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.

We have one but our borders are hard to police because they are all by the sea.

Agree with getting rid of the Royals - not executing them, just pensioning them off with one house per couple and a modest income.

To be fair under this system you wouldn't be doing much childcare for your kids. I am chinese and I am probably the first person in my family in generations to raise my child myself though I will use childcare. My grandma raised me and my sister while my parents worked from 9 am to 12 midnight (mum became senior management at an American bank, dad has his own business though to be fair its mainly passive income even from the start).. I was sent to daycare from 4 but my grandpa did pick ups.

my grandma didn't raise her own children, they lived apart from her until they were 7. Oldest son went to grandma, younger 2 went to a relative who worked as a nanny. They saw her on weekends until she was able to quit her job as they bought a house with their dual income.

I guess in a sense the kids belong to the family not the parents in such a setup so there is less fuss over who raises them but in countries with high economic growth rate, the young are able to capitalise on that with their youth energy and thus able to earn more money which goes to support the wider family. Such countries have very meagre social spending too and if a country has become wealthy very fast the money you saved in your 20s to 50s would be next to worthless next to inflation.

SwanOfThoseThings · Today 16:23
Agree with getting rid of the Royals - not executing them, just pensioning them off with one house per couple and a modest income

Who would decide which house each couple was given?
Quite a lot of their possessions are owned by them as opposed to the state. Would you confiscate all this?
There are plenty of well off families in Britain who own several houses. Would you also limit them to one house per couple?

My daughter has recently come back from a year teaching at a secondary school in Japan. The pupils (and teachers) do most of the cleaning in the schools! She was ... surprised at first, but quickly got used to it.

Transport infrastructure that prioritises pedestrians, cyclists and public transport. Also avocado ripeness testers in supermarkets.

Yes this is a big one. We moved to a town in Wales 3 years ago and the playgrounds around here are even more basic/dismal/non-existant than in England. A pair of ropey old toddler swings and a tiny slide is usually your lot. Or just nothing, an empty field with rusty old goal posts which is taken by dog-folk to mean its now a dog toilet.

There's recycling machines in supermarkets where you can put aluminium cans in, plastic bottles in and you get a ticket out that you can spend in that shop.

On a long driving holiday, we collected a lot of coke cans and drink bottles that we happily recycled.

I just wish we had French style hypernarkets here. It's one of the joys of our holidays.

From what I understand, it's definitely a cultural thing in Japan

I'm reading as a non UK person. God the UK sounds like a very depressing place to live at the moment. But I'm sure it's not all like that. I love your heritage, the cathedrals, the preservation of historic areas, towns and villages, the National Trust, the long walks along the coast that are waymarked, lots of things. However I must admit that some parts of the big cities are awful. Just like many other dodgy areas around cities all over the world I suppose.

I wonder if Brexit has isolated Britain and to some extent NI also. The EU may not be perfect by any means but it seems to have a common goal regarding roads, infrastructure, public transport, facilities, recycling, eco initiatives and so on. I dunno, but it seems that way to me!

There's loads of great things in the UK.

But that doesn't mean we can't look abroad and see what good things they do there.

Just as I am sure people in other countries would be able to do a list of things in other countries that they would like in their country.

Except France. Because France probably thinks it's perfect

One thing I like about eating out in Europe is that waiting staff are generally a bit older and know what they’re talking about. They treat it like a proper job. Here, unless you’re paying through the nose, you end up with a bored 17 year-old who knows they’re supposed to ask if everything was alright with your meal, but a) doesn’t give a stuff either way and b) wouldn’t have the first clue what to do if it wasn’t.

Those ‘well-off people’ aren’t your Head of State by virtue of a magic bloodline, though.

I’m also not from the UK, though I spent over 20 years living in England. What I wish to borrow from England is your network of field paths and rights of way. And the Courtauld.

Right to roam

In Norway, they have a very relaxed attitude towards where you can walk and camp.

https://www.visitnorway.com/plan-your-trip/travel-tips-a-z/right-of-access/

Those ‘well-off people’ aren’t your Head of State by virtue of a magic bloodline, though.

Sure, but the royal family have houses and works of art, jewellery etc which they inherited and belong to them as opposed to the state. SwanofthoseThings said they should only be allowed one house per couple and a small income so presumably she would wish everything else they owned to be confiscated.

I wondered if she thought other families who have inherited large amounts of money, property and art should be treated the same.

a taxi driver comes round with a bottle of champagne and pizza or whatever you want and it doesn't cost much.

Where I live I've seen adverts for "the weed drop-off" too..... 😅

(It's legal here).

In Ireland, virtually every cafe we went to had a jug of milk on the table, not a thimble size jug, a proper jug. They also seemed to serve tea in huge teapots, so with the milk, 2 or 3 cups worth.

The sun!

Well, I say to the sword with the lot of them, personally.

Lakes and forests that belong to „everyone”. My parents live in a small town in Poland with a lake that everyone can swim in any time and for free, no policing or hundreds of rules. Same with forests if you see one it means you can go in and explore, forage as much as you want.

Tree cover and forests in general, UK tree cover is one of the lowest in Europe I think…

Same in Sweden. Allemansrätten.

And rivers too.

If I could borrow anything from the UK, it would be proper salt&vinegar crisps (McCoy’s) and M&S Food hall. All the ready made fresh food that looks so nice, when you couldn’t be bothered to cook from scratch.

Oh and also Wispa chocolate.

Well, I say to the sword with the lot of them, personally.

@TheGreatFlim there are plenty examples of royal families being murdered over the past few centuries so your wish is not an impossibility.
Would you kill the children first, in front of their parents, or the parents first with the children looking on?

Isn't right to roam (bar few logical exceptions) across Europe?
The difference did baffle me in UK at first...