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 wish that we had walk ins but they have all closed down in our area - they are a great idea and should be brought back.

There are no NHS dentists in Devon or Cornwall taking on new NHS patients, this is fairly common through out the UK.

There was a practice in Liskeard that was accepting new nhs patients but it was based on a 2 year waiting list & they closed that list down.

This includes children, who are entitled to free nhs treatment, i would suggest that parents should be allowed to claim back private treatment in these cases but the Govt says NO.

So kids go without or their parents pay.

I wish that we had walk ins but they have all closed down in our area - they are a great idea and should be brought back

Of course but there is a shortage of staff, equipment and money to run them, which is (one reason) why they closed down in the first place.

Because people don't trust our government or public sector to use the money effectively. They wouldn't overhaul things, run things more efficiently, because that would lead to job losses and pay cuts. Instead things would stay the same and the people already working there would just put more money into their own pockets.

Tax is pretty high here, it’s not like middle earners are feeling particularly flush. How much do you pay and how much would you like to pay?

Re inequality the highest was in 2008 and we’re lower now, so heading away from the US measure

Yes but they're rioting and burning stuff in protest at pensions increasing from 62 to 64. Based on my age my own stage pension age is (currently) 68! So basically the French are saying a resounding non to something which is already significantly 'better' than what we have here in the U.K..

Well, whose fault is that? we elect them!

As for inequality, based on wealth, we are about average (high house prices) but on income, we are the most unequal in Europe.

https://equalitytrust.org.uk/scale-economic-inequality-uk

This!! Tory central government has CUT local council funding. So we get pot holes etc.

Even worse - areas that have non Tory councils have worse cuts!!

I live in a well to do town in the SE, so see how insulated people can be from issues such as the cost of living crisis. There’s plenty of money round here and feel there always will be. Potholes and brushes with the NHS are where the insulated start to feel what’s happening. I seriously think if the Tories are voted next out there (please) it’ll be more pot holes than the NHS that we’re witnessing the destruction of.

Fixing potholes should be one of the top priorities of councils, not something they only do when they have enough money left over. But it should be done efficiently, you don't need to close the road for days and have 20 men sat around smoking to be able to fill a pothole.

They don't hang around doing nothing, your re lucky if there is more than two workers dealing with the 'hole.

Councils use a hot tar mix, square off the hole and fill it, they can do dozens of pot holes per day but..........

Holes can be filled quickly but after a few months and heavy rain, they reappear because the foundation of the road itself and tarmac used (cheap mixes without enough tar) has failed.

Roads are so damaged now that it will costs 10s of £ billions to put right..

Once again... austerity has cost us all dearly.

Maintaining roads should be a priority for councils. At the moment it does not seem to be. Their offices are full of people doing nothing of any use, and don't get me started on the amount of people off sick long term and still being paid their full wage for doing no work whatsoever. Then there's the council chiefs pulling in millions while doing precisely nothing of any value. The whole thing stinks to high heaven.

We're pumping sewage into our rivers & beaches not happening in Europe
The trains haven't recovered from Covid half of them don't run anymore because there aren't enough staff (never mind the strikes)
Ditto the buses
No nhs dentists .
GP's leaving in droves
Same with teachers

Again that's before you factor in strikes
Lowest predicted economy growth in the G7
Life expectancy starting to fall in some areas of the UK

And all that before you even mention the increased dependency on food banks! Even by people who are working!

150 thousand asylum seekers being put up in hotels because the home office doesn't have the staff to process them

Our Armed Forces cut to the point they are useless other than providing MACA to the other failing Govt department.

The police - don't even know where to start with them.

Honestly I don't understand how people can't see what a mess we are in!

@JoanOfMarch you see I don't agree- I went to Sweden loads when we lived in Copenhagen both Stockholm and Malmo - never saw a single issue over and above the odd drunk guy , the advice in Malmo was telling us to avoid certain 'very ethnic' areas that housed lots of asylum seekers, as they were a bit gangs and 'urban' - so you just never went to those bits- there's plenty of bits of Manchester, London or Birmingham I wouldn't exactly rush to. Very much the same in Copenhagen too. It's not nirvana, and yes they have pockets of issues , but I did think it was a more ordered society 'in the main 'in Scandinavia, stuff everywhere worked better. Same applies in Germany and Netherlands

Have you got links to back up your allegations?

Do you think a council social worker, half kicked to death (doing his job) and off work for 6 months should be sacked? or not paid? as happened to a friend of ours.

Yes CEO's of councils are grossly over paid ...along with so many others in public services. but who allowed this to happen? Tories been in for 13 years, plenty of time to put it right.

But this is small beer compared to the money needed to put right the UK roads, roads need rebuilding, not patching up, sacking a few CEO's and cutting sick pay will not release the money needed.

https://www.ukroed.org.uk/report-warns-of-record-bill-to-fix-local-roads/#:~:text=The%20one%2Dtime%20cost%20to,%C2%A368%2C000%20for%20every%20mile.

I lived in Sweden.... still got lots of friends there and have visited many times since. yes they have issues, of course but the place runs well.... not as it did in the 90s but thats because they voted in a right wing austerity led Govt.

But Sweden simply doesn't have the issues the UK has..no where in Europe does.

Even pre brexit the NHS was shite, esp Maternity, my Polish friends left the UK to have their baby in Poland, so shocked were they by the NHS.... its just worse now.

Brexit has speeded up the process, but the country has been going downhill for over a decade. The nhs has been enduring cuts year on year in real terms and councils are at the point of bankruptcy.

I've been shocked that the Tories continued to be voted in. Did people not see it? Not care?

I mean, France is a mess too. Germany and Italy have their issues.
and I think (although NHS is widespread - it’s been an issue for ages people are only just realising now that it’s actually falling apart) that it depends where you are in the country. We have well maintained parks with park keepers, little litter, dog crap wardens who issue fines. The area is well kept and council money seems to be well spent with new parks being built and cycle paths added to make the routes more family friendly.

a lot of shops have closed here but are being rapidly replaced.

I appreciate it’s not the case everywhere and cost of living etc is ridiculous, but I think it’s a huge generalisation to say we are falling apart compared to Europe. When you holiday you’re likely to go to the nicer areas as well so you don’t get a true representation.

Still can’t believe the tories keep being voted in though. It genuinely shocks me, and I’m in an area that’s insulated from a lot of the issues being listed here - we have NHS dentists, a good GP surgery, no issues with teacher turnaround at our schools. We are in the SE and it seems to be pretty similar in a lot of towns/cities here.

It's not nirvana, and yes they have pockets of issues , but I did think it was a more ordered society 'in the main 'in Scandinavia, stuff everywhere worked better. Same applies in Germany and Netherlands

Mass migration is causing major issues throughout Western Europe. I'm not sure what the answer is.

I mean, France is a mess too.

Ummm..I get from a few PPs that some people patently quite strongly don't "like" the place and I'd agree there are some fairly nasty parts of some cities.

OTOH I think too many people see MSM reports of demos etc and maybe not understanding what specific issue is being argued about jump to the conclusion that what is going on occasionally in some big cities is a manifestation (SWIDT) of widespread national malaise and collapse.

We're not in one of the prettier touristy regions of France but hospitals excellent, including A&E, roads very good (cycling country so it has to be), local G/P still almost walk in (though potential shortages in some very rural areas), multiple dentists available in the local small town..bins emptied weekly (throughout the recent strikes, even on strike days), even the local big city has much less dog poop lying around than a decade ago.

It's certainly not nirvana but I'm not sure I'd characterise it as a "mess".

@cornfleurs I don't think it's all about migration- although in some Western European countries that is mainly it seems where the issues are happening. In the UK though I think we have more than our fair amount of home grown, white , weasel faced troublemakers who have no respect for what's acceptable or social manners - look at all the parents in the abuse situations of late- nearly all white non immigrants. . We can't blame everything on immigration.

Op here- this all took on a life of its own but to bring it back to my post, I just read this article which is saying very similar to the point I was making

https://novaramedia.com/2022/12/16/travelling-across-poland-showed-me-that-britains-economy-is-broken/

This is the inconvenient truth which you're not allowed to discuss. The countries which have experienced the highest numbers of male immigrants from Muslim countries have also experienced the highest increases in rape and sexual assault - around a 20% rise in Germany where they had 1200 assaults in one night on NYE a few years back.

The police don't want to acknowledge it for fear of not being of politically correct, just like in Rotherham. They claimed that NYE was 'largely trouble free' despite over a thousand sexual assaults, and made similar claims about the music festival where thirty something teenage girls were sexually assaulted by a group of around 50 migrants. There are loads of examples like this and most have been brushed under the carpet until the true stories started coming out on social media.

There were threads on here about what happened in Cologne.