To think it’s shocking how bad Britain has fallen apart compared to other European counties

[TheColourofspring]

I am in Spain at the moment in one of the big cities. It’s clean, modern, well maintained. Transport is cheap, food is cheap, healthcare seems to work pretty well (from talking to local). Parks are noticeably well maintained- even saw park keepers! Clean & tidy.

Pensions higher, if you lose your job you get a portion of your salary in unemployment benefits while you look for another and there are no penalties. Based on the premise that if you have paid in, you will get looked after if you are in need.

I am not saying it’s perfect- no country is but it was the same when I was in France last summer.

In Britain, everything is underfunded and close to the edge. Schools, the NHS, local authorities are all at breaking point. My local parks look shabby & there is very little maintenance. Roads have pot holes. Yesterday I read an article about pharmacies being the latest at ‘crisis’ point with major drug shortages (thanks to brexit). Queues at borders, people can’t heat or eat properly, food banks, housing is ridiculous for many people.

I think it’s just so noticeable when you go to other places just how run down Britain is.

Finding it shocking and a bit depressing - like I said, all countries have their issues but I think Britain really has been pillaged by the tories & Brexit really is a disaster.

I understood it was a mixture of free at point of delivery and paying?

Oh come on - France has literally been on fire! Holland, Italy, Germany all having issues with their economies and social issues post-pandemic. Nowhere is perfect, so let's not be too simplistic.

The tories didn't bleed the country dry with austerity. Do you know why austerity came into play?
Do you know who closed down a lot of special schools and specialist centres for adults with disability under the guise on 'inclusivity'?
Do you know who got the NHS into dept with PFI schemes?
Who sold off our gold stocks?
Who increased taxes in manufacturing meaning many manufacturing facilities closed and moved to other European countries...hmmmm let me think about that one for a minute.
Under labour the UK effectively became a service industry. Service industries are never good for economic growth.
If you tax heavily people with the wealth simply up and leave, happened under labour.
I'm not anti-tax, I'm not anti-labour, I think labour did do a lot of good for the many folk, sure start centres for one thing. But labour also caused very bloated public services....having worked in the NHS for well over quarter of a century I can assure you too many captains and not enough crew, is always a recipe for disaster.

Yes been in Belgium and France and Germany recently - appalled at how much worse we were in comparison. I took a school trip last term to a French activity centre and the children were horrified at the thought that we get European tourists.

Excellent post.

Nowhere is perfect. But nowhere in western Europe is going down the drain like here. And everyone knows it. The state of the uk is regularly reported on in European countries. Everyone feels pity for the shambles the UK has become. The stellar international repuation the UK once enjoyed is definitely no more.

Which big city ?

If you are in Madrid you can take a trip to the Canada Real*.

*I am not being serious. Please don't go to the Canada Real.

Oh, and my friends son travels around Madrid for 15€ a month- not even remotely comparable to the extortion of train travel in the uk

France has literally been on fire!

Have you been to France or have family there, this is utter hyperbole.

children were horrified at the thought that we get European tourists.

What do you mean?

Have you been to central London lately, it’s packed with tourists. What did you say to those children to get that reaction

So you’re going by the press, as we get with riots and burning in France

Some of it lands as it has with you

Do you know why austerity came into play?

It was the Tories chosen political response to the worldwide financial crisis. Which some now admit was a mistake.

Well, I am not going by the press. As I live in the UK so see it first hand. I travel and have friends and family across Europe so it's quite easy to compare.

God the pot holes! I live in a fairly well to-do SE commuter town and the roads are a disaster. I feel like Outraged of Sudsbury-On-Water saying it, but it’s not even just the country roads, it’s the main road into town which is littered with pot holes you could burst a tire on. It’s really dangerous.

So yeah. Completely agree, everything is falling apart at the seams.

Took about a year for a referral to a rheumatologist to come through recently. I’m considering us getting private health insurance even though it would be a stretch because I want the peace of mind that if anything went seriously wrong with our health (cancer being the obvious one) that we could at least get a quick diagnosis.

Yes many do it’s not unusual. Everyone feels pity is not something I recognise. It’s likely linked to how we view it here.

You are right OP. My nearest big city has beautiful Georgian and Victorian architecture, but its just so grimy, dirty. I used to live in a Spanish city, where an army of cleaners went out every night and sprayed the streets clean. I don't understand why we can have that? And before someone goes on about the cost; it creates jobs and various social / economic benefits. Its called investment, and by any stats you can find, the UK has much lower rates of investment from both public and private sector.

I don’t really think you can use the recent French strikes as an argument because their public services are so much more robust in the first place. It’s been a while since I lived there but childcare provision was excellent, as was public transport, public libraries, education was free or available for a minimal fee, including university level, rubbish was collected twice or three times a week - so you are not really starting from the same level when you compare the two!

Thepeopleversuswork · Today 07:02
Totally. Its a bit like this boiled frog metaphor which people use to describe abusive marriages. You don't really notice because it's slow and gradual until something really shocking happens which jolts you out of it”

Absolutely this.

But this looks like a legacy we will have for 10-20 years. The next government might do better than the Tories but the damage has been done. How do you fix these things? They are consequences of Brexit and underfunding.

Let's take the NHS. Under resourced and under staffed. It will take a lot more money to fix this than it did to maintain it. Cost of living crisis is hiring the UK much more than the rest of Europe. This means the payrises requested by strikes are much higher than they would be, if the cost of living crisis was not so bad. Cost of living in UK is so much higher than Europe, partially because of Brexit.

What's the way out?

Probably none of them but a lot have something much better.
Having visited several A&Es over the years here and the Spanish equivalent a few times I would take Spain every time .

Not sure what you mean. But if you are fine to be the country people pity in Europe, I guess that's not a problem for you then. I think it's embarrasing that I am met with mild bewilderment and, yes, pity about the state of our country on most work trips.

Even professionally I can tell how the UK reputation is changing. I work in law and the UK courts, legal services and dispute resolution institutions were always seen as top class. Now it's regularly a huge battle to get English law/ courts accepted as choice of law or seat. My exposure to other professional services tells similar stories.

I'm pretty sure I'm not imagining all the potholes in the roads where I live, and the fact it's almost impossible to get a GP appt any more.

No I don’t get that pity, not at all. You saying that all of Europe pity the U.K. just sounds so far fetched, it’s too removed from my experience.

Maybe it’s how you are in some way and people are reacting to it.

Not a Tory voter by a long shot. However, this rot started under labour. Their crazy tax credits scheme means we are now a nation of net takers and the net contributors are being taxed to the point they reduce productivity. The employers and the asset rich make a fortune though. I don’t see how their policies will help. It will just mean the few people who pay the most tax via PAYE will continue to leave and reduce productivity.

@MarshaBradyo what is your experience? You always pop up on these sorts of threads and claim you see nothing of the sort. It's a bit odd to be on so many threads & still think it's poster's interpretations as opposed to reality! 😆