To think British people aren't thought of as rich anymore

[DeliaSmithsEpicGuitarRiff]

I kind of love this, as the child of someone from a colonised country and different race, but the other half very much British.
I am away somewhere that it is possible to spend a lot of money. There once was a time where being British would mean you received excellent service, no one thought you were poor, no one suspected you would steal or have your card declined.
Now I feel the opposite. That being British makes people assume I'm poor or likely to quibble about prices. Where I am now there are so many tourists from much richer countries such as the Middle East, China and India and we simply do not compete. The sales people look at us with contempt and pity, the poor English woman. It feels like some epic karma for the empire.
Are we likely to continue to decline in standard of living until we are Europe's shabby cousins, you know the ones who had lice and lived off tinned ravioli? And will the proud, Brexiteers even recognise that this our fate?

The sales people look at us with contempt and pity, the poor English woman.

I think if you're watching how people are reacting to you, OP, you're inadvertently signalling to them that you yourself feel you don't belong.

It sounds like they're picking up on your own self-consciousness rather than on where one of your passports was issued.

There was an article published in the Spectator in August 2014 which was then picked up by many news outlets around the world, some revelling in the headline while others tried to pick it apart such as Forbes magazine.

There is no peer-reviewed evidence, just original research by Fraser Nelson at the Spec. It also goes on to say that if you took London and the SE out then the UK would be poorer than all 50 states; as it is with all their vast riches we only just beat Mississippi. If you google "UK poorer than Alabama?" you'll see the results.

While you can quibble about the margins of the claim - particularly how it relates to purchasing power parity rather than straightforward GDP, nobody to my knowledge has seriously tried to rebut the claim.

This is why I don't travel so much any more. No point going places where you are not welcome and often actively disliked. Tourism is a scourge on the environment anyway.

I have felt quite a hostile reception on the last few occasions I've been to Spain but I thought that was more a dislike of tourism than Brits. Perhaps it's both.

I think what makes it bad is the disparity between costs and quality of life.

Australia and the US and the Scandi countries and Switzerland have higher costs of living, especially for things like food, but the quality of life is much better in general, and the salaries are high to match.

There are also plenty of countries where things are cheaper and not great, but they're cheaper.

We're stuck in a place of massively overpaying for what we're getting back. The streets are filthy, the services are shot to shit, the quality of everything we buy is poor, from food to clothes. Most people are too scared to put the heating on in winter, whereas even in poor countries they don't worry about that.

We're lost in a cycle of more = better instead of quality = better. We're funding fast fashion and the cheaper the better so we buy more of it. Doesn't matter if veg has far fewer nutrients than 30 years ago, why buy one bag of brand name crisps when you can buy 12, buy a whole new wardrobe to go on that holiday you put on your credit card instead of buying a couple of items that last more than a season.

I've not seen that at all, but the problem with travelling is that when you get back to the UK it's depressing realising how much it's declined compared to everywhere else.

I used to really like tinned ravioli. I'd forgotten that existed.

Sorry, I think it's just you.

What an horrific, xenophobic post.

There were lots of very poor people in Britain at the height of the empire. So I'm not sure what the Karma is - poor people remain poor?

I dont know how it ever got round the world that everyone in Britain had untold riches anyway. We had a big up lift in living conditions after the war I guess?

Before that The whole set up was we had a class system with gentry etc and big slums.

@Upstartled are you doubting my Britishness? I could name ten British things to prove it?

• David Cameron's weird way of walking off mid interview.
• Mr Blobby (terrifying)
• Those weird crisps you used to get with the little salt packet inside.
• singing 'of kings' in rebellion at the end of the verse of 'sing Hosannah to the king' in primary school and getting told off
• Greengrass from Heartbeat
• Your mum saying 'it will brighten up soon' on holiday every five minutes
• Greggs in Primarks
• The fight in Big Brother where it all got a bit real and scary and you didn't know if it was actually entertaining anymore
• The cheeky girl who ended up with an MP
• Gordon Brown muttering about a member of the public being a bigot and being recorded, pure Thick of It
• dinner ladies in school saying 'you'll live' if someone had broken an arm

That's 11 actually

You really can't be surprised if you make a post saying how much you love it that Brits are getting what is coming to them, that it will make people suspicious. My family were from a place colonised by the British Empire, but I don't revel in today's British people being treated with contempt for the sins of the past.

Surely posting a list like this that was obviously prepared in advance (and could have been lifted from anywhere) is a weird way to try to prove your nationality?

Why do you care so much about what other people think of you? Both on holiday and on this thread.

I think your points is usually overlooked @Frowningprovidence A few people became very wealthy but the rest were commodities used to fund that. In fact. I once read that the families that became rich still had that money in the C20. There’s so much written about poverty and destitution, the press gangs, the cotton mills and some that I’m astonished people don’t grasp how wretched life was for the majority of.

otoh I think that there’s more inequality now than there has ever been and that’s a worrying sign for the future.

Same! I have no interest in random people thinking I'm rich as I go about my day to day life. Better they don't.

Huh?! What have you been smoking this morning. 5th richest nation in the world. And also rather nasty to “love it”

@DeliaSmithsEpicGuitarRiff

I think you are on a wind-up. If not, then I certainly cannot take you seriously.

Switzerland, like any other country, has poverty. They have food banks. they have inequality. So does Singapore. If you want to engage on a separate thread on how the Swiss system works then I am open. I will give you a guess why I know. Go on, guess?

Then you say this:

"I find it funny how the crumbling buildings of our capital, made with all the wealth from our collective wrong doings, are now being the sole reason tourists come here."

You just made that up like a poorly-educated 20 year old looking for a sound bite. The UK is fairly unique in that there are a range of factors not limited to ancient buildings and monuments (many which predate the 18th Century) as to why people visit here. Not only do people visit as tourists, they visit for education, for work and as long term residents somewhere to live. London has a leading financial centre, there are world-class universities, sports, a leading pharmacology sector and significant protection of personal assets, alongside the diverse arts, culture and history that goes back as far as Stonehenge, even further perhaps. In fact, Geneva, Zurich, Paris, New York, are very similarly placed to London in many respects, though New York does not have the ancient history and neither is Paris a financial centre on a par with London.

I actually think you have an anti-British agenda and that is the sole reason for your post today. For you, Britain starts and ends with colonialism.

I just can't take you seriously. You would have a better change grumbling about the British weather and sticking to something we already know.

And I bet you never go to London.

As I sat on my balcony in a five star hotel in Switzerland, I watched a coach stopping outside a watch shop. The entire coach entered the shop at once, and all left, at the same time, with a purchase. It was mesmerising. Of course they treat other nationalities differently, because they know that certain customers will buy whatever the price. They are a business. Having said that, I have always found the Swiss to be incredibly polite, and courteous, regardless.

Maybe they just think you’re a povvo? Not necessarily all British people.

"I find it funny how the crumbling buildings of our capital, made with all the wealth from our collective wrong doings, are now being the sole reason tourists come here."

Bit like Rome then, or Athens, or indeed any other major city, that also had a long history of colonisation and wealth.

My head is already itching so much that I can barely open my tin of ravioli 😖

I don’t know either why the Brits has this rich reputation. I grew up outside of the UK and I think a lot of people thought of Brits as posh because your accent is posher than in other English speaking countries, you have a lot of popular period dramas with posh people, your judges still have wigs and your guards those silly and furry hats, you are polite, you have Harrods. To see the more gritty side of Britain you have to scratch further down from the surface.

Brexit ideology and behaviours (that we deserve everything for nothing, poor/grabby manners and encouraged confrontational attitudes) have meant the idea of us being polite and intelligent have definitely gone.

Agree OP. British people have always travelled, and use to only go further afield if they were rich. But now it is even possible for the 'poor' brits to travel exotically now.
Tourists from other countries, like you mention ME/India/China are often very rich and travel is exclusive to the rich rich people quite simply because of the cost.

Until you speak, it will be clothes and skin colour only that give any clue to nationality. Some retail workers in high end shops, estate agents etc may judge you initially on handbag, shoes and jewellery, followed by clothes. Mostly you'll be judged on your politeness; whether you smile to greet the worker or not.

Sometimes also, it just isn't about you, nor even about Britain when you're overseas. You might not have realised that the global economy is doing fairly poorly, so lots of low paid retail workers globally will be struggling.