Strange comments about the U.K.

[Lessando]

I often just read threads without posting. But I read one thread on here recently that made me think, and I wanted to start a new thread about it.

There was a thread on here a while ago, it was titled "Do you feel lucky in life".

About one hundred posters came on and wrote a similiar thing, they all wrote

"Oh yes I am so lucky to have been born in the U.K." and they wrote things like

"I won the lottery of life by being born in the UK"

I was surprised at the fawning over the top comments, because they are in stark contrast to how I have experienced living in other countries. Living conditions in many other countries seem to me to be a lot better than living conditions in the UK.

I have lived in other countries and right now I am living in the UK for a year . Don't get me wrong , there are things that are nice about the UK.

What I really wanted to discuss is why do some people in the UK seem to think it is the best country in the world.
But, if you go outside of the UK, a lot of media outlets talk about the UK in a very negative way. Do people know this happesn?

So many other countries are doing better economically than the UK is. Living conditions are better. The last EU country that i lived in, i barely saw a homeless person.

In my current city in the UK, homeless people come up to me and ask me for money all the time. Every single day.

I lived in an EU country last year. The media outside of the UK always reports negatively about the UK. They usually say that the UK is a very bad place to live, especially after Brexit.

Im not really saying if I personally think the UK is good or bad, obviously I am just one person.

I more wanted to discuss the discrepancy between many people in the UK thinking it is the best country in the world and they are lucky to live there, and the media outside the UK who report that the UK is a terrible place to live in.
Any thoughts on it?

Oh my god. So "the international media" is.... Google!
Really. You get your news from Google. Ok.

OP….i like living here. I was born in England but live in Scotland. Have lived in Greece, France and Spain. Loved them all, they had their issues too, Is it the best country in the world?
is that the sort of question I want to be asking and answering?
Thousands of people are risking their lives to get here every day. That’s madness.
It’s a good country……..the weather is ‘interesting’ …that’s why we talk about it so much. It comes at us from at least 6 different directions on any given day.
There’s stunning countryside, amazing seascapes and beaches. Hills and mountains.
Great food. Bad food. Nice people, arsehole people. Some great healthcare, some absolutely appalling healthcare. Moronic media.
Shit judicial system. No proper justice.
Safety and crime. Money and abject poverty. I’d like a fairer society. A more just society.
I do not care one shiny shovel what other media outlets say about the U.K.; there’s better places. There’s a LOT worse than here. We set up clubs and societies on ferret fancying, scarecrow festivals,wheelbarrow meet-ups, Brussels sprout adoration clubs, the best packet of biscuit societies, and even secret cake clubs where people from all over meet and just eat cake, then get on with their lives. I know, because I’ve been a member of such a club 😬.

It’s a place of diversity, contrasts, tolerance, humour, love, fun, silliness (just look at how we vote….) stunning tradition and architecture, history, you name it, pretty much anything goes. Stunning beers and wines, ciders and liqueurs, whiskies…..wonderful cheeses, hundreds of varieties of apples, the best summer fruits, fish and chips, and the Yorkshire pudding is a thing of beauty. My German colleagues love them….not so much haggis but we can forgive being the tolerant nation we are…….
Yeah. The UK is ok…..,.,.

Are you not able to look up a link yourself? Why is that?
Because if you make an assertion then it's up to you to prove it. It's not for us to do your homework for you.

This is like arguing with TRA. Or teenagers.

I am reminded of this story: https://firewalkhq.com/two-travellers-and-the-monk

Yes, a teenager. "What I say is right you can't say I'm not! So Google it because I get my news from random online outlets"

Where’s this positive thread? Most of the ones I read on here go on about how everything is rubbish in the Uk and everyone’s moving ‘abroad’ to escape the hoards of immigrants.
Would quite like to read a more positive thread.
Currently in Spain- most of the news seems to be about Israel/ Gaza/ Trump etc and then local issues. Also been in Belgium and France recently- lots of local news about anti social behaviour and heroin smuggling. Huge tented cities along the motorways around Paris. Less litter but we’re in more touristy areas so expect that.
Quite a lot of stuff not going well in The Uk but similar stories elsewhere.

Great post ❤

I laugh at the clubs and societies thing because it is so true. It's like we need an excuse to socialise with each other.

University of TikTok 🤣!

I think it depends on circumstances - if happy in life (living, money, family etc) and things are going well, then you'll either be content to stay or take a chance on progression, whether in the UK or elsewhere; if life is rubbish or not where you want to be (poor income or health, NHS failing, views on Government and other UK reporting ha) then you may think things will be better elsewhere. All countries have their issues (ours has it's fair share, or more 🤭) but life here (for me/family) is OK. Do I sometimes dream of jumping island, absolutely, tough without a passport though 🤔 but when I compare with countries who are really having a tough time, far beyond what I could imagine, or what some laws are there, I pick what I know and where is easier within the capabilities I have 🤔 do I think the UK is the best country ever? 😆 gosh no. If my circumstances were different and finances healthier, would I try elsewhere, why not?! The UK isn't "all that", but it's all I know and it's safer than some 😕 fear of the unknown.

I also think, regards media, that countries take their turn on the 'shit-scale'...the UK was great once, now it's not 🤷‍♀️ it's like the people within a country: not everyone voted Brexit, but we as a country did (a confusing statement 🙈) so our choice has made our country less connected (? 🤔); not everyone voted for Starmer, but we as a country did, so our choice made times unstable. Same goes for America 😕 not everyone voted for Trump, but they as a country did and so caused the difficulties; more should be promoted on 'who' rather than they. I just try to remember that nowhere is perfect nor can you make everyone happy 🙄 and maybe, being fair to all isn't ever going happen 😕 plus our weather isn't a particularly great selling point 🤪 least got history though innit /s

Google youth knife crime France etc- similar stories.

Its gotten worse thats the worst part. London is full of homeless people Ive seen tents set up in playgrounds and parks - the council removes them but they go somewhere else. I dont think its ever been this bad.

The main problem in the UK is that much of it has been sold off to foreign companies who treat the UK as a cash cow. Hence the water companies are foreign owned and charge as much as they can for water whilst dumping sewerage in the seas, rivers and lakes. The British public are too apathetic to make a fuss. Now all our countryside is being built over and all the properties are leasehold with the leases owned by, once again, by foreign companies who won't hesitate to charge extortionate rents to the hapless home buyers. And our government, whoever is in charge, will let them. i get the impression that governments in other countries do more to protect the interests of the people they are governing.

I've just googled it for Denmark, not a happy to picture.

Well, post Brexit, the EU countries are obviously going to be annoyed with the UK and of course they’re going to denigrate us. You have to factor in that bias.

And I say that as a remainer!

A lot of your posts seem to be about the standard of living in the UK. That has suffered relative to other European countries since the GFC (partly in my view because of the outsized role that finance has in the UK, and partly because of the economically illiterate response to it post-2010). I'd now expect a better standard of living in most of the EU than here.

The UK does still have a lot of cultural capital, a mostly tolerant society, and a more female-friendly society than many in, especially, southern Europe. All in the plus column.

There is, as evidenced by our politics in the last 10 years, a pretty deep-seated well of resentment in the UK as well - I'm not sure I'd agree that most Brits think the UK is "great", more that it is "home", it is "good" and it can be better.

I was shocked at all the homeless in tents in Paris, that's definitely something that's got worse in recent years.

It is. I'm actually starting to feel quite sorry for the OP. If I was them, I'd just ask for this thread to be deleted.

But that is part of the positives about the UK. We can move fairly freely around the world. Being born here doesn't mean we have to stay here, but having a British passport affords us the privilege of being accepted by most countries, at least as a visitor, and up until recently it enabled us to work all over the EU. Compared to for example being born somewhere like North Korea where I think its very hard to leave. Being born in the UK also gives access to good educational opportunities, free school education and some of the top universities in the world. I'm also proud that we have a health service and social system which tries to support the most vunerable (although it is now struggling due to being overstretched) and women's rights are much better than many places. It is a place which provides opportunities for people who are talented and hard working.

Yes we definitely have challenges, and there are areas of frustration but I think the positives outweigh the negatives

Yes, it’s all a bit embarrassing.

Being grateful for being born in the UK is not the same as thinking it's is doing well economically or the same as saying "this is the best country in the world". There are a huge number of things that will basically never happen to native Brits that we can be grateful for that others must deal with in their day to day lives: Very few or no natural disasters, wild predators, being bombed in ethno-religious conflict (this has happened within the last 30 years in Britain, don't forget that). I am grateful for our civic culture (don't get that in many other places, including most European countries), living in a high trust society (although that is declining), a culture that has fair play and free speech as it's cornerstones. I am grateful I don't have to put a sensory deprivation bag over my head to leave the house or else men would sexually assault me. A country that acknowledges the biological reality of sex.

You should have seen those comments and been humbled by the small victories native British people take pride in rather than scornfully mock British people for liking the country their ancestors built and fought for.

Either support the country you live in or live in the country you support.

Well, plenty of people do, and we give them extra money too! That’s one of the reasons the UK has gone downhill; we’re basically a piggy bank for the rest of the world. We have a plethora of low paid jobs which domestic workers don’t want to do, so we being in foreign workers and subsidise them. Conversely, we have high skilled high paid jobs which we either don’t have the workers to fill (and don’t invest enough in training), or domestic workers don’t want to move to where the jobs are so we import more workers. It’s a Ponzi scheme which is going to come crashing down.

There was a really interesting article in the Financial Times yesterday on the UK crime paradox . Basically stating how in the UK, crime has actually gone down drastically but people perceptions that crime is on the rise is increasing. Fuelled a lot by news outlets and social media.

We have way more shoplifting, drug use in public, gang knife crime, phone mugging, dog bites etc. but robberies, home invasion, battery, murder, car theft, arson have all decreased significantly.

We have a perception that crime is increasing because of course thats the kind of crimes we see all around us each day when we see hoards of new high street shops that are fronts for shady practices, shoplifters at Greggs or packets of cheese locked up in the Coop. ‘Perception is reality’ so it feels crime as a whole is up for us. And these sort of “broken window” crimes make us feel like Britain is getting more and more unsafe.

Article: https://www.ft.com/content/7488fe4c-5e1d-4b2b-adab-f42ad5273fc9