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 am really struggling and I earn above average for my area and live cheaply - shop in Aldi, haven't had a holiday in ages, don't buy clothes or fancy cosmetics etc. Usually I feel for people on lower wages, or single parents etc in these situations but this is bad enough to be hitting the majority I'd say. I'm getting overdrawn each month just to pay rent, bills and food. Had to tell my family and friends I couldn't buy presents this year, and my car, which I need due to where I live, broke and I have no extra to fix it so having to sell for scrap. I also got a ridiculous tax bill (set to rise further with the Tories) to try to find money for - despite all the services they're meant to pay for being cut. We need a general election - its criminal the Tories have wrecked this country and remain in power whilst PM hopping and in-fighting.

Here come the make believe Mumsnetters who believe if a different government were in charge it would be all sunshine and roses 🤣 they are all the same, things would be no different, the price rises are mostly to do with that mental f$cknut Putin but we are blaming the Tories for that war now are we 🙄 a government that had to deal with Brexit and Covid successively, it was like a poison chalice.

Personally I think the NHS may be better off if we weren’t ploughing billions into keeping “lone refugee men” in hotels but that’s just me. Obviously you aren’t allowed to say that type of thing on here because it’s not PC or compassionate enough

The UK has gone to shit I am afraid. The Tories have run it to the ground and Brexit was the icing on the cake. I pray for Scottish Independence but whether we are ever "allowed" to get an independence vote is doubtful. I have no idea why people kept voting Tory. Rishi Sunak's casual shoes he wore at the last climate summit were a mere £25,000, but let me not digress. We are all in it together and must suck it up. Hey ho.

Yes it is bad here. Grim, gloomy and uninviting.
With the energy prices spiralling out of control. The NHS almost on it's knees, people are struggling immensely. Food prices are beyond belief and many people and families can't feed themselves. Nutrition doesn't appear to be imporant. It's a case of feed yourself/children whatever you can afford. I hven't read all the replies here but there is one subject that I can't see having been mentioned and that is knife crimes, stabbings. They are rife and what I'm unable to comprehend is why the UK has become so hostile and anti-social. It's as if one dare not look at someone in the street for fear of being attacked. Even children are involved in stabbings now. It's a very frightening country to live in.

In a word - yes

In same situation. Left uk in 2000. Reading the news shows me a country I no longer recognize. When I talk to my dM, her take is that yes food and fuel prices are rising but at a similar speed to where I am in Europe (uk fuel prices have historically been a lot lower than here)
Her main issues are NHS waiting lists (in desperate need of a new hip), cancellation of the pets passport scheme and the greatly increased difficulty and costs involved in us posting items to each other. The last two are obviously a result of brexit and she blames Covid for the mess in the nhs

@Leela100 are you having a laugh? The Government forced Brexit on the country! By lying, misleading and inciting racism. They didn’t ‘have to deal with it’ they fucking invented it. I can’t believe you’re trying to frame this self mutilation as ‘done to’!

Every country in the world had Covid to cope with, and yet we’re at the bottom of the pile with Russia who are at war and under massive sanctions!

The UK is definitely is a worse place than it’s European neighbours and it is 100% on the corrupt and greedy Tories - the party themselves and those who keep voting for them.

Just look at the government's own take on living standards - the biggest fall on record
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63659936
And that is just living standards. The NHS is collapsing and public services everywhere are getting much worse

I left UK in 2006 and have lots of family still there. I know things are bad but isn’t the media hyping it all up too?? I am in Belgium and prices are crazy here- energy is barely affordable even for professionals. Food prices have always been higher than UK and are rising fast. We have strikes too regularly. Life is no picnic here either and I don’t think it is worse or better than the UK tbh..

Yes. It's a shit show.

Hard to believe this is a G7 country. Quite ashamed how much poverty there is and how many families I left to struggle. Obviously the very wealthy are doing well and get a lot of advantages in the tax system.

I'm strongly considering leaving. We have the ability to go back to Europe and only moved here to be close to family. I severely regret moving back when we did. I don't recognise the UK anymore.

Today's discussion on a friends WhatsApp group was: does anyone know where I can get penicillin from as everywhere is out. We're a first world country and we can't afford to feed everyone nor can we afford basic healthcare.

i like being with my friends and my family so wouldn’t want to be away from them. The beautiful parts of the country are still here and I’m ok with it for now. The NHS however is disgraceful. Resources are allocated poorly and money spent on paying salaries for unnecessary middle management. That’s the grimmest part for me. Not being able to get a bloody GP appointment. However I don’t know if I’d feel at home in another country

Yes

I don't find it gloomy personally, and I'd hate to live abroad. I don't even have a valid passport.

However I do think it's time to consider whether the way the NHS is funded should change, and whether what other countries do could be better, like in Ireland or Australia.

I know the NHS is a religion and to suggest any other system is heresy- call me a heretic then! It's a money - monster and we don't seem to ever benefit from the piles of tax payer money shovelled in daily! The management structure of the NHS is never going to accomplish any significant reforms.

Some prices have gone up but the media is making it seem much worse than it is.

They have indeed...... 4% and 14% for electricity and gas in France.

More days lost in strikes last month than at any time since 1990... and we ve not yet even started...

But the big issue in the UK is not having a national health service or a ambulance service.
As someone i know who just spent 37 hours in AE with his wife said... "3rd world" ... though tbh i think we have sunk below even that low bar.

After 12.5 years the Tories really have fucked our once great country.

The Tories have ruined the Uk. The only reason I feel positive and am not planning to move is because they won’t win at the next election and will be out of power for years to come. I will be having a party to celebrate when they get voted out.

I did think at one stage I would have liked to move to UK but after having been there for a few months, I felt it would not be sustainable to live there on a long term basis.
I have been living in Borneo for the past 30 years and even though I felt this would not be the place I would retire, and eventually move back to UK, my recent visit back to UK made me realise my retirement fund would go a longer way in Borneo than in UK.
It is perhaps timely that the government is trying to encourage retirees to make it their second home, so they have relaxed much of the immigration rules to enable and ease the move if anyone else is interested . Unfortunately, this is only open to those 40 years old and above. All one requires is funds of £30,000 for those 50 and above and for those between 40-50, one is required to invest in a property of £80,00- 120,000. When I compare it to the living cost in London, it makes more financial sense. I can live comfortably here for as little as £1,000 a month or have a splurge at £2,000 a month. The only thing that irks me is the hot and humid weather and the fact that there is no snow! and cars are expensive in comparison but on this program, one is allowed to bring in one vehicle from the home country so that helps.
Medical care is decent but if one has worldwide medical insurance , one can always hop over to Singapore and get the best and world renowned medical care available.
But one thing which blows my mind is that strikes are illegal in this part of the world ....! I used to think that was terrible.. until I got stranded when a strike happened in UK !

I think uk media is making it sound worse than it is. The struggles are similar to other countries but when I compare to my home countries news it is a lot more dramatic in the UK.

NHS is shafted because there simply isn't enough staff and thats down to poor planning and very poor staff retention, my DD was in tears yesterday due to a patient not referred in and the harm done, no one has the time.. folk get pissed off..& despite really loving her job.. she is leaving in the Spring.

GP numbers have fallen PT and retirement, who didn't plan for any of this?

NHS probably has not enough managers, front line can't function without good procurement, cost effective and investment.

People also do not appreciate the EU staff lost and also not coming here because of Brexit, London very hard hit.

The whole purpose of Tory Remainers is to systematically destroy the country so that Brexit will fail, but with those Tories themselves insulated from the country's destruction.

The country voted for Brexit by a much more substantial majority than other constitutional proposals - for example the vote for having a Welsh Assembly was only passed by a margin of about 1000 votes - despite Cameron extending the registration period to get more student Remain voters on board, and many other Media and "lawfare" advantages.

The things Brexiters wanted were to stop being EU net-contributors, to stop our Legal System with its roots back to Magna Carta being abolished in favour of the EU Corpus Juris system (Commissioner Frattini tried to get that into the 2010 Lisbon Treaty), to get back the economic control of 200 nautical miles (or mid-point) of our coastal waters granted under the UN Law of the Sea, to install a points-based immigration system so that only positive and useful people were accepted, and so on.

Yet the first thing the Establishment did was to install a stream of Remainer Prime Ministers who invoked Withdrawal Agreements like Theresa May's that were akin to wartime Surrender Treaties, that did the opposite of what was voted for.

Then the Tories were given a huge majority by the "Red Wall" voters to finally get what was promised to be done. Yet Boris "spaffed" it all away, and Remainer Liz Truss has even signed our military over to the EU "PESCO" agreement in her few weeks in office.

It's becoming obvious that the whole purpose of Tory Remainers is to systematically destroy the country so that Brexit will fail, with all the potential advantages given away for nothing, but with those Tories themselves insulated from the country's destruction, and they have presumably been promised a tidy sum and a "seat on the Ark" for their families, in return for their treachery.

People are now wondering if the tens of thousands of fighting-age men that have been landing on the Kent beaches for many months with a Government/Police/RLNI taxi-service instead of resistance, are actually United Nations mercenaries who will all suddenly appear on our streets in blue helmets when a coup becomes able to be maintained.

Rich elite have got richer, paying less tax. All services like NHS/police/teaching understaffed and underfunded . We cannot be a self sufficient little island as people wanted to believe with brexit.

@RonnieJazz Please stay away from the QAnon groups.

No all fine with me

I think it varies depending on the area you live in. Was 12 hours in A&E last night but have received excellent care since then, rang the GP in the morning and a clinician visited about an hour later, no issues with getting an appointment either.
As for the diabolical government, well we all knew what they are capable of, so I don’t blame them, I just blame the clowns that voted for them, especially those in the so called Red Wall areas because they wanted to “Get Brexit Done” .
Now we all have to get on with it, we’ve been through worse and always bounce back. Poverty was much worse years ago than it is now.