What do you dislike about your country's culture?

[WomenHour]

I would say the binge drinking culture of the UK

Ireland - just the general lack of caring about the place. The streets are filthy with dog shit, spit, litter, people dump bags of rubbish everywhere, houses are left to rot

In Scotland seemingly no one , particularly on the council, seems to be aware of the invention of power hoses. Those new dangled water things you squirt at paving/ roads/ walls and they wash away grime, fag ends, dog poo, pigeon poo, small bits of paper, plastic bags/ dried on sick, dried wee, etc etc etc. Just ONE of those used in the town centre would transform it.
I lived in the US and public places were pristine! Here they're grubby and who wants to visit that!

I’d love to know where all these bad horrible British people are. Are they on the news? Daily mail? Facebook? Your neighbours? Is it the people on here nodding in agreement?

The area I live in is actually well kept. No litter. If you drive in to the inner city then it can get bad.

When we travel abroad we eat the local foods. It’s a big part of our holiday.

Drinking culture has really calmed down. I was in my friends bar/pub on Saturday and there was a few new babies in there. Very child friendly, great chilled atmosphere.

What I hate about U.K. ‘culture’ is - is the need for people to constantly hate the very people they live amongst. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced it any where else. It’s truly unique.

The U.K. isn’t a bad place.

I am Italian and I'd say:

• racism and intolerance of anyone/anything different
• the constant bragging and arrogance (Italian food is the best in the world, Italy is the most beautiful place in the world, Italians are the cleanest people, Italian fashion is top etc etc)
• sexism so deeply engraved it's still the norm

I think some of the comments I read here are too harsh. As a foreign person who's been living here for almost two decades I tend to agree on the drink binging culture problem and the class system, but I strongly disagree with the UK not being children friendly! Literally every restaurant has a children menu and a changing station. And generally speaking parents are mindful of not letting children run free and bother other people or waiters.
In Italy it's the exact opposite. It's rare to find children menu in any restaurants (admittedly I don't go to restaurants for tourists in very popular destinations, so maybe tourists have a different perception than locals). The best you can ask is to ask if off the menu the cook would prepare pasta with tomato sauce or a pizza (full size). Some restaurants don't even have a high chair. NEVER seen a changing station. If asked the staff would find you a quiet place/private room where to change your baby.
And it's normal to let children go around the restaurant causing chaos.
Sorry, I hate it!

The fawning over the BBC.

Drinking culture and the obesity rates. Just a lack of self care and self respect.

That people are more concerned about who to vote for on reality shows than who to vote for in a GE.

The vandalism and litter.

The lack of respect for the elderly.

The culture that kids rule.

My tops ones are:

• Booze culture
• Lax attitudes in some areas to becoming a parent outside of a stable relationship and without means to support their burgeoning families because they'll get a council house and someone else will pick up the tab - perhaps less these days with council housing being less available.
• People thinking that screaming at your child, whacking their legs and searing at young children constitutes parenting.
• Inverted snobbery about school and those who want to learn and achieve in life
• The recently inability to accept other people's opinions are valid, even if you don't agree with them, without branding them gammon, fascist, I'll educated, snowflake, communist etc.
• The stereotypical Brits abroad, complete with fag hanging out of mouths, wife beater vests and bulldog tats

England: Exceptionalism, xenophobia, WWII obsession, Land of Hope and Glory, The Daily Mail, Brexiteers.

I live in the uk, just outside a village. Littering has got a whole lot worse, as has mindless vandalism. I just don't understand it.

Where I live it's lovely and everyone seems to get on fine.

I'm not English but this seems a bit extreme. England: Exceptionalism, xenophobia, WWII obsession, Land of Hope and Glory, The Daily Mail, Brexiteers. If you don't like it then leave.

gun laws , drugs , accents, language = america . oh and trump

If you don't like it then leave.

What that poster listed as dislikes is hardly controversial. I didn't like it and I left. And you know what, I still don't like it.

*I'm not English but this seems a bit extreme. ‘England: Exceptionalism, xenophobia, WWII obsession, Land of Hope and Glory, The Daily Mail, Brexiteers.‘ If you don't like it then leave.

‘If you don't like it then leave‘ is a perfect example of the kind of arrogant, Daily Mail attitude that pisses me off.

‘If you don't like it then leave‘ is a perfect example of the kind of arrogant, Daily Mail attitude that pisses me off. You might meet this attitude on MN or on social media but do people really come up against all this awfulness in daily life. Honestly?

Yes. My mother and sister.

Yes. My mother and sister. But what do they actually say?

Keeping up with the Joneses. Streets where the houses all have matching block paved drives, solar panels etc.

It's resin bound aggregate driveways now - keep up!😂

I disagree with my DH. and DSs on lots of things. We argue and then forget about it

Bullying in England. I've lived in 4 European countries and attended or worked in schools and nowhere was the building as hideous as here.

Not taken with football and all that goes with it in England.

Other than that there's many good things.

You might meet this attitude on MN or on social media but do people really come up against all this awfulness in daily life. Honestly?

Yes. I had lived in various parts of England since just after Blair's Labour government came to power in the mid-1990s. I left in late 2019 after a final stint in an East Midlands village . I hardly recognised the country any more.

Scotland.

Sectarianism
Alcohol abuse
Obesity crisis
Domestic violence
Rape culture

If you don't like it then leave

Perfect example of what I had in mind, thank you.

Perfect example of what I had in mind, thank you. But it's all cliches. How does it affect your daily life when someone approves of Land of Hope and Glory? It is very English but do you condemn La Marseillaise?
We Scots are allowed to be patriotic and sentimental about our country but English people are not.

Daily Mail readers: If you don’t like it then leave.

Except that Daily Mail readers make an exception for those from downtown Damascus, in which case you're meant to brave the bombs and stay in the rubble in order to build a new city literally from the ground up.