Page 16 | to think the UK has become awful?

ma1formed · 2023-09-13T19:26:22+00:00

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?

jgw1 · 14/09/2023 07:49

Fuckthatguy · 14/09/2023 07:45

what @jgw1 said 👏

Can anyone imagine the Cadburys, Darbys, Titus Salt and their like running a company in the way that modern day bosses do?

Fuckthatguy · 14/09/2023 07:54

@jgw1 the FSA should investigate the government in the same way they would any financial organisation. No discrimination should be made between private and public sectors.

oh wait…Ofgem…we are fucked either way until there is adequate leadership

Trixiefirecracker · 14/09/2023 07:54

I love living in England. It’s stunningly beautiful where we live. Small well run GP practice. Still get NHS dentists. Everyone is very kind, helpful and community minded. I see lots of random acts of kindness on a day to day basis. There are still areas where housing is affordable. That saying I hate the Tory government and realise this is not the case everywhere but have travelled widely and do not think France/Spain etc are much better and suffer from problems akin to our own. Nowhere is perfect.

Sigmama · 14/09/2023 07:58

Plenty of people live a prosperous and peaceful life in the UK

Riverlee · 14/09/2023 08:06

Sone people have quoted 2012 being when UK was at its best in recent times. Memories are short, we were in a recession then and things weren’t looking too good. If it wasn’t for the Jubilee and Olympics, it would have been a very bleak year.

A quote I found.

”Some years are best forgotten. And, for the British economy, 2012 is one of them. Over the past 12 miserable months Britain slipped backwards, experiencing its first double-dip recession since the 1970s. The UK's national income is now likely to be smaller at the end of 2012 than it was at the beginning of the year.” independent newspaper

Yes, things are tough at the moment, but things will improve. We’ve just had a run of bad luck at the moment with austerity, Covid, war in Ukraine, cost of living, etc. , and an awful summer to boot.

NoMoreLifts · 14/09/2023 08:07

wheresmymojo · 13/09/2023 21:32

Sorry but I wouldn't choose to be born in the 50's at all.

Horses for courses but...

Racism and homophobia

Sexism and misogyny

Rampant ableism, massive stigma attached to anyone considered outside the 'norm'

Being considered a second class citizen as a woman. Needing your Dad or Husband to do anything of note like take out a mortgage

Husbands could legally rape their wives for another 46 years(!) because we were still effectively seen as 'belonging' to a husband after marriage

Rampant child abuse where children were never believed and some was even tolerated / encouraged by society at large.

Decades of being expected as women to put up with all sorts of shitty male behaviour including domestic abuse because of the stigma of divorce

Extremely limited options for the majority of women in terms of what you did with your life

Decades of being extremely limited and insular in worldview due to lower levels of travel and engagement outside of own circles

Decades of limited understanding of self and others due to less knowledge

Greater impact of generational trauma and all the crap that follows trauma because of lack of access to anything that would help to understand and break the cycle

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In her / his 50s (born about 1970).
Not living in the 50s.

dottiedodah · 14/09/2023 08:08

TrixieFirecracker Agree wholeheartedly! We live on SC,lovely weather ,and beautiful beaches .Good hospital /GP service .I appreciate not the experience of everyone ,but no country is perfect .

LodiDodi · 14/09/2023 08:09

I have been fucked over twice by the NHS in ways that have impacted my life really badly. It is only out of the goodness of my heart that I haven't sued them because one case in particular would lead to a considerable payout, but now I'm considering it because working full time in roles that add a lot to society hasn't even enabled me to live to a decent standard.

ginandtonicwithlimes · 14/09/2023 08:14

We know it is shit at the moment but do we need another post about it? Although being a lawyer OP you are probably better off than many!

Alexandra2001 · 14/09/2023 08:15

dottiedodah · 14/09/2023 08:08

TrixieFirecracker Agree wholeheartedly! We live on SC,lovely weather ,and beautiful beaches .Good hospital /GP service .I appreciate not the experience of everyone ,but no country is perfect .

Yes South Coast of France is lovely...

... but a quick look at waiting times at english SC hospitals shows that that you must use Bupa etc hospitals.

Southern water has just paid out huge fines for dumping sewage....

DownNative · 14/09/2023 08:22

Alexandra2001 · 14/09/2023 07:20

Sure dig down into "quality of life" and we are 13th, with 8 european/EU countries above us.... & on "open for business" we are 45th... bottom of the pile...
We score highly because of cultural influence, stability and power...

Apparently we also have very developed health and education systems too..... many people would disagree with both.

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Only 6 EU countries are above the UK for quality of life with all the rest below us.

And just two non-EU countries above us.

In other words, the UK is still Top 10 in Europe for quality of life with most of Europe below. Including Republic of Ireland, France, Spain & Italy!

Top 10 Overall & Top 10 Europe plus Top 15 for global quality of life.

We can celebrate what we do well whilst acknowledging what we'd like to improve. It's not a False Dilemma scenario, you know. 🤦‍♂️

Redbrickrebel · 14/09/2023 08:24

Compared to what it used to be before this Conservative Govt, Brexit & Covid, yes.

Disgusting moral vacumns like Boris Johnson & Rishi Sunak have made legitimate attitudes of entitlement & exceptionalism.

Chuck in a good chunk of xenophobia and ignorance, and you have quite an amazing cocktail.

In my job at the moment, we have experienced a ridiculous rise in customer enquiries and demands, most of which are spurious or unnecessary as the information they are wanting is available to them online and has been emailed to them, and we can only conclude the attitude of ' you can't make me read that/do that/go there/ ' has permiated into my sector.

Trixiefirecracker · 14/09/2023 08:25

Alexandra2001 · 14/09/2023 08:15

Yes South Coast of France is lovely...

... but a quick look at waiting times at english SC hospitals shows that that you must use Bupa etc hospitals.

Southern water has just paid out huge fines for dumping sewage....

Show quote history

Just our local hospital, which is small but well run. Went recently to A and E and was seen immediately. Have just had a series of bloods/scans. All done very smoothly and without incident. Very kind and supportive staff. GPS are attentive and can see face to face easily. Spend a lot of time swimming in our beautiful lakes and rivers. South of France too hot for me and France a nanny state as far as I’m concerned. They also have problems with schooling/lack of staff/ cost of living etc etc. it’s not just here.

Fuckthatguy · 14/09/2023 08:25

@ginandtonicwithlimes yes. I don’t spend as much time as I used to in the UK for the very reasons cited but for those unable to leave because of children, work, affordability it’s hellish (for many). Granted some remote village on the coast would by idyllic but nowhere is ‘safe’ at the current rate decay, and that’s the concern.

EasternStandard · 14/09/2023 08:26

Trixiefirecracker · 14/09/2023 08:25

Just our local hospital, which is small but well run. Went recently to A and E and was seen immediately. Have just had a series of bloods/scans. All done very smoothly and without incident. Very kind and supportive staff. GPS are attentive and can see face to face easily. Spend a lot of time swimming in our beautiful lakes and rivers. South of France too hot for me and France a nanny state as far as I’m concerned. They also have problems with schooling/lack of staff/ cost of living etc etc. it’s not just here.

Show quote history

Tbf I had similar with a CT scan recently, in a city

derxa · 14/09/2023 08:37

Sir keir has been on GMB this morning saying he will not row back on Brexit. How often must this be stated.

DogInATent · 14/09/2023 08:38

Riverlee · 14/09/2023 08:06

Sone people have quoted 2012 being when UK was at its best in recent times. Memories are short, we were in a recession then and things weren’t looking too good. If it wasn’t for the Jubilee and Olympics, it would have been a very bleak year.

A quote I found.

”Some years are best forgotten. And, for the British economy, 2012 is one of them. Over the past 12 miserable months Britain slipped backwards, experiencing its first double-dip recession since the 1970s. The UK's national income is now likely to be smaller at the end of 2012 than it was at the beginning of the year.” independent newspaper

Yes, things are tough at the moment, but things will improve. We’ve just had a run of bad luck at the moment with austerity, Covid, war in Ukraine, cost of living, etc. , and an awful summer to boot.

But 2012 was still a time of optimism and broadly centrist politics. Whilst there were immediate economic concerns it felt like things would continue to improve.

Then sometime around 2014 UK politics turned increasingly negative and divisive. In hindsight it's now clear that third parties were dumping huge amounts of cash into the political fringes to stoke this.

bombastix · 14/09/2023 08:39

All you can hope for is that the Tory Party are flattened at the next election. Sorting this out is the work of a decade at least.

BookishBabe · 14/09/2023 08:39

My DM had my youngest sister in 2007, her 6th natural labour and delivery. Everything went very well and was completely ordinary. Free nappies and formula on the ward. She stayed in an NHS hospital for nearly a week while she tried to establish breastfeeding with the nurses and lactation support.
She also told them she had 5 older children at home and wanted more time to connect with her new baby and they let her stay pretty much until she was ready.

I had my first DS in 2017, c section, I was rushed out of the ward in less than 24hrs after major surgery. 15 hours after surgery when visiting hours were over my new born baby did a wee while I was changing him, when I called a nurse for help to lift him out the bassinet as I was in too much pain she told me "you're the mother, its your problem" and walked away and left me.
I provided my own nappies, Sanitary pads, formula, everything. I was barely checked on and when I was it was rushed. They couldn't provide the food I needed due to only having budget toast or weetabix and I had gestational diabetes. I cried a lot in the first 24 hours from frustration.
I went home with Paracetamol from my full abdominal surgery just 24hrs prior, which I was actually glad about because of how they treated me I just wanted to go home.

10 years apart (7 of which were under a consecutive Conservative government) our experiences are polar opposites of a safe and happy birth and labour ward.

EasternStandard · 14/09/2023 08:42

bombastix · 14/09/2023 08:39

All you can hope for is that the Tory Party are flattened at the next election. Sorting this out is the work of a decade at least.

What are they planning to do though to ‘sort it out’?

Other than run on we’re not them

Sundance03 · 14/09/2023 08:43

It sounds like England, Scotland isn't as bad

bombastix · 14/09/2023 08:44

The UK needs to invest in its infrastructure to start with. Look at how things have fallen literally to bits. That's long term. Expect that in the Labour manifesto as s policy. You won't see it in the Tory one

EasternStandard · 14/09/2023 08:46

bombastix · 14/09/2023 08:44

The UK needs to invest in its infrastructure to start with. Look at how things have fallen literally to bits. That's long term. Expect that in the Labour manifesto as s policy. You won't see it in the Tory one

As long as they also put how they’ll fund it

DownNative · 14/09/2023 08:47

In the 2023 Best Countries rankings, the UK is 6th in Europe for Agility and, I think, 14th Global Overall.

Agility = a country's ability to overcome obstacles.

So, most of Europe AND most of the world aren't as well positioned at overcoming challenges, obstacles and so on as the UK.

This matters because we know we can build back better over the years to come too.

Fuckthatguy · 14/09/2023 08:48

@DownNative you mean rebuild what wasn’t done properly / done on the cheap the first time round.