To panic about the dire state of the UK?

[moveblues]

So... all things considered... aren't we up sh-t creek?
-gas and electricity prices
-covid (masks? Pfft completed Covid mate (in England))
-council tax hikes
-inflation
-food shortages
-Brexit
-petrol

Sounds like something out of a dystopian nightmare. I'm worried dear reader, and 'keep calm and carry on' doesn't help.

@Pumperthepumper. No.

@Pumperthepumper

Why would I want to own a car? Awful things. They're part of the problem. Best off without them, that way I avoid the stress of queuing behind 100 idiots at the petrol pumps

Oh, because earlier you said you couldn’t afford one - despite working a 70-hour week.

I’m glad you’re happy with your lot. If you were one of my kids, I’d be fucking appalled that this is all you think you’re worth.

I could afford to run a car if I really felt it important to have one. It would just be at the expense of something else (probably slowing down the house renovation). I don't measure my quality of life in brake horsepower though. Losing sources of stress like "will it get through its MOT this time?" are far more valuable to my wellbeing, not to mention that never having to look for a parking space (or a petrol pump) for my bicycle feels emancipating.

Frankly the idea of spending my holiday in a five star hotel would be "meh", even if I could afford it. Getting on a train with a tent is much more fun.

I might have worked 70 hour weeks once (in a few different jobs actually) but it was time well spent. It got me to appreciate life more, to realise what was important. It also got me the experience and a reference to improve my lot. If I had instead gone through uni and straight into the city as another corporate drone, I might have been richer but I'd also have been poorer, in a way which matters far more.

Still, if your dream for your kids is 9-5 monotony, you do you.

[quote Hdhdjejdj]@Pumperthepumper. No.[/quote]
Really? That’s a pretty massive gap in your history knowledge then, that’s mad.

@DdraigGoch

Still, if your dream for your kids is 9-5 monotony, you do you.

Yes, it absolutely is. The idea of my kids working a seventy hour week and still not getting anywhere near what they need to live is a horrible thought. I don’t think it comes from a university education though, I think it comes from being someone who thinks working endless hours is some kind of test of pride or something? Even though you don’t have anything tangible to show for it, aside from vague feelings of ‘life experience’.

Corporate boredom/disillusion is actually why I became a driver. Now I'm a manager in a construction/aggregates company and much prefer it to office work.

It's fine if you're a fairly middle of the road person, but if you value individuality then office work is shit IMO. Can't have a nose piercing in case it offends some miserable old fart etc. Have to be very careful what you say etc. Not for me.

@Plumtree391

Overthehillsandfaraway; I'm with you on that; although not all of us 'Englishers' are like that of course, there are a significant number who fit the description.

I thought Blair was very good up until the war. There's no doubt the NHS and care at home improved dramatically very soon after he was elected.

I'm old enough to remember Harold Wilson and he was excellent in my opinion.

All I remember is that he kept raising interests rates so things didn't get better

@Pumperthepumper I don’t have a gap in my knowledge because I am an avid reader.

@Overthehillandfartaway

English peoples attitudes of entitlement, arrogance, ignorance, selfishness and general bigotry are coming home to roost .

Us English are taught that the British Empire was marvelous, and that we won two World Wars because we are so much better than everyone else.

Well guess what, we aren't.

The British Empire was responsible for worldwide genocide and pillaging of treasures and wealth.

'We' didn't win any wars. We were part of an allied force . In WW2 we would have had our backsides handed to us by the Germans if it wasn't for the Russians and many other countries.

But still, we think we are so much better than anyone else that we can leave a trading block and all the benefits rhat brought to our shores.

Now we are the laughing stock of the world, and still people fawn over lying, cheating, bigoted corrupt scumbags like Boris Johnson and his equally vile mates.

I'm encouraging my daughter , at a very early age , to be excited by languages and take any opportunity she can to learn them, so when she's an adult she can leave this pathetic, embarrassing country and live somewhere with humanity, morality and opportunity.

I don't remember that either, plus trying to pass exams and be a teenager which caused enough angst.

Yes, where are these utopias you describe? Pray tell

[quote Stasiland]@DdraigGoch come up here to one of those small towns just outside manchester. Many many shops shut, countless poor homeless folk congregating in the centre, begging at every traffic light, shabby buildings, ground down people and a menacing atmosphere that is frightening off visitors who just want to spend their money. What is a joke is that we now have 2 out of 3 tory mps who've done nothing.
Funnily enough we visited a lovely market town in north Yorkshire today (Sunaks constituency). Well cared for buildings, affluent looking visitors, hardly any empty shop fronts, lots of nic nac shops/cafes, it could be in a different country and if you never left you 'd think tory britain was flourishing everywhere. So I suppose I can understand why year in year out the tories win.[/quote]
And you're saying that there are no comparable towns in France/Germany/USA/Aus?

I stayed in a Polish town with a thriving tourist trade, it had left communism behind. I also accidentally got off a train at one where it hadn't found similar success. Middle class Brits pose in front of the Eiffel Tower, thinking how much smarter it is than Brixton, ignoring the banlieue down the river.

My point is that there is no utopia. There are a few countries which may be dystopia (though many have their upsides), there are good parts and bad parts all over each country. The grass is rarely greener. So instead of this reverse exceptionalism where Mumsnet bangs on about how grim life is in the UK and how other European countries can do no wrong, let's spend less time whining about what we haven't got, and spend it enjoying what we have.

[quote Hdhdjejdj]@Pumperthepumper I don’t have a gap in my knowledge because I am an avid reader.[/quote]
So you have learned about the Empire?

My point is that there is no utopia. There are a few countries which may be dystopia (though many have their upsides), there are good parts and bad parts all over each country. The grass is rarely greener. So instead of this reverse exceptionalism where Mumsnet bangs on about how grim life is in the UK and how other European countries can do no wrong, let's spend less time whining about what we haven't got, and spend it enjoying what we have.

Yes well said

@Pumperthepumper The point was we didn’t learn about the Empire at my school. Keep up.

[quote Hdhdjejdj]@Pumperthepumper The point was we didn’t learn about the Empire at my school. Keep up.[/quote]
Yes, but that’s a pretty massive gap in your education. You learned from being an avid reader, luckily! Although bizarre you didn’t read about how successful it was. What about the other people at your school who weren’t such avid readers? Pretty massive gap in their British history, no? Keep up.

Dear me. Did you attend a comprehensive school in the north west of England in the 1980s? Believe me, the Empire wasn’t something we learned about at mine.

@Hdhdjejdj

Dear me. Did you attend a comprehensive school in the north west of England in the 1980s? Believe me, the Empire wasn’t something we learned about at mine.

I didn’t, no. But the British Empire is such a massive part of British history, I don’t think bragging about not learning about it at school is quite the gotcha you think it is.

I learnt about the empire at my state comprehensive in the 1980s. They taught us how shit it was and how much damage we had done around the world.

I am not bragging you fool. 40 years on I am still pretty angry how shit my education was.

@Hdhdjejdj

I am not bragging you fool. 40 years on I am still pretty angry how shit my education was.

You should be. It sounds shit.

@Eealoty

To anyone thinking other countries have it worse in Europe. There are indeed deeper issues at hand here in the UK. It's a rotten mentality we have. Have you visited an Eastern European country in recent years (I'm not even talking about Nordic). Romania, Poland? It was beautiful. Well kept little towns on cobbled streets with civilised restaurants.. filled with locals. No drunks falling around everywhere. NO homeless. No crass behaviour around. That was my experience of a visit - off the beaten track - in an "eastern bloc" country. However, . .. Keep believing the British exceptionalism is real. It's what everyone goes back to when the media leaves out any other narrative.

What are you on?

I was in Poland for a month just before the pandemic hit and it most certainly was NOT joyous cobbled streets of people in national dress skipping about eating local bread.

I was in a small town about half an hour from Auschwitz. It was achingly poor, and the resources were sparse. I was working in conjunction with an art gallery (woefully underfunded) and we did workshops for children from a local orphanage and also for elderly people at a drop in centre. The people we worked with were eye opening.

Architecture was crumbling, the town has had no civic investment since the war. We spoke to some of the gallery staff when we were there and mentioned that we were surprised we had noticed a lack of anyone visibly disabled. We'd been there nearly the full month by that point and not seen anyone in a wheelchair or using any kind of mobility aid. We were told that that's because people can't afford that sort of equipment and disabled people would either be housebound, in a long term hospital or they would die due to not getting the care they needed.

That's before we even start on the atrocious women's rights that the country has.

I've no idea which cosy package weekend away you went on that your takeaway is that Eastern European countries have been painted in a bad light by our media, but you are catastrophically wrong.

@HeronLanyon

Oh Eealoty that sounds like a fantasy right now !

That's because it is!

Too right I am. It was a pit town, the children of which were not the Tory Goverment’s priority when it came to education. They were too busy crushing the unions. The brutal fact is that still remains the case today. Some of us managed to defy the odds and succeed.

daisy without seeming to recant (!) I do think I meant it both ways.

That was to @Pumperthepumper who seems to have a huge gap in their knowledge when it comes to UK social history.

One of my good friends is from
Czech and she said they are all raised to be incredibly racist including herself. You will not see one black person. She moved here 16 years ago and has obviously integrated into society and is no longer prejudice but she was quite clear that Eastern European countries are NOT tolerant.

@HeronLanyon

daisy without seeming to recant (!) I do think I meant it both ways.

Haha yes, I agree. The picture the poster painted was indeed lovely, but unfortunately not realistic!