Dh says the U.K is f***** and he never wants to go back

[Chippednailtoepolish]

These were his words this morning.

We live abroad in a place where a lot of people are coming to live, escaping the uk and America.
He says with everything on the news, the way it's going and what the people coming to where we are tell him, that we'd be mad to return.
Is he being realistic? I want to return to be with family desperately and have a strange feeling that I need to do it soon

Would we be mad to return at this time? If yes, then when!

As a qualified first aider you are fortunate you didn’t make the situation far worse.

Do you have kids @EvangelicalAboutButteredToast ? Are you that unrelentingly negative about the country to them?

its dystopian. Consider yourself blessed.

I was going to say. I live in a poor area and it's very run down. Don't visit the town centre anymore as it's full of boarded up shops, vape places, druggies and men who leer and spit at you as you walk past. It's horrible and has massively changed since I first used to go. It feels unsafe now.

That is fabulous.
And I think it would make Dolly smile.

Crime in the UK has been falling steadily for 30 years. Violent crime especially is very low. Our murder rate is around 1 per 100k people, compared to around 6 in the US and up to 50 in some places in Caribbean, LA and Africa. Burglary and theft has fallen too.

Sexual crimes reported are high, UK reported rape is around 100 per 100k people. But it’s very hard to compare with elsewhere as definitions and reporting rates vary a lot. Eg In a lot of the countries men have the right to rape their wives. And women don’t report rape in countries where they don’t have rights. So Saudi, Oman and Lebanon have zero and around 100 other countries have below 10 reported cases. Obviously there are many unreported cases.

As a qualified first aider (yes we’ve all done our work first aid, love), I followed the NHS guidelines which says to make sure someone is stable and drive appropriately and they will be fine. Oh, and the first hospital advised us to drive to the second one too. And all was well, what a lovely shoulder she has now.

Careful now, you’ll break your other arm with all the reaching you’re doing.

We are both clearly living in unusually shit parts of the country. We need to find out where the insufferably smug are living and get ourselves a tiny, tiny bedsit there.

Where do you live that is ‘dystopian’?!

Tories raised taxes highest since the 60's and in the meantime broke the country. Trashed it. They also didn't sort out immigration from boats and allowed hundreds of thousands in through official channels in every year, while still trashing everything we need - schools, NHS etc.

Please keep a fair head when talking about why things are broken. This is not the fault of one party.

And you speak like this about England to your kids?

Where are you? What region if you prefer? I'm interested, the mps don't think about these places

Because some people are reporting real, lived experience and authentic statistics, and some people are reading off the Reform (ie British MAGA) talking points list.

I hate being down in this but I have a low level depression at how awful my city has become. It's since austerity basically but the last two years it has felt edgier. You can look at Google street view and visibly see it becoming dirtier and poorer since austerity. No civil pride, nice planters, street cleaning etc.
It's a northern city and in lots of ways a good one but the city centre is becoming horrible. Vomit splattered around during daytimes, people drinking cans and fighting. Tents in front of M&S. Even people smoking drugs, crack, in the daytime. This is on the main shopping street, they pull sleeping bags over their heads and just do it. I don't personally feel in danger but my friend who is older, smaller and a bit more vulnerable was recently assaulted by some teens in the shopping mall. It seems alarmist but I see some or all of this stuff every time I go to town.
There are also the big teen ride outs happening with loads of kids in balaclavas gathering. Stuff that never used to happen. A couple of weeks I was passed in a subway by some lads riding 3 up on a scooter wearing balaclavas and carrying an angle grinder. I just thought wtf when did this just become life? Again not feeling in personal danger but they are out nicking stuff. It just encroaches on you mentally somehow.
The city parks were given to a charity by the council then took back again, they used to be beautifully maintained Victorian parks. I'm grateful they are there but they aren't what they used to be, not nicely planted or kept. Swimming pools given to charity or closed. Again nothing for the civic good.
The litter is atrocious. It's a filthy country.
My experience with the NHS has been terrible, having a mystery illness and get bounced back for consultant treatment, shrugged at by GPs. I had private health insurance through work and the difference was night and day. No dentists at all nearby.
Of course there are much worse places to live but it seems mad to me that I'm only early 40s and I can remember when the health service was good, dentists were available. And there were clean streets and you didn't see visible drug taking, dealing when you shopped in town. I feel like an old woman saying in my day etc! But in my opinion there has been a decline and people aren't feeling richer as things are expensive to boot.

So that’s how see those of us who don’t think England is a shit hole? You think we are insufferably smug

You aren’t happy in life @EvangelicalAboutButteredToast . The end

Unless you're planning on moving to a deprived inner city area I don't think safety of your DC is a problem, and even then it's no different to similar areas in Spain or Portugal.

How about suggesting he looks at actual government stats not sensationalist news stories?

😂 totally gonna do this!

So you are unlikely to get murdered but more likely to get raped and if you own a decent bike you’ll only own it for a week or two (they decriminalised bike theft).

Let people put different experiences up without this

Liverpool? Manchester? Preston? Sheffield?

It really depends so much on what part of the UK you want to live in, we can't generalise. Would it be possible for you to come back for a few months to see for yourself? As for the news - trying to scare people, often very exaggerated and don't report the good stuff because that's not news - it's normal!

I have a feeling it is Spain… lots of Americans moving there.

Middlesbrough 😬

The uk is the worse I’ve known it . The country is hugely divided and views are so far apart we’ll never come together . There’s very little for youngsters by way of jobs , apprenticeships , and the chance of a home , older people who have anything will be taxed into oblivion by this government who want to give everything someone has worked for to those who’ve never worked . The borders are porous and everyday more and more illegals from third world countries arrive raping and pillaging along the way . Settled legal immigrants have played a huge part in keeping our public services going and we thank them for that . The only way I would come here is if I had enough money to cushion myself from all that but tbh I’d probably look to Aus , Canada or NZ first .

I think this is a case of tell me you live in a green, leafy suburb without telling me you live in a green, leafy suburb 🤭