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 wouldn't say it's bad here.

Things are more expensive but there's help with everyone for energy bills and more help for COL if you're on a low income/benefits.

The media paints it as terrible, which in turn makes it feel a bit glum, but I wouldn't say things are awful here at all.

I agree with this.

There was a thread yesterday (asking how people afforded flash cars) where a poster came on and said “well, our household income is 600k per year” - the disparity between rich and poor is insane and is getting worse. Unfortunately any decent Tory (there were some once, only a few though😆) was ousted from politics with Brexit (because they knew the aim was for Boris et al to increase their millions not the national economy and sensibly got out quick). So here we are, fast becoming a nation in service to despotic millionaires and billionaires. Just look at how Philip Green was able to buy a company for £1, pay millions of dividends to his wife with money the company borrowed and then watch it, and its pension fund, sink. Totally fucking nuts. And now they’re removing the regs that were put in place in the City after the 2008 debacle because ‘the financial situation demands it’🤦🏼‍♀️. Brexit took us out of so many regs that protected us….

"The OECD's latest Education at a Glance report has found that England has the highest university tuition fees in the world. OECD countries tend to have different approaches to financing a university education with many nations joining England in charging tuition fees and around a third not charging any fee at bachelor or equivalent level.
An average annual fee at an English public institution amounts to approximately $12,330 when converting to USD using purchasing power parity, As well as England, the United States, Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan and South Korea all have tuition fees in excess of $4000. Countries in continental Europe like Spain, France and Germany all tended to have far lower fees by comparison, while Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland all have no fees at all."

www.statista.com/chart/11058/bachelor-tuition-fees-international-comparison/

We watch the UK news. And it all looks like a distopian nightmare - we only left just over a year ago but 'life is pretty normal' isn't the message that the rest of Europe gets to be fair.

Yeah I get UC to top up my salary and with the £400 help for all and the £600 grant to those on benefits that's basically covered my entire energy bills for this winter. People who earn just too much to get UC are the ones who will suffer.

Things are bad but it's not just the last 12 years (although they certainly haven't helped). A lot of the structural and infrastructural problems that the UK is facing have been brewing for 40, 50, 60 years. Post WW2 really.

My theory is that our two-main-party FPTP electoral system does not promote collaborative long-term thinking or investment. So governments get in and just aim to get themselves through the next electoral cycle.

It’s really not.

I’m in Portugal, prices have gone up, especially food, but electricity prices were capped (properly) by the government, and there’s a lot of cost-saving measures going on, like very reduced municipal Christmas lights.

Petrol prices are coming down again, and our health service is working.

Things aren’t great, but we’re not seeing the widespread collapse that appears to be going on in the U.K.

Whether some people care to admit it or not, Brexit is the elephant in the room.

The percentage of manufacturing continues to fall which is pretty disastrous for our economy. But nobody seems to give a shit.

We watch the UK news. And it all looks like a distopian nightmare - we only left just over a year ago but 'life is pretty normal' isn't the message that the rest of Europe gets to be fair.

Life is pretty normal doesn't make good headlines though, does it? I don't know anyone who is seriously struggling and I have two family members who live alone on low incomes. They're managing okay. There definitely are people who are struggling, but like you I see them on the news. I honestly I don't know any.

Mumsnet is very left wing and hate the Tories and Brexit so don't believe all you see on here. But yes things are bad but they are in other parts of the world too.

Day to day is fine for us… but I haven’t been to the dentist since before covid and I don’t think I’ll get an appointment for another couple years 😂 they don’t pick up the phone. Thankfully I don’t have anything urgent to deal with or any medical problems cos man you would be in trouble. I really feel for those that do. Have just accepted that’s the way it is these days. RIP 6 monthly dentist visits 😂

Manufacturing depended on immigrants. Immigrants require schools, hospitals, houses.

I agree.
I don’t watch the news any more, not since COVID, as there seems to be an editorial policy that broadly plays as much on people’s fears as possible, which might play into our beloved 🙄government’s hands about depressing the crap out of us until we’re too dispirited to care.

Yes, everything has gone up. Yes, I am very careful what I spend money on, as I always have been. It doesn’t go as far as it used to, even just 12 months ago. The only thing I haven’t changed is my energy usage, but I was a low user anyway. I’d rather have the house warm (18C) for a couple of hours in the evening to relax and eat, than many other things that others prefer to prioritise. The house isn’t damp, just cold, at other times.

I find online news more balanced, as I can go across a range of sources, and compare them with my real life experience, and that of friends an family. I lived in both Greece and Italy for many years, and I can remember how distorted the news appears, and vice versa 🤷🏽‍♂️

Yes.😪

Agree too.

I think a population will put up with some uneven wealth, but the rich seem keen to get richer and richer. And dont care who they put down to get there.

Personally I dont get why we therefore still are in so much awe of celebrities, footballers and the like.
The money some of them get is obscene.
And takes it away from the other 98% of the general population.
And we still seem happy to give it to them.

But it isnt just them op.

Energy companies make obscene profits.
I expect other people could add to this list.

And the government seems to like it all to continue.

This is simply not true. At one time MN was pretty left wing. Now many threads read more like the Daily Mail.

That's not really true - the money footballers get is a reflection of how much everyone else makes out of them - it's not subtracted from the salaries of ordinary workers. They also have a very short career that could end in an instant if they get a bad enough injury, so salaries are weighted due to that - and most importantly, the vast majority of professional footballers are working class kids who got where they were thanks to talent and discipline, not something that's possible in many other high earning jobs now.

We watch the UK news. And it all looks like a distopian nightmare - we only left just over a year ago but 'life is pretty normal' isn't the message that the rest of Europe gets to be fair.

I wouldn’t compare daily life with the news, especially U.K. news which is good at getting people to react. Even against
my daily life which is normal etc

There’s also no proper functioning rail service in the North of England.

@Beezknees 100%. People just over the UC threshold who also have young children in childcare are feeling it!

It's as bad as it has been in my (long) lifetime. We're facing the same challenges as other European countries (high energy and food costs) but starting from a position of years of under-investment in all areas of public spending (health is an obvious one but it's really everything, from the court system, prisons, immigration infrastructure, transport etc etc). Brexit has been an issue in terms of the drop in GDP but also because it has taken up so much government bandwidth and continues to do so- 5 PMs in 6 years and a chaotic lack of governance.

Not really. Not compared to other places anyway.

The media and the loudest participants on forums have enjoyed running the UK down for years.

The things that are wrong here, are wrong in other places too. Otherwise, I'd genuinely like someone to tell me where the promised land is.

If you don’t mind be saying OP you don’t seem very clued up about things.

you say you left the U.K. and now live in Europe, as though you were conflating geographical Europe with the political EU, but you actually live in Switzerland, which is neither in the EU or the EEA.