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?

I think if these people or press you mention are singling out UK people as a nationality to pity because their country is so awful, they are probably not very knowledgeable about what is going on around the world at the moment.

They sound like crap news outlets or narrow minded people who would benefit from learning about what is going on around the world. Not just focussing on a neighbouring country to feel superior to and slag off.

The cost of living is rising throughout Europe, but was higher in many respects previously anyway.

Brexit causing “worsening conditions” is purely subjective; some feel the economic benefits and some feel the drawbacks. Those who like to travel complain about queues and those who don’t travel to Europe are happy to no longer subsidise those who do.

Youth unemployment is generally higher throughout Europe, with notably lower levels in a few countries.
https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/youth-unemployment-rate?continent=europe

Crime statistics don’t look awfully good in Europe either.
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/03/10/gang-crime-on-the-rise-which-european-countries-have-the-most-dangerous-neighbourhoods#:~:text=In%20general%2C%20the%20highest%20rates,%25)%20and%20Belgium%20(12.5%25).

If a news site knows that its readership enjoy reading about a particular subject they will print lots of articles about it. I remember the mother of dd's French exchange partner saying she'd heard there was no food on the shelves in the UK. I was surprised as that was certainly not the case, but presumably the news outlet where she'd seen that knew that its consumers loved reading about UK people suffering so they printed it anyway! Maybe it made them feel superior or something??

@Lessando could it be the news outlets are still sore after Brexit? If they are regularly reporting the UK is a very bad place to live (which is not true) they obviously have an agenda and are trying to hoodwink you.

And in San Francisco. It's really bad there. The greatest country in the world, according to the orange monster.

I remember when you couldn’t drink the tap water in France or Spain. It was the only time we drank Coke and had mineral water with our meals

I think that might have been nonsense, although I remember it. We have German friends who were told the same thing about UK water many moons ago.

It wasn’t nonsense

That was a weird and quite non-sensical response they gave to your post.

Yes SF is shocking. I visited for the first time last year and was not at all prepared for what I saw.

Yes, it's a lesson to not believe what we're being told about other countries too.

I had an American friend ask how we were with all the race riots and if many were happening near us. That was last summer, and about a month after the last riot had happened. They were still reporting nightly on the network they watched that pretty much ever major city (and some minor places too) was rioting here. They got the impression that most of the UK was either rioting or hiding quaking under the bed while it raged outside.
I sent them some of the latest photos - with the rioters surrounded by far greater numbers of counter protesters and let them know this.

They've also let me know some of the big things there which haven't hit our news and let's say things aren't good over there.

I love your post...dear, Dear is not something I would say in Doric or Scots sorry...maybe an English term?

I get your perspective OP, and I admit I've wondered about the British "We're the bestest xoxo" attitude as well before,

@GelatinousDynamo I've never in my 31 years heard anyone claim that "Britain is the bestest". On the contrary, left-leaning people bang on about food banks while right-leaning people bang on about sharia law.

In fact the only people I've ever claim that their country was the "greatest in the world" were American (usually the type of Americans who had never travelled outside their state), which left me wondering why those very same people believed that they needed to "Make America Great Again" if it was already the "greatest"

Whatever you do, don't visit most parts of the US. You could have a restaurant right opposite your hotel but no way to legally or safely walk to it.

You should have kept on reading past the first half-sentence love.

I had an American friend ask how we were with all the race riots and if many were happening near us. That was last summer, and about a month after the last riot had happened. They were still reporting nightly on the network they watched that pretty much ever major city (and some minor places too) was rioting here. They got the impression that most of the UK was either rioting or hiding quaking under the bed while it raged outside.
I sent them some of the latest photos - with the rioters surrounded by far greater numbers of counter protesters and let them know this.

Yep. I’m a Brit living in the US, in a red state where the most popular news source is probably Fox, and I’ve had all kinds of ridiculous questions about what it was like to live under Sharia law and with the near constant racial violence before we moved here 🙄

I remember reading that on here as well. UK citizens living overseas and claiming that when they came "home" the shelves in the supermarkets were empty.

Now it is sometimes possible that a supermarket is waiting for deliveries, my local Waitrose was looking a bit sad last time I went in, but normally it's fully stocked apart from a few items.

I'm not your love, thanks. Fuck off with the patronising bullshit, I read the whole post.

The cost of living is rising throughout Europe, but was higher in many respects previously anyway.

Brexit causing “worsening conditions” is purely subjective; some feel the economic benefits and some feel the drawbacks. Those who like to travel complain about queues and those who don’t travel to Europe are happy to no longer subsidise those who do.

Youth unemployment is generally higher throughout Europe, with notably lower levels in a few countries.
https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/youth-unemployment-rate?continent=europe

Crime statistics don’t look awfully good in Europe either.
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/03/10/gang-crime-on-the-rise-which-european-countries-have-the-most-dangerous-neighbourhoods#:~:text=In%20general%2C%20the%20highest%20rates,%25)%20and%20Belgium%20(12.5%25).