THE decade since the great economic crisis showed itself has been a largely miserable one for most people.

A difficult situation, inept Government, a Prime Minister David Cameron, walking away to make his millions on the speaking circuit, leaving a broken and bitterly divided country in a terrible mess.

Most people are poorer. A large number of decent jobs offering a chance to plan with confidence and with the prospects of a reasonable level of pay and conditions have disappeared to be replaced increasingly by short term and zero hours contracts on minimum wage or not much better.

The housing crisis has deepened with the dream of a home of their own now just that – a dream - for most young people. These are the same young people that in many cases take huge debts into adult life thanks to degrees that are in many cases hardly worth the paper they are written upon. A recent survey suggests nearly half of all graduates’ regret going to University.

A rise of political extremism. UKIP has achieved its objective and effectively taken over the Conservative party. On the other side of the political divide, anyone who 10 years ago had suggested that Jeremy Corbyn would be at the head of the Labour Party, never mind in line for Number 10, would have been thought silly.

But one of the good things to come out of recent years, is demonstrated in the regular Repair Cafes that are now frequent events in Ludlow.

Austerity means that by necessity people are less materialistic and are probably happier for it. Items that in the years of plenty might have been cast aside are now being repaired.

This move, even in a small way, from the throwaway society has to be a good thing.

It also means that skills that were being lost are being preserved and past onto the next generation.

Ludlow Town Councillor Dianne Lyle has struck a chord with these Repair Cafes.

There seems to be an increasing nostalgia for things past and the Land of Lost Content Museum in Craven Arms is a good way to pass time for anyone who wants to take a trip down memory lane. Of course, it is both silly and dangerous to be dazzled by looking through the rose-tinted spectacles that are the eyes of youth. All of modern life is not awful and despite the challenges most people remain decent and if given the chance hard working.

Someone once said: ‘One day you may meet a man who cares nothing for wealth, prestige or material possessions and only then will you realise how poor you are.’

A useful attitude in an age of austerity.