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?!

If wages are so good, why are you concerned about a 2K flight? The only country I've lived in where people comment endlessly about the cost of travel is NZ but that's because earnings there are generally low and standards of living for many people are not great.

Asset striping, corruption and bribery. The public don't seem to care. They want a bubbly baffoon with a posh accent in power. The politicians are not being held accountable.

I have lived and worked in different continents. The UK is edging towards the US way. A poor country with a few rich people. Poor people keep voting the Republican (Tory) in. Poor infrastructure. The railway in the US don't all have a system to stop the train remotely. They only implemented it on some major tracks a few yr ago after too many fatal derailment. Poor public education. Polluted water. Lack of water and sewage pipe. Many Americans have no piped water supply. Some have no sewage pipe in their homes. Private healthcare, where copay is enough to bankrupt a middle class family with a million net worth. High inequality. Poor mental health caused by the high unequality. Americans feel bad in general unless they are the top 0.001%.

My American colleagues are very pro gun. With increasing inequality, more and more people have been mugged at gun point. They proudly discuss their lives in a gated community.
Inequality is bad. Healthcare , food and shelter should be basic human rights.

I have lived and worked in different continents. The UK is edging towards the US way. A poor country with a few rich people

I too have lived in multiple continents as well and you’d be lucky to live as well as the Americans, despite their many issues.

They definitely wouldn’t be discussing how to hang laundry indoors so as to avoid mould or what to wear to stay warm as they WFH 🙄

Inequality is greater in US so you get more extremes.

America is big. My colleagues are mostly in NY, Chicago and Mississippi. They pay much higher energy bill than us to start off with. Their homes are poorly insulated. One colleague's NYC modest home of 1.2k sq ft is costing him $500/month in Oct to heat. Winter in NYC is much colder than the SE England. They are still paying their student loan off in their 40s. Their internet and mobile cost more than double than what we pay. Their groceries cost more if they want to eat fresh food. Their healthcare copay is high. No mat leave. 1 week notice period. One lives in Connecticut, her kids school is close to the mass shooting that happened this year. She is looking at bullet proof vest for her kids.

An average Brit has a much better life than an average American.
An ambulance outside your healthcare coverage network is going to set you back a few grand in the US. Not all insurance plan cover ambulance.

One colleague has had his basement flooded 3 times this year. In one work call, he was hoovering up water in his basement.

@MadMadaMim not my place to judge but I don’t think you should be financially supporting anyone if it puts you in the position of having to live like a Victorian pauper - you’ll ruin your own health. Surely your children at uni can get jobs? It’s their choice to go to uni, they can finance it like many other young people. They are probably spending your money on alcopops and clothes while you’re wearing a hat to bed. I don’t think anyone would be accepting support (quite rightly) if it meant the person giving support was living in dire poverty!

The very rich are getting richer to the detriment of everyone else including people that might be regarded as affluent
now we have a very few who are affluent
the rest of us are effluent😟

I too have lived in multiple continents as well and you’d be lucky to live as well as the Americans, despite their many issues.

Which Americans?

Increasing taxation isn't necessarily bad IF YOU SPEND THE MONEY WISELY. The problem with Labour, and the left generally, is that I don't trust them. I don't trust them to spend it wisely. They will spend it on 'Diversity and Inclusion Managers,' or on lazy, irresponsible people who have multiple children, raise them to be ignorant, violent and anti-social, and then claim every benefit under the sun. If you spend the money on repairing the roads, on scientific research labs (like The Francis Crick Institute), on state education, on grants for poor kids studying STEM subjects at top universities, on apprenticeships in engineering and manufacturing (we don't make and sell enough in this country), even on the armed forces (which have saved countless kids from poor backgrounds by giving them a sense of pride and purpose), etc, etc, then the entire country will benefit.

The majority of people accept the need for taxation. And if they believed the government would spend it sensibly, the majority wouldn't mind an increase. I genuinely wouldn't want to be a multi millionaire while good people are struggling on minimum wage. However, I bitterly resent my tax money being wasted on a violent, criminal, anti-social underclass who exploit the welfare system. And I resent it being spent on illegal immigrants posing as refugees. (Obviously it goes without saying that not all asylum seekers and welfare claimants are fake).

No not at all. Unless they live on a farm down a rutted track, they drive them as status symbols. So aren't short of a bob or two, and if they needed cash to pay the bills, they'd sell and buy a cheaper car.

I bitterly resent my tax money being wasted on a violent, criminal, anti-social underclass who exploit the welfare system

very little money is spent on that

Not sure I mentioned 4x4 think it was another poster

re tax v borrowing I’d say we’re maxed out on both hence small grabs from low yield places

Sounds good for votes but won’t do much against the issue

very little money is spent on that

No, but if you convince people that that is where the problem lies, the less well informed will believe it, and get angry and start to froth.

Which leaves the government to continue with their corruption, and those frothing idiots will keep voting for that corruption. And here we are.

Anyone seen Michelle Mone recently?🙄

Anyone seen Michelle Mone recently?
she'll be reading up how to survive prison

@JoonT
Crick institute opened in 2010 and was first envisaged under Labour.
Labour would have kept us in Horizon, the Tories have kept us out. (as we would never have had Brexit if they had won in 2015)

Inclusion and Diversion manager jobs have boomed in the last 10 years, you will have to remind me who is in charge of public services.

Who has spaffed 10s of billions on useless PPE, written off fraudulent business support loans and corrupt furlough claims?

This is before we get onto the 4% of GDP lost due to Brexit or the £30bn Truss cost us all or the £40bn being paid out to the EU as we speak.

But you don't trust Labour to spend taxes wisely?

She better be sent to prison. Heard she and her husband are planning to escape the UK.
This was only uncovered by investigative journalism. Makes you wonder how many more of these friends and family sweet heart deals are out there. The money could have been used on the NHS.

This was only uncovered by investigative journalism. Makes you wonder how many more of these friends and family sweet heart deals are out there
those investigative journalists have now got the bit between their teeth & eyes on the prize, and their mates will all want in on it to get some of the bounty hunter glory
...no hiding place for them now, it's open season on the grifters

One of the most unforgiveable things the Tories did was shut down all the Sure Start centres.
If you don't in early and help kids and their parents, mainly women, then yes you will see a rise in failed children and benefit claims.

I see the SNP have chosen to raise taxes.
I'm willing to bet that we will follow, either under the Tories or or however wins the next GE.
If the French can stand a tax burden of 43% (& still have a better economy than UK, with higher growth) then the uk could increase slightly from 38 to 40%.

Whoever gets in is increasing taxes.

Question is, why on earth would you vote for a Conservative government which increases your tax and gives you less?

Not many people. They are screwed.

Labour will probably win. Whether it gets worse or not we’ll see. Unlike Blair - who did get this right imo - they want votes based on ‘taxing the rich’. Whether they hang around to pay is another thing.

A positive is they won’t give SNP what they’re after. Looking for silver lining.

And I guess mn will be full of U.K. is great which will make a nice change.

I resent my tax being not spent in public services. Why am l even paying tax?

We have no nhs, shit schools, shit transport (apart from London oc) no social care. And yet we continue to pay taxes and NI. Where the fuck is it going?

l don’t care about a few refugees wanting a better life. I do care that I’m paying for Broken Britain.

@JoonT - the Conservatives have had 12 years to do what you want. Instead, they've done none of it and put your tax up.

Immigration is up
Benefit spending is going up
We spend more on pensioners and their benefits than we do on our children
And I am paying more tax for a geriatric focussed government that does not even achieve its rather pathetic publicly stated aims

I'm not saying you should vote Labour, but if you want any of what you claim to want, voting Conservative is a dead end

Labour have a 50/50 chance at best, they are very stupid if they believe otherwise.

The difference with Blair and now is the whole world outlook, back then, every major country was lowering taxation, now its the opposite, Ukraine, Covid, lower economic growth means taxes as a % of GDP have to increase, traditional borrowing is saturated.

ATM we are paying too little for what we want and getting little back, a small increase would change that, which what Arse in the window is saying.

And I guess mn will be full of U.K. is great which will make a nice change

You paint the picture that somehow MN is all “lefty” and doesn’t represent the country, I don’t agree. Most are just normal people that want a vaguely competent government, with an actual idea of how to make the country as a whole, prosper. We don’t have that.

So much damage has been done now.

So although I agree that the U.K. is great, we have to remain united. And actually great too, but we’re going backwards in those respects with the current govt, in every way.