Do emigres from the UK imagine the UK is stuck in the dark ages?

[livingunderskirt]

I have quite a few relatives who have moved overseas to places like Australia, Canada and Denmark. Something that I notice when they visit is that they seem to assume that in the UK we are stuck in the dark ages, I had one relative from Australia try to explain to me recently what an ipad is and does, when I have my own ipad. My aunt who now lives in Denmark tells me about how in Denmark they are very advanced with recycling much more so than the UK because they have special bins for paper and glass/plastic. We have all that too but at the time we had food waste recycling too and they didn't. Lots of things like that, like being surprised to learn we Malaysian, Korean, Sri Lankan restaurants locally and not just Chips or Chinese places or that we have podcasts and smart watches.

Its not a big deal it doesn't wind me up or anything but I do wonder why this is? I suppose they might assume that the UK has stayed the same since they left in the 80s or 90s. I just think it's kind of odd. I have lived overseas myself and never felt this way and I sort of expect lifestyles / tech to be similar all over the developed world at this point.

I just wondered if anyone else has noticed this?

Well I was being a bit tongue in cheek there, I think that this is something that various quite a bit across the UK depending on which local authority area you are in.

They are very variable, I agree. I think our council was one of the pioneers of food waste recycling.

The UK seems to be doing well with recycling but still sends a lot of waste to landfills (my country only sends 0.5% to landfills, the UK its something like 22%) so that's a bit dark agesish

I left 15 years ago when you still couldn't get reliable mobile signal in my parent's large city and you had data limits on wired Internet! That was considered stone age in Europe at the time. Tech-wise, the uk does feel behind. Where I live, everyone has fibre optic right to the house, all houses, shops and offices have car charging points and we get 5G even in the countryside. In contrast, I've only been able to buy halloumi in a normal supermarket in the last 5 years, but fruit and veg are cheaper and better quality.

@cardibach @gotomomo I’m in Yorkshire. Where I live the co op opens long hours, everything else closes early on a Saturday, bakery, butcher post office etc. The shops in larger towns are open all day.
Never had a good waste collection, the glass collection was stopped several years ago due to cost 🤷‍♀️

Except the price. That is alrrady in 2045

Europe is a big place. I'm in a city of 100,000 people and there's no reliable WiFi, no taxi, let alone Uber, a couple of pizza delivery places. No hospital. And nobody would recognise an electric vehicle if it ran over them.

Indeed @SoSoIinvictus. I guess if you go to your capital you can get an espresso machiato and reasonable sushi. My grandparents live in a small UK Midlands market town. I don't think you can buy a coffee that isn't made from instant and I seriously doubt online banking has taken off. Anyone coming from London, Paris, İstanbul or San Francisco would think it stone aged

my family also think the U.K. is a bit old fashioned and behind the times and I agree with them a lot of the time.

I live in London and don’t have reliable wifi or 5G. Not to mention if you leave London 4G is very patchy.
the impression you get from things like school uniforms -they are so old fashioned, grey and boring.
NHS uniforms look like something from the 70s. I couldn’t believe I had to wear that tunic!
we don’t get given any bins the council just collect bin bags from the street.
one place I work still doesn’t have a patient computer system for notes or medications it’s all done on paper.

93% of people in the UK use online banking.

You can get the wrong impression of places - I live in a rural market town full of old people and farmers, there’s a hotel/bar that’s straight from the 1950s and some seriously antiquated shops - but we can get an espresso on the high street, have craft beer bars with various street food vendors and the small greengrocers has just started stocking artisan sourdough (that’s always sold out before I get there). And of course we use online banking as all the banks have closed down 😂

My DP lived in Canada for a few years and became really interested in the way expats and people of British ancestry made a big deal of the Queen (at the time), the Union flag, afternoon tea and so on. Way more than anyone here does!

Use or have? Makes a difference

I live in Canada but still come back a lot. Canada is way behind when it comes to dealing with the government. I have to carry proof of car insurance, ownership and my licence every time I drive, UK Police have a computer.
Everytime the Canadian authorities need a photo they have to have a new, HMG just uses what it has if it is current.
Add in no home delivery from the supermarket and limited choice of food then UK wins hands down on many fronts.
I will not even get started on TV.

@Tartareistasty Using. This was in 2022.

I have a friend who has moved to what (I think) is still considered a developing Eastern European country, and she is the same. She goes on and on about how she’d never move back to ‘Brexit Britain’, the country is going backwards and there are no opportunities here. Drives me up the wall, especially as she moved as a young adult (20 years ago) so has never worked here or even tried to find a job!

@JustFrustrated
What's the problem with Venmo? It's incredibly handy.

Also, online banking is definitely a thing in the US.

Ahh. Nice then!

Actually, Germany introduced chip and pin in 1994 - I remember working in a shop and some people telling me their PINs. This was a decade or so before the UK adopted chip and PIN. German stores often don’t like credit card payments because of the additional credit card charges that apply to the vendor. Germans have their own EC card system that most people use (like a debit card but slightly more protected but not quite a credit card). Also recycling in Germany is more advanced. They introduced a packaging law around 30 years ago or more whereby people have the right to leave extra packaging at the store. A lot of proxy’s now have minimal packaging. Automated glass bottle recycling stations that ‘ingest’ bottles and give you money back on a per bottle basis and lots more. At Uni in the UK in 1997 there were no recycling facilities at all. My in laws only started to recycle when fines were introduced. Saying all that, e-commerce is more advanced in the UK than in Canada.

We pretty much have fibre optic to all homes here now, even in smaller villages.

I don't recognise any of this We get 5G and we are practically rural here. We also have a full range of bins and have for a decade.

I can't comment on the NHS uniform but I love school uniforms, so smart and much nicer than wearing normal clothes.

@leamington66 ehere about’s in Canada are you? Most supermarkets and even smaller specialist delis (plus restaurants obvs) offer delivery here and have been for more than ten years. (Greater Toronto area - commuter belt not city).

@SiennaSienna I am in Markham. I think there are 3rd parties that deliver - like Uber - but nothing like Tesco or Sainsbury home delivery with an app of their own.

Yes, my brother moved abroad 20 years ago and it’s clear his mental image of the UK is 20 years old- he regularly assumes we don’t have perfectly modern things. It doesn’t help that he makes no effort to find out- eg he wanted to know what was on at the cinema so went to the website he uses in his home country- surprise surprise it didn’t cover the UK- so he assumed we all still find out film times from the local paper . In his head he’s changed and we’re all set in aspic.

Sobeys, Fortinos, Longos, Metro, Farm Boy, Walmart, Loblaws…really none of them deliver in Markham? I know Ocado sold the e-commerce system to Sobeys about 5 years ago so the website is almost identical.

@SiennaSienna
Nothing near me. I think one has a 3rd party but if you have used the tesco app then its really hard to go backwards. I only moved out last year.
Near me is Loblaws, Garden Basket, No Frills and Village Grocer.