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?!

No country can afford to a have very right wing or a very left wing government.

This government is high on its own supply. It has given up thinking, negotiating, making things work. Instead, like a toddler, it is now sitting in a mess. And it says, we are waiting it out. Who for? Who wants what they do? Very few.

It is so stupid, so stupid, that the tools it has, the public service, it spends its time underpaying, overworking and attacking. But these are the people who deliver what they want.

They have huge majority. It has been totally wasted. Government is about planning, making deals, delivering success. They have done none of that since 2019.

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

I don’t think anyone can make predictions as any GE is a long time off. Until then we have a zombie govt that are already fleeing the sinking ship. A lot could happen in the next 2 years.

I don’t really have to paint a picture it’s daily threads. Luckily it’s not reflected irl otherwise it would be depressing.

As for left I guess it is - I find it quite public sector heavy too. Only since pandemic though.

The U.K. is my chosen home so I hope it does prosper. Whether Starmer is on the right track I guess we’ll find out. If it gets worse due to higher tax and higher payers upping sticks…

I’m reminded of a good phrase the trick to taxation is plucking the goose with the least amount of shrieking haven’t googled exact words - if you make a huge song and dance out of how you’ll get more and they’re the baddies in all this they might not feel so inclined. Someone has to pay the tax burden

On Labour winning we’ll see. It’s a while off yet

Whether Starmer is on the right track I guess we’ll find out. If it gets worse due to higher tax and higher payers upping sticks

Inward investment has ground to a halt this past few years, due to uncertainty around wtf the U.K. govt are doing. So money is already bypassing this country as the barriers we’ve imposed upon ourselves mean we’re far less attractive.
We don’t actually have that much to offer, apart from an over inflated sense of self importance now.

I find it quite public sector heavy too

Oh do you now. So public sector = bad, and private = good?

Is that what you mean?

I can’t really relate to those last two posts.

They seem ott. No it’s not bad but public sector has a different outlook compared to my experience- which is all private sector.

I’m not sure it’s important if you relate or not Marsha, but these are the figures.

Investment has plummeted, due to the effects of our government and the trajectory we now all find ourselves on.

This makes us all poorer, it’s just an observation. If you continue to play the partisan game without looking at the bigger picture, fill your boots.

We don’t actually have that much to offer, apart from an over inflated sense of self importance now.

This is the typical post I mean, it’s rife. If and when Labour win will we be only self importance over anything to offer…

I look forward to the positivity

And yeh the public sector = bad is just silly

Just think about that public sector point for a moment. We left Europe. We need now replicate some of what they did, change other aspects, and design new systems to allow private enterprise to flourish.

But we are not doing that. Instead we are making poor deals. Our international reputation has been adversely affected and still is. Watching Sunak dance around leave the ECHR and you wonder why he's in it at all. Even a guy with huge private sector experience and what is he doing?

Not even a good technocrat.

Whether Starmer is on the right track I guess we’ll find out. If it gets worse due to higher tax and higher payers upping sticks

Go where? many countries are having to up tax rates & as i pointed out, EU have higher tax rates but higher growth higher productivity and far better public services, does kind of blow your argument out the water.

Plus no one is going to leave their social circle, their schools, their London dining and culture because a tax rate goes from 45% to 47% or school fee go up.

But what is happening is far lower paid but skilled workers leaving the UK., teachers health care staff in particular.

I ve never worked in public sector and aprt from the odd nhs worker, don't know anyone who does but i am not blind to some very bad management in private sector.

And yeh the public sector = bad is just silly

You said it in the first place.

And you called my opinion rife, I’ll take that as a compliment🙂

Positivity doesn’t really work like that btw, not when you’re dealing with your own country that’s been disassembled by a smash and grab right wing bunch of swivel eyed ideologues that are out for as much as they can possibly get. Perhaps you don’t understand that. Many in this country do now.

This is a bit more encouraging but agree with a line in the report that we can’t be complacent

www.ey.com/en_uk/news/2022/06/the-uk-remains-europe-s-most-attractive-destination-for-financial-services-investment-but-the-gap-with-france-narrows-further

Lols you the new clav😂

So you post a chart and I post a report and you result to insults?

Good work.

What a shame though, if you can’t discuss without them. Sign of losing the argument.

You said it in the first place.

You a sound juvenile. No I didn’t use those words. But they do have different levers and variables.

If you think that equals bad that’s your issue.

Sign of losing the argument

We’re all losing. That’s the point of the thread.

You may yourself be doing great I’m sure. Not sure how rife that is right now across the country.

You a sound juvenile

And you present a poorly rounded argument.

Anyway same old. Those on left just throwing around insults.

Due to a report.

Due to a report

What, a report that states the bleeding obvious from the FT. Right ho. You know better. Everything is fine in Marsha land so any possible reports of people struggling must surely be wrong😮

And I’m not really insulting you. I’m just pointing out your blinkered optimism a little bit suspect, like you’re over invested and it’s poorly thought out with little empathy or understanding to the bigger picture, in my opinion.

Thats an interesting article but considering where both France and the UK were, UK needs to buck its ideas up.

Bare in mind, France is often portrayed as high tax high regulation, London the opposite, we should be doing far better, FS is a very important source of revenue both for the SE and the regions.

The report was also written before it was believed we'd all go into recession.

So i wonder how it will look post Truss and the recent tax & energy changes ? Hopefully the optimism would have continued.

Up to you. What you think of me is neither here nor there but dial down the insults and I can debate, otherwise pointless.

Not sure what you mean by the FT though it’s from EY not that either mean it’s suspect - why does the FT negate it?

Are we doing as bad as some of the press like to profess, definetly not, would things be any better if we didn't have Tories/Brexit, very debatable and is alternative history stuff.

Are we (along with the rest of world) going through problems, definetly yes, are the government stale, again definetly yes.

What is not going to happen is Labour an or A.N Other government get in and things will magically turn into a perfect NHS, fully funded education, cheap housing and wages always above inflation (a ponzi paradox in itself)

MN isn't a real demographic, the most vocal up to and after any election since 2010 have had labour nailed on for win, it was hugely pro-corbyn (funnily enough until he said anyone earning over 80K a year was going to be a target for tax rises, funnily enough the 'I'm happy to pay more tax' sumg posts stopped immidietly.

What will be interesting for the next ~2 years is that a lot of the vocal labour supporters and Labour itself are going to have to tackle head on a lot of issues that they previously shyed away from, nordic countries that are considered 'adults' on MN and who we should replicate are going through this process, it can't be brushed under the carpet as just reading the daily mail or what ever twitter response is flavour of the month.

What Labour won't have the benefit of when Blair won was that Major did balance the books and got the country out of a defecit spend, the NHS cannot keep on functioning the way it is and will need reform, probably following a more European model, planning laws are going to have to become more brutal to outstrip NIMBY power (and no, it isn't just consvertative villages full of NIMBYS, and no we don't have enough brown field sites to deal with it).

Are we as bad as it sounds, depend on what media you see, if you had a balanced view you would see it is pretty much the same as anywhere with degress of GDP and statistical variation to win one thing and lose another, no one quick win solution, hence why the left in Nordic countries have adpoted what would be seen as right wing policies on Immigration and the impacts of such (to be fair to some on MN it would be probably described as facism but that word has been overused for the past 8 years)

The Tories will go at the next election, but it will be Labour supporters and the left in general who are now going to have to about face on the Kensyian economic model for example and be the party to make the tough decisions instead of just wanting to be in opposition.

We are in a mirror situation where the Tories can leave the joke about there being no money left (and labour would have every right to bring it up as a political football as did the tories)

And to add, it won't be a simple soundbite to 'make the rich pay', just look at what the SNP announced today, and the backlash at what Corbyn wanted to introduce.

It is empty student style politics, that shows a deep lack of critical thinking of not only geopolitics but the whole basis of 'make the rich pay'...

It will be another decade of utter drag and waste. There is not money to spend. We have less means and people to address and our population is ageist. We spend more on the state pension than we do on education.

I don't relish it really - yes huge structural problems. The thing is though, on tax, we look much more like our EU neighbours than we ever did before we left, but we have a fraction of the services. The Conservatives can't reform public services, look at the mess they've created. They have just enraged it and cut it to the bone.

It takes a Labour Government to reform the public sector.

It is empty student style politics, that shows a deep lack of critical thinking

Which is what we’ve had to endure this last 7/8 years now really isn’t it.

There was no critical thinking within govt since c2016, and he we are, with muppets like Gullis spouting their nonsense live on tv as the govt implodes before our eyes.