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.

What school staff strikes? I’m a teacher, have been balloted but no announcements have been made.

The thing you notice day to day is inflation. Food stuffs keep rising in price. They say this may have peaked but it's a long way to go and one suspects prices will never go back to where they would have been. There's not enough labour and importing things has become more expensive. Brexit really hasn't helped matters and condemned the majority of people to this tiny unimportant island where before there were opportunities for living and working elsewhere.

The people right at the bottom are struggling so there are more people sleeping rough and more people using food banks. Food banks are now acceptable in a first world country. We have to support our fellow citizens rather than the government doing this. This must be driving more crime.

The NhS is wobbling all over the place which is kind of the intention by the government so it can be sold off. It depends where you are in the county but an 'urgent' GP appointment can be three weeks, you don't want go anywhere near A&E if you can at all help it and waiting lists just grow and grow.

I think it's pretty bleak personally.

Teachers in Scotland have been striking. Also uni lecturers

This. We have no problem getting GP appointments here. I had a breast issue before Christmas., saw my GP, was referred and seen by a consultant in a week. Local Waitrose is still busy so plenty of people obviously aren't feeling the pinch. We went away after Christmas. The restaurants we ate in were not cheap and were all very busy, if you hadn't booked you couldn't have a table. There is a lot of hysteria and a lot of people are genuinely struggling. I was a single parent of 2 twenty six years ago and ,if that was me now, I would be absolutely struggling. I am not in the situation and I am not struggling. My children are both married adults now, one of them has a baby. The maternity care my DIL received was fantastic. The son without a baby eats out at least twice a week, is buying a house and has had no problem getting a mortgage. We are not rich and they are earning good, but not 'London' salaries. If you want to move back, move back.

I'm also curious and confused about this. We've lived abroad since 2016 and I'd love to move back at some point. All I hear about on MN and the Guardian is how awful things are. But most of our family live there, and apart for the rising energy bills, their current experience doesn't seem to compute with what I read. FIL was admitted to hospital in an ambulance on Christmas Day- ambulance there very quickly and admitted to a bed within hours. DSis has used GP services in London recently for herself and her baby, and it sounded fine. My friend and FIL are going through cancer treatment and getting very good care.

We're in Canada and our healthcare system is groaning under the weight of Covid, flu, RSV, and dire staff shortages. It doesn't sound any different.

Yes, it is. Ever since Brexit, living in the UK (if indeed you can even call it "living") has been like being trapped on a sinking ship. I'm utterly ashamed of my country and I hate what it's turning into. I'd be out of here in a heartbeat if I had the option of living anywhere else.

And those laying all this at the door of the tories - what exactly do we think labour will do better? Borrow more money from the magic money tree and fuck us up royally again for even longer into the future? Honestly.

Oh, please. This is getting really tired now and completely untenable now that we've heard how many billions were wasted on faulty PPE etc with the likes of Michelle Mone getting very rich indeed. Twelve years the Tories have been in power and our national debt is vastly higher than it was in 2010 despite all the years of austerity that we've already been through.

I think it would depend on where you moved to, how much you earn etc. I can see how things are bad but DH and I are reasonably high earners so with a few tweaks, the rise in food prices has been manageable for us. We bought our house 7 years ago, mortgage is affordable although it'll go up by about £250 later this year. Just got an electric car which is much cheaper to run than petrol. I haven't had an issue getting seen by a GP locally. Got my smear letter through the other day, got a nurse appointment the following week. Kids are both in a local school with good access to wrap around care. I'm not suggesting things aren't bad, just that everyone will have a different situation. My boomer parents are overjoyed at the rise in interest rates - go figure.

Same in SW London. I do feel really lucky to have a exceptional GP practice given what I read here though.

"if I had the option"..............

Yes it's turd. Our outgoings have gone up bt £1500 per month but our income hasn't increased. The NHS is a mess, the pharmacies have run out of almost everything. Teachers are leaving in droves and the roads are full of pot holes. I'd stay put for a while.

Must be lovely in that ivory tower. Meanwhile, here in the real world, it’s bloody grim.

Do you have any in demand skills? You never know another country might want you. Check out point systems etc

Saw an NHS dentist today who I have been with for a while today. Daughter had a planned op before Christmas, fantastic staff and hospital, couldn’t fault them.
Friends and family still eating out, shops as busy as ever before Christmas. Planning holidays for 2023.
live just outside London

@ILoveeCakes "if I had the option"..............

Your point being...?

Everything is probably fine in the UK so long as-

• you have private healthcare and never ever need emergency care
• you are age below about 70 and have a big pension ‘pot’ and are extremely healthy
• you aren’t disabled in anyway
• Your kids don’t have SEN
• you earn £100k plus and have a small mortgage preferably fixed for at least 5 years

otherwise - I’d not move back just yet nope!

Personally we’re okay. BUT I do worry about my kids getting ill and there being no healthcare for them. We’re in no position to move abroad but even if we were I’d probably not move or there would only be a handful of countries I’d consider. Better the devil you know sometimes.

Yeah. I massively regret coming back.

In the past week, both my adult sons, hundreds of miles apart, have had a succession of acute non deadly health issues requiring immediate advice. It's not Covid.

One contacted NHS 101 which sent him to the local A and E dept for exam and medication. Since then, 4 contacts with his GP. On four days he's phoned his GP, got a same day GP response, 2 phone consults, 2 face to face appts, and a string of prescriptions.

The other phoned his GP,same day phone consult resulting in a prescription and advice.

DH, pensioner posterboy for local hospital, continues to receive gold star treatment; regular clinic check ups in at least four departments, regular tests, prompt results by phone , physio appts, phone calls to check he's perfectly fine, etc.

The reality is that for most people who say “I would move if I had the option” never actually had the option. If you have employable skills and speak European languages to fluency, it’s still perfectly possible to move “to Europe”, regardless of Brexit.

The reality is that it isn’t Brexit stopping all the people who want to move who didn’t move when they could: it’s the fact they don’t have any skills and they don’t speak any languages and there really isn’t much of a life anywhere in Europe for English-only speakers to do unskilled jobs, Brexit or not.

No. Don't believe the "hype". It's no worse than anywhere else in Europe - & probably better than some other places.
We are a free & democratic nation. We have a welfare state. We are a wealthy country. We have unrivalled culture, sports, cities and landscapes.
Most people are doing fine, but because the luxury & boom years are behind us, they think it's awful. They don't know how lucky they are. Anyone who can remember the 1970s (& probably further back too) would agree.

@MarshaBradyo Do you have any in demand skills? You never know another country might want you. Check out point systems etc

Sadly not. And I'm too old anyway. We'd intended to retire to France, but Brexit has put paid to that. Neither of us have EU passports and no means of obtaining them, which effectively means we're stuck in the UK.

That's really not true for retired people though is it? They could have moved and now can't.

Just amused at how someone who is apparently so desperate to leave, can't

Rising food prices .

Declining food standards.

NHS on it's knees.

Public transport expensive and totally unreliable, even more so now because of the strikes.

Interest rates hikes.

Rising energy costs.

High street dying a death.

Businesses closing because they can't afford their costs.

You must be living in a bubble if you don't see any of this. No matter how well financially insulated you are there has to be an impact on your purse string.