What's one thing you've seen in other countries that you wish we had here?

[chocolateychurros]

In my home country, we have riders on motorbikes whose job it is to transport things from one place to another.
For example, if you left your charger at your mums, you could just request one of those and they would bring it straight to you.
Mind you in that country taxis are a lot cheaper than they are over here, so even if we had something like this here it would probably be too expensive and not worth it.

I need to get my bum airdried! 😱

USA:
fly screens fitted on windows
big, fast washing machines and dryers
twice weekly big bin collection
drive through pharmacies
24hr modern A&E’s in most neighbourhoods ( yes I’d rather pay insurance and have a gold standard care)

Poland:
free universities
exam based access to university, eg. 1000 places available, you sit an exam and the top 1000 people are in (no predicted grades nonsense)
high street access to diagnostics , no need for a referral and affordable prices, walk in clinics with ultrasound, MRi , Ct scan just because you want a check up, no need to explain why- usually available within 24hrs .
my British husband couldn’t believe it when we walked into a random health clinic , paid less than 5£ and had a range of blood tests done with results emailed to us within 3 days
specialists based in primary care so rather than going to your GP , you go specifically to your dermatologist, cardiologist, gynaecologist etc
consultant led ( with the consultant gynaecologist actually seeing you and examining you every month) pregnancy with an ultrasound every month as normal throughout pregnancy
2-3 days in hospital after birth as normal (free)
walk in primary care in pretty much every small village, town
24 hr fresh squeezed carrot juice (goes off after 1 day so shops have fresh supply every day)
no uniforms in schools

I would love one of these, but I'm pretty sure they cost an arm and a leg. And possibly also a bum.

two things from Spanish supermarkets, first is the machine where you can squeeze fresh orange juice into a bottle size of your choice and second is the bread slicing machine - select your bread and if you want it sliced put in the machine to do it for you. Somehow this is much nicer than presliced bread!

This right here. I'm not as down on the UK as many people are on here (I've lived in other countries, and nowhere is perfect) but our summers, especially in Scotland/the North of England, are dire. I am lucky in that I am able to spend large portions of the summer not in the UK: if I wasn't able to do that, I think I would move.

Nowhere is perfect. The poster wasn't saying that they wanted to live in the UEA.

A culture of not dropping litter. We saw no litter when we visited Munich. Here, there's masses of it. I can't imagine being so selfish and thick that you think dropping litter is okay. People who do it should be tracked down and made to eat it.

Respect and consideration for other people in public spaces: no feet on seats; no eating of smelly foods; giving up seats to those who need them more; saying please and thank you; using voices at moderate volume inside of shouting and screaming; no spitting or throwing of litter; no chasing or shouting at birds in parks/on pond; stepping aside to let others pass in narrow spaces.

Public life in the UK is really pretty gross these days.

Cosy indoor lights. Cycling infrastructure.

I've just done that and it's made me want to give up work to sell ice-cream and sorbet on a stick!!!

Can't imagine how busy I'd get if I were to open one in Ireland though...I might have to move to Spain to get the weather and the sales! 😄

This. The outcry on the street WhatsApp when the council announced they needed to reorganise/reduce bin collections to cut costs. Everything should be free as long as someone else is paying. Successive parties fight elections on promises to cut taxes - jam today. Really hard to have sensible conversations with the public re if you want a functioning society that benefits everyone, you may have to chip in a bit more.

A few dollar theaters still exist here in the US, but most are gone, alas.

I lived in Austria for a year and used their trains extensively. They were simply the obvious best choice most of the time, even though I had my car there.

Only on one single occasion did the train leave about 2 minutes late - because a disabled passenger needed the ramps and assistance to board in his wheelchair. It still arrived on time at the next station, though.

They also offer generously reduced-price tickets for groups travelling together, so that it isn't always automatically cheaper to just all go in a car.

Sainsbury's offer the bread slicing but I think it's one of the things that's going when they announced recent cut backs. Plus there's a fresh orange self serve thing in at least another Sainsbury's I use.

I always wonder if they have yobs abroad. I suppose they must, but there's far more here. People here seem to take pride in being stupid, loud and unpleasant, even the ones with money, so it's not all about poverty.

Cycling infrastructure like The Netherlands- it is amazing

Sounds like an irritating system! I'm in Finland and to renew my prescriptions (I'm on several repeat prescriptions) I just log in to the online health portal (using my online banking codes, which are used to identify yourself for all kinds of services - getting a passport is so easy because you don't need to prove your identity or anything, just log into the police website with banking codes and you are identified and fill out a short form and get your passport, often within a week) where all my prescriptions are listed, click on the ones I want renewed and click renew. Doctor checks, within a day or two usually, and authorises and I get a text message telling me they've been renewed. Then I can go to any pharmacy, anywhere in the country, show my health insurance card or ID card and they will find my prescriptions in the online system and dispense immediately - no waiting around while they fuss around with dispensing into their own packaging or nonsense like that, just fetch the medicine from the drawer (or fridge for cold meds) and hand it over with a quick check you know how to take it etc.

Copenhagen when we lived there had immaculate public loos and reasonable amounts of them , lovely fairy lights everywhere till end of February and outside braziers and furry rugs over chairs

Free nurseres/school/university. Including food.

Same in Sweden. Easy peasy. Even for my 80-year old dad.

It’s interesting that nearly everyone here mentions public transport and/ or better cycling infrastructure as their biggest priorities, and yet the mainstream media (and my local social media) seems to be very pro-car. So much criticism when the council announces any cycling infrastructure investments, ulez type schemes, closing roads to traffic to create quieter and safer neighbourhoods.
I wonder why the difference here?

Yes in Poland we can also get our prescription medication from any pharmacy in the country (without notifying the healthcare provider)

Its intersting because the cost of the police is a separate item on your council tax bill. To match Spain we would have to double that charge and wonder if people would accept it?

The underground car park in Chelmsford has them. They’re really useful.

Yes, we have that in the UK. My son is diabetic and has standard medicine on repeat. He goes to any pharmacy to ger it. It's a very convenient system.