Are things in the UK as bad as it sounds in the news?

[Lolobella]

I left the UK in 2017 and now live in Europe. I obviously still follow the UK news closely and visit, although I have no family left there.

In the last few months the UK news have become increasingly grim and concerning. I can't tell if it is just the news painting the country in a worse light than necessary, or if things are genuinely as bad as the news make it sound.

Obviously this is a tough historical moment for many countries, but the doom and gloom in UK news is just on another level and makes if sound like the country is in free fall. Poverty, strikes, crazy energy prices, failing NHS and public services.. Is it really so bad?!

I have not read the whole thread, but to answer the original question, it really depends on personal circumstances.
There is a Cost of Living Crisis; higher prices caused by inflation. This was partly caused by high energy prices, Covid Lockdowns, and bad decisions over energy over the last 30 years (includes last Governments).
It also depends on what kind of accommodation you are living in; whether the house is insulated, what sort of heating, ill-fitting windows, etc. This also depends on whether the house is rented or owned.
We recently heard about a young child dying in which mould in the room was a contributory factor.
The various strikes happening at the moment leading up to Christmas has not helped in the general feeling of gloom.
I will also say here, that although my DH and I feel that we could probably manage some og the energy price increases, we are so angry about it that we have limited our heating, limited use of the tumble dryer, etc. This may be a false economy, as I then got a very bad cold. The drying clothes around the house may contribute to damp.
So, I do now have the heating on, but at a lower temperature.
Whatever happens, I hope I do not require any NHS treatment for several years.

Yes, it’s awful. The tories are a complete joke. As long as the rich stay rich, they really don’t care about anyone else.

Yes. Saw this article the other day and it was a real eye-opener as to where we are by comparison with others in the G7 for instance and how other countries see us just now.

www.nbcnews.com/news/world/britain-poverty-cost-of-living-food-crisis-rcna57630

Here have doubled as well but english people love to moan and create drama, Zi’m originally from a EU country where things are worst than UK but people just get on with they don’t tend to be martyrs of the combi boiler and just get on with things. In the UK if they need to buy supermarket butter and nit Lurpak the mums are falling into depression.
How long the shops and restaurants are full there is no cost of living crisis

Exactly this.
I don’t watch news stories about this stuff because it’s too depressing. It’s things I am experiencing for myself or hearing from friends on a daily basis.

www.theguardian.com/business/2022/dec/12/30-million-in-uk-priced-out-of-decent-standard-of-living-by-2024

I wonder if there are any European countries with this kind of statistic.

I haven't read all the replies, but am as far as yours so I'll just chip in here from the outside.

In SA so very out of the picture. We don't get your general news unless we had to turn on sky especially to see it. Yesterday on the radio news they got our own power issues out the way, but the next two headlines were about UK. First was a warning to us if we planned to travel to UK over the festive season, to be prepared for airline strikes over the busiest times. Then they reported of the cold front and that many people aren't able to heat their homes but to make matters worse that there is now yet electricity hike next year of 50%. For us to get two headlines like that, is unusual.

Proper UK news such as BBC and the Guardian

I wouldn't call either of those a proper news source; the BBC's a government mouthpiece because of the licence fee and the Guardian's just the Mail in reverse

Certainly some things are grim, but they're not improved by media who are just competing for the most dramatic headline

It’s miserable. I’m 58, in all my adult life I’ve never been scared to put my heating on. I am now and we have a joint income of 55K before deductions.

When I read Mumsnet, I feel like I'm reading about a parallel world. Because from my POV, life is more or less as it always has been.

Doubt it's much worse here than anywhere else.

Yes bills have gone up a fair bit but myself, DH, DC and friends have been doing all sorts of wonderful Christmassy stuff, ice skating, panto, christmas carols, ballet. The west end is buzzing, restaurants are full and I can't keep up with the number of parties taking place.

So from my POV and that of my circle of friends, no, life isn't grim here at all.

I'm not from the UK by the way. But I love it here and wouldn't go back to my home country. I read their press and watch their news too and it doesn't seem any better. Worse, I'd say.

I caveat all of the above by saying that I don't have to worry about bills, am mortgage free and have private health insurance so am insulated from most of the things people are complaining about.

Here have doubled as well but english people love to moan and create drama, Zi’m originally from a EU country where things are worst than UK but people just get on with they don’t tend to be martyrs of the combi boiler and just get on with things. In the UK if they need to buy supermarket butter and nit Lurpak the mums are falling into depression.
How long the shops and restaurants are full there is no cost of living crisis

Can you clarify please @pompei8309 ? Are you saying there's no cost of living crisis? And are you reducing it to English people just having a moan and creating drama because they can't buy Lurpak? Quite hard to tell so apologies if I'm reading your post wrong. Because surely someone cannot be this ignorant.

just for an alternate perspective (and not take away from other posters, of course) but we’ve just returned from living overseas for many years and we couldn’t be happier to be home

no issues with GP services here, plus we got an NHS dentist after about a 3 month wait (we’re in a semi rural location)

kids so, so happy, great schools (state) made lovely friends - one is ASD and one has ADHD and the support has been brill in both primary and secondary

its a beautiful, beautiful country

loads to do

people are SO much friendlier than where we living before, I have to pinch myself a bit at the kindness and offers of help we’ve had

again - I know many other people have very different experiences, but for us its been great and my soul feels so peaceful being HOME

my mental health treatment now costs me 18gbp every three months in prescriptions, I was paying around 400gbp per month overseas as our health insurance had no mental health cover

Britain is broken and the divide between rich and poor is extreme. I think this government doesn't care about the majority of workers, and is intent on breaking up the NHS, so it can be privatized. The infrastructure is also broken.

Many who voted for Brexit, say they now wouldn't, but it's contributed heavily to the cost of living crisis. Years of austerity thanks to Osbornne et al and tax payers bailing out the banks in 2008, have all depleted public services. Then the fiasco of the Tory party this year and Truss robbing us of however many billion, plus other scandals like PPE (Baroness Mone) mean we have to pay the price. It's shocking.

Ok so you're rich and privileged and completely unaffected...thats great for you. But to pretend tyhat you havent noticed how unbelievably shit things are for lots of people....that's not ok.

MAybe get out of you wonderful bubble and give some time and or money to some worthy causes and learn somthing. Or at the very least realise how lucky you are and shut up about how fantastic your life is!

Yes, it's miserable. DH and I are both educated, qualified professionals, working full time, earning above average salaries. Not rich by any means, but perfectly comfortable in 'normal' times.

We don't put the heating on for more than a couple of hours a day. I'm sitting here indoors wearing a scarf, gloves and under blankets. We don't use the oven unless we absolutely have to because it costs a fortune. We're not buying each other Christmas presents this year, so that we can have wiggle room in the xmas budget to support ds who is at university in London. We pay his rent on a room in a shared house, which is more than our mortgage. I haven't been able to get a GP appt for months for an ongoing, chronic issue. We don't even have a dentist. I'm terrified of getting ill because the NHS round here is in desperate straits (not hyperbole, I work with the local NHS, I know the reality). My colleague's husband had a stroke at home a few weeks ago and the ambulance took 4 hours to arrive. DH is a teacher and takes food in for the kids, buys all his own classroom equipment etc. The trains are on strike, the post isn't arriving, I can't get the HRT I need and now, apparently, kids are going without antibiotics when we have an outbreak of strep A infections.

But you can see from this thread partly why we're in this fucking mess, from the number of selfish ''I'm alright Jack, it's not as bad as the Blitz' fucking bullshit posts, who will vote for this this shower of venal Tory arseholes again and again and AGAIN.

Our lives haven't changed much, and we're incredibly fortunate to be insulated from so much that is hard for other families.

However, I'd have to being living in a hole, with my eyes shut and my fingers in my ears, to be blind to the fact that millions of other people are suffering so much, and it's at the hands of the Tory party, and any swinging-rock-for-a-heart fuckers who vote for them, frankly.

I stopped watching/ listening to any form of news years ago and apart from things being a bit more expensive at the moment things are pretty much the same here. The bbc is full of shite. …. I stopped paying the tv license long ago.

Even NHS nurses are willing to strike now

For the first time ever.

What can have brought them to such a pitch?

www.thenational.scot/news/18339251.watch-tory-mps-cheer-blocking-pay-rise-nhs-nurses/

I think that point about health insurance kinda sums up how I feel about the NHS right now - a precarious NHS still feels SO much safer than precarious health insurance

of course, I see all the problems and I am terrified of having to call an ambulance…but then overseas I once saw an ambulance pull up next to a woman who had been seriously injured (run over whilst trying to jaywalk a huge motorway). When they realised she wasn’t the insured person they were headed to, they hopped back in the van and drove away. Haunts me still.

I still rely on radio 6 but yeah it’s worse these days, I pay for the licence and actually would keep it but the reporting is bad

I think it was 'warmongering Putin', wasn't it? Certainly nothing to do with the fuckwits in government, oh nooooo.

@Ballygoforwards

Good luck with your private healthcare in an emergency. Burst appendix, burst ovarian cyst, any number of emergencies that can happen in people of all ages and you’re absolutely screwed.

Wow.

I don't even live in the UK but your post makes you sound like you have no clue about what is happening in your adoptive country.

I thought about posting this before I did.
But the reality is, the OP asked if things are as grim as they sound. If she wanted an echo chamber then fine. But not everyone is finding things grim. That's the point I am making.

Are people only entitled to post to agree that yes, things are sh1t? No other opinions?

I don’t know anyone reducing the heat in their homes to the point of freezing either. Everyone I know seems to have their homes heated as normal, and most aren’t high earners. I only read about this on mumsnet.

Well, you are very fortunate. I live in quite an affluent area (although I'm at the lower end of it) and everyone has been discussing it. I don't know anyone who is putting gas on until their children are home.