AIBU to think this godforsaken country is a shambles?

[Toysintheattic29]

THIS IS WHAT’S ON MY MIND: this country is in shambles. I’ve never seen so many homeless people on the streets; social care services unable to cope with overflowing caseloads; our precious NHS struggling to care for anyone at all (forget it if you have non life-threatening surgical needs or are elderly); train fares continually getting jacked up; rising costs; roads cracking up; broadband speeds laughably slow and the biggest con of all, BREXIT. Even in the austerity of the 1950s things were not as grim as they are now - at least we had a reliable health service and publicly owned transport systems and many members of the public didn’t have to rely on food banks.

Don’t forget education

I would like to stand up for the NHS. I have just returned from hospital where I was treated promptly and efficiently. Follow up scan in 3 days. Could not fault anything about my visit.

I agree it's a shambles. And this Harry Meghan wedding thing about turfing homeless off the streets is just about the last straw. I'm disgusted.

Neoliberalism. This is what we have lived with for almost forty years and letting the Tories in was a big mistake because they take it to a whole new level. This is why Jeremy Corbin was pushed to the front of the Labour Party because New Labour under Tony Blair were neoliberal too, albeit on a smaller scale. The Labour Party right now are the only hope of living in a better society, because as you may have already seen, the Tories don’t give a shit about ordinary people, which is why a working man in the street pays more tax than global corporations. People need to open their eyes and think of the future of their children and grandchildren.

publicly owned transport systems

Oh yes, I remember the awful dirty unreliable trains, where timetables were just a laugh. I remember our local council buses which just ran to the edge of town, meaning you had to get off, walk across the town boundary and board a bus from the next town if you wanted to travel from one to the other. Happy days!! (not).

I haven't read TFT, but things in the UK are wonderful compared to other countries in the world! If it wasn't for the NHS, me and my DTDs would be dead. They saved all of our lives and I didn't have to pay for it. If I was still living in South Africa, then I would not have been able to pay, and all three of us would be dead. There you have to pay a fortune to see a private doctor (avoid state hospitals like the plague), and every bill is itemised, they even charge you if they give you a tissue to blow your nose with.

The cost of living is extremely affordable here compared to there and other countries.

If you really think this country is in a state, go live in a third world country for a year or so. If you can find a job and enough to eat, and survive the year, come back and see if living here is still so bad.

Oh, I forgot to add - in countries like SA, there are literally thousands of people of all races living on the streets and in massive encampments. And there is absolutely no help for them. Here, there is so much help available, if people are willing to accept it. And I work with homeless people, so I'm not just making this up. If they want help, the help is there.

Whatever you might think, half the world seems to want to come here and make their home in this country. Take a look around; read newspapers, talk to immigrants and see what they have run away from. Nowhere is perfect but this country, I really believe, is pretty well as good as it gets and, like everywhere else on the planet, there are big problems. Utopia is yet to be created - and that translates as 'Nowhere'. However, unlike under many regimes across the world, for saying what you think and posting it publicly you won't be dragged out of your bed in the middle of the night and never heard of again!

AIBU to think this godforsaken country is a shambles?

You clearly haven't travelled much, if you think this country is godforsaken.

There are plenty of places on this earth that could truly be described as godforsaken but the UK sure as hell ain't one of them.

YANBU. We can look at how our country stacks up to others and yeah we do have it better than a lot of places, but our living standards are slipping and to be fair is probably a lot to do with the recession we have had. I don’t think you were being unfair about the NHS and social services as many of my friends who work in these say exactly the same thing. Worse still is the lack of investment in our particular area for MH services are so poor that I’ve friends that are setting up charities to treat people as it’s more than six months wait (I was never even seen), my daughter has her first appointment later this month for a group session for anxiety which has taken nearly 6 months. I’m forever grateful for the NHS, we have a lot to be thankful for but it does feel like it’s being deliberately stretched and so many aspects are being sold off to things like Virgin Care. It is sad. We are Americanising the whole thing slowly. And yeah I’m a dual national (Dad was American) and have lived in both countries so I’ve a good awareness of the healthcare system... and I’d not want the insurance aspect as it’s awful but then they don’t wait to see anyone or for operations but they pay through the nose for it! And those without insurance do die. But they do have higher wages and lower cost of living.

As for the 1950’s thing I doubt we have it worse, but friends who remember it say things are going that way. And, let’s face it, it’s all relative. We were told standards would drop due to the recession and the following years. We were told they’d drop following BREXIT. I think eventually things will improve though but things will likely change first.

@Shell4429 If you think Corbyn's policies are our only hope you are crazy. We've been there, done that. It produces the most inefficient monolithic organisations that end up giving shite service and costing a fortune. Try taking a ride back to 1978; see what Corbyn's policies get you.

• A month to get a phone line installed.
• Closed shops - if you don't join the union you get fired.
• Union interference in all decisions - and strikes endlessly,

By 1979, people were absolutely sick of it - and even the Labour Cabinet had no answer.

Corbyn is good at wearing his twatty little Lenin cap, and spouting shite at meetings in town halls - but the fact is, he has NEVER held a post where he actually has to be able to make his policies happen. It's dead easy to have clear political beliefs, when all you have to do is whine about how the current system is terrible and horrid ain't it? But a huge site harder to make them happen in the real world, just as Trump is finding out.

We have never had it so good in the UK......notwithstanding that life is still hard, buy a helmet and start taking some personal responsibility for things rather than expecting the state i.e. the rest of us to wipe your arse for you.

I think lots of countries are in the same position. Such as Spain but at least they have the sunshine!

YANBU - I would love to move to Canada.

It's not a shambles. Thousands of people see doctors and nurses, attend hospital and GP appointments everyday. Children attend schools. People drive places on roads that are perfectly fine. There are laws that are adhered to. People are given money when they can't work. Some things need done better but overall this country is a good place to live for the majority of people here.

It was worse during Thatcher's reign. Many homeless, many unemployed, NHS in usual crisis, and during the many strikes of the early 80's bodies going unburied and rubbish uncollected.

It is better now though it may not seem it.

Plus, if it's so awful, why are all those people desperate to come here?

Ecclesiastes: apart from moaning I’ve joined More United and the Libdems and am helping with campaigns, signing petitions, no point writing to my Eruro-sceptic MP unfortunately, talking to others. Have you any suggestions then? I am a Remainer but feel powerless to do much more as after all, “it’s the will of the people”

OP has a point that standards have slipped in the last 5 years or so. Other countries having it better or worse doesn't affect that. I've noticed London starting to look as run down and with as many beggars as in the 80s, mostly with UK accents. It's the savage cuts to local councils that are really hurting people - while the Government can say their budgets have been protected, that misses the point that councils have had more and more responsibility dumped on them (or devolved to meet local needs rather than a distant body making decisions, depending on points of view) and don't have the money or resources or expertise to deliver. I'm seeing potholes, fly-tipping, filthy streets and graffiti not being cleaned up just like when I was a teenager. And people struggling to get on the first rung of the work ladder. Even bright graduates on the scheme I was on 16 years ago are now sharing bedrooms in house-shares with no lounge as they can't even afford a room in a nice flat in a reasonable area. Dealing with the DSS/DWP then was depressing but nothing compared to the illegal practices common now (I know lots of disabled people). It's worrying.

US would only be OK if I had an employer to pay for top-notch medical insurance covering loads of pre-existing conditions. My friends on average middle class incomes fret over which meds are most important and fear complications of any surgery, for financial reasons. My family who have not had drinkable water in three years and have almost no health care until they hit 65 are essentially in a third world country, not America.

YANBU

Even in the austerity of the 1950s things were not as grim as they are now - at least we had a reliable health service and publicly owned transport systems and many members of the public didn’t have to rely on food banks.

If you really think this is true then you weren't around in the 1950s. I haven't time to refute this utter bollocks, so I just suggest you read some history and refrain from writing about things from a position of total ignorance.

In the 50s, my mum spent the first year of her life in a house with no running water, no toilet and no electricity. She then lived in a house with an outside toilet shared with next door until she was 16 in the mid 60s. If you think that things were better in the 50s you are completely deluded.

Americans get far superior healthcare to that provided on the NHS

Donald is that you? Cheeky devil

Cote having watched one of my good friends with excellent health insurance spend her dying days filling in forms, writing cheques, and arguing with insurance companies. I take issue with that.

She was one of the lucky few, the elite you could say. Being ill in the US was a very very costly, draining experience.

And she's dead.

DEAR OP
AS YOU POSTED AND RAN,
NOW GO BACK TO THE DAILY HEIL AND WRITE YOUR ARTICLE

I must be living in a different London. It's looking fabulous, especially over Xmas. All our local beggars are forrin, mostly Rumanian.