Are things in the UK really that bad?

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I’ve been living overseas for about seven years and I am lucky to have a very safe, easy, comfortable life here but for various reasons I really want to move back home to England. However I keep hearing about how bad the situation is over there, with the cost of living crisis, housing, energy bills, health service, etc. For example I was watching Triggernometry and the hosts were saying the next few years are going to be extremely difficult for everyone there. I was just wondering, is it really as bad as they say? If you never watched or read the news or looked at social media, would you notice the difference in your quality of life? What is the general feeling on the ground, so to speak?

I guess I just want to know if it would be a mistake to move back there.

I am in a very very similar position to @socialmedia23 - combined income around £110k, paying mortgage on 2-bed flat in London but want to have kids soon and no idea how that is going to work. I am lucky in that DP and I both have multiple passports and therefore options but our mortgage fixed term has 4y 8 months to run so we're not going anywhere fast. We just visited family in the Antipodes though and DP was super tempted and pleased to know he can become a permanent resident through me if we ever wanted to take it up.

Politics in the UK is pretty depressing and I don't have faith the issues we're facing are going to be sorted out anytime soon. Public services are dire and everyone I encounter seems to have checked out a bit

Yes I actually agree with you Marsha that no one agrees with me in real life as people no longer talk about it around where I live but on MN lots agree with me so I feel I can say these things.
But I cant move to the EU as it would not work out for me financially which I will get flamed for saying. I've been called a hypocrite before as I am more comfortable in the UK. I was thinking of others who say we are missing out, I feel sorry for them.
I don't know. Maybe I am wrong in thinking the EU is the land of honey. I think I do need to move on and start to think positively about what I do have here.

Even if you're wrong, having spread a load of our wealth around the EU for the past few decades, it would be nice to have the choice! It's as nonsensical as being confined to London when you want to give Manchester a go.

The only reason people make these kinds of posts is because they want to rationalise that all is well.

If you want to take a quick look, around Feb 2020 there were numerous posts across all forums on the internet talking about how we'd seen all these pandemic scares before and it was a storm in a teacup.

Some of us already knew different and had prepared for the situation.

I seem to be constantly reminded of Kinnock’s “I warn you” speech just lately, it’s being quoted at me. It seems (un)remarkably prescient. Keeping quiet in case you say something wrong, an economy that can’t pay, education as a privilege not a right, and in fact other information sources being thin on the ground.

In a lot of ways yes.

I'm not a high earner and I live in the very expensive south east.

I can make ends meet but it's a constant slog. Food prices are crazy - way over inflation rises.

Currently the whole bloody country has some sort of nasty cold/virus and even the pharmacies have run out of the cold and flu medicine.

I can get a GP appointment for that day if I log in online at 8am but it's very rushed and reactive.

Friend is senior nurse and she says it's never been this bad - she was redeployed to A and E and cried when she got home.

Fuel and utility prices are laughably high and getting anything done (plumber, builder etc) is hugely expensive.

I think it's just the start of it.

Wages aren't rising in the same way - I was extremely lucky to get 9% raise but it's not even inflation

I think it's crazy that people on 35k still need universal credit to pay their rent. You're screwed if you have a mortgage though.

No, I wouldn't come back here now.

The only thing that needs to be said about the EU is that the bigger the ship the safer you are in a storm.

I think we are just going to go through with it. Trying to TTC and hopefully can move to a bigger flat as house prices fall and we would port our mortgage. Flat is on the market. Nothing would ever be perfect. We are ironically one of the luckier ones.

I am in a crowded shopping centre now, surrounded by families and their children enjoying themselves. We are an unequal country and I worry about it in the long term, I hope that there would be some respite at some point. I read an article about rage applying, where lots of people are securing 20-40% raises by just mass applying to lots of jobs and securing an offer..I did increase my pay by £19k recently and encouraging DH to do the same. Perhaps this would be the making of us millenials- securing huge raises in our salaries by switching and this would enable us to pay the higher costs..also would contribute more to taxes as more of us get dragged into higher tax bands.

I've been asking numerous family, work colleagues and friends how they are coping with the CoL crisis and not one of them has said they won't be able to afford heating, water, energy etc.

People on MN are not an accurate or typical sample of the total 67M population. They'll come on here when they can't get a GP appointment, or because they need A+E, or because they have a problem with their child's school, college, university, can't get a job, have a problem with their employer.

They don't come on here in great numbers saying when things are going well - in fact when people do come on here with a good news story they're normally hounded off and told to stop stealth boasting or being smug because "we only want stories of misery to confirm our belief UK is going to hell in a handcart"

yep you make a good point

No. It’s not that bad here compared to many places. I am on holiday in Vancouver right now visiting my parents and the health service is dire and the food prices are shocking. House prices crazy, underfunded schools a problem etc.

Not saying it’s good in Uk btw either, but many other places are also ‘not good’ too.

I think the NHS is dependent on where you live. Practically impossible to get a GP appt in my hometown (SE) and my cousin who has lots of issues had to sleep on his bathroom floor following a fall a couple of nights ago. An ambulance finally came c. 12 hours later. He was taken to hospital, examined, found to have COVID which had made him very weak. But sent straight home as there were no beds. SW. But in general the country is going through very tricky times. The High Street is dead & hospitality is really struggling. Political leadership is mediocre at best.

The High Street is dead & hospitality is really struggling.

Do you mean where you are?

It’s the opposite here but I can see that other places might be different

I think Mumsnet is very dramatic on this. I think for the first time some have this is having an impact on the middle classes- hence the panic on here.

High house prices and high childcare costs have been a problem for at least a decade, they aren’t new.

It’s rubbish and I wouldn’t consider returning if I lived in another country

Same here; you need a booking even for lunch sittings here still as every where is so busy. No chance of a dinner booking if not a week in advance at least. Shops are really busy too.

Great post and I agree.

And this confirms the growing inequality. Working-class areas are grim and dying. Of course if you live somewhere more well-heeled and are affluent enough to have the choice of where you lunch, you probably don't even see this and use that fact to deny it's bad in so many other places.

This.
We’re ever more divided and it’s so depressing.

All the best with TTC!

We are also very lucky. I have been a bit lazy with job-hunting because I'm treated well but I probably should make more effort to increase my pay

There are changes to life, however being quite far into "comfortable" means that it's more of an annoyance than anything.
If we were closer to the breadline before this happened, yes we'd probably be fucked.

For example, our gas and electric has gone up to £265 as of this month. Water is £55. We need to change our car, fuck me anything pre-owned is very expensive, anything new has a long wait time.
I've always been able to shop for very little, we spend £100 on frugal meals a week now.

I think the trouble is, people on here make massive sweeping statements that others pick up on and accept as fact.

i agree with you @BabyFour2023 many of the restaurants and cafes are constantly busy, even during the working week. If I go into town on a random day eg a Tuesday because I've got an odd day off work, thinking I'll go into town when it's quiet, ha wishful thinking - the Waitrose carpark is heaving, Marks and Spencer's is heaving, every cafe (Cafe Nero, Cafe Uno, Parsons bakery, Greggs) has queues going out the door, Business is booming. Same at the weekends. The local taverna, we had to book a week in advance and chose a Friday early evening table, because later on it would be packed.

not that I'm complaining in a way, it disproves the negativity on this and other sites talking about UK being broken. That has to be a good thing and it doesn't tally with RL.

I think the sweeping statements happen on both sides and highlight the inequality. Anyone who follows depher on Twitter and sees the terrible stories he witnesses day in day out could not really think that all is well in the UK. But it is true that for a lot of people not much has changed. I’d be scared of anyone I love needing A and E right now though, however wealthy.