To not think the UK is as bad as everyone makes out?

The main problem in the UK is the people who constantly moan about being in the UK.
I have lived abroad, and other countries do indeed have similar problems. What they don't have are the negative people, just people who appreciate what they do have.

I agree with you OP. I am not in the UK and would very much like to be.

What always strikes me in the UK moaning threads is how many seem to have no clue that the places they plan to go are in the same situation. Divided politics. Infrastructure under pressure. Cost of living issues, etc

Sometimes people are really inconsistent with the things they are upset about too. I saw someone upset about the NHS possibly becoming privatised, and about people wanting to restrict immigration. who wanted to move to Bermuda. I was like, man, you know healthcare there is private and they don't allow immigration unless you marry a citizen, right?

People are oodd.

No. I think it is that bad. I am very saddened by the rapid decline, and worse still I can't see it getting much better in the near future.

😂😂

I think nowhere is perfect these days. The world is terrifying in many ways. The UK is absolutely not perfect and actually for some people it might be worth moving abroad (if they can) to see if they can improve their lives. I will follow my kids wherever they decide to live if I can. I would prefer it however , if we can all stay living near each other. Speaking to Australian friends and others their lives are facing similar and different issues.

The cost of housing is a big problem, and no government of whatever colour has had the guts to do anything effective about it. We should copy Denmark, and ban any foreigner from buying property unless they’ve actually lived here for 5 years. London (for starters) is full of new build flats mostly left empty, having been bought by wealthy people from Malaysia/China, etc. as a safe place to park their money.

Having said that, the cost of housing is a similar problem elsewhere - a Swedish friend tells me how prices have rocketed, and it’s long been a problem in Australian cities, e.g. Melbourne, where a friend’s dd and her dh were unable to afford to buy any home even 10 years ago.

You can still buy a cheap (by U.K. standards) house in many parts of rural France, but that’ll be because local jobs are very scarce.

As for the US, of course some areas are cheap by U.K. standards, others are not. My sister used to live in Cambridge, Mass. where prices were not far off my area of SW London, and is now in Cape Cod, where they are sky high.

However having lived abroad for many years I still wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. As for weather, of course ours could be better, but at the same time we don’t often have the extremes of many other countries, not to mention several droughts (both times I’ve visited Oz there was severe drought) and truly terrifying wildfires.

Where I am I have an easy commute to work, can walk to school and local amenities, have good access to healthcare (GPs, NHS dentist, A&E and referred to hospitals) and can access a range of cultural activities at different price points. So for me I like the UK and feel criticisms aren't as universal as claimed. I don't think the UK is perfect (nowhere is), each place has different strengths and different challenges.

I do find it significant that the countries named as better don't have first past the post voting and think changing to more proportional representation would be the best way to improve the UK.

I always wanted to move to England from Canada.

Last time I was there though I felt increasingly uncomfortable as it seemed the racism was far more noticeable.

If I had to go by Mumsnet though I'd say no one is very happy, very few people socialize outside their " little family " , most people have depression and anxiety, but there is a decent amount of benefits for people who don't work.

The UK is not a bad place to live by global standards but it does feel that the country has stagnated over the last decade and a half.

And despite a change in government it doesn't feel that the stagnation has stopped.

I'm guessing if you're in poverty almost any country would be shit. But some countries don't have much of a safety net at all so perhaps we're a bit better in that regard as at least there's some help when ppl become sick, lose a job etc? And we're lucky to have the NHS even though there's issues with it. I'm not sure tbh if it's better or worse here than other countries in Europe as I haven't lived in those countries and as pp have said, you can't tell as a tourist. I personally like my life here and I earn a lot less than much of MN seems to think is normal/necessary😁

I see no rubbish dirt or pollution where I live (East mids).

You live in an area you say is lovely so you don’t see any or much anti-social behaviour, you have two incomes coming in and my guess is that you’re on the property ladder, so understandably your perception of life here is going to be influenced by those things.

Personally this country is the worst I’ve seen it for years. The worst thing is that generally speaking it’s more financially beneficial to be on benefits than it is to work. The NHS is fucked, the private rental situation is frightening, you can forget ever buying a house until you have two incomes or an inheritance, and the weather is shite. Things are going to get even worse when AI gets more popular and the effects of climate change will be disastrous.

Overran * ran

though an autocorrect, it’s probably correct

this problem could be foreseen back in the 1950s&2960d but the governments of those days were only concerning winning the next election. The Tory overran from 1979-1997 and had 18 years to set plans that were clearing going to affect the country by the 20s-30s with such an aging population and low birth rate

they didn’t make any policies in the 2 decades then or the decade in power in the last 14 years

immigration in the main is needed for the NHS and always has been since the 1950s. The majority of immigration is legal and positive to the rconomy

its the 20000 coming by boat that msm are obsessed with

Yes, I think we could live in much worse countries and I can think of some that are downright deadly for women and girls to live in. The UK is paradise compared to how half the population of these countries are forced to live.

The UK has its problems and downsides but I love the area I live in despite how much it gets moaned about at times. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

DH is a North African immigrant and I don’t think his family members who live in the suburbs of some French cities would recognise the rosy picture presented of living in continental Europe. The living conditions and racial tensions are not great.

You can’t compare what you see on holiday or in the wealthier parts of the country with the reality of life for less advantaged members of the population. If you compare life on a council estate or equivalent in the suburbs of a large city in France, Britain or Spain I think Britain wouldn’t be worse (it may not be better but not noticeably worse).

IMO Blair was keen on immigration, because he wanted plenty of people on relatively low wages to do the jobs Brits didn’t want to do. Plus presumably he thought they’d all vote Labour.

At the same time he was very happy with the super-rich* coming to live here and whacking up property prices, especially in London.
There would be a ‘trickle down’ effect.

In his dreams!!
*and never mind if the money was dodgy.

I think you'll get a wide range of answers OP because it's completely subjective. I was born in the UK, moved to London at 22, worked there for over 12 years then moved to Switzerland 5 years ago. Had I not left I would be none the wiser but in comparison the UK seems a terrible place to live and every time I come back to visit, the taxi driver or sales assistant or whoever I come across complain about how terrible it is and I should come back and I sense the mood has shifted. People in the UK wanted desperately for change when Labour came in and it hasn't happened. They are more fed up. Everything feels harder with high rent, high taxes, high cost of living, high student fees. Health care is poor - long waits, ambulances not showing up, transport is poor - expensive, trains delayed, roads full of potholes, lots of crime, dirty streets. No freedom to move in the EU.
By contrast in Switzerland everything works. You pay for it but at least you see where your taxes are being spent. Everything is constantly improving. People are happy, optimistic. It's safe, clean, - I don't see litter or crime, everything is well maintained. You pay for health insurance but it works, I've had a referral before and got an appointment on the same day. I've called an ambulance and it's arrived in 4 minutes. I've been to A&E, been seen and home again in an hour door to door. As long as you've worked here for 2 years if you lose your job for whatever reason you're entitled to an unemployment benefit worth 80% of your salary for 18 months whilst you look for another job. You pay low tax, around 20%. People get paid overtime. Minimum wage is approx £22 per hour. Yes cost of living is high, I noticed it when I moved 5 years ago but now its on a par with the UK. Infact my rent is cheaper here. People are healthier- supermarkets don't sell ready meals or junk food, you can't buy it. Education is one of the best in the world, max 20 kids in a class in public schools. Transport is great, on time, clean with free transport up to the age of 25 in the city. Because so many people live in appartments in the city, they invest in the parks and activities for kids. They even have 'ludotheques' where kids can borrow toys for free - a toy library. It really is wonderful here.

It all becomes a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy after a while. I also think there's a lack of personal responsibility in some.

The UK isn’t “as bad as all that” of course. Relatively speaking it’s still an affluent and reasonably well managed country where few people starve. It has a lot to love.

I think the thing is quite a few of us are old enough to have watched it decline quite fast in certain respects (primarily economically). We grew up thinking we were a mini superpower and have over time realized we are just another very average middle income country. It’s just our sense of national self esteem has taken a bruising.

I agree this is absolutely not the fault of the old, but the fact is that we have a seriously inverted pyramid. It isnt something governments can easily sort out but it is something they should have done something about long ago. The ' Boomer' generation is in their 60's and above. You can track population patterns for years. Now, one in 7 hospital beds are filled with people waiting for care places and is a large reason for the lack of beds and the people being treated in corridors. Why has the elderly care sector been such a disaster for so long? Why are charges so high and pay so low? Why are care home providers allowed to profiteer from this ( I know not all) We could literally see it coming. Successive governments have tried the sticking plaster of immigration ( Blair and to a large extent Sunak after Brexit) and have concentrated on short term economic growth but aren't doing anything to invest in the long term, or even in Technology like they have had to in Japan to care for an increasingly elderly population and a shrinking working population. Someone needs to form an all party committee and put something in place once and for all, telling the Mail etc to f-off and do something without worrying about their voter base. The stumbling block is always that people want stuff but don't want to pay for it out of their own pocket.

It’s gone downhill a lot but I agree it could be a lot worse. We have so many luxuries that many people couldn’t even dream about, although I accept different people have different views on luxuries vs necessities. I think on here you don’t get an accurate representation of people and it’s a skewed cross section of society prone to histrionics and outrage at things or show strange inabilities to deal with even basic problems.

I think there are many worse places to be and better places to be. But, I dint feel the uk is the best version if itself right now and I'd like that to change.

I think its fair to say I have seen a visible decline in our infrastructure in my area and a large section of the population have had a reduction in the standard of living.

I think people like a good moan and lots of these people have never lived elsewhere so nothing to compare it against. We've lived abroad,we came home, says it all!