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?

@TorqueWrench no one is saying people need to have more dc, it's too late for that anyway. Birth rates are below replacement level.

However we do have to acknowledge that when there is an upside down demographic pyramid & we have things like an NHS & fewer workers there are going to be huge problems. How do you propose everything is funded? Look at the conversations about the triple lock, yes our state pension is one of the lowest. but it's not sustainable.

"It means the state pension will have gone up by 11pc more than average earnings as well as 12pc more than inflation since 2010, and as former Conservative leader William Hague points out, that means it’s growing “by more than anything that can pay for it: wages or prices, or taxes, or the size of the economy”."

"The Office for Budget Responsibility meanwhile takes a 50-year view and comes up with a truly astronomical figure of close to £1 trillion, and as Hague reminds us: our entire GDP is just over £2 trillion."

I guess we could tell anyone under 40 their state pension age will be 80 plus but I can't see that being a vote winner.

And it's about acknowledging that globally countries with younger populations are going to become more richer & more powerful.

@TheThinkingGoblin i live in America and things are pretty bad here too. The major downside obviously being the insanely high crime (mainly, but not exclusively gun crime). Health care is great if you can afford great insurance - or if you have a job that gives you great insurance. We are lucky to have what is considered good health insurance and it costs us $7k a year for our family. Plus a $3k a year excess. Food is crazy expensive , roads are awful, infrastructure is bad and the politics are a joke.

OP I have traveled a lot and lived in 5 different countries across the world, give me the UK any day.

Who did you vote for out of interest? If you voted Tory then doh!

Things seemed pretty great around here in 2012...

But now we have human excrement in our waterways and on our beaches, our tents and mortgages are unaffordable, you can't get an ambulance when you need one, and we have crumbling concrete hanging over our children's heads.

*When was your kid's school built?

Was it more than 30 years ago?

Was it with RAAC?*

Since when have we had to ask these questions?!

Since we've had a government we can't trust to do the necessary.

All they seem to care about is lining their own pockets and fooling enough idiots into voting for them so they can do it some more.

We've got massive debts and the worst services I can remember. Where's our money gone?!

I've not read the stories but I'm not surprised by the 'crumbling concrete' comments.

Adding more than 10 litres water per m² of concrete significantly affects the compressive strength, yet many of our customers want 150L added to every 8m² load to make it more workable. The smaller clients are the worst and ask you to add it but not put on ticket as it invalidates any claim.

We're allowed to add up to 200L but it's only really meant to be done when it's dehydrated, not to 'mekkit run better'.

Facebook just showed me this...

You can only judge on their last record I suppose.

Did we have shit in our rivers then?

How were NHS waiting lists?

Inflation?

Wages?

School building?

Talking as someone who naively thought everything would change when Blair got in, I now think he just had way better PR.

I'm not going to take any lessons from the US on the subject of adequate funding for public services or the issue of racism.

Yet another Brexit thread. And no I didn't vote for it. If you think the UK is depressing now then you didn't live through the 60s and 70s.

I did live through the seventies and the tail end of the sixties. Uk seems to be heading back there in many ways. Sewage for one.

Before we joined the EEC you mean?

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.

How does that equate to 'no doctors'? That kind of language instantly tells you the OP is just whining and on a downer.

India is now the fifth largest economy in the world. So we are the sixth. I heard this on radio 4 last week.

Public services are bad yes. Cafes nail bars always full. Beauticians physio always busy. I think the economy is reasonable.

I count myself lucky as mortgage free and gave up the car. I work from home and can afford to buy any luxuries I enjoy such as Elemis.

I am thinking of working on good savings though in case private health is needed at any stage. I am soon 60 so need to be prudent.

We joined in 1973. Anyway I'm not against the EU. I'm talking about dirty trains, depressing town centres which were much worse than we have now. People value possessions much more now. Covid has had a disastrous affect on everything especially the well being of children and young people.

And we are heading back to those days, but you are right it is different this time. This time, it is even worse. In those days the NHS was not on its knees, there was a massive system of social housing and there was security for private tenants, including rent controls.

That’s not that high for a lawyer. What’s your earning potential?

As for whether Labour will make various people happier, idk. Listening to Rayner the other day she was best on ‘we’re not the Tories’ but every other question on what they’d actually do was difficult and she hit a wall

Covid has had a disastrous affect on everything especially the well being of children and young people

Things were going to shit long before the pandemic.

Tell that to the children who were killed by abusive parents amid the restrictions. The disastrous effect on speech and language skills of young children. The whole thing was farcical and yes I do blame the government for that

You seem to be confused.

It is not economically sound for the very wealthy like the Prime Minister to pay a smaller proportion of their income in taxes than teaches and nurses.

As if racism only exists there.

Do you remember when everything was shit in the early 90s? Recession, pollution, everything was just grim and exhausting and tired.

It feels like that. And guess what - that too was at the end of a long run of Tory governments. They take money out of public services. That's what they do, and it affects everyone. And this time around Brexit is making it worse, which is also the Tories' fault.

If people keep voting Tory, this is what you get. And yes, Labour will win the next election. But people need to remember this at the one after that, as well.

Oh I’m not. Those on PAYEcertainly do pay a hell of a lot more. Marginal tax rate of 70% here. I can see the 70% going in tax - in real time. Indeed, why should a billionaire be paying only 20%

No one would deny covid made things even worse, but it is not the root cause of the mess we are in.