AIBU to ask if there is anything at all that works as it should in the Uk?

[Lavendersquare]

Just been having a discussion with a colleague and between us we can't think of any public service/government department or agency that is delivering a decent service. Examples include:

Education
NHS
Immigration
Police
Social care
Roads
Railways
Dental Care

it never used to be like this, there was a time when things worked, were maintained and replaced. Now it seems everything is left to the last minute and patched up or left to deteriorate.

What's happened?

I think the passport office works well

Was just about to say this. Also DVLA if you’re only dealing with them online.

Plenty of things work very well in the U.K. Telecoms, media, aviation, supermarkets & food distribution, financial services, delivery infrastructure etc etc. All the things which are run by the private sector in free competitive markets with little or no input from useless governments & public sector bureaucracies. We need more privatisation of public services to bring the current inadequate provision of healthcare up to modern standards.

I've just been offered a job in the public sector that equates to a 33% pay increase from exactly the same job in the private sector so although most things are on the decline for me personally public sector pay isn't one of them.

Even supermarkets aren’t working as well as they used to - there are empty shelves and shortages of items.

I had quite a good experience with the Passport Office, though. It used to feel as though the application process was designed to trip you up, so I’d pay the Post Office to check my application. But nowadays, the Passport Office helps you through the process and my family’s passports all arrived promptly.

However, you could add the Probate Office to the naughty list. It’s the sort of organisation where you wait weeks in vain for them to do their job, then when you try to chase them up, your phone calls go unanswered.

Eventually, you get through to someone who says your case is on hold, pending receipt of document X. You point out that you sent them document X weeks ago, and lo and behold, the person you’re speaking to finds document X attached to your case.

Does this mean that your case will soon be dealt with? No, probably not…

I feel really, really lucky that my current and former doctor's surgery seem to be great. Yes they have a 'call at 8am' sort of phone triage, but I've never had to wait more than 2 days for an appointment and often they'll get the doc to call and make a judgement call if I'm not sure (I wasn't for example when I found a dodgy looking mole so she had me in that day). I was also referred on the two week pathway when I had bloody poo, luckily it turned out to be nothing, but the doc was lovely and took it seriously.

My pera expert with the NHS im amazing. The staff are incredible.

Nepotism and tax loopholes for the mega rich work brilliantly in the UK…
I’m a teacher and I would 100% say the Conservatives are the problem.

This is statistically unusual, there is no public sector wage advantage any more, due to very low annual wage increases.

Sounds like you were underpaid in your previous role!

Mind you, the whole country has seen stagnant wages since 2010, if wages had kept up with inflation we'd all be paid a great deal more.

We have all been inspired by private sector water companies, rail companies, energy companies etc. in recent years.

Nothing better as a customer than knowing you're paying huge shareholder bonuses to companies that pump shit into the rivers.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

This is interesting. We got kicked off our GP's list last year because they decided we were too far from the surgery. We'd been patients for 30 odd years and not any trouble at all. We asked them to reconsider, but no, we must go. We managed to get taken on by another practice the same distance away but in another direction.

We were anxious at changing but now wish we'd done it years ago. The staff are friendly - the receptionists all smile!! Services are efficient, and it is all much easier. I used to dread going to the old surgery, it felt as if patients were a bit of an inconvenience. So it can vary.

Are the modem Labour Party the same people with the same leadership and the same policies as 50 years ago? Or 26 years ago?

You should probably do a cursory 45 second Google on at least the first part of that.

Aviation is in decline isn't it?

Everyone I know who is still flying complains about the deterioration of service.

I wasn't able to get tomatoes for most of the last ten days round here. First not the ones I want and then none at all. And the prices of everything is going to give me apoplexy.

Our media is currently acting as if this is the first they've heard of Boris Johnson's herd immunity/sacrifice the pensioners covid plan and they singularly failed to explain that Brexit is effectively imposing trade sanction on ourselves. And we have on GB "news" the ludicrous spectacle of Conservative MPs interviewing other Conservative MPs on the topic of how well they're doing.

Half our financial services have gone to Frankfurt or Paris. We're no longer the biggest in Europe since Brexit. Insurance premiums are climbing for all of us because of climate change.

Privatised Energy is a racket in which we in Britain pay some of the highest electricity prices on earth.

Privatised Water companies are pumping untreated human faeces into our waterways daily because of a shortage of treatment chemicals since Brexit and our water infrastructure has been starved of investment since privatisation.

As fir delivery services, the Riyal Mail service is a shadow of its former self, with other delivery services our parcels are lobbed onto our doorsteps if we re lucky. We don't have enough HGV drivers...

Your post is not in accordance with objective reality.

When out council was led by the Tories they closed out library 😭

This post is surely Tory Bot at work.
None of those services are working well. Telecoms is behind most developed countries, the media is corrupt (biased, most tied in with the government so barely free, owned by a handful of people), supermarkets haven't had empty shelves/high prices like this in my lifetime before and I'm 50. Financial services is one of the worst affected industries in the country. We were world leaders but Brexit put pay to that.

As for privatisation. Tell me how anyone of these things are better run since privatisation:
Trains
Post office (we didn't get letters for 2 months this spring!)
Water (sewage running freely into our rivers and seas)
Gas & Electricity (profits so high yet people dying of cold as can't afford to turn on the heating)
Buses (disjointed services in cities with 8 different companies. Closed and reduced services in rural areas)

And on and on.

Tell me 3 examples where privatisation has improved a service. Or 3 where they have maintained it and reduced prices?

Passport office was quick and efficient recently - very pleasantly surprised after all the issues the had before. Online applications and new passport ready in less than a week.

"Words people used to describe Britain in 2023 included: broken, mess, expensive, struggling, disaster, poor, divided, shambles and corrupt"

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/nothing-britain-works-anymore-say-30063503?utmsource=twitter.com&utmmmedium=social&utmcampaign=sharebar

news.sky.com/story/amp/nothing-works-anymore-tories-accused-of-having-broken-britain-with-public-services-in-crisis-12958589

We still don't know which schools have RAAC do we? It's going to take another year or more to survey the ones with buildings old enough apparently.

Even though the Tories were told in 2018 that they needed to rebuild 300-400 schools per year to prevent risk to life.

(They've completed 4 since then) 4!

Driving test booking is awful

Not quite Venezuela but Wales is in a Labour cycle which it won’t vote out of. Tip it to someone else pays too much and then you do have that tax burden and bigger problems.

22 million people in the UK receive some form of benefits so that's working pretty well.

From another pp, we probably don’t want to go higher all round.

Nothing works anymore if its to do with public services due to this tory government underfunding everything in order to fill their own pockets

Only things which are commercial/privately run, which isn’t your point. Even then not guaranteed but that’s where the money and investment is.

here to blame the tories but also….

Is it sometimes how it’s reported? So apparently hospitals are absolutely broken where we live yet every time I know someone personally who goes to an and e they’re super impressed with how quickly they are seen etc?

however I work in social care and confirm it’s absolutely broken and awful. The amount of of on The ground to paperwork time is around 25/75 split. Constant restructures and time spent in training for things that don’t come into fruition. We spend far too much time battling paperwork and systems, higher up managers change all the time (can only imagine they get their 100k +salary, mess a few things up then move along to the next place and do the same thing). I can only imagine other LAs are run similarly and I can completely see why it’s falling apart if so x