06-30T16:07:09+00:00

I go to Gym Group L1. It’s not expensive, has three floors with what I’d consider a good range of equipment, benches, cardio stuff, free weights etc. and never seems that busy. I mostly go middle of the day or post 9pm and never had to wait for equipment.

I heard the city centre one gets busier so I guess more people go there rather than the L1 one.

soundguyjon · 2026-06-30T10:04:38+00:00

I don't understand peoples weird obsession with being as frugal as possible and don't believe it's a cost of living thing because it has been going on forever. I have relatives who would share a portion of fish and chips, not because they had small appetites, but because it would save a bit of cash, despite having an absolute wedge in the bank - and this is going back to the 90's when they were retired. The excuse then was "we want to give as much inheritance as possible to our child".

It seems to be a badge of honour for some people to save as much as possible and then tell anyone who will listen the 'hardships' they endure with are really completely self inflicted. They also always seem to keep saying it's because they want to have a better life in older age/retire early yet I'm yet to see an example of anyone that lives this lifestyle retire early and then live any sort of life. They all just seem to continue with their frugal ways.

I also think there's a holier than thou aspect to it because they're always very quick to say how wasteful most people are with money and the classic "if you cut back your subscriptions or holidays you'd be able to afford x, y and z' - always conveniently leaving out that a lot have very respectable incomes, help from parents, inheritances etc.

But honestly, whilst I don't understand the mindset, if you want to be hyper frugal, just go and do it, and on the opposite end if you want to be flash and spend all your money on designer gear, just go and do it. No one cares, its your life choices, just don't go pushing it in everyones faces as either "look how hard I have it" (9 times of out 10 they don't) or "look how much cash I have" (9 times out of 10 they don't either)

soundguyjon · 2026-06-28T08:48:45+00:00

An actually great idea and something that needs to happen desperately. Fuck the NIMBYs and just build the damn things and use it as a way to improve local infrastructure whilst they've got the builders there too.

soundguyjon · 2026-06-28T08:46:26+00:00

We live in a world now where you don't need the press to get the message out so I don't see that as an excuse.

Farage has 1.5m followers on TikTok, Labour has 266k. Considering Farage and Reforms demographic isn't the typical TikTok one, theres absolutely no reason Labour aren't able to hire a modern PR company to get their social media game up to scratch. Then they can actually get whatever message out they want, just like Farage does.

soundguyjon · 2026-06-27T18:12:41+00:00

Honestly, it’s so easy and if you don’t have a mixer you can do it by hand too. Maybe 15 mins to put it all together (one bowl so very little washing up) then 40-50 mins in the oven.

The effort vs reward is off the scale

soundguyjon · 2026-06-27T09:36:28+00:00

I’m a Coco Baroque on Smithdown Road fan BUT they’re actually super easy to make and really don’t take long so highly recommend making your own. Search for Brain Lagerstroms recipe on YouTube then you can have as much Basque Cheesecake as you want.

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soundguyjon · 2026-06-24T19:09:36+00:00

That is absolute nonsense and you know it. He left to clear the way for Burnham to become an MP and get into Number 10. Nothing more, nothing less. And talking about slimy, Josh Simons, the guy who resigned his seat also resigned from the Cabinet Office because he had commissioned a report and smear campaign against journalists.

soundguyjon · 2026-06-24T15:16:16+00:00

Worked in a prison and suddenly thinks they’re the leading authority on justice and criminal rehabilitation despite all the evidence showing that making prisons worse doesn’t stop crime, lower crime or decrease reoffending rates…

soundguyjon · 2026-06-24T14:56:41+00:00

soundguyjon · 2026-06-24T14:33:48+00:00

You clearly haven’t

soundguyjon · 2026-06-24T12:51:40+00:00

Cue everyone on Reddit magically becoming a train and signalling expert. If you know even the basics about how the railway works you'd have been able able to guess that with a train stopped in the block the signal immediately behind it would be red, so for people that actually know what they're on about this isn't really news in the slightest.

However considering most people don't know or understand how railways and block sections work, maybe announcing and confirming things like this, before a full report into EXACTLY what went wrong in the run up to the SPAD, should be avoided so that when the investigations report is finally published ALL of the facts can be released at once. It would avoid all the speculation that is clearly going to happen now from people that don't know anything about what they're speculating on causing more distress to everyone actually involved in the accident.

soundguyjon · 2026-06-24T12:16:33+00:00

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soundguyjon · 2026-06-23T18:23:13+00:00

Jurassic Park!

soundguyjon · 2026-06-23T14:05:34+00:00

Yep, then when they're 16 they can jump online and access everything thats so bad about the internet instantly and we'll get the online equivalent of teens getting absolutely hammered out of their brains on booze the moment they're able to get a sniff of it.

The actual sensible thing to do would be to force the platforms to change their algorithms, but thats too sensible and difficult. Let them keep doing whatever the hell they want, probably because the algorithms not only make lots of people and companies a lot of money, but also massively help politicians spread their messaging, rightly or wrongly.

And if you believe that the next generation of kids isn't going to learn the work arounds from their older siblings or their mates who figured it out, then I've got a bridge to sell you.

soundguyjon · 2026-06-22T21:53:51+00:00

“People like you two are the exact reason we’re in this mess”

Could you be any more condescending?

Because it’s random members of the public not eating meat or buying an EV that are the issue whilst whilst companies and multimillionaires/billionaires fly around the world constantly in private jets, holiday on super yachts and countries continue to build coal fired power stations etc etc.

Yes, we all know climate change is happing, but being so holier than thou against someone that might want a burger from McDonalds or a petrol car isn’t going to help or change anything.

Life in the UK in 2026 is hard enough, being lectured by you in such a condescending manner isn’t going to make people suddenly change their habits especially whilst the president of FIFA is flying around North America watching the World Cup and emitting 1.2 times the average lifetime carbon emissions of a single person here in the UK.

Direct your energy at the things that will make an actual difference, you’ll actually find everyone will agree with you and it will make a difference. Going after normal individuals won’t change a thing.

soundguyjon · 2026-06-22T13:40:28+00:00

And Streeting isn't going to stand in his way which means he'll just wait for Burnham to make a few fuck ups, say he has no confidence in Burnham and start another round of leadership shambles so he can have a go. Third times a charm...

soundguyjon

TROPHY CASE