Why does life seem to shit in the UK

[RosieLeaLovesTea]

Endless threads about schools going down the pan and poor behaviour in schools making teachers want to leave.
NHS waiting lists and quality of care medical is poor.
housing market market in crisis and affordability of housing

I read the threads and it feels like life in the UK is really shit. Plus crap weathe for 8 months of the year.

how did we get here snd what is the solution?

2 year wait for a scan. Wow! Imagine how far advanced cancer can be by an extra 2 years.

Our standard or living has been declining since 2003. It's in decline compared to the USA, Australia, China, India and South East Asia.

In 2008, there were 3500 publicly listed companies in the UK there are circa 1500 today. UK listed companies made up circa 10% of global stock market capitalization, it's less than 4% today.

The UK is on its arse.

The tories were useless and labour are even worse.

I too have my phone taken off me at work and don’t have anyone to call for me as those that would normally do that for me also work with me

My doctor after asking what was wrong and me replying would often turn to me and ask “What do you want me to do about it”

I can live with diagnosing myself if they would then do the tests needed.

I agree, sadly. Interesting facts too, thanks.

Yes you are correct - it is comtrollled now as we don't have an open border (apart from the our coastline 😩) but we were part of freedom of movement of people across borders when the UK was part of the EU. Huge influx of migrant workers.
The repercussions are wage stagnation or even deflation - plenty of motivated economic migrants working 60/70 hours plus.

I want to add I have worked with some African students and they cannot believe how much of a struggle they are finding living and working in the UK due to high living expenses. They had a much better quality of life back home - and better weather 😉

It really is OP. I moved from the UK to Switzerland 5 years ago and it only highlights how terrible the UK is. Here for example wages are higher and we pay less tax. You pay health insurance but the service is incredible - no wait for appointments, can email doctor, recieve prescriptions via email. Longest I've spent in A&E is 90mins door to door. Culturally I think people here are much more reserved and conformist. I don't see littering, anti social behaviour, crime.
Education and quality of life is so much higher here than UK. All of the parks and public spaces are well maintained, always improving, providing free events for families. Had I not left the UK I would have been nonethewiser but there really is a better life out there.

yes, it’s appalling. Mostly if you can get them to do anything, they just refer patients on.. to an endless waiting list. There must be so many people dying because they aren’t getting to see
a doctor in the first place, aren’t getting to see a specialist and then aren’t getting treatment. I know of at least one case like this .

If you ‘dont make use’
Of Checks and balances applied by the statute then this IS ‘uncontolled’

I totally feel your pain and so sorry for your loss of photos ❤️
its so depressing to keep battling with companies when they make mistakes. Its seems like the bar is so low now for customer service. We have had a few exceptions where staff have been so helpful its almost a wow moment! When actually they are just doing what they should and resolve problems! I hope you turn a corner soon and life becomes less of a battle 🤞

jannier · Today 16:37

Because people are only focused on what they haven't got and love to moan.

I’ve just spent 2 days and 2 nights sitting in a plastic chair in A&E at Blackpool Victoria Hospital with my seriously ill husband.

He was “admitted” at 17.06 hours on Monday. He got into his bed at 19.25 on Wednesday. He did not begin to receive his prescribed - urgent - treatment until 12 hours into this visit. He had seen the prescribing consultant 3 hours after we arrived. Not the issue that he was there for, but he has arthritis in his spine. Try to imagine how that would feel after that time, when you are too unwell to stand up and walk around occasionally. Again, not the issue he was there for but he is also diabetic.
During the whole period, he was given 6 cups of tea, 6 sandwiches and no pillows/blankets
Of course, I brought what I could from home to make him more comfortable.
Also during that time I positioned myself between my sick husband and an old lady of 84 who had been brought in at 10am on our second morning and not seen by 10pm the same night. She was confused, upset, dehydrated. I held her hand, talked to her and let two members of staff know of her distress. because I had brought her to their attention, I think they decided she was therefore safe in my hands and no one came to see her for 4 hours. She was in a wheelchair.

My husband is 65. A physics, maths and economics graduate, a very bright person. He works full time in a senior public sector role. He could have chosen to remain in the private sector, where he paid top rate tax as a younger man. He is that rare person though who believes in society and the public sector so for the past nearly 20 years that’s where he’s worked. In a job that in the private sector would have earned our family 4 times the salary. I supported him too because I also believed in the greater good. Ridiculous though that seems now.

Don’t you bloody dare tell me that people just “love to moan”. My husband didn’t “moan” once during his excruciating wait and pleaded with me not to because “it’s not their fault”. He’s right. It isn’t. I have no idea how these people face going back into work again day after day.

I don’t know about “life in Britain” but the NHS is not just on its knees, its face down on the floor, on a slope, trying to crawl uphill.

People like you frankly have no bloody idea. I really, really hope that you don’t have to experience what we’ve been through. Not for the first time. He was admitted two weeks ago for exactly the same condition. Sent home too soon because of immense pressure on beds. With the entirely predictably result that he’s back there now, probably for longer. Frustrated and unable to work again.

I’m not frustrated. I’m fucking incandescent. He - we all - deserve so much better.

My husband wasn’t the only patient in this situation. There were 6 who had been waiting for a bed before him. I know because I asked for details. (Oh yes, I’ll be raising holy hell when he’s home. The medical staff on A&E asked me to).

So please, take your smug one liners and put them somewhere appropriate.

I've lived in abroad in various locations over the last twenty years and it is undeniable that the UK offers very little for your tax contribution, is subject to overpricing of goods and services, has on average very low disposable incomes, very little sunlight, very negative print press, a dysfunctional housing market with unobtainable price levels for the young, sedentary lifestyle, crumbling infrastructure and public services, very ugly shift towards nativism over the last 10 years, a worrying return to a genderised society where girls wear pink and boys wear blue, and a widespread acceptance that our children will do less well than us - the inverse of conventional aspiration.

The great things about the UK are the NHS (underperforming due to underinvestment but still free at the point of use), access to art galleries / museums / the theatre, and the people (very decent values on the whole).

I'm optimistic that things may improve regarding the NHS if the Labour government is given long enough to steady the ship, and that if the US turn the page on nativism next month, then hopefully we can too.

I wonder why the OP started this thread, made one post then disappeared ...

Perhaps after reading all of this she pulled the trigger and emigrated

@MrsSkylerWhite

Sounds absolutely horrendous. It's absolutely unacceptable what you've been through.

I hope your husband is feeling better. Try and get some rest, you must be bloody exhausted.

Weather aside. I love living in Scotland. Great schools
Free Uni at time of use
Never have a problem with getting a GP,
Free prescriptions at time of use (my partner has high blood pressure & he's on lots of medicine.

yup A&E stretched but I do think that's partly an ageing population and a lack of education. Ie people going to a&e for nonsense issues that could wait.
People missing appointments.

Beaches, country & city in easy reach.
Never feel unsafe.
No problem with immigration- in fact we need people in our highlands & islands. Lack of immigration is more an issue.

There is a problem with religious bigotry/sectarianism/but that's awful but sort of to be expected in a country that persists in mixing state & religion.

I've got a great house at an affordable price in a good area. Housing isn't as expensive as down south & system seems easier for buyers (not easy but easier)

I'm cabin crew and go all over the world, the grass isn't greener
Except the weather.
Although I do love seasons. But the bad
Scotland has June & winter. 🥶

Also, and I know this may cause an issue, baby boomer generation who got everything so easily (not all of them of course )

But houses at 3x salary
Finally salary pensions
Student bursaries
Jobs for life
Inheritance from parents (people did die younger then, my mum inherited at 38.
My friends parents are youngish at 70 odd.
Ps I know no one entitled to inheritance but they all did inherit.

At least 4 of my friends have parents who have mortgage free homes, holiday flats abroad, gold plated pensions & are always on holiday.
Whilst their kids can't get on the ladder.

They just refuse to see that it was so so so much easier for them. It's not even the money it's the lack of understanding. An average couple can't afford a family home much less in one salary. Like our parents generation.
Or even like I could (gen X )

A close friend is a nurse & her fiancé a fireman and they simply cannot afford to have kids. As both need to work long hours and shifts and the boomer grandparents keep bitchibg about no grandkids whilst on their 7th cruise this year..

The sun sets everywhere.

I am in Australia, and I have also lived for long periods in Ireland and the UK. My house is in a pretty solidly middle class are, my neighbours are teachers, nurses, hairdressers, electricians etc. Every house has at least two cars, many also have boats, jet skis and caravans. Prices have gone up a lot, especially for housing, but I have never heard of anyone here having to choose whether to eat or heat. When I visit family in the UK with similar jobs, a lot of them are struggling, and some are leaving. I left Ireland as the economy had gone to hell, I reckon a lot will leave the UK for the same reason. I can certainly see how things have gone downhill since I left in 2013, and my mum reckons I escaped in the nick of time!

But you live in a middle class bubble. I know lots of people who live a similar situation to yours over here. We live rurally near the lakes so lots have big 4 x 4 type expensive cars, jet skis, sailing boats etc. it’s very common. But I am aware our area is very different from living in areas of the U.K. Australia has a huge problem with people living in poverty. One in 8 adults and one in 6 children. The rising cost of living is also a big problem ( as it is here). The environmental issues of living in Aus are worrying and becoming much more extreme. My point is all countries have their issues. You maybe don’t see them from your middle class bubble but they are definitely there.

Yes of course all countries have issues, I am not denying that all. The point I am trying to make is that it’s much easier here to attain a decent so-called middle class lifestyle, compared with the UK. People here earn a lot more for a start. A friend of mine is a part time hairdresser, her husband is a mechanic. They have three kids. They have a four bedroomed detached house with a pool near the beach, and have three cars including a 4x 4, and are saving for a boat. This is anecdotal of course but fairly standard. If they were in the Uk they wouldn’t have anything like that!

Of course not! You’re right, but I’m just clarifying what that term means when most people use it in this context. (Of course, there are those who use it as a dog-whistle to mean white/straight etc, but that’s not what it means generally.)

@Simonjt fully agree with your first two paragraphs but also, wow, I’m interested to know where you live now - particularly as a parent of two small boys who go to nursery 2/3 days a week to keep things ‘cheap’.

I know an electrician up the road who has a gorgeous 1740s house, big garden, four kids? His wife doesn’t work.

I’m not a labour fan girl but how can Labour be worse after a few months in power?

Someone said it earlier -Austerity and the pandemic.

I remember being at university in the early 00s, sitting in a park in London on my lunch break and even though it was grey and cold it being busy and everyone seemed happy. There was a chocolate shop at Euston station that I used to go and get some really unusual flavours of Lindt chocolate, it was a little Friday treat.

Now when I go to London, I'm in and out, very rarely out of the office at lunchtime. I don't have the spare cash to treat myself to lunch let alone fancy chocolate, as I've been squeezed financially for the past 4 years. My electricity bill went up to almost £200 a month a few years ago, even now it's twice as much as I was paying before the pandemic, my mortgage also went up. My pay didn't go up in line with everything.

This has had a knock effect as people don't go shopping for those little treats, they don't think I'll just go and buy that jumper so shops start shutting down and our town centres and high streets start looking neglected and bleak.

I inow what they think they're doing.
Anyway, seems we agree that decentness isn't unique to christian values.