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?!

General rule. Anyone who calls the EU "the EUSSR" is a knob and can safely be ignored.

There was a viral story about Canada lacking pediatric specific medicine. Is this a supply chain issue?

I, like you, left the UK 10 years ago and live in France. Inflation here is half of what it is in the UK, electricity capped at 4%, diesel cheaper. Yes food is dearer, but better quality. We are given a payment by Government for our electricity bills, dependent on our income. The health service is far superior than the UK. Our taxes are based on the number of people in the household, so in a two person household, where only one person is working then those earning are split in half for taxation purposes. If there are children then it is split even more. A recent trip to the UK made me want to turn around and come back to France. It looks dirty, full of litter, verges etc overgrown. There seems to be no pride anymore

No need to be rude. You don't know my background, what i do or where i have lived or even live now.

What is the EUSSR ? never heard of it, or a typo? USSR dissolved in 1992 i think.

Many countries have a similar model to the NHS, tax payer funded model

www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/news-item/why-has-the-nhs-not-been-copied-spoiler-it-has#:~:text=Where%20is%20it%20similar%3F,political%20climates%20and%20recent%20history.

Is it the best? no, but it is what we've got and it needs to be staffed properly, then look at improvements.

Portugal by the way is not a comparable country to the UK but does have a similar number of nurses per head of population to UK, France and Germany (comparable countries) have 11 and 13 respectively, UK 7.8 per head.

Portugal appeals to US citizens (and others) because it has a low "Golden Visa" cost not because of its healthcare, its also very beautiful and relatively cheap.

NHS was judged as the best healthcare system in 2010. Very different then as it was funded properly.

@CocoFifi Lots of British people would rather pretend it is the same in other countries than do anything to improve things in Britain.

No country has an NHS and yes I know how nice Portugal is, we have property in the Algarve and Portuguese friends, they're not happy with their high levels of taxation, their failing health service and dictates from the EUSSR, aka the 4th Reich, which FYI refers to the undemocratic way that the EU is managed.
Why do the Americans take advantage of the golden visa, as do many other nationalities? Which the EUSSR are trying to restrict, its because private health care is half of USA health care, plus the lower cost of living, the minimwage in Portugal is €7 per hour and its why most educated young people work abroad.

Honestly - NHS isn’t in great shape.

5-10% of people are struggling in some fairly big way eg going without food/heating/car
40% are struggling in a smaller way- cutting back on expensive Xmas presents/holidays.
40% not affected
10% are doing better and profiting from this in some way

Comments here are not closely moderated and the Nuffield Trust does not necessarily endorse the views expressed within.

NHS hospital trusts to pay out further £55bn under PFI scheme

We still owe money for the healthcare we got years ago. It won’t happen again so whoever is in will need to find another way.

And failure to control PPE contracts cost the government up to 2.7 billion according to a parliamentary enquiry. So much PPE that we could not even use. It is a scandal.

@MadMadaMim you earn £50k and you live like that? What on Earth do you spend your money on? I know bills and the cost have food have gone up, but describing your life it sounds like you're living on <£10k a year, rather than five times that.

What was the alternative to PFI ? i don't remember a fuss about it back in the day, was there one? i assume it was done to keep Govt borrowing costs down.

I did think that most of the contracts had been renegotiated and of course, just like a mortgage, borrowing over long periods of time means the capital amount is paid back several times over.

The Govt could of course, take that PFI payment scheme and remove it from the trusts, probably be more efficient too.

We are of course still getting that PFI funded healthcare right now.

@Tygger You are too extreme for me, comparing the EU to the Soviet union or Nazi Germany is quite frankly, beyond sick, normal people can make criticisms about the EU without comparing them to regimes that have murdered 10s of millions of people.

You also don't seem to know what Comparable means nor have you any evidence for your claims, Nuffield T is a respected organisation, as is Factcheck who came to the same conclusion.

So please don't engage with me again.

@MarshaBradyo You are using 2019 figures, it is now £50 billion that will still have to be paid. PFI was a very bad idea that both Labour and the Conservatives liked.

But at least we had a functioning health service. In 2010 it was assessed to be the best health service in the world. Now 12 years later it is unrecognisable.

No there wasn’t much fuss and isn’t now.

People look back and think how great it was but we’re still paying.

Even without the hammering from Covid we need that funding more now due to demographic changes.

That decade that pulled funding from today which means less now is problematic. I haven’t heard any indication that Labour would repeat it tg, as our dc will need their own funds.

I think this is probably accurate. We are in the 40% struggling in a small way. Cutting back on leisure, no holidays etc so we can afford food and heating.
Unless an extra £400 a month expenditure makes no difference to you, then you will be affected in some way. Either cutting costs such as food and heating, or cutting leisure, or a bit of both.

@MarshaBradyo I complained about PFI. Those that did were called extreme lefties. The Conservatives agreed with it.
But honestly governments borrowing for the future is not unusual. PFIs were not the best way of borrowing, but hospitals and schools did need to be rebuilt. Many were crumbling after being neglected under Conservative rule.

They have gone up but other countries are better equipped to absorb them so the cost to them does not feel as hard hitting as the cost to us.

But it is. Our wealth inequality is so much higher than elsewhere that the impact of all of these things is felt more keenly.

Tony Blair’s New Labour Government significantly expanded PFI as a convenient way of funding public infrastructure “off balance sheet.”

Like buying on a cc it feels good at the time, you get the award people mention.

However real terms spending has still gone up and we are struggling due to demographic changes. We need that £50 billion (education too?) now even more.

The wording was Nuffileds own disclaimer. PFI was the result of liebours incompetence, in the same way that they used freedom of movement to depress the wages of low paid British workers.
If you can't see the similarities between the lack of democracy and the USSR and the ambitions of Germany then you need to re-educate yourself.
If you don't want to hear opposing views then why do you reply🤔

@MarshaBradyo The Boris government paid out more fraudulently and in dodgy dealings that was paid out in PFI for new hospitals and schools.

Why are you constantly blaming Labour when they were last in power 12 years ago? In 2010 when Labour were voted out, the NHS was assessed independently to be the best healthcare system in the world. Since then it has gradually gone to shit. And yet you blame Labour?

I’m posting what is still impacting us now. People might not like hearing we owe £50bn plus but who cares. It’s not an easy problem to solve - ageing demographic and older healthcare model.

Labour will have just as much a difficult job when they get in which is looking likely atm.

A lot of expectation around going back to the days where PFI pumped in extra money. They won’t be doing it again so it’s not going to be as easy to deal with the extra demographic changes.

May as well face up to healthcare challenges and talk about the reality of the cost / model.

No, that's yer horseshoe mate.

I don't just blame Labour, the "New Labour Tory Party" do you remember Cameron claiming that he was " the heir to Blair"? Are to blame for much of what's wrong, my point is that it would/will be even worse under Labour.
We need a PR voting system if we're to prevent this country becoming more fractured, but that will bring its own challenges.