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?

That's difficult to do when your mortgage has gone up £1000 a month. People are having to get lodgers and put off renovations etc.

Exactly what I was going to say. Society, worldwide, is changing and not for the better

Totally disagree about the Labour comment.
The mess we are in is totally the Tories' fault.
I cannot understand why anybody would vote for them. They have done untold damage to this country. And while the mega rich get richer at our cost, they point the finger at refugees and say "we must stop the small boats".
Refugees are not our enemies. Billionaires are

It doesn't feel that way when people are shrugging about children drowned trying to apply for asylum in the U.K.

NHS waiting times are a joke, even a prescription refill takes 2 weeks at my GP.

Wages are shit, housing is shit.

What I’ve noticed most is that people are unhappy, and in turn selfish. There is dog shit everywhere, loose dogs everywhere, insane drivers, anti-social behaviour. A log of people just don’t give a shit anymore, it’s like society is degrading.

Dentist is a luxury

For me it's the people/moods/attitudes. Like everyone is angry and impatient. No one is interested in doing a good job. Road rage, or just pulling out and sod the consequences. Kids riding bikes in the middle of the road. Motorbikes revving at all hours. Inconsiderate noise constantly.

I think the UK is something like 28th richest per capita. I’ve never understood the point of the “5th richest” in contexts other than discussing the country in terms of a market to trade with. In terms of people’s lives, the per capita figure is surely of far more relevance.

You're being ridiculous and have no idea what a truly dreadful country is if you think the UK is one. Try living in Libya, Somalia, Haiti, Afghanistan. You don't know you're born!

Have you noticed it’s worse since covid? I swear people were more considerate before but my DH thinks people have always been awful.

This is a textbook false equivalence fallacy.

We compare the UK to other developed countries.

Not 3rd world ones.

@oldthyme tax is what pays for all of these things. Things like street cleaning and road maintenance are the responsibility of the Local Government. Central Government hayve reduced funding paid to Local Government significantly. For 12 years.

Leaving very limited revenue sources for Local Government (Council Tax, Parking) to fund everything from child and adult social care, to refuse collection, street cleaning, buses, to schools and libraries. There just isn't enough money coming in to fund everything. Something has to give and most authorities priority is their statutory duties. Street cleaning isn't a priority. It just can't be with the crippling state of funding for local services.

If PAYE tax is reduced, even less will make its way to local services via Central Government.

The NHS is flawed but imagine living in a country with no healthcare. People who don't work are given benefits. Yes there are homeless people but you are usually housed if you can't pay for one yourself. Things are harder than say 10 years ago but so many people in the uk are moany, whiny and selfish. That's where the real problems lie. You have no idea what it would be like to live in a poorer country.

You think the UK is worse than the US? You're off your rocker.

We should compare ourselves to Germany, France and the Netherlands.

The standard of living for the 'average' person in those countries is far higher than for the 'average' Brit.

The sooner these corrupt, gaslighting shitehawks are booted into the political wilderness the better.

Does anyone know why Rishi Sunak pays a lower proportion of his income in tax than teachers and nurses do?

Everybody is just so aggressive was walking through a hospital corridor today I was literally barged out the way by two people who didn’t even look back at me once
even on the buses on the street you look at somebody by mistake and they want to bite your head off. It’s just an awful place to live . I think it’s definitely an England thing I went to Scotland once and everyone was so polite I nearly fainted

@BeautifulWar No doctors since the late 90s in my experience.

No. PAYE tax is already at breaking point. I’ll give you an example. 23k bonus. I got 7k the government took 16k. 70% marginal tax rate - would be over 100% if I had young children. The higher rate tax payers (PAYE) are some of the most over taxed in the world which means they are now avoiding tax by using things like pensions. The basic rate tax however, one of the lowest in the world so that should be looked at. Or here is an idea - stop damaging tax take by penalising those who work and pay ridiculous amounts already. You can’t keep relying on so few people to carry a country.

we never recovered from 08 but cheap money masked it. No investment in infrastructure, people etc. Now the shits hit the fan.

Ridiculous & irrelevant to this post! Op is comparing the U.K. of today to what it used to be like. we can always find ‘worse’ in everything.

i wouldn’t go on a post on relationships board where someone was upset about being cheated on & say ‘you should count yourself lucky because some women get beaten up’.

I think awful may be a bit harsh.

Everywhere has shit bits and shit things, but yes at the moment it does seem to be one thing after another in the UK.

What frustrated us a lot was public services and the ever increasing wealth gap. Where we lived it wasn’t possible to find an NHS dentist, waits for elective treatment was very long, my husband had been waiting over two years for a cardiac appointment.

Social care is in crisis which will only worsen while wages again are very low in the industry and funding isn’r adequate to support service users.

The primary schools in our area were great, but the secondary schools are terrible and over subscribed with high staff turnovers. Nursery provision is very expensive and not great quality, alongside that nursery staff are poorly paid.

Increased costs really hit us and we’re fairly high earners, I can’t imagine how stressful it has been for many families on a low income.

Massive issue with the changing population demographics or rather the lack of planning so it's going to get worse.

I’m in another country and things not as nice here as they were…people not as nice, an underlying miserable vibe…all since covid

The postal service is to be expected though...

I mean it's comparatively rare to send things by post these days outside of parcels and there are many competitors for the parcel side.

It's simple supply and demand. A service that's in far less demand and in decline is going to be more expensive and attract less capital...