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?!

Most developed countries have a state insurance scheme and a private insurance scheme. The state insurance scheme would be affordable (and cover ambulance treatment). The private insurance scheme would be for the extras (in the case of Germany where I used to live, people who earned more would go for private insurance as the state insurance is indexed to income and thus become more expensive for a higher earner than taking out private insurance).

The problem in the UK (as in the USA) is that there are only private insurers who serve to make profits for their shareholders. In countries with comprehensive insurance systems, there would be laws on what the insurers need to cover. And this regulation also ensures that private health insurance has to be even more comprehensive so as to justify the higher premiums.
Private insurance sans the state insurance sector would be a literal wild west. In the UK, most people with private insurance are employees of global companies; i fall into that category. We rarely need our insurance and they tend to weasel themselves out of anything remotely difficult (though DH did get an operation in a private hospital for the low price of £200!) People who are already in jobs tend not to need complex medical treatment. This is how they keep themselves competitively priced and also ensure profits.

I fear that the UK is sleep walking into a situation where we don't have a regulated state insurance system to balance out the private insurance system and then we would get the worst of both worlds.

@Ballygoforwards There's a difference between offering an alternative perspective and being completely and utterly tone fucking deaf.

I was at Meadow Hall shopping centre last Wednesday - blumming mid week and it was carnage, so busy, so much money being spent that you would not believe. Also I popped into Tesco but this was on Friday (not sure if that's relevant) and again, shopping piled high in trolleys, packed shop and loads of money being spent.

I don;t live in a posh or poor area, it's a normal town on the outskirts of a big city and the streets are twinkling with loads of Xmas lights. I wasn't sure if folk would put them on, but its no different from last year.

Difference for me is my energy bills have gone up and food is more expensive, so I need to cost for this. The bummer is the strikes, so if living in other countries are absolved from these issues then yes you have it better than us at the moment. The post office service is bad at the moment, that's definite!

My sister lives in Ireland and she moans all the time about the state of Dublin buses, the cost of food, cost of her energy bills and also she was going on about unrest and groups gathering to protest over immigration a couple of weeks ago - but that never made our press, so it might not have made other countries press, so maybe the UK is focused on more - could that be it?

Ballygoforwards is being unfairly attacked. She acknowledged the limitations of her experience which not all of the ‘as far as I can see it’s all fine’ posters have done.
There’s no point in pretending this is a poor country rather than the reality which is it’s an increasingly divided country.

You live in another world. I don’t know how anyone can afford all the stuff you’re talking about. You’re minted.

I work for a certain parcel delivery company……. Parcels are through the roof this year. If there’s a cost of living crisis on…….I’ll eat one of the cardboard boxes………

Bally "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."

I feel like that bit at the end of the video for "Look what you made me do" when all the Taylors shout "Shut UP"!

wait till you or a loved one needs an ambulance. I am not poor btw. But you are seriously tone fucking deaf, or just amusing yourself at the misery of others.

Bally is just someone with money. If you have assets and some comfort then things haven't changed much. Many Londoners could say the same as her.

For those who were just about coping then it certainly has. It's upsetting to see it, your fellows struggling. Even if you are okay, it's still your own having a hard time.

I've noticed the same - you can hardly move for delivery vans - but I wonder if some of them are doing better this year because the post office has become utterly useless?

Can't be that bad with all the immigrants wanting to come and live here.
I would at least choose somewhere warm.

The top 5% of earners may be doing OK

That leaves an awful lot of others.

I think a lot of people have actually benefitted from WFH though. We don't hear much at the moment because it's old news, but at the beginning of the year the news was how much people were saving on commuting and child care. Obviously this only applies to people who CAN work from home, and flexibly, but it's an interesting debate in who loses out and who benefits, in the round and over the last two or three years, of swings and roundabouts.

no, hysterical people make it like teh whole country has fell apart. Things are in no way great and is a struggle but as my nan would say know nothing about hardship like previous generations.

🤣 yeah . Guess what I work for the Royal Mail and we are still rammed despite what the news says 🙂

There was an article about how young people are driving a boom in luxury goods because they are increasingly living with family. A spare £1000 can definitely pay for iceskating, panto, ballet, musicals. And many of these young people are not earning very much at all! OP might have the actual money to do all this and live independently and pay for kids but generally there is a wide range of consumers.

I actually think as mortgage and rent costs go up, discretionary spending would also increase. If people can't afford to move home or to buy a new home or can't do up their house, they may spend more on lifestyle.

The West End will be buzzing. It’s full of rich Tories keeping the wealth in London.

Have you tried catching a train in the North of England lately?

Yes, it's as bad as all that and worse.

12 years, and the Tories STILL haven't been able to fix the mess Labour left the country in. That's how bad they were! You've really got to feel sorry for this government having such a tough job on their hands.

Still, at least most people will be sensible enough to vote for them again and recovery will be just around the corner . . .

It’s quite shit, yes.

Given the conversations we had today about potential strike action, I don’t think some of my colleagues who have two incomes and no kids, or who are older and have paid off their mortgage, realise how much those of us with young families are struggling tbh.

I work for the Royal Mail and we are still rammed despite what the news says

Ah, fair enough ...

People are affected differently though. I have always been careful with energy as I don't like waste, our bills went up from £55 a month to £109 a month - a big increase but still eminently affordable for us.

There may be increased parcels, but there's multiple ways people can buy things via credit. Klarna's use has increased massively over the last couple of years for instance.

My bank has even introduced pay in 3.

I'm not so sure that increased sales represents that people have enough to live on. A lot will be in debt.

I'm sorry, I'm sure your nan is a lovely, lovely person, but I really hate this attitude and (imo) it's part of the problem. (My dad does it too, tbh.)

It's not okay to keep banging on about the fucking war, or the 70s, or telling us we should be thankful we don't have to scrape the ice off the bedroom windows in the morning. We're supposed to be making progress, ffs. But instead, we are going backwards.

We need to rid ourselves of this national obsession with Blitz Spirit and 'in my day we never saw an orange except for Christmas' bullshit. It's NOT OK that ordinary people are worried about putting the bloody heating on in December. Hardship is not a moral good and it doesn't make you a better person if you're fucking freezing or hungry.

I went to Lithuania, the roads were gritted everyone was walking about and it was around -5 to -10. My rental apartment was lovely and roasting with heat to stay for one month would cost around £700 with all bills included. It's very grim at-home.

@scaredoff Don't make me laugh.

In my defence, I'm tired and I've overMnnetted today, but I can no longer tell whether this is sarcasm or unadulterated fucking insanity.