to think the UK has become awful?

[ma1formed]

I can't pinpoint when, but it feels like everything that was once pretty good is now quite awful

So expensive
No doctors
Uni costs for kids insane
Terrible rent / can't buy a house
Everyone seems quite unpleasant or racist

Is it just me?

Reducing pension of PMs. It should be in li e with NHS doctors and tied up to length of tenure. Where else do you get full salary as pension even if you worked for a month. Ideally no need to pay them pensions, they end up getting lucrative assignments thanks their times in politics.
Also, lower the salary of MPs to the levels of nurses. Remove the perks, subsidised alcohol at Westminster. If they are found to be corrupt, they need to serve prison sentences. That will deter candidates like Boris who joined for own benefits. There will be money to fix one problem you mentioned. Well intentioned políticans will make better policies.

@BeautifulWar

where have you been ? Doctors are leaving to pastures greener because the they are treated terribly and paid terribly. They are plugging the gaps with PA and other advanced practitioners.

I agree, the UK feels god damn awful at the moment. Public services have gone to sh*t, a significant percentage of the population are living hand to mouth, we are unhealthily/overweight and work too many hours, the weather is crap, cancel culture and gender politics are causing unrest. I don’t want to be here and I don’t feel proud to be British.

Yes it’s shit. Everyone is miserable. Young, old, poor and rich.

Scotland us much worse for racism.

This is ridiculous.

You are all fighting with each other over how bad it can get.

'Benefits' are basically starvation rations at this point. The government are cutting and cutting to the point people who cannot work are struggling to eat and eating tinned food out of foodbanks (which have been normalised, did you see them growing up?!). Meanwhile you are fighting amongst each others the ones who can work, who can eat and basically afford nothing else.

The NHS is non functional unless you are literally about to die or have cancer. Life-altering issues, that in any other country would be seeing a specialist within weeks, we are waiting YEARS. My womb is hanging into my vagina and I cannot even get seen by a gynae and this has been over a year since referall. I cannot work full time and my marriage is suffering. My GP surgery is sending out texts saying please do not abuse staff, we realise you are stressed (not me, I haven't bothered them in over a year, but a general message). I wait to be seen for even a first appointment for childbirth injuries. I'm a lowly peasant on minimium wage and benefits, my sister and her husband are not on benefits but under the same system.

We could all live a decent life, you just don't want it, you keep voting Tory, well I hope you have a functioning healthcare service when you need it (like we used to have) and savings if you lose your jobs.

I remember over ten years ago we had these things, we do not now.

This

I'm 31yo and graduated with an English degree with the intention of going into journalism or editing - always loved writing. Ended up falling into sales through a temporary admin/marketing job that saw me promoted into a junior business development role working directly for the commercial director.

I came to hate it tbh but was earning into the £30k's in my early 20s and had moved into a flat, bought a nice car etc. It wasn't mega money but I knew that to get into writing I'd have to either do it in my spare time or move home and become some kind of intern on a miserably low wage, so I was trapped.

I floundered on for a few years never really wanting to become a fully fledged account manager or external sales rep which would've seen me on an OTE of about £60k as this was a top five supplier in the industry. I was good at my job but hated the idea of spending my days doing PowerPoint presentations to clients and basically kissing arse. Once I came to detest it I found myself suffering from daily anxiety as it was difficult to 'fake it'. My enthusiasm at the start had been genuine and I couldn't just turn it on like many of my colleagues seemed able to. I guess I kind of burned out.

I then moved sideways into bid management and was finally doing a lot of writing but it was all boring commercial stuff and it pretty much killed my love of reading as I couldn't bear to look at more words when I got home. I was on about £40k at this stage but on the fast track scheme to become a senior bid manager working on >£15m bids which would've seen a 50% pay increase.

I eventually took voluntary redundancy instead of moving to another site and decided to have a sabbatical of sorts and do something fun like drive trucks (was already into offroading etc). I absolutely loved it and never stopped!

It's defo not a job for everyone, but I love rolling out of bed 30 mins before work, having my breakfast while they load me whilst gradually waking up, then making a few deliveries. I don't spend hours on motorways/in traffic, it's all within a 25 mile radius and mostly to regular sites. I don't find myself clockwatching like when in an office. It's usually 20 mins driving there, 20 mins offloading, 20 mins driving back, and repeat.

I just listen to podcasts/spotify most of the day and enjoy not constantly feeling harried tbh or dealing with office politics. And it's great being able to get out and stand in the sun rather than staring out the window all day knowing it'll be 6pm by the time I'm finished and the best part of the day gone.

I'd probs be on £10k more by now had I stayed in the office but £50k is plenty for me, living in a cheap part of the country and not having kids. If I want more I'll get my crane tickets and start calling around our clients for a job. Or get my operator's license.

Waffling on a bit now lol, but you honestly couldn't get me back into a corporate environment for £100k.

No it's not. Gum infections provably cause infections in the heart.

I hugely agree OP. And I can pinpoint when it happened. The 2008 economic crash was the start of it maybe. But really it was 2010 and Cameron and austerity, and it’s just got worse ever since. Accelerated by Brexit and then the pandemic, then Truss.

I would never have dreamed when my son was born 16 years ago that I’d be partly choosing his sixth form based on which school roof was less likely to collapse and kill him…

Land tax is the answer. You can't hide land in the Caymans.

The absolute decadence of being easily able to chew food

Not the fifth biggest economy anymore. India just overtook it.

Wage growth has been minimal since 2008 but wealth (assets) has increased v well. Super rich are doing fine.

“The country’s leading economics thinktank said the rapid increases for those who already owned wealth had coincided with a long-term stagnation in earnings. This meant younger adults in particular could “no longer expect to see greatly improving living standards as they age” compared with the faster pay rises and access to cheaper housing enjoyed by their parents’ generation.”

But I think a lot of people don't really see the opportunities in my sector because they have no insight. I was the same tbh.

If you're earning £65k in your early 20s as say a tower crane operator you have loads of options. With no student loan or considerable debt to worry about you can buy your first property years before the typical graduate and then be a landlord within a pretty short timespan.

Or instead you can choose to really live your life in a way most people your age can't. The few people in their early 20s earning that salary in the corporate world will no doubt have a pretty all consuming job. It likely won't be a steady eight hour day with not a moment's thought of work once you're done for the day. Most likely it'll be a relatively senior management job which will consume an incredible amount of your time and energy, especially as an inexperienced newcomer.

There's a lot to be said for being a young, debt free, high earner with a low stress job. That situation is very conducive to personal growth and enjoying life.

With the huge driver shortage and aging workforce (average driver 55yo) demand is high and it's easy to get the work. My old manager decided to set up on his own a year ago and he's absolutely killing it. He was making £600 a day profit on the first contract (only two trucks I think) and he's now expanded that one and signed agreements with another three companies, which is why he wants me to help running the day to day operational side.

There are loads of opportunities in the construction/haulage sector right now. Housebuilding may have taken a hit but there is still a lot of civil work (student accommodation etc) and highways work, and that's before we even get to HS2. And of course there's a huge shortage of truckers. At the Tarmac plant I worked at they were constantly telling customers that they were at capacity and couldn't supply any more concrete for a week.

It's a great time to grow a business in the sector and brexit may even have helped by reducing the amount of competition from European drivers. The Indians seem to have realised this as they are a significant presence in the haulage and concrete industry nowadays, especially Sikhs.

Totally agree - it’s a really sorry state both structurally and socially given the amount of privilege we have. No pride in itself. I’ve only felt like this in the last few years but maybe that’s me getting old and cynical

It is dire. Apart from the awful major issues like healthcare (DD waiting for surgery for an issue that was identified a year ago, still no idea when it will take place and education (schools literally about to fall down, impossible to find sufficient teachers),lack of affordable childcare or housing, terrible social care, insufficient policing etc, everywhere just looks so run down. The government has cut local authority funding to the bone and it shows. The roads are just dreadful. The road markings are so worn away in some places it's verging on dangerous.

I simply don't see how it can be rectified in one term of a new government. I hope voters give a (Labour, I assume) future government time in office to actually make a difference.

I'm no Tory fan but would a Labour government really have rectified all the current issues? I'm not entirely convinced tbh.

Well we'd still be in the EU and wouldn't be losing 40 billion a year in tax revenue for a start
https://www.itv.com/news/2022-12-20/brexit-costs-government-40-billion-a-year-in-lost-tax-revenue

Is it not greed that you want some of their money?

I mean the fact people think this shows me how stupid so many of the electorate is.

As a PP stated; people saying that Covid cost the country millions should look at where the money actually went. Anyone in the public services will tell you that they did not get half the promised resources. So many decisions were made by those in power making deals with their mates, all to profit one another.

Not just during Covid; it’s is a daily story of corruption and cronyism and the truth gets hidden away…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66596319
So many politicians are ill informed, inarticulate and have zero integrity. I’m not at all enamoured of the Labour Party today but I remember vividly the positive changes in my life during their time in power. Surestart centres and EY investment was the best policy ever created and could have actually changed the UK. Ditto Building Schools for the Future and the City Technology Colleges.
Add Brexit into the mix and it’s no wonder that so many people’s lives are challenging. I can’t believe the electorate aren’t up in arms!

Well yes as it should be.

No @DragonFly98 tax shouldn't be so heavily weighted on income vs wealth when we have wealth inequality & intergenerational inequality. And when wages have stagnated for years. But please explain your thinking?

I didn't vote brexit but a small part of me still likes the idea of not having to answer to the European courts and hopes that in the future we'll have strengthened our economic stability whilst retaining our independence.

But I quit a good office job with great prospects to work in trucking/construction because I was happy to sacrifice money in the short term to not be in an environment where I'm always kowtowing to others, so I likely don't share a similar outlook to most.

Our demographics are all wrong: our ageing population which older millennials and younger Gen X will soon add to, will hollow out the state coffers. There will not be enough working age people to pay for us future retirees and our spiraling health costs but sure, blame immigration.

yes many countries in the West are facing a decline because as you say other countries are levelling up.

The UKs "natural" population is declining, we already have more over 65 yr olds then under 15s. The demographic shift isn't sustainable. In the 60s there was about 1 pensioner to 5 workers, that ratio is now 1:3 & is projected to be 1:2 soon. Logically that cannot work but immigration isn't popular.

I defo feel like increasing the population isn't the solution to this (I mean by having more children, not through immigration). It feels a bit like encouraging people to smoke to avoid the market impact of tobacco companies going bust.

@wheresmymojo the poster you're replying to is in her 50s, not born in the 50s. She'd be in her 60s or 70s if she was born in that decade.

Never mind, you were ahead of me! 😄