Tell me the bad things about living in the UK

[alwayscrashinginthesamecar1]

In the interests of equality, as we have had other threads for other countries, I thought I'd start this thread.

I'll start it off with

Bloody awful weather
Obsessed with class
Racist and in some places sectarian too
Filthy cities.

@TomPinch Having lived half my life in the UK and half in NZ, the thing I really don't miss about the UK is the moaning and lack of can-do.

This is so true and, as someone who has spent most of my life here it is what irritates me most. The media are totally negative about everything, ever since Brexit the left wing are totally negative about everything and everybody else is scared to express any thought on anything so nothing gets looked at with any positivity

@BetteDavisWeLuvU the tube is good compared to Paris and lots of other places but the best underground transport in the world is in Moscow imo.

Hilarious house prices (think of a reasonable amount and add multiple 000000’s)

Weird Stockholm Syndrome love for the Tories

The suburbs are cultural vacuums

Oh I know someone who was charged with racially aggravated hate crime.
All he did was say to this woman 'fuck off you English bitch' when she had disturbed his rugby watching for the third time.....Yes it was a Wales England match...

My heart bleeds for him.

@Destroyedpeople

Oh I know someone who was charged with racially aggravated hate crime. All he did was say to this woman 'fuck off you English bitch' when she had disturbed his rugby watching for the third time.....Yes it was a Wales England match...

Oh no, horrible man commits a crime and gets charged for it, how awful, poor little poppet.

SinisterBumFacedCat

House prices are not crazy everywhere.
Mostly only in the SE and London. In many areas of the UK a family home is affordable.

Yes, house prices nuts. Unless you want to live in Hull.

The separated hot/cold taps. Please UK, get mixing ones like the rest of developed countries.

Spiders, albeit not lethal, the UK is full of those little critters of hell.

Carpets. CARPETS EVERYWHERE. A nightmare for those with allergies.

For UK people there are only 3 countries in the world, UK, USA and Oz. The rest are holiday resorts. So when people talk about the NHS it is the best healthcare system in the world. Like there are only the UK and USA systems.

@AmeliaE. Are you living in some really bad rental in the uk? Not had separate taps for 20 years and most living areas have laminate flooring.

We live in a 1800s cottage and even we have mixer taps (and wooden floors).

@AmeliaE sounds more like you just live in a property that needs updating

Most people I know have wooden floors at least downstairs and mixer taps

I've lived in the West and SE. Most properties I lived in and seen have carpets and separated taps (except in kitchen areas).

I hate mixer taps and love carpet

@AmeliaE

I've lived in the West and SE. Most properties I lived in and seen have carpets and separated taps (except in kitchen areas).

The rest of the developed world does not have mixer taps. The UK has mixer taps.

Are you living in some really bad rental in the uk? Not had separate taps for 20 years and most living areas have laminate flooring.
IME most rentals in the UK are really bad.

All he did was say to this woman 'fuck off you English bitch' when she had disturbed his rugby watching for the third time

Oh, well, if all he did was abuse someone who interrupted his watching rugby... Honestly, people like you are why we end up having to make laws about things like this rather than being able to rely on decency.

I’m really surprised at what you both say. I know you can’t say where you lecture but is it Russell Group?

I've worked in universities across the sector, from post 92 former poly to Russell group to research-intensive non-Russell institution. I noticed little difference in the anxiety levels of students in different types of university.

The least anxious, most resilient university students I have known tend to be quite smart but with something in their background that makes their experience broader than their peers. International students, those who lived abroad until secondary, those who speak another language and have spent time in that country, etc. Private school students are little different on average from state school students but it's very variable - academically strong ones are usually less anxious than most, but the opposite is true for academically weaker ones. UK universities are full of highly anxious privately-educated students who thought they were bright until dropped into a university environment that expects independent learning... where they are shocked to find their marks are mediocre. State students more rarely have delusions about their academic ability but are anxious about other things, imposter syndrome at university and family worries being common.

@choli it shouldn’t be like that though. Before we rented out our home(we intend to move back eventually), we had all the guttering cleaned and repaired, all of the double glazing either repaired or replaced, new patio doors and a new front door. In the first 6 months both the dishwasher and washing machine became faulty and we replaced them within a week. We choose to treat our tenants how we would like to be treated ourselves and our tenants absolutely love our home.

@MarshaBradyo- I'm at a fairly high-ranking university metrics-wise (REF and TEF), but not Russell Group. I've worked in the post-92 sector as well.

In any of these environments - and perhaps this is an issue specifically relating to the discipline in which I teach - I've had to spend the first year trying to unpick the damage done in the post-16 sector. A' Levels are taught in such a way as to bludgeon the subject to death, which is doubtless the result of the 'teach-to-test' strategy adopted throughout the school system. I also have to drill them in the basics, such as how to write a grammatically-correct sentence.

The point of higher education is supposed to be that it builds on something!

Sorry - PRE-16 sector.

Racism is talked about as if it's a white against minority group issue but I would think recorded incidents could easily be between minority groups, they are probably more likely to clash over religion for example than would the mostly non-religious long term U.K. residents.

EdwinaMay

As a minority group I completely disagree with you.
It is white against minority group, issue.
Minority groups tend to know what it's like to suffer racism, in all its forms, across all groups.

@EdwinaMay it is a white against minority issue, that's why. White people are guiltier of more racism as a demographic than other racial groups and due to extensive white privelege and power their racism has very damaging effects to its victims.

@Devlesko is quite correct in what she says, also.