To be depressed about how expensive but shyt the UK is

[OptimismvsRealism]

God it's expensive God it's shit

Please regale me with examples of how other places are also shit and it's not just here

@TrumpIsACuntWaffle yep mine is £310 a month

I have to say, I’m noticing how crap restaurant food is these days. I’ve had one good meal in 2 years and I eat out often (Ruby’s Pizza in Liverpool which I could live in as it’s amazing and cheap too). If me DH and 2 DC go out for food, we won’t pay less than £80 for 4 meals drinks and probably desserts unless we do a great spoon or fast food. It’s always so disappointing, and I can normally make it better at home. I’m really sick of pay £100+ for subpar food expensive soft drinks delivered by grumpy and surly waiting staff

Mine is similar and now I have to pay an extra £60 a year to have my garden waste taken away. Disgraceful

@PersephonePotts we have to pay extra for that too.

Sorry I have to disagree with this.

On the next street to me, we have buses running every 10 minutes back and forth towards the nearest city. A short 5 min walk away and I can get the tram which is also every 15 mins (every 7 mins in rush hour times) into the city and beyond.

In my local town, I can get the train to 2 big cities in either direction. Then up to the north to Manchester/Sheff/Leeds or to the east coast. If I go to the other city, I can switch to Brum, London, the South.

The bus fares accept contactless and cost £2 for a single journey. If you hop on and off throughout the day, it calculates your daily journeys and caps it at £5.30 and the money is only taken 24 hours later from your bank.

There's also a big park and ride for drivers on the outskirts of the city with an additional hopper bus to both the hospitals. And for the young uns, those electric bikes dotted everywhere.

They are mainly on time except for things like a tram breakdown (they will put on a bus for you) and sometimes there might be an accident and you have to wait a bit - but same as if you are in your car, that's life.

It is just not true that public transport is appalling outside of London. Come and have a look in the midlands

Exactly! Baby boomers paid off the massive war debt owed to the Americans which gave people living here the freedoms we take for granted.

The issue we have in this country is short-termism. Politicians only thinking about the next four years. Companies and shareholders expecting quick returns rather than forward planning, investing in the country.
Just look at Thames Water...sold abroad, stripped of funds, taking massive board member wages, CEO and shareholder payouts and now coming to the public with a begging bowl. Regulation should have stopped that!

Much of the Country's downfall started with Tony Blair... throwing open our borders to the EU accession countries and thus driving down UK wages. UK companies employed the cheaper labour rather than train our own people. Other EU Countries did phased admissions for incomers..

Then Blair stated he wanted 50% of school leavers to go to Uni. Many of those were of borderline ability, did useless degrees, left saddled with debt and have little hope of ever repaying it. And as a result decimating the numbers of kids going into the "trades". So now there's a shortage of tradespeople.

And we now have those "borderline ability" people running the country, our Government, our public services and institutions etc etc... Very average people, of average ability and devoid of ideas.....

We just don't have stand out people anymore, the movers and shakers.

Research says otherwise

https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/faculty/news/article/5727/new-research-shows-bus-services-outside-london-have-plummeted

20 mile journey is £8 here and there are no buses getting anybody to work or school before 9. Buses are continuously cancelled last minute and barely run the 1 an hour they’re supposed to. And don’t get me started on trains. A 2 hour trip is £70!

Well considering many boomers were babies at the end of the war and the last payment was made in 2006 they didn’t do it by any means alone.

Yep we absolutely don’t bother going out any more. Who wants to spend ££££ for shitty chain food which is pretty much all there is. I want individual interesting well cooked food instead of microwaved shit made it the same factories and sold everywhere.

We put in a fair bit - 34 years in my case - certainly more than any other generation, apart from our parents.

And now you’re accessing pensions, healthcare and socialcare you didn’t pay enough into so it’s swings and roundabouts.

Some of us paid in plenty. I was a higher rate taxpayer for over two decades, my bloke for longer than that, neither of us will ever access social care, we’ll pay for it if we need it.

Which city/town are you living in that has no buses before 9am to get folk to work or school?

@askmenow no it didn't- it started with Thatcher selling off social housing- declaring 'no such thing as society , only the individual' etc

British people really do love to complain! 🙄

Met an expat couple who live in Italy yesterday (back here for a funeral) and they said the cost of living over there is tiny compared to here. They couldn't believe how expensive it is here now to eat out, or even buy food in a supermarket! But I don't know how wages compare over there either....

Also listening to a radio show from the USA last week - the locals were complaining that costs of living over there had spiralled out of control. But they quoted the horror of paying 4$ a gallon for petrol!! And they said you could buy a 3 bed detached house for $250K which was just unaffordable for young people - the English presenter did point out that in England that would be amazing!

I suppose it's relative to local salaries - but it does make you question why some things here are now so pricey. We are told that cooking oil has doubled due to the Ukraine situation - but it's still half our price in Italy.

All a bit odd.......

I have just returned from Italy. We were there for much of the summer and believe me the place has gone to ruin. There are weeds everywhere, rubbish, poverty and decay on an epic scale.

The roads are terrible and there is a huge problem in terms of quality of life and the infrastructure is falling apart.

Yes they can buy tomatoes and pasta at cut price, but honestly the southern Mediterranean have clearly got bigger problems than us in terms of their economies.

Sorry to hear you have MH issues and children with medical issues. It must be tough coping day to day and especially with little ones who need medical care.

However, please can I point out that healthcare in the UK is free. Or do you mean you are living in the UK but have no access to the NHS?

Uni fees - why are you paying those? UK nationals can get a student loan and fees are not paid back until they start earning a certain amount. My girl is now paying hers back, but the amount is piddling.

It must be tough if you don't access to these resources and I really hope you get to see the relevant people for yourself and your children, but I dont agree it makes the UK shit.

We are in the uk and the nhs is no longer free as the incredibly long waiting lists mean more and more desperate families are having to pay ££££££ to access the treatment their children need privately and I’m not just talking about MH. This is getting worse. Year on year as more and more things go untreated and are left to get worse more and more families are being pulled into it. Some of us are having to support elderly parents too.

Re un. The threshold for full
loans is low and what students who aren’t on maximum loans can borrow doesn’t cover living expenses. It doesn’t even cover all the rent so parents again have to stop the gap.

It is unsustainable and coupled with a whole host of other issues does indeed make the uk expensive and shyte.

Not only complain, but also refuse to do anything to make a change.

It's quite the skill we have!

Not that easy when you’ve had a Tory government for years telling lies about Brexit peddling xenophobic ideology (completely out of step with how the modern world works) and running everything into the ground- NHS, education, public transport, seas&rivers, housing….The lack of giving a shit re the environment, poor, the disabled alongside this predated imperialistic view of how great the uk is based on very little doesn’t make it an appealing place.

When the only greatness people can point out is that we’re not being shot at you know there are big problems. We can only hope labour makes some inroad with turning things around.

Not odd at all - Brexit.

Not really just Brits like to winge and even better winge on MN.

millions of people get treated on NHS every year but your assumption is it must be a 100% negative based on….what exactly? You haven’t given any examples either direct or second hand?

lets assume those who are unhappy winge and those who don’t are happy (well reasonably). That would be a fairer assumption?

if you want to live abroad off you go. Tootle pip. Hope you can speak the lingo so you can earn more than minimum wage and have any rights to ‘free heathcare’. Then come back when you are ready to appreciate the UK.

So you are deciding to ignore the widespread reporting of the dire state that the nhs is in with rocketing wait times for everything. When you have children suffering and caught up in those lists come back and dismiss it then. I have plenty of first hand knowledge as regards this and it’s beyond shit. I and anybody else who chooses have every right to “whinge” about this.

@Ic3333 indeed and the number of Brits who didn't seem to realise that not only would it damage the economy but that its cost the economy many many billions too to make it shitter, take out any incentive for multi national investment ( apart from stuff that's designed to hide dirty money or get round EU regulations) it's quite some achievement!!