To be fed up of the constant bashing of the UK?

[Drind]

I am currently away for Christmas with extended family and family friends in a very nice part of southern Europe.

It is lovely here, but I’m thoroughly fed up with the endless comparison to the UK. We all come from a smallish town in the midlands and if we see something nice here it is immediately ‘yes that’s lovely. Not like the shit hole we live in’. We see a palace and it’s ’you wouldn't see that in our town centre, would you?’ Well clearly fucking not because we live in a old fishing town not in the middle of London.

Then we’ll go to a nice restaurant and it’s ’no point in opening a Michelin restaurant where we live, it’s too deprived’. Or walking back to the hotel it’s ’at home you’d be watching chavs vomiting in the streets, not like these lovely clean streets’.

It is so wearing. I defend the UK and I’m told they’re joking and not to take it so seriously but it is endless.

Various mentions of the ‘lower class’ people at home too. It is driving me mad. Why are people so obsessed with doing the UK down? I know it has got its problems, but it is not that different from other European countries which also have their prosperous and struggling areas.

Not sure it matters but these are left leaning people too, not people desperate to criticise the country as a way of voicing political criticism.

Ask them when they are emigrating.

I meant more that they’re Labour supporting and voting, so it’s not just a way to attack the government.

Tell them you'd rather be in a rundown town than live off Nazi gold.

Ha. That woukd start the ‘oh we’re just joking’.

Err, because by a lot of comparisons the UK isn’t a desirable place to live in. Overcrowded and unaffordable with people working to their bones yet nothing to show for it. The NHS is on its knees - why wait more than 4 weeks for a knee replacement and 6 week wait time for cancer surgery??! It’s a shithole where you can’t get anything done yet pay through the nose to live in it. Zero work life balance among other things. Loss of soft power in the wider world, career politicians who climb the greasy pole regardless of who voted them in, the government would rather see it’s citizens shot than „negotiating with terrorists“, yadayada..

Go fly you’re St. George‘s flag but don’t expect others to see England in the same light you do. The grass isn’t always greener but there’s not much than comes to mind albeit from next day delivery (on the back of the people who work to get items to you) that would set England apart in a good way.

My brother moved to Switzerland and we visit him a lot as we can stay with him for free. He left because he is hugely successful. I always feel that way too about the UK when I visit Switzerland, not so much when we stop over in parts of Northern France. Then I tend to think we are quite lucky in London.
Switzerland is currently far superior on an objective basis for the majority of the population there compared to the U.K.. Hard to argue with it really. And I live in London and have a good quality of life. The problem is really that in the 90s up to the 2008 financial crash there was a real buzz in the U.K. and it had a positive vibe. That went. Switzerland has 30 per cent foreign born largely contributing internationals now and there is a buzz there. It was like that in London in the 90s. Everyone likes feeling part of a successful country that is in a good place.

Take them to Marseille, walk the back streets and then you can start the bashing. ‘Gosh, can you imagine, who would think the South of France was like this’. Then when they tell you to stop being ridiculous, you can say it ‘touché ‘.

Where would you rather live? You aren’t making a lot of sense.

I do make a lot of sense, love. I live in Switzerland and the UK and have the best of both worlds - including dual passports.

Right. Well, er, that’s good then. Completely irrelevant mind. But thanks anyway.

Not irrelevant at all - unless you were hoping for an echo chamber to support your views. Sucks to be stuck I guess. Don’t ask on a public forum if you don’t get the answers you like 😆

I've reported them and I suggest everyone else does too.

MNHQ have said they'll delete posters who do this sort of shit to others, as it puts people off posting.

My view that English towns aren’t going to be as nice as expensive Swiss cities? What on Earth are you talking about?

Is there an old fishing town in the Midlands?
Is Switzerland in southern Europe?

Certain sections of the media push the broken Britain angle at every opportunity and it relentless.
Britain's social ills of which there are many are not new and have been with us for sometime.
The constant painting it blacker than black does not help and the UK still has it's good points.

Just follow some Americans on SM like "Kalani" and others. They love it here, and many have or are due to move here. They often note on how beautiful it is here, how safe, how we have lovely food, how the cost of living is cheap. Seeing the UK through a foreigners eyes is always refreshing, and highlights how much we have that is great, and we take for granted.

Italy, for example is great in so many ways. but it's also got some really deprived areas, issues with immigration, dirt and graffiti, high cost of living, poor wages, and high unemployment. Switzerland where OP is, is a country apart.

Is there an old fishing town in the Midlands? Yes.

Is Switzerland in southern Europe? I was trying to be vague and change some details in case any of my family seen the thread, then thought fuck it.

Not sure why you’re trying to be a dick.

And even Switzerland has its areas of poverty and deprivation.

I think we could’ve been in any nice city of any country and they’d have acted the same way. It’s almost like they think it is superior to criticise Britain. It’s really weird. Almost like a snobbery but they actually live in the place they’re being snobby about.

@Overalls that’s what I was thinking and that’s why I think it’s more put up bullshit designed for the ‘hey the UK is amazing ‘ flag waving brigade - and yes it is in many ways , but I can’t honestly say I prefer it lifestyle wise to when we lived in Copenhagen - and I say this living somewhere pretty nice(Bath) I think the UK is really nice ‘in selected parts’ - it has some great scenery, pubs, culture, a lot of history, irony and humour /sarcasm and I can honestly say there wasn’t a single supermarket in Copenhagen that beat M&S or Waitrose , nor a chemist I preferred to a large branch of Boots. However that does not mean large parts of theUk are fairly depressing, run down and don’t have that much going for them apart from usually ‘cheapness’

@Drind what old fishing town is in the midlands?

If I was in the South of France, I would probably agree with them, tbh.

Although, no need to make the same point a million times.

Let it roll off your back. Nothing you say will make any difference.

I’d be limiting the time I spent with them going forward. It all sounds a bit tedious.

🙄

Aren’t the flag waving brigade currently telling us that Britain is shit and on its knees and it’s all Keir Starmer/immigrants/refugees/socialism’s fault? Not a great deal of praise for the UK coming from Reform where I am.

The UK has some great things going for it and some areas for definite improvement.

But this thread is about how my relatives are irritating the life out of me by repeatedly saying that the UK and our hometown are absolutely shit because they don’t have the qualities of an expensive capital city whilst on holiday.

Of course they don’t. But why must it be endlessly repeated? Can people not enjoy a holiday without having to repeatedly and endless whinge on about how awful Britain and our town apparently are.

I agree OP.

i also think most British people don’t realise how many other countries the exact same conversations and bashing is taking place in, based at themselves instead. It’s just a sign of the distress and disruption of our times, not specific to the uk at all.

I’m obviously not going to tell you where I live.