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?!

@MissyB1 I moved from Australia to here 5 years ago. I wonder what I've done every day.

What an idiot. There is no handouts if you come to the U.K. on a visa even if you work in the nhs. You have to pay a NHS surcharge to cover any medical treatment and you have ‘no recourse to public funds’ stamped on your visa so cannot access any benefits as well as paying thousands of pounds of visa fees which go to the government
The only people who get these privileges are British citizens born or nationalised (which it cost thousands of pounds and about a 5-10 year wait to achieve through the immigration process) or EU citizens pre Brexit and we enjoyed the same privileges in their countries too.
You’re spouting shit that you don’t know anything about. Immigrants aren’t migrants or illegal immigrants. They’re not the same thing. You’re embarrassing yourself.

We lived in NZ for a while but chose to come back here in 2016 - if only we’d had a crystal ball!!

My orginal post was referencing illegal immigrants.

So please tell me smart ass, who is paying for all the Albanians who have come here lately, claiming 'asylum?'. Where are they being housed?! Exactly. In warm hotels - paid by the taxpayer, whilst people genuinely can't afford to heat their own homes.

They are receiving food, warmth, shelter, money- all paid for my the taxpayer. Its an absolute joke.

There are getting PLENTY of handouts. And if you think otherwise, it's you who's the idiot.

‘We are now all digesting doom and gloom 24/7 from rolling new sites, Twitter, Facebook, sites like MN.’

Speak for yourself.

Everything just feels broken., literally and figuratively!
I have had to cancel an appointment twice due to trains not running recently. I completely support the rail strikes and all of the other strikes for clarity.
Trying to get a gp appointment is becoming near impossible. Dentists are virtually private around where I live, and a dental nurse that I know told me never to miss an a routine appointment as her surgery were actively trying to get NHS patients off their books!l

Trying to get any work done on our house has been impossible. Getting a quote for some minor work on the house was a real slog, then the workman rang on the morning to cancel because his apprentice had left two days earlier!

Still trying to chase builders, for other stuff that we have a quote for, but it’s soul destroying!

Education is in an absolute state, with class sizes ridiculously high, teachers and support staff leaving in their droves, and schools not even able to get supply staff.
Don’t get me even started on how corrupt our police forces are!
We are being run by a government who are nothing short of gangsters, and our media is totally compliant!
The opposition are Tory wannabes.We are absolutely fucked….

those people who come here, sometimes with very large families, end up taking places in schools for their children, put more strain on the NHS

If I want to see a doctor, dentist, need vaccinations, accommodation etc. I pay for it.
How many can genuinely say the same when they come here?

@dollytot I do analyst work for numerous hospital trusts and can tell you it's a myth that immigrants and migrants are draining NHS services. So it’s news to me (I like to think I’m good at my job) that a random on MN knows with seeming certainty that immigrants are putting “more strain” on the NHS. The fact is, “those people” you refer to are very low-level users of our health services, not least because immigrants and migrants to this country tend to be young and healthy, but that’s only one reason. The NHS is on its knees because of Tory austerity and depleted funding, workforce shortages due to Brexit and poor staff pay and conditions, and changing population requirements especially those relating to mental health and heart disease, as well as an increasingly elderly population. The data is out there if you can be arsed reading it, instead of lazily parroting uninformed and inflammatory GB News and Daily Mail dog-whistles.

@dollytot You’ve emigrated yourself and you’re complaining about immigrants here.

It’s like all those immigrants in Spain and France who like to call themselves ex pats, being in favour of Brexit. Tragic lack of critical thinking!

I live in the north of England everyone I know is struggling. Our houses are cold because we are limiting heating it's really not good.

You know who else was housed in a warm hotel? My mentally ill friend who was supposed to be in hospital or supported housing but they put her in a 4 star hotel as they didn't have any beds..British born and bred btw.. she proceeded to cause havoc in the hotel, screaming at reception that she was pregnant and why didn't they serve her food personally. She was ill and needed help, not to be shafted in a hotel. She ended up sectioned after a few days, wasting several hours of police time. The reason why the government puts people in hotels that they don't know what to do with is because they sold off our infrastructure. It is bloody expensive.

And the Albanians aren't responsible for that.

They are not relying on benefits. I know my SIL isn't and she is not working a conventional job. It's a phenomenon in he states too. Young people keep their costs minimal by living with family and then do some gig work online to meet their needs. Nothing is going to persuade them that slogging in a minimum wage job is somehow enviable..

That’s fine but I still wouldn’t do a universal benefit. More would choose it as why not and it’d cost so much,

Your SIL is free to opt out without taking benefits

A lot of young people opt for this because they can i.e. no dependents and still living with parents. Even as a millennial, i remember when I was her age most people were still aiming to save to move out (even if it seemed very slow) but that meant they took on more conventional jobs which had some form of progression which would aid in this. I am 30 and there is no way I would switch to gig work even if my wages did not keep up with inflation; i have a mortgage and i am sure my mortgage provider would not look on kindly at gig work.

I remember my SIL was telling my DH who was quite unhappy in his old job that he should take on a side hustle as a youtuber with the aim of making it full time! I burst out laughing and she got very offended. It wasn't her fault but she had no idea of our financial commitments.

@dollytot Exactly. Migrants have to have health insurance anyway. Asylum seekers nearly all arrive on small boats having crossed the Channel. If you can survive that you are usually young, fit and healthy.
Look at coverage of Ukraine. The initial people who left were younger and fit. The people who had to be helped and bussed out of bombed cities and towns were the old and disabled. They could not leave with organised help. These are the people who use the NHS largely.

@Lolobella And yes things are bad in the UK. And as you can see on this thread the response is to feed people bullshit stories of our problems being caused by "illegal immigrants". And many people fall for it.

It's the 'dirty work' that no one else wants to do....
we all want fresh fruit and veg to eat but none of us are prepared to pick it for the money that's on offer and if the money was enough to incentivise us the price of the fruit and veg would be pushed up beyond what we are prepared to pay

Similarly we all expect affordable meat to be plentiful but very few would want to do the grizzly horrific low paid work of working in an abattoir and actually slaughtering the animals, if these jobs paid enough to incentivise people in this country to do the work the meat would be so expensive that no one would be able to afford it.

But there are people who will pick it. These are seasonal workers who travel country to country and make good money. I know someone who did this when young. But they travel around the EU. They are not going to apply for visas. It depends on free movement.
Just as there are sheep shearers from New Zealand who travel the world sheep shearing.
This way of living is attractive to young fit people as you can make good money, and see lots of countries. They use the money earned to have a bit of a holiday when not working. But the UK set itself outside of this with farm workers when they left the EU.

This way of living is attractive to young fit people as you can make good money, and see lots of countries. They use the money earned to have a bit of a holiday when not working. But the UK set itself outside of this with farm workers when they left the EU
I concur and presumably the government were fully aware of the dynamics of this! however they were happy to let us believe that leaving the EU would result in in higher wages for British people.
Gvt saw the results and thought well if that's what you want let's see what'll happen, the wealthy and Powerful will be fine and it's all the better for them if we are ground down to nothing because that makes it easier to exploit us

So many "I don't know anyone..." so therefore it's not that bad

🙄🙄🙄

I live in a mixed town (income, race) in an affluent county. Today the queue for our Community food (free) project was down the road.

I have an excellent GP practice but they're utterly overwhelmed with demand from Covid, flu, Strep A and RSV on top of reduced GP numbers and managing all patients stuck on NHS waiting lists. I have been ill for 4 weeks now and unable to get a GP appt til this week. Prescribed Amoxicillin but none available in my town or neighbouring town. Friend had to drive 30 mins to get me some.

All my "naice" middle class friends have cranked their thermostats down massively. Fuel, heating and food costs are really challenging and I'm not on a "Low" income. Local hosps on their knees.

Brexit + Covid + Tories = Horrendous

Written from under my duvet.

I agree only the poorest are reducing heat to the point of freezing.
Most people though are turning down thermostats. Managing at 16 or 17 degrees rather than 20 or 21 degrees.

Just giving my experience, sorry if that doesn’t fit the ‘UK is awful’ narrative. Of course there are issues, but for many life isn’t as grim as the press would have you believe.

@Palmerspotts which press is this then ? The overwhelmingly tory press ?
Life has been grim for years as services have been cut to the bone. I live in a shitty northern town. Since 2010 the council budget has been reduced by £189 million and a further £37 million by 2024. Northern areas were hit far harder by austerity than those in the south. Grimness certainly ain't new. We undoubtedly have middle class bubbles of affluence here who haven't got a clue how the other half live. They are the folk flashing the cash, filling the few decent restaurants we have and their kids are sheltered in the naice 'leafy' schools. Ask them about the COL crisis, the state of public services and it's probably barely a ripple on the surface for them. Probably carry on voting tory as they are oblivious to it all like some of the posters on here. Eases their conscience to think it's all hyberbole and exaggeration.

@Odessafile The press that OP was talking about when she asked if things were as bad as they seem. Probably tory yes.
This is my point though, things aren’t grim for everyone, which is what the op is asking. It’s shit though how hard it has got for some and I hope that is reflected in the next elections.

Well the weather is ludicrously cold. Normally we get a couple of days like this but it's been cold since December 1st and got colder. Even with the heating on it's freezing in my house (doesn't help that one of our radiators doesn't work).

No, I don't think it's that bad but I am probably cushioned from the worst of the price rises. Life is going on as normal as far as I can see. People are still having holidays, still driving expensive cars, we don't have millions of houses up for sale because their owners can't afford the mortgage. Although those that are up for sale are not selling very quickly.

The most irritating thing other than the rail strikes is the post strikes. But there again, they weren't delivering to our road every day anyway. I don't know if they are short-staffed but they surely can't still be using covid as an excuse.