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.

Just kidding.

We need to pay more taxes ( but we won't vote for that) , use less, abandon the doctrine of growth , waste less, drink less. We also need to accept that we cant all live in the south east.

AND

Too many homeless people are now here from other countries, poorer eastern european countries. We cant do anything about that. We had systems set up to cope with the homeless, small charities - not enough but something. Unfortunately there is only so much any country can do when many people want to come here to beg, live, work on a shoe string. Mix this into the homeless we already have then we have a much bigger issue.

People did not expect as much in the 50s & 60s - there was still that attitude of make do and mend & people did not expect the state to bail you out of trouble, you were expected to stand on your own two feet and sort your own problems & go without if you had to in order to keep a roof over your head. If you really could not the State would step in but not to the extent it does these days. Today's expectations are much higher.

The problem is really that the population is too high in this country and much of the rest of the world, sort that & you sort a lot of the problems, but that will take a willingness not to procreate at the current level and time for that to take effect.

Many a true word is spoken in jest, make

Seriously? The 1950s? It was illegal for someone like me (unmarried) to be prescribed contraception back then. The chances of me getting to university would have been slim to none. The opportunity for me to have an amazing career (I do) and to own my own house alone would have been conspicuous by its absence. And .....my health may well have been compromised due to the lack of amazing treatments now available.

But hey, yeah it's a shambles, isn't it? Let's go back to the 1950s right now

We also need to accept that we cant all live in the south east

Some us us really don't want to

I do think we are more fortunate than many countries, and I actually love the UK, I think it's a beautiful place to live and has an amazing history and culture, I wouldn't feel happy anywhere else - but when certain things have been at a certain standard and then they start to slip then it is frustrating and disappointing. What I mean by that is, for example, a town having a library for years and suddenly not having one anymore because of budget cuts. Or police officers having to work an extra ten years in order to receive the exact same amount of pension that they were going to get anyway (the government changed the law so that they could make this change to people's pension contracts without their agreement or consent btw).

To the posters who say when they come back to visit the UK, they are shocked at how it has become, can I ask out of curiosity, where do you now live and what is it about these countries that make them better than the UK?

I was born in the 1960s and certainly feel that my teenage kids have a less rosy outlook than I had at their age. When I left uni in the early 80s jobs were pretty easy to find, rent was affordable, buying a home was achievable in your early 20's. All of that is worse today. Not sure about the '50's, it was before my time. Things are definitely better for women than they were then, but I agree that now is a particularly depressing time for people who have never had to live through anything particularly stressful before, like a world war or an epidemic. Social mobility is much worse than it was in the 1980s, in my experience.

Oh please! You’ve got to be joking about things being better in the 50s. My dad is now in his 80s and grew up in poverty in the East End of London. Poverty that, thank God, we will never understand. One egg a week for your rations - yes that was a reality. Only being allowed to take out a certain amount from the bank because of recession.

If you don’t like this Country OP you have the option of pissing off!

Yup. We are a small pathetic island with a ridiculous overinflated sense of importance.

Move to the massive nation called the USA which has an even bigger sense of over inflated importance, populated by religious zealots and most personal bankruptcies are caused by medical bills.

doctor's appointments are near on impossible to get

Depends where you live. I dont have a problem getting one.

Good old immigrants eh

We are here, stealing your jobs, but simultaneously we are on benefits, begging in the streets, while at the same time nicking your kids’ school place while flying in after tricking the NHS into giving us free IVF then having our babies here

One good upshot of brexit will be a drastic fall in the number of us coming here - I wonder who you’ll blame for the fact that things are still not fabulous?

If it’s so bad here OP, the doors over there —>

I had my DD in the 80s. Her so called father beat me black and blue, and raped me often, the police dismissed it as “a domestic” and refused to get involved. When I managed to leave I struggled to get any benefits as he was claiming for both of us, and I was told more than once to go back to him. Many times I was without food, food banks were rare back then, so I’d go down the market after they’d all packed up and pick up the fruit and veg that had fallen onto the floor during the day.

The entitled moaning about how terrible life is here from some people makes my blood boil sometimes. The very same people who will no doubt be screaming about our privilege and how we should fling the doors open to all.

We are so very fortunate to have been born in the uk, and living in a time when things such as food banks exist. In an ideal world they wouldn’t. But we don’t live in an ideal world, and there are very many places around the world where if you can’t afford food, we’ll that’s just tough.

The NHS isn't free.

It's paid for by your taxes.

Yes OP YABU.

I've lived, albeit for relatively short periods of time, in several countries (Australia, Canada and Germany) around the world and the UK is the best place I have ever lived.
Honestly, go and spend a few years somewhere else and you will see it for yourself.
The UK has lots of problems but they're nothing like some of the issues people face everyday elsewhere. I'm sure I read somewhere that 60% of all migrants from the UK actually return to the UK after a few years.

'The grass is greener but it still needs mowing'.

If we had the internet and easy access to rolling news at any other time in history it would of seemed shit as well.

The internet has made opinions news and rumour fact.

@Ilovecamping you are talking rubbish, I’ve lived in Australia for years now and the healthcare service is 100 times better- and it’s totally free if you need it to be, do your research properly!

I don’t think Britain is a shambles. It’s got its fair share of problems but I honestly can’t think of another country I’d prefer to live in when everything is taken into consideration.
DS saw an NHS physiotherapist yesterday who gave us some orthotic insoles; I Googled them and they are £25 (I’ve bought two more sets for him). We only had to wait a month for an appointment. DM receives amazing care in a nursing home after a terrible stroke rendered her permanently disabled. On the other hand I have dreadful varicose veins which there’s no way the NHS will remove anymore. I’ll have to pay several thousand when they become unbearable. I’d much rather DM had her care than smooth legs, though.

I'm one of the people shocked by the state of my home city.
Cardiff born and raised;
Lived in Brisbane up until recently now live in a small town in central qld.
In Cardiff I can count on one hand the hostels I know of (it used to be my area of expertise, so I know all of them. Unless ones sprung up in the last 2-3 yrs) much less those with space. Homelessness has risen by over 80% in Cardiff in the last 2yrs.

I was tripping over a young lad in a sleeping bag just trying to get out of the station side door by the taxi rank. Coming out of Cardiff central train station and walking to Westgate street to get the bus (not far if anyone fancies googling) i saw easily 50-60 homeless people. I didn't stop to count exactly but there were 7 down the side of the londis near the station, several sitting on the car park walls and around 10 more around the station itself. There were various other little huddles, too. I spotted a few asleep in the bus stops on Westgate street.

Comparatively I've only seen 2 rough sleepers in and around Brisbane; that's not to say that they don't exist but it's so exact because it's so uncommon to me. I've never seen any where I live now (in the Gladstone region). I know homelessness is still a problem here, but there is a lot more support and the waiting time for a room, hostel or housing is competitively less than in the UK (well, Cardiff, where I'm from). No rose tinted specs here.

Brisbane and qld as a whole has problems (not to mention the fairly recent cyclone which decimated homes, businesses and crops across qld) that the uk doesn't have.

But my conscience can deal with a cyclone a lot more than seeing a fellow human being reduced to a bundle of rags in a bus stop.

To the posters who say when they come back to visit the UK, they are shocked at how it has become, can I ask out of curiosity, where do you now live and what is it about these countries that make them better than the UK?

^

Brit living abroad in Canada.

Healthcare is better. Subsidised nurseries. Cost of living far, far less. People in general are less aggressive and confrontational. Alcoholism isn't a huge problem - I wouldn't be scared to walk through town at night. It's safer - less crime.

Whenever I come back to the UK it seems scruffy and unkempt, lots of homeless.

My brother pays £250 a week for nursery fees. Mind-blowing.

Haven't experienced the NHS recently, just heard about it on here.

Madge - you must be one of those schrodinger's immigrants. Simultaneously taking our jobs and our unemployment benefits!!

(Wish I were clever enough to have thought of this myself!)

FWIW lived in Australia too and it was great - generous working conditions, great health care, good work life balance.

As a British citizen I have the same healthcare entitlements as my other half (an Australian resident) due to the Brit-Aus reciprocal healthcare agreement

I don't pay for any medically necessary care (the exception being dentistry) so long as I go to a bulk billing doctor (easy to do, I was in close proximity to several in Brisbane now have the choice of 2) appointments same day and can be booked online (not sure if they can be here haven't needed one yet) no registration necessary.

I had a horrific abscess underneath my arm - it had to be drained twice, I was at the doctors several times in agony with it. The only charge was $10 for 2 courses of cefalexin (sp?) at the local chemist. I was terrified I'd misunderstood and would be charged anyway!
I admit dentistry is a v different ballgame with regards to Medicare given that I've never needed dental care here I cannot comment on that

I love this country. Yeah there are problems but point me to a country that doesn't have any.

My friend moved to Oz as 'this country is going to shit'. She's paying for private schooling now as the local schools were terrible. She pays a fortune for dental and medical care.

I on the other hand live in the North East. It's beautiful.

Last week I needed to go to minor injuries. I was seen in 25 minutes and given great care. Is the NHS perfect? No. Is any other health service perfect? No!

I'm a teacher so see a lot of issues 2nd hand. Could the education system improve? Yeah of course it could but we're battling children living through technology and many parents who don't see the importance of education. We're also battling massive budget cuts and a terrible curriculum. It's certainly not the worst education system out there though.

I love this country. The other day I went out to grit my street. My neighbour came straight out to help. Things here are still positive (but you have to let yourself see it).

the posters who say when they come back to visit the UK, they are shocked at how it has become, can I ask out of curiosity, where do you now live and what is it about these countries that make them better than the UK?

Twoweekcruise I live in Nothern Maine USA, I have been here 4 years. For startes there are far far less people here so we have a lot more space. We have fount the cost of living to be about 15% less. Plus a 20% pay rise for the same jobs.

The house we own is bigger than anything that we could have ever dreamed of owning in the UK.

Also I have found everyone here to be very friendly and accepting.

It is true that you don’t have the same social safety nets and government hand holding that you did in the UK. But it’s easy to thrive over here. I started my own business last year for instance.

Healthcare I have found is not as bad as MN have everyone to believe.