To think the UK is losing a lot of soft power?

[alloutoffucks]

The UK has always had a certain reputation in many countries abroad of being competent and organised. That reputation translates into soft power. It beings increased respect for British businesses and business people, and helps foster trust.
Of course it does not mean that every British business person or business is respected or trusted. But the assumption that Britain in general is competent and organised does affect people's assumptions and views of British business.
I think that is eroding fast. Every friend and family member abroad I have spoken to has see that video of the nurse crying and I have been asked a few times why our supermarkets are empty of food (I know they are not, but that is the impression some of they now have). They ask me why British people are not co-operating when in their own country there is no evidence of stockpiling and the only shortage is hand sanitiser. They ask me why we don't have enough PPE for medics.
Some of these questions are by people who pay attention to the news, but everyone has seen the video of the nurse crying.
So AIBU to think Britain is losing a lot of soft power and that this will have an impact on British businesses abroad.

The UK is handling this badly, denial from the top, herd immunity fiasco, lack of ppe, ending community testing instead of ramping it up.

Then the daily stories of ambulances refusing to take people to hospital and hospitals still not testing people, yet that is the only way you can get tested. People are dying and bame are dying in even higher nos which reflects what actually normally happens with despite a lot of bame working in the NHS, they are still turned away and denied effective treatment at a earlier stage.

The lack of ethnicity on death certificates has been a reported ongoing thing since the 70s but the government have refused to change the policy. It will highlight too much death due to improper NHS care, deaths in custody and in prisons etc. They do not want these things highlighted.

Whereas Scotland bought in a new policy in 2012 of adding ethnicity to death certificates. No way the tory government would allow this in England and Wales.

The UK corona virus fiasco is up there with the US mishandling, the Chinese cover up and the countries like Belarus, Brazil and Turkmenistan denying the crisis and refusing to do anything at all. They are all cupable in the deaths of their citizens.

To the person who said no country has handled this well, what bullshit, Africa and the Caribbean locked down when there nos were in single digits. Why? to be better able to deal with it as they know that their health systems are poorer due to lack of funds etc (which coincidently goes back to colonialism.)

New Zealand has dealt with this in a great well, as has South Korea, Hong Kong, Germany, the Netherlands, most scandi countries ( most as we have to wait and see if Swedens policy was a good choice), lots of Latin American countries has been proactive and Ireland swung into action weeks before the UK had even bothered to do anything. Singapore was great but forgot their overcrowded housing for the migrant workers but they acted when the testing revealed this.

Even poor old Cuba with sanctions that the US won't reduce even for corona virus has done better. They even still managed to send drs to help other countries and they allowed a stricken cruise ship to dock weeks ago and repatriated people included Britons when the US turned them away.

Testing can't reveal anything in the UK as we simply did not do any at first and even now they are trying to increase testing, its too little too late.

And no not every country has a shortage of ppe as some made more in jan and Feb and march and were proactive before corona virus had even come to their country.

Lots of countries can come out of this saying they tried their best with what resources they had.
The UK will not be one of them. (neither will the US but that's a whole other story.)

Handful - exactly. You can drag our old queen out as often as you like, in her elaborate stage coach, you can shout slogans like ‘strong and stable’ and ‘mother of all parliaments’ as much as you like. Keep on stating that the UNs reports on poverty and disability are wrong. Makes no difference if your public services are run into the ground, hierarchy is huge and social mobility non existent, and you’re effectively declaring war on your poorer groups.

There are plenty of videos and photos of shortages in other countries too. I saw Australia and Hong Kong long before CV was a mainstream topic in the UK.

Memes can affect how people see a country. You don't say how old your family and friends are but young people form ideas and stereotypes about other countries long before they even visit and SM does form a part. These young people are the next generation of people in power.

If your friends and family watch videos on SM then the algorithms will suggest similar videos for them to watch. So say you watch anti EU videos, you will be directed to more anti EU videos. If their opinions matter to you, strap on a Go Pro and show them what a typical UK supermarket is like today. Perhaps they will rethink where they get their new from.

Underfunding is not a new thing. I remember reading about forces going to Iraq(?) without the proper equipment and the soldiers asking their families or US counterparts to get them basics like boots.

How many friends/family do you have that live abroad? And what countries do they live in? And why do they seem to know so little about britain? Theres is a global shortage of PPE because we are using significantly more than we ever have as is every single

Ive probably got about 5 friends that live abroad that i regularly speak to, all expats. Most of them have been telling me since they moved how wonderful their new country is compared to the UK. Im wondering if theres a bit of that going on?

I have a friend in spain and they werent being all 'why is britain so shit'.

There's a lot of countries with PPE shortages. Japan were asking for donations of raincoats to use as PPE and they aren't a country that I would associate with being disorganised.

Africa and the Caribbean locked down when there nos were in single digits

You mean the African country where the police have killed more people for not adhering to the lockdown than have actually died from the virus

It’s unrecognisable - changed so dramatically

It's true that Britain has become a bit of a laughing stock because of the current wave of populism and Brexit. While all countries are having shortages of PPE ours are pretty bad and we also have a terrible testing record.

Obviously it reflects badly when you compare to countries like Germany

Germany didn't get off to a good start;

"March - A diplomatic spat has erupted between Germany and neighbours Switzerland and Austria over a decision last week by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government to ban most exports of protective medical equipment."

"Switzerland has called in the German ambassador to complain about the decision to block a shipment of 240,000 face masks, while Austria’s economy minister demanded her German counterpart order the release of supplies destined for her country."

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-09/germany-faces-backlash-from-neighbors-over-mask-export-ban

It's true that Britain has become a bit of a laughing stock because of the current wave of populism and Brexit.

Honestly, I think the only people who think this are Remainers and perhaps people in EU countries who are very pro-EU themselves. There is a sizable contingent in other EU countries who think it's great that we've left and aspire to do the same themselves. But they don't get much media interest. Funny that.

Even funnier that those contingents have reduced in size enormously since Brexit started.

@AnnUumellemahaye Don't be daft, we're a populist country and we have Johnson making ridiculous comments about "taking back control". Of course other countries (and Johnson himself) realizes this is all daft. Our currency has been massively devalued, we've lost international sway and we're on a fairly swift downwards trajectory. Nobody with any expertise was in favour of Brexit - the people who are pleased by it are generally not the people who contribute significantly to the economy or country. Not the scientists, medical staff and entrepreneurs. It's middle Englanders who don't understand economics or international law.

The rest of the non EU world certainly do not see us as a laughing stock for Brexit. It barely registers on their radar actually, unless it is of direct benefit to them.

We also can only really compare ourselves to countries that are similar in size and population density. We have a high population and are very population dense, diseases are going to spread faster.

France similar in population and their news reading similar to ours about lack of testing/ppe. Their deaths are similar/a bit higher.

I think britians opinion of britain has always been higher than the rest of the world. Im not sure its going to fall that much

I imagine those from other countries are well aware of what a clusterfuck the UK is (and has been for a while).

Their deaths are similar/a bit higher.

I’m pretty sure they’re not just counting hospital deaths like the UK though.

Nursing home deaths are an enormous part of the total. The UK is under-reporting, perhaps as much as 50%.

So how big is your sample size? 30 people? 200 people?
There are almost 8 billion people in the world, don’t think that is statistically significant.

@Flirtygirl if you are quote someone then quote them correctly.....I didn't say that the US and UK handled it well. I said they did their best and that except for SK the PPE is a global shortage. Guess what? That includes Brazil and the Carribean seeing how most of the Carribean gets their supplies from us and you.

The rest of the non EU world certainly do not see us as a laughing stock for Brexit.

I’m not sure about this. I think where Brexit is seen positively it’s because it disadvantages the UK, as pp have said. Otherwise I think it’s generally seen as an irrational act of national self-harm. I can’t prove this, of course.

Leaving aside the fact that the British Empire wasn't such a jolly jape for those we invaded as it was for us M, we've been losing soft power for a long time. The only people who can't see it are those who don't travel much or pay much attention to news that isn't the BBC/Daily Mail/Sun/Express/Telegraph/Times.

Windrush, Brexit, COVID-19 Stupidus Britannicus (as it's called in our house, since we seem to have an entirely different strain to the rest of the world, at least you'd think so from our behaviour)....I love the UK, I really do. But God, it's become more and more exasperating over the last 20 years or so. (And I'm now too old to emigrate to New Zealand or Canada and I wouldn't even contemplate the USA.)

I agree with the poster who pointed out that Britain's opinion of Britain has always been rather higher than the rest of the world's opinion of Britain. We're just lucky that we happen to speak the world's current lingua franca. It could so easily have gone several other ways in the USA in previous centuries, with either Spanish or French have ended up being the world language of choice...I don't know about anyone else, but I'm seriously looking at learning a bit of Mandarin at the moment. Just as a start.

The rest of the non EU world certainly do not see us as a laughing stock for Brexit.

I think they’re mostly utterly bemused at why anyone would leave the worlds most powerful trading bloc. More shocked than laughing.

Yes I agree that some British people see Britain as more important than it is. I remember on Brexit threads when people were worried about whether medicines would be imported, someone said well other countries won't just let people die here. As if that does not happen all the time in other countries. I mean I am sure some people in other countries would feel a bit sad about it, but they won't see it as their responsibility to come to the rescue.

Is it in the UKs interest to pursuit soft power?

I know there’s PPE shortages everywhere, but this is absolutely shocking and I don’t know if any other country that has put its health workers in this position

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/17/nhs-staff-to-be-asked-to-treat-coronavirus-patients-without-gowns?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other