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.

The Uk is was too overcrowded, our services are on knees as they can't cope with sheer volume of people.

it is, everything is outdated- houses, generally buildings supermarkets and shopping centres, dentists use x ray machines that lag 20 years behind whats used in the EU countries etc. Streets/motowars are dirty and never see a lawn mower,kids playgrounds falling apart when in Europe they are shiny colorful etc.

My relatives when they come to visit are
like :o\ when they see the state of the UK, like a third world country.

Cleanliness was always a bug of mine. The amount of rubbish everywhere in UK is disgusting. Most people who came to visit me from mainland pointed it out.

Every country has issues but UK is being bit subpar European country tbh.

Why do you keep mentioning dog shit as if that is a major problem? Unless you are referring to irresponsible lazy dog owners who leave bagged up shit in bushes? But that is hardly a governmental rresponsibilty. I havent seen dog shit lying on the pavements in decades. Oh except for when I went to Paris and it was absolutely everywhere.

I agree re the NHS though.

@Fedupofdiets like I said in my OP, no country is perfect or ‘utopia’ but it’s noticeable how run down the U.K. is. i can see it plainly being away.

All countries have major issues, they're just generally not as noticeable in tourist areas of big cities and while your on holiday.

Wherever you are in Spain may look lovely, but let's not forget the Spanish authorities beat people in the street and arrested them a few years ago while Catalonia was trying to regain its independence. Highly reccomend reading about it, you won't learn about it there as no one wants to talk about the war crimes Spain has commited against the Catalan people over the past 100 years.

Or France, their are riots in Paris because people are angry over the fact the president is FORCING the retirement age to be higher with no legal vote. That is the tip of the iceburg in France, you have the yellow vest riots too trying to advocate for economic and political reform and so much more.

Catalan and France are two countries I have actively lived in, and yes they may seem beautiful while on holiday but they have SERIOUS issues hidden beneath. Just like people visiting huge cities in the UK (London, Manchester, Edinburgh) will see the beautiful parts and not notice the horrid disparities going on beneath.

I feel like the state of the roads could be what finally wakes middle England up to the disaster of more than a decade of austerity. I live in a fairly wealthy area of the south west and the pot holes are horrendous, and inescapable. They're on every road. People who may not have been affected by other cuts in spending and may even have been cheerleaders for austerity are suddenly seeing a very visible sign of what it has done to the country as a whole. Our infrastructure is literally crumbling.

I'm sorry but life in the UK is undeniably worse for most people ( ie working people on average wage bands) than it was 10-15 years ago. It's frankly terrible for those of us that are below average or in poverty. Possibly the same if you are wealthy or very comfortably retired.

It's a shitshow. Brexit has damaged us. Successive years of conservative self interest have magnified that self harm tenfold.

It's a disaster

I am actually betting on torries to win next year anyway

@Emigratingimmigrant depressingly they probably will win.

Thats no sense,in England population pqm is 250.. Monaco is 18 450. Followed by Gibraltar,Vatican,Malta,Netherlands etc

I’m afraid I agree, and I’ve always hated threads doing down the UK as there’s so much that’s good about it. It’s heartbreaking.

But we are back to being the sick man of Europe once again. I keep trying to explain to my children that’s it’s happened before and we will recover, hopefully just in time for their twenties (although one is looking at European universities).

Yes, other European countries have their problems, but anyone who has spent time visiting our neighbours in the last couple of years can see the massive decline in public services and infrastructure here, compared with France, Germany, Scandinavia (and yes, even Spain and Italy). You’d have to live an exceptionally insular existence not to be alert to the difference.

Day to day, we have a lovely life, because we are wealthy so can spend our way out of poor public services and live in a strong village community, but the roads are still full of potholes and we still notice price rises, and how much others local to us are struggling. Last week we were at MIL’S house and the streets were strewn with rubbish- in St John’s Wood, one of the ‘nicest’ parts of London.

@Wherethewildthymeblows i don’t think I have mentioned dogshit a lot- once. But it’s definitely true - it’s a sign of a run down country which doesn’t look after itself or care even. Also there are no street cleaners where I live to maintain anything as the councils have no budget for it because there are on their knees

@TheColourofspring so you skipped over the vastly higher unemployment rates then?!

I love Spain. I visited three times last year but I certainly don’t think it’s utopia. Some things are better some are worse. As for cleanliness, I find that there’s far more graffiti here. Can’t see out of the train windows for the bloody graffiti. If you want cleanliness, Austria and Switzerland are a far better option…or Singapore!!!

Yeah. I want to at least get some money out of it... Little silver lining

Bloopsie
And what are these dentists you speak of?
I can't even get to see a private one now (my NHS one doesn't exist anymore).
The tories have been pillaging the country for a decade and still people don't see it.

I agree with you. I think the UK could learn a lot by looking at how modern democratic countries function. No one seems to know anymore that the whole point of government is to make life good for the citizens.

I do agree with you, op, and I also agree that the Conservatives will win the next election too.
A cut majority , but a win

There are real and serious problems in the UK, and I'd urge people to vote to remove the party who have been in power for the past 13 years.

That said, it's so laughable when people declare that everywhere else is better and they know because they've been there:
a) you were a tourist. You went to tourist places, were there briefly and were limited and selective in the public services you used (e.g. you may have used public transport but that's not like doing a daily commute). It's not a good or a representative sample. The actual statistics are that Spain has a higher level of poverty than the UK (one of the highest in Europe).
b) It always turns into an idea that the UK is uniquely terrible and everywhere else has all these things sorted. This is demonstrably untrue, but it's also just as clear a form of British exceptionalism as saying that the UK is better than everywhere else. Basically, we're not that special and it's ignorant and betrays pretty limited experience to claim we are.

In France at the moment...lots of poo on the streets, human and dog. It's awful. We couldn't get petrol and it's raining.

@Dibblydoodahdah not at all. I acknowledged in my OP that no country is perfect and everywhere has issues.

But Britain is in the grips of a mass gaslighting where everyone just shouts how great we are and how things are fine when it’s falling apart at the seams. People are struggling to eat and heat their homes. Child poverty has risen dramatically. We have some serious social problems.

Yet people still come on here & scream that it’s all fine - it’s incredible really

We can also get out of it, it's happened before.

@Hardbackwriter yes but I am also with my friends who live in Spain so I get a proper idea of what it’s like here day to day

I feel safer in the UK than I did in either Barcelona or Madrid, and have never actually been mugged here!