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.

Someone talked and how the all ex pats they know who moved abroad think Britain is great. I am not sure that would be true as why move abroad if you think Britain is so great

If Britain had the weather and the cost of living was lower do you think these people would have moved

I like where I live but if you said I could swap it for a life in Naples (Florida or Italy) I would in a heartbeat.

Both are a damn site warmer than North London and I could then walk and even run without pain.

yeah most of the east european, french australian, japanese and american people i know all think the uk are nuts- but tbf they are mostly educated, professional critical thinkers, im sure trump-supporters, climate change deniers, peoole who dont follow the news etc feel differently.

I'm in Korea. People here tend to be a bit down on Korea and assume that the west is better in every way.

That perception is definitely changing now.

We're down to 30 cases a day (cases, not deaths) and only lost around 200 people total.

The UK used to be seen as a country that was advanced, strong and intelligent. I really do not think people will think like that after Corona.

Asia is going to be the new superpower.

I’ve spent quite a few years living abroad in ore than one country but always maintained a home in the UK too. I think it gives you a different perspective entirely. The grass is definitely always greener. When you are outside the UK looking in, but you know still know it intimately, you see how it gets many things right but also many things wrong. Likewise the country you spend most of your time in can learn a few things from the UK just as much as it could teach the UK a thing or two. Virtually nowhere gets everything right, not even those much vaunted Scandinavian countries.

brexit will be a normous success as we drop out of our 100s of trade deals and scrabble around desparately for er better ones, and our death rates will be some of the highest in the world!
that'll show em!

A lot of our soft power though is simply geographic (straddling Asia and the US), and our language. Plus we have a reputation for fair laws and political stability that far pre-dates Brexit, back beyond World War 2, the French Revolution, the British Empire etc. The Brexit confusion cast an uncomfortable light on our lack of a written constitution, but the issue is resolved now (sadly for me).

We're a founder member of the European Court of Human Rights, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, we have the only UN Agency outside of New York (UN Maritime Agency), and London is the centre of world finance (alongside NY). We're one of the biggest overseas aid donors, we've educated generations of world leaders (Malala is currently at Oxford Uni doing PPE, Greta Thunberg may well follow) and we've led the world in science and politics for hundreds of years. We're also the second biggest contributor to the world's most powerful military alliance (NATO) and an integral part of the world's biggest intelligence network (the 5i's partnership).

And we've done it all with a population smaller than Texas. If we are losing soft power, we've got a long way to fall.

This country is fucking awesome. I was incredibly upset about Brexit, but I do believe anybody outside looking in would be unwise to write us off. Our reputation was forged over 100's of years, it'll take a long time to lose it.

"A lot of our soft power though is simply geographic (straddling Asia and the US)"

peers at map

OK then - maybe 'straddling' was the wrong word. Seeing as I spend a lot of my time in Pedants' Corner, that's a somewhat embarrassing slip up.

i always think straddling has a sexual connotation.

@Leafyhouse

I think the UK is in a very slow decline overall as a country and I don't think most British people recognise that yet.

This. And I remember reading an article about this last year and the writer quoted Hemingway - "How Did You Go Bankrupt?” “Two Ways. Gradually and Then Suddenly.” I've not been able to get it out of my head and if we crash out of the EU in the midst of this pandemic, which people seem happy to let happen, I think we'll get to the suddenly bit pretty, well, suddenly. Even Starmer doesn't seem to be saying anything about it .

I get that it's inevitable for powerful counties/nations to peak then decline, but to hasten our own demise in the way we have by refusing to accept that the past is just that and hanging on desperately to the coattails of the public school brigade is just mind-boggling.

As if the shit show about PPE, testing and weak leadership encapsulated in the ghastly briefings which tell us nothing other than that our democracy is broken was not enough, we had the chartered plane of Romanian fruit pickers this week! How can anyone think we are not a laughing stock after that? Aside from the issue of safety it's the joke of "Too many immigrants! Take back control!" "Great, come and pick your own fruit then?" "Er, no, I'm busy that day (in lockdown..)." What a fucking embarrassment. Anyone who looks at what's going on here atm and isn't deeply concerned about the future of this country is utterly delusional.

From here, the differences between the various constituent parts of the UK also look like minutiae, and more like the non-English bits ever trying to differentiate themselves.

Unfortunately truer than a lot of us would like.. We're passengers in the car. The car is crashing. England has the steering wheel and despite the 'non-English' bits screaming in its ears that WE'RE ALL GOING TO FUCKING DIE! seems to think it has a god-given right to survive any catastrophic collision it accelerates towards because... well... they're English.

@AnnUumellemahaye I am not English. So probably about 40 people in all. Various countries, Thailand, Brazil, Switzerland, Australia, US, Vietnam, Germany. Most are not living where they were born. It is complicated.
But as I said the issue is not about reality, but perception and I think perception matters.
I agree that Asia is on the rise. I think for our children the UKs heyday is going to be over. It won't be a catastrophe, but we will slowly sink down the list of richest countries. This has already happened as we went from 5th to 6th richest. Life will go on, but I think the slow decline is obvious.

absolutely working for some time abroad gives you a different experience. most people i know who've done that are, like me, aghast at the brexiteers lies and the journey we are on to become a more insular, poorer country.

we had the chartered plane of Romanian fruit pickers this week!
it's the joke of "Too many immigrants! Take back control!"

I can't see a problem with seasonal workers in normal times.

Other countries are flying in seasonal workers this month as well;

"The Air Charter Service, a private firm, has already arranged flights for seasonal workers in other countries. It flew 1,000 farm workers to Germany from Bulgaria and Romania in recent weeks."

Yes, Clav but isn't it a bit ridiculous to want out and then have to call on the very people who are "taking our jobs" to pick our fruit before it rots in the fields?

It's not ridiculous at all - fruit pickers earn low wages - which would have to be topped up by benefits.

we had the chartered plane of Romanian fruit pickers this week!
it's the joke of "Too many immigrants! Take back control!"

Flying people in and out as needed on a contractual basis without them becoming a drain on our schools, hospitals and benefits system would seem like an acceptable solution to a problem if you ask me.

They aren't a drain though are they? As has been shown many many times immigrants are net contributors to our economy. And then there's the huge proportion who work in the NHS, including the two nurses named by Johnson. We are truly fucked without them.

I understand why we are flying in migrants to pick crops, but it does make us look stupid.

If they are net beneficiaries rather then net contributors then yes, financially they cost the state more, all things considered, to have living in the UK than they pay in taxes. With high earners in areas where there is a skills shortage then it's worth it. For unskilled labour it's not.

it does make us look stupid.

only if you don't understand how it works.

But migrants like this do not tend to have kids with them. That is when the net benefits change. Single healthy adults take very little out of the system at all.

@AnnUumellemahaye Have you spoken to the average voter? Most people don't understand how it works. Which is why I said I did understand why this is happening, but most won't. So yes it does make us look stupid.

they don't put much in either, on minumum wage.