I have lived overseas, in both Europe and the US. My husband is American so we spend a lot of time there. If I listened to some social and other media as my only source of info, I would tell you it is a hell hole that nobody in their right mind would live in. My in-laws are quite clear that, whilst they hate Trump and the current political position, that is not their life experience at all. And, certainly, it wasn't mine when I lived there. So I would be careful about where your husband (and you, to judge from some of your posts) are getting your information from.
The UK is a low crime country, although demographics and geography play a part in just how safe. Presumably you would be researching where you chose to live, and within the limits of work and affordability would choose somewhere as safe as possible.
We are not a high tax country; I laugh when I hear it. The reason public services are not great is because collectively we don't pay enough tax, but (and it's a big but) what we do pay is mostly regressive, so it feels much worse for the less well-off (and I am, income wise, one of those). But my income tax is 20%, my NI when I paid it was 11%. As a younger woman my income tax alone was higher than the sum of those.
What is a massive issue is the cost of living; both rent and house prices (although stagnating and even falling in some places) have far outstripped wage increases, and impose a disproportionate burden on the young, those with families, and people with disabilities. Successive governments have destroyed social house building in this country, and we all are now feeling the impact of that.
Immigration into this country is very low (after a post-Brexit spike), and is falling rapidly. So rapidly, in fact, that it's going to have a nasty effect on public services, tax income, and future pensions, so that's worth considering. There is a ludicrous tendency to conflate asylum seekers and economic immigrants, which does nobody any good at all, but gives populists on the right someone to 'other' and blame for the cost of living issues which are not their fault at all. I am a little sick of hearing 'oh immigrants are a drain, whoops, I don't mean your husband, he's not that kind of immigrant'. Yes, he is, he is exactly like most immigrants, he worked hard, paid his taxes, paid his bills, contributed to his community and this country. There is a wealth of empirical evidence to show the financial benefit, not drain, that immigration is for the UK.
I had no intention of spending my retirement in the UK but circumstances conspired to keep me here longer than I expected and it's not terrible by any means. It is still likely that in the next five years I will emigrate again, but it's not because I am fleeing the UK (it really is a perfectly ordinary, middling sort of country in most ways) but because I wish to live in another part of Europe, which, I know, is also a perfectly ordinary, middling sort of country in most ways, as the majority of western nations are.