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

How can you possibly work in the NHS and think it's not broken? I work in the NHS and think it's thoroughly broken. People waiting ridiculous amounts of time for treatments that would vastly improve their quality of life, not to mention the months and months they're waiting even for us to just diagnose them before we can even start the treatment process. We're constantly receiving emails in our Trust to say there are issues with A&E and patients having to wait in corridors, not being able to move up to wards etc. It's great as a principle and I fundamentally believe in care that's free at the point of access which is why I currently refuse to move to work in the private sector but flip me the system is broken and I agree with the PP that said you need to take off your rose tinted glasses.

a yes, and if you have chronic pain that decimates your life can't complain because someone somewhere has terminal cancer.

Things can be shit here and possibly even shitter else where, doesn't mean its not shit here... theres no race to the fucking bottom.

for example: I AM thankful the we have the NHS for life or death emergencies over having nothing but the NHS is also shit for basically anything else (and as a disabled person I have a LOT of experience with their bad running) and not even 'great' at emergencies.

I have had to go abroad and pay for private treatment that I couldn't get help for on the NHS. Abroad I had day surgery and it was sorted in less than 1 week when the NHS couldn't even agree on the key issue for 10 years but wouldn't treat it regardless. Its not life or death (it was PCOS, deemed a 'lifestyle choice' for some fucking reason by the NHS) so NHS had no urgency to help even though it was destroying my life.

The kicker though was that private treatment was totally affordable there, well over 1/3rd cheaper the private prices in the UK. With 24/7 care unlike UK private options (which where closed at weekends etc...) and fast and efficient.

I paid for treatment as a tourist, it was free to their countries citizens. The idea that the NHS is wholly unique entity thats far superior to other countries where you just die in the street is really strange. Most civilized countries have health care systems for their citizens not everywhere is the USA (which the UK copies its private model off) and many run far better.

Just because I prefer it to having nothing doesn't mean I have to think its amazing and the best thing ever and just accept and malpractice or lack of treatment I get.

My friend paid the best part of £4 for a cauliflower in New Zealand a few months ago and it was tiny. Prices are expensive everywhere.
Is life shit here ?I think it is for some, those that have no chance of changing their lives . As for the rest of us it depends on how we see life. I have a roof over my head, i can turn the heating on, i can eat good food. My healthcare needs are met, my Grandchildren are educated, my children can afford a house, not where they want it but they can still buy in this country. I can go on holiday, buy clothes for my Grandchildren and still save a little. I consider myself very fortunate. I do not have a fortune but i am careful and consider what i spend.
I can imagine life is shit in this country if you expect to eat out every week ,take the children on a paid for day out every weekend. If you have to have the latest Tech, couldn't possibly be seen with a 3 year old phone and have contracts that cost your household £200 a month to watch or use. Wear trainers that cost 3 figures and run around in a brand new car. It must be hellish if you want Champagne on lemonade money.
No, life is not that bad here in the UK it is much much worse elsewhere.

yep, I trained in the NHS and left before working for it because yes its woefully broken.

18-24 months til my son gets his ADHD assessment. 8 years until mine.

I think that University is a bit of a scam and it is forced on young people. You do get pushed into going.

I was pushed into going and I went three years completelty broke, without a salary.

My cousin didn't go to University at all. She is now a senior manager

Compared to the United Kingdom, food prices in New Zealand are as follows12:

• Restaurant prices in New Zealand are 9.9% lower.
• Groceries prices in New Zealand are 19.8% higher.

Early 50's and I have many friends/work colleagues my age who have made their lives in the UK (French/Spanish/Italian/South African) because youth unemployment in their country was and continue to be much higher than in the UK. Our birth rate maybe dropping but our population has continue to grow from 56 million to 68 million in my lifetime because we are still attractive to immigrants despite Brexit, etc. Historically, our unemployment rate is more or less at its lowest. We can debate the quality and the definition of the numbers but essentially, we are still attracting new/young taxpayers which we need for future growth.
Regarding the NHS, my child had a recent emergency appendectomy and although it felt like a lifetime in the moment, their journey from entering A&E and having keyhole surgery was approx 15hrs and that was at a weekend. I have never felt so grateful in my life to be born/live in a country where there is free state healthcare. We have family in the USA and their experience with a diagnosis of diabetes compared to ours here is so much more stressful in relation to the cost of medication. DH has Type 2 diabetes and is entitled to free prescriptions. The NHS is excellent in monitoring it since he just get sent automatic callups for blood tests/eye tests/flu/Covid/pnuemonia jabs.I pay for a pre payment card which basically reduces the cost of my repeat presciptions. Our American relatives pay way more even with decent health insurance.

We find this and we travel to Paris (and other parts of France to see family) frequently. And the food tends to still be beautiful even if cheap in France whereas we've been disappointed and agreed we cook better at home several times recently here in UK restaurants (not the highest end tbf but still nice ones) - despite still having a pretty hefty bill for our small family.

There has been an explosion in demand for ADHD assessments. No healthcare system could keep pace with this. There simply are not enough people trained to carry out ADHD assessments for a start.

I am usually in the reasonably optimistic camp, but two things currently stand out to me: 1) Hampshire local authority is now spending 83% of its budget on statutory adult social care services - mostly seniors - and it's not atypical. This means nothing for children, no youth centres/facilities, libraries are squeezed, bin collections are reduced, and so on. 2) Universities, for all the reforms, the expansion and the extra money swilling through them, are still doing what they did when I went (40 years ago, no tuition fees, maintenance grants, tiny % of population went, and the sector was on its knees) and handing off the vast majority of teaching to low-paid staff on insecure tenures, for whom teaching well is not particularly relevant to a successful career path. And the sector says it is, once again, on the verge of collapse.

There's lots else I could be alarmed about, but those failures to tackle reform and progress in key sectors stand out to me. This week, anyway.

We are poorly equipped to deal with an ageing population, and we are offering very little to our young people. It is going to take years of money, growth and determined reform with a progressive, social-democratic agenda to get the public sector to where the UK claims it wants to be (not talking about those who don't much care, because they don't much use it).

Depends where you live and what you like doing. We like going for walks and getting. coffee/a couple of drinks. Unless it is absolutely tipping it down, freezing or blowing a gale we’ll be out. We leave in a cheaper part of the country and are near places we can be outdoors, fairly close to a city too. I’m under no illusions that things are expensive and the weather can be shot. But DH and I have been lucky enough to have traveled and there are some places where there is no or poor healthcare, extreme weather, overcrowding etc so overall despite the negatives I don’t personally think the uk is shit

The UK is a bit shit to be fair.

In my opinion.

I think there's an extra feel of isolation and being trapped aswell since Brexit.

Like we can't just move somewhere else easily, if we don't like it here anymore

Couldn't agree more. I think if children were allowed to be children and be outside mental and physical health would improve drastically. I think lifestyles need a dramatic overhaul

And yet.... All the international uni students DD has met over the last four years, are desperate to stay here. These are clever, motivated young people. I hope they do stay. But it's interesting that they don't want to go back home, whether that is Italy, or Africa, or Asia.

"I genuinely think the biggest change to everybody's life would be if house prices were capped at a reasonable rate. I know it will never happen as home owners property would decrease and blah blah but it truly would make life more bare able for many if rent and mortgages were cheaper than they are."
This problem has been 40 years in the making and is caused by supply and demand (too little supply, too much demand). The only way we can change this is to build more houses (which would naturally lower prices), but all governments of every hue over these years have failed to meet their house-building targets (typically 300,000pa). There are currently approximately 260,000 residential properties lying empty, which is another scandal. The reasons the owners of these properties have for not selling them (or living in them themselves) are many and varied, but I'd like to see local government given more powers to identify empty properties in their area and have conversations with the owners with a view to bringing them back into use. I also think government could be more imaginative in repurposing empty commercial properties in city centres to residential.

Lots of people are unable to work whilst waiting for an operation. I don't know anybody directly but you do hear it on the grapevine and most cannot afford to pay privately. Hip ops heart ops etc. Terrible.

@BigSkies2022 That is simply untrue. Below is Hampshire's budget.

I think that people who cant live easily in the UK for visa reasons, always see the UK has some kind of gold lined utopia.

If you can't have something , you want it more.

For example I was at a group in Spain. Myself and one other person (lets call him John)had UK citizenship. We both had dual nationality with another country. We both lived in the other country at the time, not the UK

One of the men in the group was from South Africa . He did not have the right to live in the UK. He was annoyed that he wasn't allowed to live there.
We were talking about travel and our dual nationalities came up.

The south african guy said "wow you can live in the UK if you want, that's amazing!"

He saw the UK as extra valuable amd amazing, as he wasn't allowed to live there.

John (UK citizen) said "yeah but I wouldn't want to live in the UK"

John saw the reality of the UK, as he did have the right to live there.

This seems to be very supermarket dependent in France, having lived there myself. And again. it’s more expensive. It wasn’t when stirling was 1.5 euros. Have also lived in Belgium and Germany.

We haven't talked much on mumnset about post- brevity feelings and the impact it's had.

It was a big change. All of a sudden, we can't live in the rest of Europe easily

Does anyone feel extra isolated in the UK after Brexit?

@CoolNavyHelper

The source is Hampshire County Council's own figures, quoted in an article in the FT yesterday

https://www.ft.com/content/3a42a022-a374-4c6b-8dbf-46db9cb7073f. It's behind a pay wall, but the council leader, Nick Adams-King verifies the source and has written to Rachel Reeves (as have other council leaders) to plead for a better settlement for local authorities.

I think that’s very unfair to call this poster ‘self-centred’, you’re probably basing it on your experience just as they’re basing it on their opinion. I’m in the South West and whilst the wait for ENT is terrible, the wait for neurology is fine. In fact, my epilepsy nurse will see me whenever I call her up. It’s luck if the draw really depending on where you live and what you need the NHS for.

There are some things eating up UK budgets.

1. Housing: Both personal budgets but also vast amounts paid out in housing benefits. We need to bring down house prices. This would free up a lot of government money and make wages go further.
2. Transport costs for SEN children to schools is at risk of bankrupting many councils. No one wants to touch this as no one wants kids to suffer. But it has to be tackled and a solution must be found. The costs are astronomical.
3. Mental health: We are trying to provide mental health services to anyone suffering at all, which means money is spread ever more thinly, and those with serious mental health problems get a much worse service.
4. Social care: This should all be charged for, with a charge attached to assets when you die. If you currently do not pay for social care as your income is too low, the costs should be claimed back from your estate on death.
5. Disability benefits: I know they are very hard to get, I know lots of people are suffering, but disability benefits need to be reigned in. 24% of the UK population have a disability. 6.9 million people get disability benefits. The costs are spiralling. We need to maintain benefits for those with the most serious disabilities.

They don't actually lock them inside at 4.
Typical day in reception
8.45 - register, good morning etc for 15 mins
9-10.30 - learning through play, able to move freely between inside and outside.
10.30 - snack and drink
10.45 - focused phonics
11.00 -12 learning through play inside and out
12-1 lunch and outside play
1-2 PE or forest school - outside unless weather absolutely terrible
2pm - 15 mins focused phonic
2.15 -3.15 learning through play inside and out.
So out of a whole day, only about 45 mins is actually spent sitting, the rest is 'continuous provision'.
Add in weekly farm trips, swimming lessons, village walks to the above also.

The issue isn't schools, we always had these, and there is much more flexibility, outdoor play etc now than 30 years ago when I was in reception as there us a greater recognition of learning through play.

But yes, children are much more sedentary outside school. The increase in technology coupled with helicopter parenting means children are inside much more than they ever used to be.