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.

Another anti Tory thread

They are not doing themselves any favours, especially lately, so it can't be such a surprise to see these

This is why you have employee shortages in places. This is why quite a few immigrants around me left and so am I. Enjoy funding yourself

Taxation without representation and "shut up or go". So lots of us are going

I'm not denying that the UK has gone downhill but where I live has all these things too..you don't need to move to Sweden to find it.

See tax rates 25% in Spain, 30% in France. Of course they are going to have better quality public services; they are paying a lot more.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_rates_in_Europe

You pay £115 a month for fulltime childcare? Your state school classes average 20 children per class? University fees are free for residents? Where do you live.

Most tax rates seem to be higher in EU
https://taxfoundation.org/top-personal-income-tax-rates-europe-2023/

Unlike you, i live in France a lot of the time.

The french fight for their rights and still have great roads, schools, medical services, public transport and inflation is approx half that of the UK, i'm amazed how much stuff costs in the UK, 18% food inflation and electricity prices that are the highest in the world.
They are rioting to protect retirement at 62, you lot just rolled over and said "thats all ok, we will carry on working until 67, in fact why not make it 68?"

The Brits just shrug their shoulders and carry on voting for the same rubbish.

So pat yourself on back and carry on kidding that its the RoW too but the UK is far from mid pack when it comes to how the country is run.

£59 billion lost in fraud over the Covid period? no country in Europe comes close to that level of corruption.

Yes sure but atm we are still paying a lot but getting back very little.

Perhaps if we paid a little more and it wasn't lost in corruption, we'd get back far more?

@suburbophobe the homeless situation in the UK is nothing like it is in the US. Who on earth told you it was?! My heart broke last time I was in California. Just horrendous. The last survey carried out in Autumn 22 found that there were approximately 3000 people sleeping rough (i.e. on the streets) in the whole of England. The last survey I could find for San Francisco, states that there were over 4000 sleeping in the streets of that city alone.

You know it is bad when you see post-communist Eastern Europe doing better than UK.

Well that a bit rich when we know that so much of the money in some East European countries has been earned in this country and sent home!

Why? Is there something about people there that means they shouldn’t do well?

It just means you are now considering moving back which you never thought would happen...

Are you from there? Do you mean you are moving back

That’s fine isn’t it?

I do think the G7 will need to adjust to some changes as BRICS take over. Not that EE is included but same issue

No more use of third world / developing world but accelerating or not is better according to academic types

As for people moving on this thread, great we are lucky if we find a place that suits us. We all have different wants. I get great schooling, and decent healthcare here but prefer other factors too (big city and all it brings), others want Sweden or Germany. That’s fine, it doesn’t need to be a universal want. Go, be happy I say.

Why is this a bad thing though?

If early years childcare is free, the money lost in taxes is saved there. If there are free youth clubs, you’re not paying expensive wraparound care. If you can get a doctors appointment the same day or a dentist, no need to go private. If the roads are good, your car goes longer before repairs. If uni is free, you’re not paying a big chunk of your salary as student loan repayments.

Exactly @QuentininQuarantino - it makes the life admin burden easier as well.

YANBU
I love the UK and miss it very much but I would not move back there!
I live in Finland, it has its issues (centralisation of services is a big one and the healthcare reform worries me because of that) and I know they're going to get worse over the next few years with our new government which is depressing but the basic standard of living is just better, although there is variation depending on whereabouts you live, my experience is in a small town.
I can see a doctor the same day without issues, the wait for a dentist can be longer but still no trouble seeing one and I've been having a lot of dental work down over the last year or so and all going smoothly.
I pay zero euros per month for full time childcare and they do things like ice skating, skiing, swimming and provide special lessons for my bilingual child to improve his language skills.
Class sizes are small, only 14 in DD's class (the smallest class in school, but even the others are only around 20) and education is good.
I'm going back to school to retrain in a new career - instead of paying to do this I can do it for free and actually will get money to help, either student grant or retraining benefit from the unemployment fund (which, if you're in a union, is a proportion of your last pay so not a bad amount)

There is dog shit everywhere though (dog poo bins don't exist, at least not round my way) and potholes are a problem every spring because the of the way the roads freeze and thaw every winter but they will get fixed eventually. Food is expensive and restaurants are expensive but I'm on a low income so that stands out more to me, might be different for people on average or higher incomes.

I haven't got a five year old but when I did have (well, pre-school) we used to be able to go to free/very low cost activities at sure start centres. It was really easy to get an NHS dentist, even moved house and just registered at the closest dentist. We had a really lovely Polish dentist, helped get all my children to almost adulthood without a single filling and had two of their teeth straightened. She's gone back to Poland now (I'm sure Brexit voters will be delighted to hear) and the dentist has gone private. There's no NHS dentist in a 50 mile radius now. Seeing a GP seemed much easier back then as well and the couple of times we had to go to A&E we were in and out in no more than two hours (apart from one time we were kept in).

Honestly, thank God my children's earliest years, when they were most vulnerable, were under a Labour government (and I'm not even a Labour voter). We didn't have anything like the child poverty we have now, even the libraries had longer opening hours for them.

I have a five year year old and the only thing that has stopped the very low cost weekly group was the Covid response.

Probably wanted by many posting.

You may mock but this is VERY Important. If women are disappeared as a sex class, how can we be adequately protected in law?

Ironically, many of the countries held up on here as so much better than the UK have abandoned women as a sex class and women and girls in these countries are reaping the 'rewards' of this. Thank god that we have politicians who are not just waving this through.

the homeless situation in the UK is nothing like it is in the US. Who on earth told you it was?! My heart broke last time I was in California

Agreed. I've been to both California and Texas in the past few weeks and was shocked by the worsening poverty and homelessness. Zombie-like addicts wandering the streets.

I also travel continuously around Europe and see little evidence that the UK seems much worse than other places. Paris and many parts of Italy are overrun with homeless migrants, you often feel unsafe in major train stations. Unemployment is very high in Spain and Italy, there's just as much rubbish in the streets, more in some areas. The COL crisis is affecting my friends in places like Germany and Denmark.

I'm from NZ, BTW, so relatively neutral. I've lived in the UK and 3 other European countries for the past 25 years.

Sweden has thrown women and girls under the bus and have been trying to keep the rise in rape/sexual assault quiet. It is the wrong kind of perpetrator you see.

Evidence, please?

Not an excuse sorry. However shit our politicians may be, people KNOW it's a fucking disgusting thing to do to chuck their McDonald's rubbish out of the window of their car.
People are not helpless blobs copying the actions of their 'betters' - they have freedom of choice in how to behave. Sadly in the UK, many are lazy slobs who don't give a shit about the environment they live in.