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?

So you're all right, jack, and if anyone else isn't, it's their fault?
Nice.

What does that even mean? You don't know you're born?! I think she knows full well she is being shafted from all angles and no, it's not her imagination that the country is being run in to the shitter. For what end, who knows but it's no coincidence everything is falling apart. We do not have to just accept it and think ourselves lucky.

You seem quite fixated on your own personal issue and world view.

No doubt yes, the current taxation system is problematic.

Highly unlikely though that it's the sole factor in the decline in living standards the OP mentioned.

Again, as this point seems lost in your ranting, my point was in response to @oldthyme wanting better local services for less tax. So you banging on about low earner PAYE contributions being too low is a bit contradictory really. Given that's exactly what I'm saying.

YOU might pay a lot of tax. MOST people don't. You are talking about your own personal issues. I'm talking about general issues.

Love how you are pretending there would ĥave still been a referendum if the tories hadn't been in power.

Really? I'm pretty well traveled, have lived in 4 different countries and I'm ashamed of how low we have sunk as a country.

Even if we get a change of government it's going to take years to undo their crap.

Compared to the rest of Europe from first hand experience over the past few months, it’s an utter cesspit and rough, very rough, aggressive, regressive and slummy.

Wholeheartedly agree with you OP.

No standards anywhere, people are rude and uncivilised. It’s vile mostly. Nothing to do with racism either, mostly poverty and a low standard of living/ services enforced on people.

We have a piss poor government who are lazy and inept and corrupt. Utter embarrassment.

There are far far worse places to be living in the world right now.

Racist? People like you want to cause divide.

It's public debate and public life. It's in the gutter. We've had six prime ministers in eight years.

We are a mess

I’m alright because of the decisions I made.

How else do you think I arrived with nothing to my name, in a foreign country, and ended up where I am now?

You need to stop blaming others for your choices. That’s probably what got you into your current situation in the first place.

Be an adult, take responsibility for where you are.

Talking about America with some friends (wide age range) earlier. We were all saying that when we were younger, America seemed a fun place to live. Not any more, with healthcare being out of reach of a lot of people. People are dying because they don’t access to free or cheap healthcare.

Yes, the NHS, gp surgeries, etc are overstretched. However, at least they are there.

Australia isn’t too great either…
The cost of living has soared, very few can now afford to buy or rent in the capital cities, racism…well, that’s a whole other story! Yes you can see a doctor or a dentist but are expected to pay to do so. Private health insurance is a requirement when you earn over a certain amount and additional co payments are required on top if you need surgery or specialist outpatient appointments. There are no NHS prescription (or equivalent). University education isn’t cheap at all, and whilst students can obtain a higher education debt, it all needs to be paid back with interest. I really don’t understand how those on an average wage can afford to live here anymore…..

My rainy day savings are for car/house repairs, redundancy etc, not for living off because the price of food has doubled,insurance up 35%, mortgages up by £££, energy nearly doubled, fuel up, childcare up & every other single thing up.

Rainy day funds don’t last long in the current shitshow.

It's the children and people in general with disabilities that I most feel sorry for.
Kids aren't getting their educational provision in schools when we are a developed country.... madness!!!

@PinkRiceKrispies
Labour definitely isn't the answer when they can't even define what a woman is

Labour isn’t currently the answer because the leader would have fit happily onto every Tory front bench of the last 60 years with the exception of the extreme right wing Thatcher and austerity Cameron. More of the same won’t solve 50 years of right wing mismanagement that has seen much of the country become worse of than Poland.

Not really - it is pertinent. It is actively leading the hole the country is in. The government commissioned a report telling them this.

66 million people are either unpleasant and/or racist?? You've met all of them to make that judgement?? That's quite an achievement.

I travel a few times a year to Bavaria for work. Getting to know the place & speaking to the locals has been a real eye-opener. Taxes are higher than in the U.K. and the cost of living there is very high, too, but in almost every other way the place is miles ahead of England.
The healthcare system is amazing. It’s a universal insurance public / private hybrid system. Far better than the useless, dysfunctional, badly run, failing NHS in every possible way. It shows what can be done with proper funding and a system which actually works.
Education is excellent, infrastructure works, the roads are fantastic etc etc. Even the weather is better.
So why don’t I move there? All the obvious reasons, really. I speak very little German, certainly not enough to get a job over there, Brexit, family & friendship ties to the U.K.

And then we have Ukraine 😞

Everything is shit and it's not just the UK. It's greedy people everywhere who want money, possessions and not to pay their way back to society. Big companies who don't give a toss about the world as long as they are raking multi millions of profit in. Governments like ours who think everything should be run privately for profit. People who are lazy and don't want to work and pay their way. People who buy utter tat all the time and chuck it into landfill- people who just want all the times- clothes, plastic toys, cheap clothes that they buy and get rid of, fake grass, new cars every year or two. It's consumerism and the waste from it is appalling. So many ill-mannered, loud, gossipy, vulgar people around shouting about them and what they want and should have with no care for anyone or anything. People seem unintelligent- obsessed with shallow things like celebrities and their lives- it's so empty and pathetic.
I'm sick of trying to make our bit of the world nicer - nobody gives a toss.
We should all work hard, pay our way, do our best to bring our children up properly to be kind, to contribute. Far too many people are wanters and takers - not givers and helpers- they don't put back or look after.

I agree that many people have become selfish and don't care anymore. It's little things you notice. Like people caring less about breaking the law, committing traffic offences like jumping red lights more than they used to, road rage in cidents, parking in dangerous places cos it's more convenient for them, huge increase in shoplifting etc. They know that no-one will do a thing about it, they'll never get caught and even if they do they won't get prosecuted because there aren't the resources to do it for those sorts of offences anymore, theyre under-resourced and overwhelmed. In my area, they have just made huge HUGE cuts to the policing budget. £15m by 2028. That's terrifying to me.

They're old fashioned terms, but I believe that "common decency" and "moral fibre" are sadly something you can't assume that most people possess anymore.

Am just sitting waiting for this Tory-destroyed country to turn into a lawless society.

This.

The price of good hasn’t doubled, and it’s still around the cheapest in Europe.

You should have insurance for redundancy, and car repairs etc should be in your normal budget.

If rising rates are a serious problem then you could have fixed for ten years.

It's not just the UK though. It's everywhere. My relatives in Canada are struggling to get a Dr as the waiting lists are so long. Our current lifestyles are unsustainable. We've lost sight of this. There are too many people in the world. I've not witnessed racism in this country, but then I am white. I think that the tabloids distort the actuality and make things seem more hostile or worse than they are. I do however worry about climate change more than anything else. I can't help feeling that we're all doomed.

Inflated lifestyle of the late 90s coming back to bite.