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

I also think the country is really dirty. Nowhere has bins any more in case someone sets them on fire or hides a bomb in them. How fucking depressing is that! No it doesn't excuse littering, but we were stopped at a regional swiss rail station the other week and there were proper bins inc recycling every 20m or so down the platform. In Paris in the spring, in the run up to the Olympics, on a random street alongside a road (not a main tourist centre area either) I could see, in line of sight, more bins than I walk past on my usually 5k dog walk loop round mostly new-ish build housing estates at home.

But when I went to the zoo in Paris there were rats running about everywhere, Paris has a terrible rat problem.

Indeed, msm and agitators on social media. The racist bile I see on X is quite scary.

do like the UK but the weather is pants and the population is huge. I do think we need immigrants but it has caused many to become racist and resentful which is sad.

it’s the msm that have caused the racism to erupt as they use scaremongering propaganda.

I look at places like America or the Far East and I think actually it's pretty good in comparison

Id say we are rapidly merging into both . Knife crime/gun crime is at an all time high . Health care will need to be privatised soon enough . Added to that the Far East coming here to colonise.

its a sad state of affairs really.

Happy(ish)Nhs worker here. People say the NHS is on it'd knees but what they don't see is the sttate of the art technology costing millions that improves peoples lives every day.
MRI scanners, PET cts, radiotherapy, chemo and various new drugs, pathology, amazing operations ...I could go on. All free at the point of entry and supporting a growing population of users.
I could get paid more though given my 3 years plus of training, level of responsibilty etc.
I do like the UK but the weather is pants and the population is huge. I do think we need immigrants but it has caused many to become racist and resentful which is sad.

Ironically I think the opposite- the UK is very "cool" across the world, but people from the UK think it's irredeemable

If you think the inequality is bad here try the Indian caste system although I do understand it is growing economically now.
Scandinavia sounds hreat ...they have it nailed with the low population.

I also think it's 'not too bad'. I have had many years of failing nhs though that had been very poor.

There was much less rubbish around because there was so much less packaging and less consumer goods.
That is a fair point. I am always fuming in supermarkets about unnecessary packaging. Like I need to pay for bag to lower plastic waste, but the shop has everything in multi packs IN shitty plastic? I still don't get why it cannot be like in MANY other places and fruit, veg, bakery are free per weight, you pick yours, as many as you need and that's it. I usually shop in Asian and similar shop because I want x pieces, not whatever shop decided is correct number in packaging. Bakery does my head it. I want 3 buns you twints, not 6. Plus I like to sniff fruit, but don't see why loose has to be premium price. Should be the other way around.

Bring back the days of the Empire.

Speaking entirely from my own perspective, I feel people expect an awful lot.

Yes, there does seem to be a lot of rubbish around, but we generate huge amounts and somehow expect others to dispose of it.

I grew up in the 1960s and, education and health services are incomparably better than they were then. There was much less rubbish around because there was so much less packaging and less consumer goods.

Food choices were much more limited unless your Mum happened to be a genius in the kitchen.

My primary school classes were huge - well over 40 in each class and there were no classroom resources. Teaching assistants and supply teachers were unheard of. Teacher whacking pupils with a ruler when in a bad mood. No after school clubs at secondary level or much sport.

Few people had cars and travelling everywhere by bus in the winter was no joke - especially if you remember the winter of 1964.

No-one had thought of childrens' 'rights' and women needed their husbands' permission to obtain birth control. Marital rape was legal until 1991. Homosexuality was illegal until 1967. Birching was used in prison until 1962.

I don't know about other countries, but compared to the 1960s, life in 2025 is way easier, so long as you have sufficient income.

I agree Op! I love the UK, not in a UKIP/BNP way, but in a realistic way. I’ve lived and travelled in a fair few countries, and for things that are important to me, I feel very grateful to live where I do.

My kids are at great state schools, anytime I’ve used the NHS it’s been brilliant, my kids and I go to great sports clubs, there’s a nice community in our village, I feel safe here, I could go on!

With mine and Dh’s wages we’re better off than 98% of the world apparently (and we’re not rich), I think we lose perspective sometimes.

@ohtowinthelottery

I have to agree with you. I'm currently living outside the UK and it's the same exact problems here (just better weather)!

It’s ok to moan about things that could and should be better, but you’re right, by global standards we’re very fortunate in lots of ways.

People are saying food is expensive in UK when actually it is cheaper than EU average though we have wages considerably higher than average the proportion of income spent on food in UK is really quite low, food costs in UK are approx 25% cheaper than in France
what makes the UK overall amongst the top in terms of cost of living is housing costs. The cost of utilities, broadband and transport are very close to average.
however the relative cheapness of food doesn't offset the housing costs

At least UK children don't need Kevlar back packs to go to school .
The negative headlines are spewed out by the like of the Daily Mail and a Sm platform owned by a nut.
The UK has it's problems that there's no doubt but they didn't begin six months ago with the Labour government.
You want to try living in Scotland with the SNP at the helm for Fourteen years.

Perhaps if you’d been born as a poor British kid in a typical abandoned town that fills up steadily with drug dealers you’d understand a bit more. Especially as a girl in a highly sexist country. I had a European lecturer once who spoke in disgusted and astonished tones about Britain still having an aristocracy: I could add being treated like a whore no matter how much you work, what you look like or try to do, in danger when you walk down a street, constantly harassed with no way out of your hopeless abandoned town.

Contrary to common opinion, immigrants especially European ones are bloody well off compared to the impoverished and powerless lower British working classes. The fact that they are here when most cannot afford a trip to the next town shows that. And yes, if you’re well off you won’t see the danger. I didn’t even live in one of the real no-go shitholes where guns were carried and there is no law.

Things are worse now than when I was a kid, not better.

Is this because you think it leads to apathy? I said the exact thing ' at least not Afghanistan' ', that doesn't detract from the fact I do fear it wouldn't be unfathomable to get somewhere closer to that here.

It doesn't stop me seeing some of what's wrong here and complaining.

I will rephrase it next time I think to ' at least it's not Afghanistan; but it very well could be'.

Exactly!

I love the UK - my family are born and raised here, I grew up here and I have visited most places and have a life here etc. However nowhere feels like home to me. I have lived in London but the older I get, the less safe I feel. And the rest of the UK still has their issues on a smaller scale. My problem is, I don’t particularly have any country I would be happy to move abroad for. So I’m just stuck with itchy feet

Some people are never happy and will moan whatever is happening in our country.

I booked a holiday to another European country last year (a multiple city break, not a package holiday). My Google newsfeed was, consequently, filled with stories from that country. It was constant stories of tourist accommodation taking our homes and driving up prices, drought and water restrictions, farmers driving their tractors to blockade the city centres to protest about the pittance they're paid for food. So, news stories painting a picture of much unhappiness and unrest. Same sh*t, different country (except here it's flooding rather than drought).

I think what is getting me down is the increasing polarisation in the UK. A lot of this is sparked and fed by social media and now used to good effect by the likes of Elon Musk, Russia and now other tech billionaires.I read recently that most people especially the young now get their news from social media. Even more worrying that an increasing proportion of under 45s would prefer a strong leader rather than a democratically elected government .Where have we heard that before?

Lies are now ok if they back up your own world view. .I am a grandmother and I really worried about my grandchild's future in this new world . The UK is becoming a intolerant divided place and it's spilling into all areas of life.

The divisions within society are widening so this leaves an opening for populists with dog whistle sounds bites usually making reference to loss of UK culture and scapegoating various groups. It happened in the 1960s with Enoch Powell, in the late 70s with the National Front leading to the Brixton and other riots. The only difference now is that these divisive messages are amplified many times over by social media. Freedom of speech without responsibility. And hence Brexit which is now beginning to bite.

Decreasing these divisions needs investment in health and other public services. The idea that we can have Scandinavian or German levels of public services on American style like taxation is a myth. It's leading us down the road of what the economist JK G Galbraith said 'private affluence and public squalor. Dirty rivers, failing health service , poorer outcomes in education and other services. I am depressed because we are well on our way and I see no way of reversing it.

I am not looking for chance to be offended. I am just absolutely fed up of people using women in Afghanistan to put some weird perspective of how UK isn't so bad by being not as bad.
What other comparisons shall we use?
UK, positive. At least can buy foof and am not starving in famine in Somalia?

That wasn't my intention at all. You are looking for a chance to be offended. Sheesh. This place is a den of vipers at times.

I don’t think it’s bad as everybody makes out either.

I have many friends from other places who have happily made the UK their home. I have lived overseas many times and happy to be in the UK.

I just need a payrise!

(and yes the friends I am referring to are all from equally wealthy, developed countries)