To think the uk is on its knees

[Ilovemycatalot]

Just this. Every day negativity. No one is happy with life or working conditions. The country is at an all time low. Living standards getting worse by the day people getting poorer. I know we are not in poverty like some countries but honestly can’t see us ever returning to decent living standards unless you’re the few top percent earners. Tell me I’m being dramatic perhaps I am but can’t see much of a way back from this .

@MarshaMelrose they do have a tradition of striking; which is one of the ways they resist unwanted change and protect rights. They resist change and are more politically active generally I think. Resisting change is a double edged sword as you could argue it stunts growth and progress, but it also means the status quo is preserved. That’s what I mean about choices - they choose a different way which throws up other challenges but generally the healthcare & childcare system works quite well in my experience. x

I said mixed which it is.

I don’t think you can dictate language ;

I think it’s great as there’s a strong community but it would be wrong to ignore the variation in incomes here.

We are at war so things are going to be tough until it is over.

I think for some people life is incredibly tough right now.

I’m a mid ranking civil servant, I earn a bit above the average wage.
I am doing ok - for two reasons
1 - I paid my mortgage off in May last year, I would be extremely anxious about interest rates
2 - despite the insistence of some mumsnetters that this makes me lazy, childish, weird and lacking in basic adulting skills, I do not drive so dont have the expense of running a car.
If I had those two expenses I would be getting worried now.

I am old enough to remember the 1970s and early 80s, and the Winter of Discontent very well, strikes, power cuts and three day weeks, rubbish piling up on the streets. You could get a GP appointment but you couldn’t get a funeral.
Was it worse then than it is now ? Depends where you sit in society, as it does now. I look back and wonder how my mum managed. But I look back with the expectations of today.

We were a very working class family - when that meant manual workers.
We just didnt have all the stuff we have now, no expectations of foreign holidays or weekends away. We had one week in Wales, the whole year. No after school clubs or activities, apart from sunday school outings, very few day trips, no childcare costs. No central heating, gas fires downstairs, paraffin heaters in the bedrooms.
We ate seasonally, no strawberries at Christmas, no exotic fruits. Very little meat, chicken was a luxury for Easter and bank holidays. Sunday dinner was usually stuffed hearts. No meals, coffees out. No huge birthday parties. Getting fish and chips or a KFC was a huge treat. I do remember a lot of meals being mince based, or towards the end of the month a week of egg and chips.

I never felt, and still don’t think that we were poor - everyone in our street was the same and I certainly knew a lot of families much worse off than us. I was never hungry, mostly warm and by the standards of the day and my neighbourhood did not go without.
My dad was a milkman who delivered to a notorious tenement block known as the Piggeries. You could literally smell poverty - I can still smell it now, and believe me its not pleasant.
There will be people and families like that now, people like me on fairly average wages who are ok because they have reached the stage of life where there are no childcare costs or mortgages, and if the holiday and travel threads here are to be believed people for whom cutting back means three holidays not four.

We expect a lot more now so it feels harder, but I do think that our education service has been trashed, the NHS has been trashed, I worry about my mum and step dad who are both in poor health. I worry about my son and whether he will get a job, unlike all my brothers who were on job creation schemes.

On balance, I don’t think the 1970s were worse, but the problems were different. And the wheel turns

Just be glad you're not in South Africa. Published weekly "load shedding" schedule so you spend more than half the time with no power, 72 murders a day, 42 road deaths a day, 50% of municipalities are no longer keeping drinking water clean, runaway inflation and roads have more potholes than tar.
The weather's better though so there's that.

Everyone seems to be saying this!

I would love to hear more from residents of Eire. Is it really that good over there? Low unemployment, good wages, etc.?

Great so we can find countries that are worse

Ok so we are rapidly sliding down ranks but we still are not actually bottom

It's hardly GREAT britain is it?
More gradually sinking beneath the waves

I read an article in the Indeoendent by doctors from Italy, Spain and Cabada. They all said their medical systems were in crisis.

It's hardly GREAT britain is it?

Tbf that's just a geographical descriptor.

This.

On the BBC news, they interviewed a hospital doctor who said that she would rather be a patient in the UK than France - really? Had they ever been a patient in France? Private room, choice of admission date, option to stay in a bit longer - we've had a fair bit of experience of hospitals in France and I know where I'd rather be. In fact the health service is one of the major reasons we'd be reluctant to move back as we get older.

I suppose for most of Europe they can point to the uk as one of their traditional peers doing worse which always helps

Whereas we have to look to South Africa to cheer ourselves up

One thing that I think is different. Our grandparents and parents all thought that their children would have better lives than theirs, which was generally true. I'm much better off than my parents.
Can you honestly say the same for the next generation?

I recently moved about 20 minutes from previous town but I'm in two minds about changing doctors when it's never a problem with them. It's a very small surgery - even the doc answers the phone - and in the last few weeks I've had a phone consultation within an hour or so of my call, followed by prescription and then just yesterday, called to speak with doc again and again, he promptly called back and provided a prescription. Just once in the last 6 months have I needed to go to for a physical appointment and normally it's just a couple of days to wait. Perhaps larger surgeries with more doctors are popular but less easy to get appointments.

sjxoxo
Urging everyone to vote carefully next GE. X

Definitely don't vote for Labour - the IMF forecast in January 2009 had Britain's economy the hardest hit in the developed world. The Labour Government must have been really useless - they didn't even have Brexit to contend with;

28 Jan 2009
Britain's economy will be the hardest hit in the developed world in what is expected to be the "deepest recession since the second world war," the International Monetary Fund said today.

www.theguardian.com/business/2009/jan/28/ilo-global-unemployment-to-soar

We just seem to be so much more self deprecating than other countries and self flagellate.
I can absolutely assure you that this is not how is looks from the outside! The UK appears to be arrogant and delusional.
@BanjoKnickers I'd say a bit of both - arrogant AND self-flagellating! A drama queen country to outsiders. "We're so special that we can't do the same as other Europeans" but also "Our inability to elect a competent PM is so much worse than other Europeans". So more like boasting about your problems than being actually self-deprecating.

The whole of Europe is being affected by the war in Ukraine. That is what I meant.

We are at war, albeit indirectly.

I saw that interview - the doctor was French, working in a French hospital, on a picket line.

I mean the media ignoring it all and being sunshine and roses would be rather Russian of them

France loves a strike. Always have. It's like a national sport. Lots of strikes under Hollande. Didn't they get themselves labelled the basket case of Europe because of it?

I think the main difference on the problems faced by the UK vs the rest of the developed world is that we delivered a major economic shock to ourselves by voting for Brexit, so unlike other countries dealing with the post pandemic economy and the effects of the Ukraine war. If things happen you suck it up. If you hold a loaded revolver to your foot and blow it off, no wonder there’s bitterness.

The war is awful. But at the same time, our public services, health care and so many other things are running just fine, the govt here subsidises energy bills, and the quality of life is high. I get the impression that the war is being used as an excuse in the UK for things being really bad economically, etc. It isn't the war, it's bad management by the Govt, sadly.

I’m in France and here’s a few truths from my last couple of weeks:
I got an appointment with my GP no problems

31 Jan 2023
Approximately six million French people are estimated to lack a primary care doctor, and 600,000 of those people suffer from long-term diseases...

This issue is aggravated by the fact that almost a third of French people live in medical deserts – or geographical zones where healthcare providers and general practitioners are severely lacking compared to the rest of the country. Generally, this refers to healthcare in the community such as GPs or family doctors, dentists or community nurses, rather than hospitals.

www.thelocal.com/20230131/sick-patients-in-france-lacking-gp-to-be-contacted-before-summer-minister-says/

I'm in Ireland(unless you are speaking Irish it isn't called Eire) and I wouldn't exactly say it is upbeat but compared to what I hear and read on mumsnet it isn't anything like the UK either. Cost of living has gone up massively, I think I heard the average household between energy, food and fuel will be 5000e a year worse off due to inflation.

We have a massive housing crisis. There is nowhere to rent, the cost of buying vs wages is grim. This is somewhat exacerbated by the refugee crisis, 70,000+ refugees have come to Ireland in the past year(that is the population of my nearest city), and there is nowhere for them to live. Tensions are rising with the have-nots because they also have nowhere to live and are upset that they feel the government is putting refugees before them.

On the whole, I would say that wages are better than in the UK, services are probably better, and benefits are better so we don't have the same level of poverty and deprivation that the UK has. The government did a bit of a giveaway budget that meant that the effects of price rises were somewhat offset and we(as a country) have quite a large budget surplus which means that we do have money to throw at problems which it seems that the UK doesn't have so we are better off that way.

Who knows what is to come though. As someone who just graduated in 2008 when Ireland went to absolute shit and still feels somewhat haunted by it, I'm apprehensive about what the next few years will look like, especially as dh works in tech.

Never gets mentioned by who? Obviously people who don't follow news won't know.