To think everything is getting worse?

[francesfrankenfurter]

I watched the British Olympics opening ceremony this morning in 2012. It was only 10 years ago, but it seems a different world. It was such a hopeful time with a public mood of feeling proud of our country.

Now everything seems to be getting worse. The economy, cost of living crisis, crime, housing, corruption amongst MPs, poor public services, etc etc. Every day brings more gloom and doom and the public mood seems to be, things can only get worse.

AIBU

“And interestingly a relative is a paediatric nurse at great ormind street. They are not as well funded as they used to be and she says it shows.“

I doubt your nurse relative has much to do with UCL GOSH IoCH though. I’m not talking about the NHS here and government funding. I’m talking about world leading cutting edge medical science research backed by international grants and Big Pharma.

You are clearly determined to choose to be pessimistic though.

I don't know how old you are but you are wrong.

I know for a fact that the staff who prosecute flytippers in the environment agency have had major cuts to their staff numbers. The number of prosecutors have tumbled. You are now extremely unlucky if you get prosecuted for flytipping. It is now pretty much ignored as a crime.

In the early nineties class sizes were routinely about 25 to a class and there was talk about making that a legal maximum. Class sizes have now soared to the size they were in the eighties.

The nhs is worse objectively. Look at waiting times for operations. Or things the nhs used to provide that it will no longer. Or the shit show of mental health care. The nhs still do some brilliant care. My father had outstanding care two months ago. But there simply are not the staff there to provide what is needed.

If you are relying on dismissing me by alleging rose tinted spectacles then it will not work. Because I am not talking about perceptions about the amount of litter on the streets, although that appears worse, but about verifiable facts.

I agree about the NHS though. It HAS become really bad.

Yes we have some amazing scientists. Interesting you talk about research though. Much of this has become extremely difficult since brexit. Smaller scale research is still fine. Larger more complex research requires international cooperation and funding and the UK is no longer included in much of this.
Again because of my field of work I know what I am talking about here. Various EU funded new research projects that our top institutions are excluded from.

You do know we only introduced gay marriage because of the EU human rights courts. The government fought the case. We were forced to introduce this.

Verifiable facts.
But, cherry picked verifiable facts.

I’m not going to disagree with you that some things - many things - that rely on money are going to get worse in a recession. But, it’s not Britain-only recession. So where are our children supposed to immigrate? America with it’s don’t kill a foetus but you can shoot down a classroom schtick isn’t looking hot to me right now.

But it’s simply not true that “everything” is getting worse.

And for some things that are, I personally believe that when we look back on a line graph of 1900 to 2100, it’ll be a wobble on an upward line, not the start of the trajectory back to the turn of the last century on all measures.

I’m over 60. There were 35 in my maths class, the maximum number of desks that would fit in a classroom.

I agree

He also decides whether to bless a country or not. And by how much.

[I wont derail thread op]

I don’t think it was much different. We just hadn’t lived through a worldwide pandemic at that point.
we still had terrorism, riots, austerity, and bad politics. (I though the riots in 2011 were due to the rising cost of uni fees).
yeah it’s more expensive these days, but that always happens. The house I bought for £155k was worth like £18k in the 60s. Doesn’t mean the 60s were any better.

Incredible!

What about all the non Christian countries then? Is that why God keeps sending them droughts, starvation, floods and other catastrophes?

God is an awful thing if that's how it works.

Blimey. Weird how good life is in Singapore then, and how terrible it is in Venezuela.

It’s as though you are talking rubbish.

I think we've had a few years of life being hard - the govt being shit, which has a knock on effect for the nhs, Brexit etc. Then add in covid. It is noticeable because we can see our town centres dying, and the lack of investment in training HCP in the UK is now filtering through to really long nhs waiting times and services cut to the bone. Now we have Ukraine and a PM who is out of his depth and potentially hurtling us towards a huge war.
Just waiting for aliens to land to complete the shit show of modern life !
It does feel a bit like we are living in the end times.

That said, I've lived through times when I was more skint, still waited for hours at A&E, so I'm not convinced it was really better. It's true that we were younger.

Rose tinted glasses much... Humanity always has wars, crises, humanitarian issues, financial recessions. It's never been hunky dory!!! (Except maybe the early 90s ;-) )

What’s your definition of starve? Or did you just use that term because I live heard people say it: NHS has had a 20% increase in its budget since 2011.

No one is saying things have always been hunky dory. But in the thirty years I have lived in my city the city centre has never looked so shit and we have never had so few public services.
I feel like we all get treated as if we are idiots who can't see what is happening in front of our eyes.
And the last time I knew people were so worried about gas and electric bills was the seventies. You think it's okay we are going back fifty years?

It’s not only about legislation, it’s about people.

Decriminalising homesexuality started (and no, it didn’t complete) in 1967. Well before we have to argue whether we are a sovereign nation or not.

(For the record, yes I voted remain, yes I hate Brexit, no I’m not in an industry impacted by research grants, but yes I’m in an industry negatively impacted)

Back to homosexuality… I monitor my Y9 teen’s form WhatsApp and when someone says, “ur gay”, it’s seconds before one of many will say, “fuck off with ur homophobic shit”.

They don’t care that gay marriage had any link to the EU. They think 1967 was last century. As indeed, it was 😆

But their attitudes are changing, for the better. Spend time around young people - they are amazing! Some are arseholes, and some older people are great… but overwhelmingly the young people I meet through my children, some youth work (so not only my children’s social demographic), through the young adults at work - well, they’re fab!

Britain is also suffering too many homophobic arseholes - but in the main, I believe, the trajectory is positive.

But we see what we look for.

Which poster said "nothing was better in the past"? Really? So all those people who went to uni essentially for free and were able to afford to buy a house based on a typical job and salary. Perilous times it was indeed!!!

We have less violent crime now, less malnutrition, far wider educational opportunities, far better sex equality. Gay marriage is legal, cancer survival rates are through the roof, far fewer women die in childbirth, there is much less racism…

You seem to be very selective with the examples you pick.

Only 10% of the population of school leavers, as opposed to 50% now.

So you are saying my actually lived experience is wrong.

For a fact class sizes weren't 25 in the early 90s here. They were regularly 30 plus.

I have been in and out of hospital all of my life due to ongoing health issues. I have routinely throughout been in a corridor as there were no spaces. I have had operations cancelled and had to wait a long time.

So you dismissing my actual lived experience won't work either.

@sst1234 you do know inflation means soaring prices in many medications? Plus mismanagement of staff has meant lots of high spending on agency staff. Plus the billions wasted by the government on trying to create a new it system, plus increases in minimum wage that pushes up costs.
On the ground we have had wards closed, wards are routinely under staffed, cuts have been made to services such as how many nhs physio sessions you can get. I could go on.
You can play with figures but the nhs has less money to spend on services.
During the nineties the number of people using private healthcare dropped dramatically because people could be seen quickly. No it wasn't perfect, but it was a lot better than now.
My families experience now with the nhs is once you are seen the service is excellent. But waiting lists are long.

Agree that the service is very poor. But no amount of money would ever be enough for this mismanaged relic.

That’s quite some moving of the goalposts here.

It sounds more as though you’ve not done as well for yourself as you’d like, and are trying to make your experience into something universal.

It's an unpopular opinion because it's ridiculous.

You realise that many of the poorest countries in the world, with the worst health outcomes, worst sexual crime stats and some of the worst other human rights abuses, are religious?

Riddle me that @lightand...