Are people from Stafford just rude?

[That-Crazy-Rat-Lady]

I don't know why but there's always been a stigma that Stafford people are rude!?
You hear it all the time, growing up here you just know the perception that we aren't very friendly!
I personally try and break the trend!
But I don't know why??

 

[rbellamy]

I don't know why but there's always been a stigma that Stafford people are rude!?
You hear it all the time, growing up here you just know the perception that we aren't very friendly!

This is true, and people used to say the same to me before I moved here. In particular that shop assistants were off-hand and unhelpful. I have also witnessed this (only rarely though) and I suppose it's no different anywhere else. Retail jobs must get incredibly boring, and it must be hard to maintain a smile all day long when one's had a bad day. Of course there are rude customers, too, and it's difficult to deal pleasantly with someone who is being obstreperous!

 

[Goldilox]

I must say I think you're all just getting old! I suspect that the 30 & 40 somethings thought you were just as obnoxious when you were 19 as you now think the current crowd are....

As for it being a 'Stafford problem', I moved here from Liverpool 5 years ago & a night out in Stafford is positively genteel by comparison. I was regularly verbally abused on my way into work at 7am by pissheads still intoxicated from the night before. I was given a beating on my way home from the off-license by a gang of drunkards early one evening, because I told them "**** off, I've only just bought this" when they told me they would be taking my beer off me. Getting home from anywhere after 9pm involved being panhandled for "50p for the bus" by at least a half dozen people.

As for customer service in shops, I think it improves the further you get from London. In Stafford it's pretty friendly most of the time, in Manchester or Newcastle it might be a bit cheerier, but down south it's downright miserable.

 

[andy w]

I know it sounds like 'back in my day' but I remember when I was a teenager back in the 80's we would give the older lads a wide berth partly due to respect and more so you would probulary get a good beating. That said Wolverhampton where I grew up was a pretty violent place with plenty of pubs you would never step into so some things haven't changed. The worry is there is an arrogance in alot of those you would call chavs who take a delight in causing trouble and giving people grief, maybe this behavour makes them feel their shitty lives are worthwhile

 

[ATJ]

It depresses me that such a nasty thread of whinging and running down Stafford has been top of the forum for the last few days- especially in the run up to Christmas.
Look at any similar sized town in England and you'd see exactly the same thing, and ask anybody who is over the age of 30 the same thing and you'll get the same answer.

Stafford is a lovely place, trouble is rare if you don't go looking for it, drunk people say silly things but don't mean any harm most of the time and merry bloody Christmas.

 

[phildo]

I'm originally from Manchester (via York and Newcastle-U-Lyme) and my wife is from Birmingham (via Stoke).... we find Stafford friendly enough and we both like how everyone is pleasant and people say hello when out walking or are chatty in shops.

Nights out anywhere are different now than in the days when I would go out and drink way too much and stagger home, I do think there is a problem with groups of lads these days who are out to cause bother but this isn't that bad in Stafford at all.

 

[rbellamy]

It depresses me that such a nasty thread of whinging and running down Stafford has been top of the forum for the last few days- especially in the run up to Christmas.
Look at any similar sized town in England and you'd see exactly the same thing, and ask anybody who is over the age of 30 the same thing and you'll get the same answer.

Stafford is a lovely place, trouble is rare if you don't go looking for it, drunk people say silly things but don't mean any harm most of the time and merry bloody Christmas.

You speak as you find. Not everyone shares your happy experiences of Stafford. Yes there are better and worse places than Stafford in the world, but the fact remains that there are places and people in this town which are unpleasant, and that's what is being discussed. It's not good to 'brush problems under the carpet'.

 

[proactive]

You speak as you find. Not everyone shares your happy experiences of Stafford. Yes there are better and worse places than Stafford in the world, but the fact remains that there are places and people in this town which are unpleasant, and that's what is being discussed. It's not good to 'brush problems under the carpet'.

But then neither is your seemingly endless negativity about all things Stafford.

As you say, we all have our own views, so we should all be entitled to air them

 

[Dabbler]

I don't think people from Stafford are rude at all. I'm an 'incomer' to Stafford, but have been here for about 16 years now and have lived in very small villages, where everyone knew everyone, and large cities where people would not even acknowledge you.

One of the things that has kept us in Stafford for this length of time is that the people here are very friendly and welcoming. I could give lots of examples, but won't bore everyone with them, but overall, it is the people that make the town and I can't think of another similar sized town where I'd rather live.

If you want unfriendly people, try living in a large town where your neighbours regularly smash your windows because they're bored and drunk, threaten you with a kitchen knife for no reason, or steal bits off your car 'because they can'.

Happy Christmas Staffordians, thanks for being welcoming - I'm looking forward to living here for a lot longer.

 

[tek-monkey]

Oh I've certainly visited worse places, but also better. I remember being amazed that in over 2 years in Southampton, one of which I was out A LOT, I only ever saw 2 fights. True one did involve me getting jumped by half a dozen chavs, resulting in complete bruising to one side of my head (looked a bit like 2-face off batman!). Even so, I thought that was a really peaceful place to live.

Having talked to someone from down there recently though it appears they also have loads of chavs and no-go areas at night. The people I know down there are a similar age to me, so either we have bred a society of arrogant unintelligent wasters or we've got old!

 

[darben]

An old fable came to mind when reading this thread, thought I'd share it:

The Two Travelers and the Farmer

A traveler came upon an old farmer hoeing in his field beside the road. Eager to rest his feet, the wanderer hailed the countryman, who seemed happy enough to straighten his back and talk for a moment.
"What sort of people live in the next town?" asked the stranger.

"What were the people like where you've come from?" replied the farmer, answering the question with another question.

"They were a bad lot. Troublemakers all, and lazy too. The most selfish people in the world, and not a one of them to be trusted. I'm happy to be leaving the scoundrels."

"Is that so?" replied the old farmer. "Well, I'm afraid that you'll find the same sort in the next town.

Disappointed, the traveler trudged on his way, and the farmer returned to his work.

Some time later another stranger, coming from the same direction, hailed the farmer, and they stopped to talk. "What sort of people live in the next town?" he asked.

"What were the people like where you've come from?" replied the farmer once again.

"They were the best people in the world. Hard working, honest, and friendly. I'm sorry to be leaving them."

"Fear not," said the farmer. "You'll find the same sort in the next town."

 

[rbellamy]

But then neither is your seemingly endless negativity about all things Stafford.

As you say, we all have our own views, so we should all be entitled to air them

I'm not negative about all things Stafford, but I am negative about what I believe are the negative things. Like you say, we're all
entitled to our opinions. If this forum is just for people to say how wonderful the place is, and be blinkered to the negative
aspects, I'll leave you to it.

 

[ATJ]

I'm not negative about all things Stafford, but I am negative about what I believe are the negative things. Like you say, we're all
entitled to our opinions. If this forum is just for people to say how wonderful the place is, and be blinkered to the negative
aspects, I'll leave you to it.

I get the completely opposite impression of this forum- that its for whinging about how terrible Stafford is and positive views aren't encouraged. Please see all previous threads regarding new construction, roads, shopping opportunities and nights out.

In my opinion, this thread quickly degenerated into a moan-fest about the youth of today and Stafford being completely awful. I simply pointed out that its not.
That's not 'brushing things under the carpet' or being blinkered. Where there are problems they need to be solved, but living under a grumpy cloud of 'isn't everything terrible' isn't as realistic as you seem to think.

I like Darben's post, but I think perhaps their point is lost on you.

 

[rbellamy]

Perhaps I just need to be convinced that you're right.
Anyway I wish you a very Merry Christmas.

 

[Stevo]

Well it's nice to see there are a lot of decent people on the forum (and therefore in Stafford) but it isn't a nice topic to discuss in the run up to a happy time of year.

It was The Yard I was at, one of the more chav filled locations. The smaller more traditional pubs or snooker clubs which I prefer do have a much better atmosphere, unfortunately with it being a works night out the group I was with wanted to go to the busy places. The gents who inspired me to post this thread were late 30's and in a group hence why I left the place to avoid confrontation. Asking the antagonist not to speak to me in a degrading manner probably made it worse as I acknowledged he existed and was getting to me so he kept pushing.

My hypothesis is the problem is linked to the loud music and cheap drinks on offer, as chatting is next to impossible all you do is drink, given the prices and constant mixing of alcohol (in my experience if you're on just ales or ciders you're more likely to drink at a sensible pace and know your limits as it's a progressive state of being drunk) whereas many punters end up well past their limits too fast.

How to fix the problem, in my eyes, is better policing (once they've had to much, they are removed and taken home by taxi/friends) and anyone continuing to cause a nuisance is made to carry out community service and review any CCTV footage of what they did, hopefully it'll shock some into becoming better people. Add to this enforcing alcohol licensing (ie they should not continue to serve customers who are clearly intoxicated) and actually enforcing the limit on customer numbers to avoid overcrowding.

Maybe Stafford isn't as bad as I and many of us think, maybe we should start a positive thread on all the good things about where we live.

 

[proactive]

If this forum is just for people to say how wonderful the place is, and be blinkered to the negative
aspects, I'll leave you to it.

It's not, as a read through the threads on here will prove. It is however, about discussion, which inevitably means we won't all agree on what constitutes good or bad.

Nothing wrong with that though, is there?

 

[andy w]

I'm not negative about all things Stafford, but I am negative about what I believe are the negative things. Like you say, we're all
entitled to our opinions. If this forum is just for people to say how wonderful the place is, and be blinkered to the negative
aspects, I'll leave you to it.

Got to agree with you, you need to honest in your opinions and it is upto others to put the other side of the coin and not stiffle debate because they may not agree with you.
Back to the main discussion my view is on the whole Stafford is a nice place to live with no where near the social problems that other larger towns nearby have.

 

[rbellamy]

It's not, as a read through the threads on here will prove. It is however, about discussion, which inevitably means we won't all agree on what constitutes good or bad.

Nothing wrong with that though, is there?

Nothing wrong with that at all, which is what I was trying to get at. I like debate about things that matter in life. I like people to disagree if they see something that they don't agree with, but to have the debate about why they disagree. What frustrates me I suppose is when people say "you're negative" because all I see are the bad things. So demonstrate therefore what the good things are, and I'll go and look and experience it.
(I haven't live here all my life) and I've been out on the town like others and experienced the dreadful places - but not seen much evidence of the better places because I don't know about them - apart from the Lewis Partnership venues, because I see adverts for them. But what about the others? Where are they? I'll go and try them out and see. I'll tell family and friends, and bring them here and show them.

As a contributor to this forum what I don't want is for everyone to 'gang up' and say "he's negative and hates Stafford" and then tell me what a t**t I am just because I don't agree with other regular contributors who seem to think Stafford has no problems. I want a forum for serious debate to educate and hopefully lead to some change. I'm aware that there are great aspects to this town and a wonderful, rich history to be proud of. But we need to advertise Stafford's better attributes so that people who haven't lived here all there lives want to stay here and grow those areas of the local economy. The crap places will then (probably) just pale into insignificance in time.

Stevo makes a great point - a Great Things about Stafford thread would help, I think.

 

[ATJ]

There is a habit of ganging up on this forum, I hope I haven't given you a bad impression of me I like Stafford despite having lived here all my life and maybe it's because I know where to go to avoid the scumbaggery.
If you want tips of nice places to go in Stafford, it really is worth checking out threads in the 'places to go' forum. Generally, if it's got a 14 page thread it's a popular place to go - see Ale House and Sun threads.

 

[rbellamy]

There is a habit of ganging up on this forum, I hope I haven't given you a bad impression of me

No, not at all!