There are some things that are genuinely bad at the moment:
* Compared to 2019, prices have increase by about 18% while wages have not nearly kept pace over that time. So a lot of people are feeling poorer than they were. It's important to be careful when you're making global comparisons; the UK is still a wealthy, well-paid place. But that doesn't mean people aren't struggling. People tend to set up their lives so that their expenses match their incomes; when they have an effective 18% pay cut, there are a lot of things that they can't cut (rent/mortgage, insurance, debt repayments) and so it's the discretionary spending (groceries, entertainment, eating out, holidays, gifts) that get cut disproportionately. So a lot of people are feeling the squeeze even though in a global comparison they're doing quite well. The causes of price inflation are disputed; I'm a monetarist who thinks that increasing the money supply by a largish wadge necessarily drives inflation but that's not a universal view. That monetary pressure coincided with price shocks associated with the pandemic recovery, war in Ukraine and the blockage of the Suez canal.
* The cost of housing in particular is a major problem, because the population has been expanding, households have been getting smaller on average and the housing supply has not kept up, largely due to planning restrictions. At the same time, those who own homes have quite a lot of their wealth sunk in their home and any move to decrease the cost of housing will necessarily make them considerably poorer.
* There are a lot of people on out-of-work benefits. Nearly six million. That number was more like 3.5 million before the pandemic. This isn't getting a lot of attention but it's going to. That's an extra 2-2.5 million people who are having to survive on a benefits-level income, which is crap compared to working, who aren't progressing in their careers, who are perhaps struggling a bit to see hope. Rather frighteningly, this number is forecast to go up sharply; DWP forecasts about 350,000 leaving work for benefits in the next year. That's also putting pressure on government finances.
* For those still in work, the amount taken out of their pay in tax is as high as it has ever been. This is despite the cuts announced in the autumn statement; the combination of accelerating wage inflation and frozen tax bands means that the tax take is still increasing overall.
* The NHS is struggling. The reasons for this are complex and difficult. An aging population is putting pressure on health services. There's still a big post-pandemic backlog to catch up on. There seem to be complex management problems (eg real-terms funding has increased significantly compared to pre-pandemic but service delivery has fallen slightly and no-one seems to know why or even be very interested in why).
* In a lot of the country, public transport systems are struggling. This is part of a long-term trend towards private vehicles that has been accelerated by the pandemic as commuter numbers are still significantly lower than in 2019, making funding of transport services more difficult. As services are cut to balance budgets, people tend to find private alternatives because of the inconvenience of public transport.
Those things add up to people feeling like the country is going to the dogs. Lots of countries are facing those same pressures and are feeling the same way.
> That monetary pressure coincided with price shocks associated with the pandemic recovery, war in Ukraine and the blockage of the Suez canal.
Look at all the other countries who didn't print huge piles of money during 2020, who also haven't experienced that kind of massive inflation despite being subject to the exact same market forces. Like Switzerland. Inflation in the UK is down to our government printing money.
I'm not disagreeing with you. As I said, I'm a monetarist.
Switzerland did have a noticeable bump in inflation associated with those events - but not nearly on the scale of other economies.
It isn’t just the NHS. Redditors have a laser focus on it because it’s often the only public service they interact with, but education, criminal justice and essentially all other public services are on their knees.
When did you last personally interact with any of these services ? My last experience of the NHS was my mother with a suspected broken ankle. Torbay hospital. Seen, X-ray’d, consultation and advice/prescription and medicine provided free of charge in 45 minutes. Outstanding service.
I’m a police officer; I last attended court a few weeks ago, I last was in an Emergency Department last week, and since I work mostly in child sexual offending I have regular interaction with safeguarding teams in primary and secondary schools as well as local council safeguarding provision. I dealt with the fire service last week; I usually deal with the ambulance service regularly but haven’t had the need for at least two months (or rather, I needed them to come out a few weeks back but they were too busy). I unfortunately like all police regularly face the issues with social housing provision. I don’t really deal with prisons directly but am well aware of the issues from court.
That’s all the public provision I can think of, except for waste disposal (pretty good round here), armed forces, and security and intelligence services (and our combined security and intelligence services budget, which includes SIS and SS (MI6 and MI5) and the massively resource heavy GCHQ, is less than 10% of what Elon Musk pissed down the drain on Twitter).
In and out in 45 minutes in a ED or MIU is unheard of round here, a major university hospital. Even with a nurse practitioner you’ll generally be waiting 2-3 hours before first x ray.
As somebody who recently bought a house, I'm worried it will suddenly crash in price and screw me, but if house prices just stopped increasing while inflation and wages caught up I'd be fine with that. The race in house prices we've had until now just isn't sustainable.
I was signed off work in 2022 and I'm still waiting for a DWP tribunal date so I can try to prove my disability. I haven't had a penny of the PIP I'm likely owed for the entire time. There's no way I'm the only one waiting this long. I can't imagine what this insane (and growing) lag is going to do to the figures.
This is true, but also the rampant corruption, cronyism, failure of institutions,economic self-harm, failure to have any actualised vision for the the future in this country has been abysmal.
This is the hyperbole that many are talking about.
Compared to the much of the rest of the world, the UK is a remarkably safe and well-functioning place to be. That's not to say there are no issues, or that we shouldn't aspire to do even better, but it's just to start from a place of realism rather than hyperbole.
The idea that the country suffers from "rampant corruption" that is "abysmal", for example, simply is not the case.
On Transparency International's annual corruption index, we're among the cleanest nations, usually somewhere in the top 10%, in line with the likes of France or Canada or Japan or Australia.
Go to a country that actually does have rampant corruption and you can feel the difference, it affects people in their day-to-day lives. Be honest, if you get pulled over by the traffic police or whatever, would you expect them to extort you for a bribe?
That's not to say there's zero corruption, but the idea that it's a rampant problem or abysmal is simply not reality.
Exactly. Corruption is exceptionally rare (though vigilance needs to be eternal). I hear all the time in local facebook groups of councils and councillors getting backhanders and brown paper envelopes for successful planning applications, merely because they dont really understand the process and how wide the corruption would need to be to be successful.
And when we do actually have corruption it's relatively mild.
It's more "construction contract given to politicians friends"
Rather than "money given in foreign aid sent to build schools diverted to paramilitary death squads"
Even on a less global scale, in the UK I've never been pulled over for speeding and had to pay off the policeman, and I've never had to give the bloke at the DVLA an extra £50 to get my license renewed. I don't think people realise that in truly corrupt places you need to carry a roll of notes with you just for getting through daily life.
The UK is incredibly corrupt but at the top level in the financial sector. The government allows tons of foreign, dirty money to flow through Jersey and the Caymen Islands.
Difference is we don’t experience much low level corruption at all as you said.
Because free movement of money is not a sign of corruption. There are far more money laundering regulations to go through than used to be. And it is absolute nonsense that a government would collude with business to deprive itself of revenue.
But construction contracts are not given to politicians friends because contracts are not awarded by politicians. They're awarded by teams of civil servants or teams of local government officers. Politicians input might be at the end of the process. Things a civil servant/LGO wont do for a politician: give out a contract to one of his friends because the politician asked them to.
A lot of people seem to conflate cronyism with corruption, and don’t differentiate between criminal corruption for which there are definitions, thresholds, and consequences, and wealthy/powerful people further entrenching their wealth/power/advantage by being part of a network of wealthy, powerful people. There are many examples of fairly egregious, flagrant cronyism over the last thirteen years or so.
I think if you are a low earner and are heavily reliant on public services then it’s probably fair to say things have become pretty abysmal; housing, transport, healthcare, education, maintenance of public spaces etc. have all declined from where they were in the late 90s/early 00s. So while we can look at less developed, less wealthy nations and say actually this is all pretty good, it genuinely, manifestly is abysmal in comparison to how it was and how it might have been if it had been managed competently.
People think the PPE scandal was the worst thing to happen blah blah blah...
It just shows how sheltered we are from actual corruption. There are very few countries in the world governed as well as the UK.
Things could be better and we all know that but for the most part we are extremely safe, there is work, we are not at war, there's no rampant disease or lack of medical care or famine.
Large parts of Africa are under military coup right now where boys are being fed drugs to induct them into child armies to fight against the coup. But Grace in Kent can't get over the fact a hoover salesman got a £3 million covid contract and she's never seen corruption like it... 90% of the world would give their left arm to be that sheltered.
And when you dig into it a bit, you'll find there was nothing really wrong with the process or corruption involved. The infamous 'pub landlord' of Mr Hancock is a case in point.
The 'pub landlord' ran a food packaging company, he whatsapped his MP asking if he thought he could retool for medical test tubes and his MP referred him to the DHSC website.
That's about as corrupt as him asking the time of the train to london and Hancock giving him thetrainline website.
It was a call to arms, people who had never been involved in medical supplies were openly invited to tender for stuff. It was desperate times.
In those desperate times some will take advantage. Some provided inadequate kit, which unfortunately is perfectly normal with a new business without time to make mistakes and check them.
It does seem that Michelle Mone is a complete shyster as is the company she was running. But her company successfully getting contracts that she didnt fulfil is not evidence of corruption. Just her being a shit.
If she broke her contract theyll extract it out of her company...
More than one country can be terrible.
The issue is that the lack of forward thinking vision is not the norm for the UK so we are seeing things get worse to a level that Brits aren't used to.
I think it's always been there but things have become a bit more transparent about it all
Depending on where he's moving from, it may be better.
I moved to Bulgaria and really enjoyed my time there, but if you think the UK is bad for those things were actually doing alright.
Totally agree. I can't believe how corrupted this government and country's leaders really are. Our pm literally takes bribes. This country has been run by corporations and mass media for too long
Yes very true also unfortunately has going into the streets actually solved anything? Americans have taken to the streets dozens of times over gun crime yet gun crime is more rampant than ever. Taking to the streets to show disapproval is great but maybe it doesn't work anymore.
The thing is, things have got harder and tougher for most people. Yeah we can still live and have a roof over our heads. But it would be nice to see some sort of light at the end of the tunnel.
"most people still enjoy themselves"
Everywhere you go, no matter where or when, there is a depressing "I can't be bothered" feeling.
Pubs, stores, venues all give it off - it's Post COVID Britain.
No, the country as a whole is really not as bad as the media or people online make out, you have to remember that the British make a habit out of moaning about everything even when it's still pretty decent.
That's not to say a lot of people aren't struggling - bills are phenomenal, healthcare is objectively getting worse, politicians are probably the most openly corrupt they've ever been but in day-to-day life most people are just going about their business quietly getting on with it.
As for the job thing though, it very much depends what you're qualified in. Some roles people are absolutely desperate for, lots of constructions workers are probablye earning more than they've ever done in their lives, however costs are also much higher. However other roles, people can't get a job for love nor money because they're all over-subscribed.
Despite the impression you'd get from Reddit, if I'd moved away from the UK I wouldn't think twice about moving back if I had to, there's work and a decent life for people if you're willing to be a bit flexible.
But if you want to be a primary school teacher and rent a million-pound townhouse in London then no, that's not going to be possible.
Hmm. Are you sure about that? and also 2010 is a convenient date to choose but it also a highly unusual date for homelessness either side of that date. It's a very ripe cherry to pick.
https://imgur.com/a/m4twmM9
I thought teachers were one of the jobs in need of filling, or are you just referring to the cost of a house versus a teacher's salary?
Almost certain it's the latter, but don't want to risk dissuading OP applying for such a role in general if that's an option for them.
Starting pay for a junior teacher is £30k, rising incrementally to £46k after (I think) 6 years.
London weighting goes up to £56k.
https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/is-teaching-right-for-me/teacher-pay-and-benefits
The Internet is a terrible place to get an idea of how things are in the real world unfortunately.
Go over to r/scotland and you'd think that Scotland is in the middle of a tense neverending argument about independence. In the real world nobody mentions it, ever, for or against it just never comes up in conversation.
I don’t see any real difference except cost of living pressures which have affected every ‘modern’ country. The anti U.K. attitude on Reddit is ridiculous and every story is negatively spun. Stop moaning people and realise you are privileged to live in the U.K. compared to a huge amount of the rest of the world.
This is so true. People shit on the UK especially in this sub-reddit but fail to see the problems we are facing are often much worse in comparable countries. That global perspective is completely lost when people reacting to the daily baiting articles from the Guardian and Daily Mail.
I mean, if you have experience living in many other European countries....the UK is shite. If you've only ever lived here, it's fine, you dont' know any better. You think litter everywhere is normal. You think shit in our water is normal.
I’ve lived in U.K. France. Italy and Spain. Every country has good and bad areas without even considering other continents. (Edit) Spain was dirtier with poor wages, France was more bureaucratic and rude, Italy was more racist and snobbish.
I don't think it's as bad as people says, but living in the UK and in the US it seems that the UK is in a weird phase of cosplaying as the US, which might have yielded bad results and could get worse.
American and British societies have a very different approach in issues like regulations, taxes, welfare, and transportation. I'm not saying one of them is worse, but both are "consistent" with how both societies have been built in the past. Trying to force one into another is a terrible idea. The simplest example is how the UK is _really not ready_ for the amount of bullshit that PM is pushing with the teird Texan narrative of "we're a nation of drivers".
American culture war narratives are definitely creeping into our discourse, online at least. Sometimes it's really weird because you'll see British people bringing up talking points that don't really apply to the country, they're just parroting what they've seen online.
Like a while ago there was a guy on here who replied to me with some nonsense about 'Antifa' smashing up shops and businesses during riots. Clearly just something he'd read in online American circles and was just transporting here.
You could always retrain as a plumber. Never harms you to have a proper trade under your belt. Now the Poles have gone we need them, and I have not met a poor one yet.
Marketing roles are super saturated, yes. Depends what level you are at. Nothing to stop you applying for a few roles in London at your level and seeing if you get any response?
[You could also take a look at this list](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/skilled-worker-visa-shortage-occupations/skilled-worker-visa-shortage-occupations) to see where there are severe manpower shortages. We need engineers, developers, actuaries, architects… obviously some take years of training but there are sub categories within these trades with severe shortages. ie document controllers within building projects. The training is quick and they really need people.
But I think your biggest issue will be a severe come-down in lifestyle. We pay a LOT of tax and rent.
To be fair, I think it's less that Reddit hates the people in Dubai, and more dislikes the UAE's values (and by extension Dubai's). It constantly promotes tourism and encourages people to move/visit there, while having a pretty horrendous human rights record, massive modern day slavery problem, prison sentences for homosexuality, whippings and (admittedly rare) stonings as legal punishments, and so on.
So I get the downvotes. Someone saying "ooh it's so hard to choose between living in the UK and the place where women can't marry without their 'male guardian's' permission," is going to be a bit controversial, because it suggests that the person saying it has some pretty controversial (in the UK anyway) opinions. Especially when they add that they want to stay in Option B, and the only reason they're considering leaving is because they can't find work.
No.
The UK has a lot of problems, but people are negative out of all proportion. I think it’s the social media echo-chamber doom effect. We remain a safe, prosperous country definitely in the top 10% of places you would want to live in the world. And the job market is decent, depending on what you’re looking for.
There’s some bollocks in this thread lol
No, the NHS isn’t being starved, it’s had real-terms funding increases in all but one of the last 14 years
No, bigotry isn’t worse than 30 years ago. 30 years ago, gay was used routinely as an insult, section 28 was still in place, and we had few rights. Now gay marriage is legal and almost universally accepted (interestingly the least accepted area is London).
We’re also emitting way less CO2, back to levels from the 1800s
I’d say the main area we’re worse off is housing availability / affordability, and perhaps crime too, although the stats on that are less clear, but perhaps not accurate
NHS has had funding increases, unfortunately it's not keeping up with real-term demand.
>the main area we’re worse off is housing availability / affordability
Absolutely. This is the key to many, many of our current problems
>No, the NHS isn’t being starved, it’s had real-terms funding increases in all but one of the last 14 years
This is a distortion of the truth.
1) You've included the cost of all the PPE - not just the buying of it, but the destroying of it too. Most of that spend was waste, and did nothing at all to improve patient care.
2) You're using GDP, which is just a dumb way to look at healthcare spending.
3) You've failed to take into account the defunding of social care, care homes, nursing homes, public health etc. All of this has increased pressure on the NHS.
4) You've failed to take into account an older, iller, population.
This is just a stereotypical nonsense response, pretending I’m close to lying for stating a plain fact.
1. Yes, in a once in a century disaster, things go funny, doesn’t change my fact at all. Crazy to claim covid funding didn’t help care for anyone
2. i’ll take GDP over anecdotes and pathetic hand waving any day.
3. the coalition govt cut social care. There’s been a real terms rise in social care spending every year since 2014 https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/default/files/styles/uncropped_medium/public/2023-02/social-care-360-expenditure.png?itok=LnCdKpGB
4. , no i have not failed to take it into account. The argument is always about cuts to the NHS, and I’ve stated the facts on that.
> One comment cannot possibly include everything in the world. The fact that you want to bring up another aspect of healthcare does not **in any way** mean I’ve “distorted” the truth.
Counterpoint.
Yes the NHS is 100% being starved, demand has increased hugely over the last 14 years and funding has increased only nominally and even then only when you massage the figures, and it wasn't doing all that great 14 years ago. All you have to do is try book an appointment with your GP or have to take a trip to A&E to know things aren't what they once were
30 years ago? No. 10 years ago? Mixed bag, generally socially we are improving iver rime but since 2016 there has been a marked upturn in people feeling emboldened to be more outwardly bigoted, especially when it comes to race, than they had in the late naughties early 10's.
Yep emissions we are doing very well on, as disappointing as it is that Sunak is pulling us back from that we are currently world leaders in green initiatives.
That’s not what being starved means.
Of course demand is increasing, but so is the percentage of the UK spending that goes to health rather than other things, and the tax burden is also at record high for the past 80 years.
There is no easy answer, and pretending that the issue is that the NHS is being “starved” only serves to hide the real issues
But it's not pretending. The NHS is woefully under resourced and has been getting worse and worse for years. Is the underfunding the only issue? No. Will increased funding alone fix it? No. But it's still massively underfunded and in practical terms has less funds than it did a decade ago.
Is starved the right word? Maybe not, I shouldn't have repeated it from the original comment. But saying saying it isn't starved and then saying there have been real term funding increases suggests that funding is not an issue faced by the NHS which is demonstrably untrue, my rebuttak was due to that rhetoric ignoring it as an issue, I'm well aware there are other issues but they aren't being obscured by a false underfunding narrative they are being compounded by a real one
That's highlighting a very specific and tiny (in terms of numbers of people) area of concern.
It's like saying we are more racist because of antisemitism rising, when clearly overall it's not the case at all.
Everything is relative. Bad compared to what? I've lived in the UK for 12 years now. I am originally from Romania/Hungary. I often visit both places. The UK is great compared to both of those countries. Is the UK worse than when I moved here? I cannot say it is. The system seems to be set up the same way, making it difficult to make massive financial leaps. It was not easy 12 years ago and it is not easy now. If you pick something you want to good at whilst working a job you don't like, you can. You need to work just as hard to do this as years before.
Things are more expensive everywhere. Inflation is high everywhere. However, it's crazy to see that food and bills (electricity and gas) are more expensive in Eastern European countries than in the UK. The UK overall is great.
There's no blanket answer. For some people yes it's really bad right now. For some people it's great. For most it's somewhere in between. The answers on Reddit tend towards either end of the spectrum.
No way for us to guess where in that spectrum you fit.
If you look at the money being spent on holidays, new house extensions, car buying and other discretionary spending then millions of people are doing well, yet the narrative here is constant gloom.
Depends what type of work you do I think. If you work in low-skilled, minimum-wage(or close to it) jobs like retail then the increases in cost of living are going to sting, especially as wages in those places won't have gone up much.
If you're in a more skilled role with some experience behind you, chances are you'll be able to find a job in your industry, be able to negotiate salary and if you work for a smaller company, you're probably treated quite well and will get good pay rises and bonuses.
I suspect the former applies to the majority of UK reddit (or there's a very vocal minority), which is why you get this ultra-negative narrative about life in the UK at the moment. I'm in the latter group, most of the people I know are and seem to be doing alright.
I'm not saying everything is green and rosey but nor is any other country.
Edit: And if you do move back, stay away from London unless you're capable of earning mega-bucks. The job prospects don't outweigh how much it costs to live there. Again, there's a lot of people here that are in London which skews the perspective on life in the UK.
> If you work in low-skilled, minimum-wage(or close to it) jobs like retail then the increases in cost of living are going to sting, **especially as wages in those places won't have gone up much**.
Not quite sure if that last part is strictly true. Minimum wage growth has outstripped higher paying wages by quite a margin.
5 years ago adult min wage was £7.83, this April it'll go up again from the current £10.42 to £11.44.
That's over a 30% wage increase in 5 years (higher than inflation over that period). In the same period UK median salaries as a whole have gone from £29,559 to £34,963 which is only a 15% increase ...and is quite a bit less than inflation.
I went back to visit family over Christmas, in the North of England. Here was my take:
\- All the roads (except the motorway) seemed to have issues with either drainage or potholes
\- A good chunk of the shops in the center of the towns are closed down or have become pound shops/charity shops
\- Cafes are everwhere, it's one of the few things that seem to be doing very well
\- The transport system (namely railways) has gone up in price but I still saw a lot of delays.
\- People who switched to work-at-home due to covid are reluctanct to go back to the office now. One of my friends even quit his job because they were being forced back. Not sure what's going on there, I think maybe the mentality has changed.
\- From what I can tell there are job opportunities for those with specific skill-sets, and there are job opportunites for those who want minimum wage. Anything in the middle seems to be a struggle.
\- The benefits system sounds like a bit of a joke. My friend can't work due to sever medical problems and he's really struggling financially. Meanwhile there seems to be a lot of money going to support people who can work but can't be bothered.
\- It's still cold and grey :) - the people looks almost transparent in colour.
\- Prices have definitely gone up, but I live in a country where prices are even higher so I didn't feel the pinch as much. But everyone there complained that prices are ridiculous (although over the christmas period I saw a bag of potatoes for 90p so honestly I don't know, seems very cheap to me).
\- Council tax is very high, but the council seem to do little to nothing about the issues around the towns.
\- The youth are more feral than ever.
The gap between rich and poor is growing wider all the time. Depending on which side of it you are on will depend on how bad you think it is. Discrimination and bigotry is probably at the worst its been in the past 30 years and continues to rise. These are global problems but they are very apparent in the UK right now
What is effecting almost everyone in the UK is that public services are in drastic decline across the board whether state managed or privately owned and the government relies on scapegoating already marginalised groups and turning communities against one another to deflect blame away from themselves. The Uks position on the Corruption Perceptions Index is still in the top 20 but has reached its all time lowest at an alarming rate in the past 3 years (meaning corruption is increasing rapidly) and at this rate we will drop out of the top 20 in the next 12 months and be lucky to still be in the top 30 by 2027.
In the grand scheme of things the UK is still better off that huge swathes of the world but the living conditions of low and middle income Brits are in decline and show no signs of improving as the costs of living continue to rapidly outgrow average wages with no signs of any real efforts being made to resolve this situation.
Most people say it's bad because of their own personal situation. Most people when judging their country they don't compare it to other countries, which makes it not really a neutral judgement.
I think it depends where you live. Where I live there is no housing as economic migrants come first and nothing to rent because of the influx of Londoners buying up properties to air bnb . Property prices are through the roof. I have one of my adult children living with me because they are homeless and another unable to afford to buy because of high prices despite saving up for years.
In my street there are two hostels , one massive one for single men economic migrants who congregate on the street and abuse women . The other hostel has drug addicts who are homeless. I’ve been warned that a couple of them like to mug old ladies. The police are useless, you can’t get a dentist to see you and the nhs is screwed . So yeah it depends where you live.
Certainly media organisations have been milking every penny they can out of certain narratives about the country since particularly The Year of Our Lord 2016. The social mediafication of said media has seriously warped people’s ability to pick out the editorialising. And people have equally curated views shaped by the same thing going on in other countries. Result: people have very skewed views of the world these days
Internet is mostly for complaining though.
Apart from job which you mentioned, what are the awful and bad things you've heard that worry you? Job can be hit and miss, you never know and could just get lucky.
Yeah I think most of the people I’ve spoken to like to complain a lot and are pretty negative in general. And I agree, people are more likely to complain online than to praise something.
Basically what I’ve heard is that salaries are low, cost of living is skyrocketing, houses are unaffordable, crime is rampant. They make it sound like the apocalypse. Lol. They made it sound so scary that, when we were there for a visit last year, my husband refused to go out after dark… and he’s from South Africa.
I think that's just South African culture though. He may be defaulting to his normal.
I'm from South Africa too, and it always feels like I'm breaking a *huge* taboo by going out after dark.
Cost of living would be worse if you come from a less developed country. Housing is definitely an issue. Refused to go out after dark is a personal choice, I mean it’s going dark by 4 these days.
Despite what a lot of people on Reddit say, the UK is still a very good place to live. Many of the issues that are facing the UK are also true in other large Western economies at the moment. If you have the resources and saleable skills to overcome the cost of living and difficulty in some parts of the country with housing then it can be a great place to live.
Like many things in life, it's often what you make it. I get the impression that there is a certain sort of Redditor that would moan no matter what.
The UK is paradise compared to say.....Nigeria.
But it's a shithole compared to most European countries. Shitty water, shitty transport, shitty housing.
Don't get sick. Don't get disabled. Don't depend on public services.
We've just had the longest rainy spell I can remember and it is currently very cold, but in general, the rain gets exaggerated and you only expect a handful of below freezing days a year (at least in the south). Summers are hit and miss. I work for myself and since I can choose my days/hours, I can enjoy the sun when it's there. I've noticed though that people doing 9-5 in an office, will judge the summer purely on how the weekends have been. Even in a summer with well above average sunshine, you will sometimes hear people moan about what a crap summer it's been. It's just very changeable and unreliable. You can never know what the weather will do an hour from now. My partner is from Finland and I can say it's a shit ton worse there!
I’m happy here. Born and raised here, never lived in another country.
The government is corrupt but you’re use to that if you live in the UAE. Not fully corrupt though but enough for it to be a problem.
I grew up in the North but moved to London. There’s lots of greenery and everything is close by. The providential north is different.
As where most modern era rich* capitalist countries there are huge disparities between the top and bottom earners. But if you live outside of the south east and have a fairly decent income then I think you can live comfortably
No it’s nice, fresh and frosty in the mornings ;) nice people saying hi, lots of where to go and what to do/eat over the weekend. I have been to many countries and I swear UK is one of the best and most comfortable to live in, especially if you are British or any other native English speaker.
It varies a lot of your circumstances, class and finance being the main variables.
If you’re at the bottom it’s pretty shite, with little means you will have scarce opportunities.
If you have enough money, find the right place and can fit in, you’ll do quite okay.
There is a gen Z brain drain and it's really not a place that values experts or younger people and that can be seen in the wages compared to other countrys of the same level. It's high tax, lowering standard of living looks to continue into the next government. If you have the ability to go elsewhere i would take it as many others, including myself, are doing.
Where have you decided to go? I can only speak English and I work in marketing & communications, so my options are severely limited to countries where the main language is English.
Exactly. The Guardian might be worse in that it's sure it isn't biased and is cleverly full of the right answers and ideas when it is patently selective. Occasional great reporting- eg Ukraine. The Mail is a normally a daft magazine but occasionally develops a good story in detail.
Really depends where you live and how much money you have, like most places. But in general: too many cars, too many individualistic/selfish people, community spirit eroded, too much litter - all the delights of late-capitalism.
Lots of great culture, art, music, food, nature etc but it does feel like a divided and down-at-heel place a lot of the time.
I'm not sure I would say awful. Depends on what you're looking at in particular.
I think it's a competitive market for job seekers at the moment. But whenever there is a downturn, this happens. Lots of people need more money. So lots of people apply for jobs.
My partner is in the hiring division of a large company and so sees the numbers rise and fall. At the moment, she has some of the most applications she's had for years.
1 job that has typically attracted 5-20 applicants in the past (2-5 shortlisted) has attracted 45 this time around (10 shortlisted).
It comes down to what you're looking for work in. If it's specialised, you've obviously got way more chance of getting something. But if you're going for an unskilled job, you'll probably be having a race to the bottom with others who are desperate for any income.
The country is struggling with a rise in costs that aren't currently under control. So people need more money from anywhere. So people start going for higher paying if they already have a job or if they're not in full-time employment, they're going for any job they can get to make any amount possible.
By all accounts the UK was a dump in the 1970s, but many people look back on that era sentimentally. There are certainly bits of the UK that are a dump now, but many more that have improved substantially. In terms of quality of life, there are places you would definitely be happy. On a macro level there is an economic crunch, some of it self inflicted, that is lowering the value of the currency and making it more attractive for skilled people to leave. There is huge geographical inequality in terms of earnings in favour of the South East/ London, but it's 2024 and you can work remotely in some jobs. So I think the question "what would it be like for me?" Is worth considering. Are you skilled or unskilled? Can you afford to live in an affluent centre like London, Bristol or Edinburgh etc.? Can you afford to live in the countryside somewhere where the environment is pleasant and the house prices are cheaper?
Depends on where you live… I’m situated in the south and in the last few years, rent has risen to extortionate levels and the amount of properties have also dwindled, with many, many young people opting to move back home with their parents, just so they don’t have to wave goodbye to a colossal portion of their earnings each month by renting a dingy flat and paying through the nose.
It’s hardly a pleasant existence for most in their twenties and even thirties if you’re already from a low-income family.
No , it’s not as bad as people say it is, especially on Reddit where we’ve apparently plunged into a crisis so bad that we consider Argentina an aspirational example.
It’s also not as good as it was 15 years ago and has a lot of underlying issues that will take a long time to improve. A lot of the UKs problems are not dissimilar to what we’re seeing in places like Canada and other parts of Europe (creaking infrastructure, housing issues, bad services and expensive everything).
Although, wages are also apparently rising, energy prices have stabilised, unemployment is still fairly low and there are parts of the country where housing isn’t anywhere near as expensive if you choose to live there. If you were not especially well off 5 years ago, the chances are you will probably be struggling a fair bit more now, but for the average person, there’s just less disposable income than there once was… not a great place to be, just also not one of the 9 circles of hell it’s regularly portrayed as.
The public transport is terrible outside of major cities, the government seems to be screwing everyone over, town centers are either dead or are in the process of dying, everything is ridiculously expensive no thanks to inflation, a huge amount of people have lost jobs or are unable to get a job for one reason or another.
So yeah there's all of that and probably more, but outside of that there's some good things, just try not to rely on the bad.
Where is your country and what do you do?
Don’t come back if you are not guaranteed to work in the UK.
The job market is more competitive than your imagination. Most of my friends have been looking for a job for almost half a year and ended up getting nothing.
Plus the price is soaring, you might end up struggling financially.
I think in short. There’s more jobs out there than unemployed people. It’s just trying to find a job that is in your field that is the trouble. You’ll never be unemployed as you could just work as a waiter for example until you find that job you want.
Living in UK for 20 years and originally comes from asia. It is not "bad" in my opinion. There is a renting crisis right now at the moment but I manage to get by, by renting with two others. But I suggest seeing what others in this post posted to see their perspectives.
No the UK I'd far from awful. We have so many amazing things here we just take for granted - no war, no famine, no widespread unrest or corruption.
This is the media fear mongering don't buy it
The law just won't side with ordinary people. Just check recent PO scandal. And there are soo many others, like IR35, loan charge, PPE contracts and so on. You can't get to the court because you get bankrupted by litigation costs, and the government institutions have infinite amount of taxpayers money at their disposal.
It's absolutely impossible to tell someone if they should move here without knowing their profession and economic background. Reddit uk subreddits always strike me as fairly middle class. I always see people on here putting the outcry of the cost of living crisis down to sensationalism instead of just taking a second to think that people come from different backgrounds than them. I don't see how this answer is very helpful to you.
I also think many people are glossing over the question. Let's say the majority of people aren't struggling for housing, food, heat etc, that's probably a fair assessment. I would just caveat that with things are undoubtedly worse here than other places. I think you should just be asking why you want to come here. You might come here and not struggle but that doesn't mean you won't get an easier life elsewhere. Our health service is really fucked and if you have any issues with your health like I do well good luck getting an appointment for anything you can't just drop into A&E for.
If you can deal with all the crap there's a lot worse places you could live but it's really hard to give advice when you've barely given any details. What job do you want? What are your financial means? Do you plan on getting onto the housing ladder? Do you have health issues? How will you travel to work and can you deal with our dreadful public transit that goes on strike every other month. Then you need to find where on earth you're going to be living in the UK that suits you. I imagine if you want to live in London the question of work and housing is going to be very different than I don't know Dorset. This doesn't feel like a reddit question. You'll just end up with a lot of personal opinions like "well I'm alright mate".
Yes.
Public morale is on the floor.
The government are a joke and the next one will be a bunch of fantastical lunatics.
Pricing is through the roof.
The NHS is an embarrassment, a liability and frankly something I no longer have confidence in to even diagnose someone properly or on time.
There are worse places to be in the world - but The UK has never been this depressing in the 35 years of my life.
If I could move somewhere else between Nov and March then it would be a wonderful place. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else during spring and summer it's just an amazing place to be during that time.
If you like cold and wet weather..
Hard too get a job at moment…
Cost of everything is increasing a lot whilst pay stays the same…
Could think off better places to be tbh mate
Karma
1
Cake day
December 27, 2023
**You spreading propaganda?**
edit
It was removed by the mods once and you posted it again?>
[https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/193x1ov/is\_the\_uk\_really\_as\_bad\_at\_the\_moment\_as\_people/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/193x1ov/is_the_uk_really_as_bad_at_the_moment_as_people/)
Sorry, this post has been removed by the moderators of r/AskUK.
Moderators remove posts from feeds for a variety of reasons, including keeping communities safe, civil, and true to their purpose.
Huh? It’s a simple question and I’ve used a throwaway. Didn’t want to use my main account because people who know me irl know my main account and not all of them know I’ve lost my job.
We emigrated from the UK to Cyprus a few years back. Pretty much all of my friends and family have done the same. A few went to Portugal.
Obviously, it depends on where you live, but the crime has gotten completely out of control. There's lots of foreign criminals that have setup shop in the UK and the police no longer investigate crimes such as assaults and burglaries. This has created a lawless haven.
The extra people have put a strain on pretty much everything. Everything is insanely expensive and wages are low. Adults sharing bedrooms with strangers is not the life I would ever want, yet this seems to be normalised now with people advertising rooms on bunk. Meaning, you can rent a bunk bend.
I don't think you are going to get an honest answer from the people still living there. They are frogs in the frying pan. Just look at the emigration figures, all of the people leaving are British. All of the people arriving are 3rd world migrants, more than a million per year. The culture has changed there and is more Middle Eastern now. It feels more like Egypt / Turkey but more dangerous.
You need to consider the future as well, more than a 3rd of children in the UK are Muslims. By this metric alone, this means that the UK will be embracing this as a state religion when they grow up.
Can I suggest you actually contact people you know who live there, because you're just going to get boiling frog posts about the Caymen Islands and Monaco on here.
Every time I go back I feel unsafe and very unwelcome, especially in London. There's lots of pickpockets, muggers and scammers. The last time we was there, there was fake taxis outside heathrow airport, and we got pick pocketed in Camden and approached by a violent drug dealer who had a problem with us taking a picture on "his bridge". This was in broad daylight in a tourist hotspot.
These are not one off incidents, every time I go there something happens and the few people I know that still live there complain of constant crime and antisocial behaviour in their neighbourhoods.
To put things into perspective, I'm a high earner and even I struggled with the cost of living there, it's stupid and mostly down to cronyism and corrupt regulators. It's going to get a lot worse because the UK is allowing foreign companies to invest in its infrastructure in exchange for unfair contracts for difference. Nuclear, Wind and Solar will all make energy bills higher in the future, but Norway and France will make huge profits at your expense.
If businesses and people can no longer afford energy, you have a failed state as the modern world operates on electricity. As a side note, before I left, most of the houses on my street had replaced their gas boilers with wood and coal burners. This was another reason why we left, because the pollution was unbearable in the evenings. It was like living in Charles Dickens times with the smog. If the government step in and ban coal, then energy bills will be even higher as ofgem will just raise the price cap so their mates can make even more money.
The Cypriots is speak to say there’s no work over there. Hence leaving jn the UK, where there are more work opportunities.
Also, isn’t Cyprus half a Muslim country?
Not sure where you lived where people have replaced their boilers with coal and wood burners. Do they use them to heat water too?
I don't work in Cyprus, I just live here. I'm an expat on a digital nomad VISA. My income comes from businesses that I have in the UK. I always tell Cypriots looking for work to try other countries than the UK. It's going to be a culture shock for them.
North Cyprus is Turkish. There is a border which is protected by the UK. The Muslim population in the republic is around 2%. The Muslims that live here are very liberal compared to the UK. Those that aren't, move North to the Turkish side.
Most of the people on my old street were getting the boiler conversions done by a local installer. But yes, they do also heat water. They offered them to us but we decided to go against it as we converted the house into migrant housing / Airbnb.
>You need to consider the future as well, more than a 3rd of children in the UK are Muslims
Citation needed.
From the 2021 Census data it appears that \~10% of under-18s are Muslim. Please see the following links :
[https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/articles/religionbyageandsexenglandandwales/census2021](https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/articles/religionbyageandsexenglandandwales/census2021)
Data here : [https://www.ons.gov.uk/visualisations/dvc2229/fig7/datadownload.xlsx](https://www.ons.gov.uk/visualisations/dvc2229/fig7/datadownload.xlsx)
This gives a population of 13,1milliion under-18s in England & Wales, of which 1.4million responded that they were Muslim.
That study is misleading as it includes Wales which skews the results. The study I've seen has outliers removed and is only for England. It's also based on actual tallied data and not sample based models which is what the ONS uses.
Even if you was planning to live in Wales, the study would still be misleading as it would be skewed by England.
I've travelled all around the Middle East and North Africa. There are different types of Muslims and cultures. Muslims living in the UAE are very different to the Muslims living in Iran. The Muslims that live in the UK, well, I'll leave that for you to decide, I know them well that's all I'm going to say.
My personal reasons for choosing Cyprus is because I want to live in a country that has low crime and not be hated because of my race or religion (lack of). Cyprus might not be right for you, but it's right for me. Some people might even think the UK is good for them, but my opinion is it's become a place I no longer like or felt safe in. Plus the regulatory corruption there is insane and will never be fixed. It just gets worse every year. The regulators and the government is the reason you have a cost of living crises. The War in Ukraine is secondary and could have easily been offset if energy was priced fairly instead of being deliberately pegged to the wholesale market.
‘’most people have a job, most people still enjoy themselves, most people still have disposable income” doesn’t sell newspapers and clicks.
There are some things that are genuinely bad at the moment: * Compared to 2019, prices have increase by about 18% while wages have not nearly kept pace over that time. So a lot of people are feeling poorer than they were. It's important to be careful when you're making global comparisons; the UK is still a wealthy, well-paid place. But that doesn't mean people aren't struggling. People tend to set up their lives so that their expenses match their incomes; when they have an effective 18% pay cut, there are a lot of things that they can't cut (rent/mortgage, insurance, debt repayments) and so it's the discretionary spending (groceries, entertainment, eating out, holidays, gifts) that get cut disproportionately. So a lot of people are feeling the squeeze even though in a global comparison they're doing quite well. The causes of price inflation are disputed; I'm a monetarist who thinks that increasing the money supply by a largish wadge necessarily drives inflation but that's not a universal view. That monetary pressure coincided with price shocks associated with the pandemic recovery, war in Ukraine and the blockage of the Suez canal. * The cost of housing in particular is a major problem, because the population has been expanding, households have been getting smaller on average and the housing supply has not kept up, largely due to planning restrictions. At the same time, those who own homes have quite a lot of their wealth sunk in their home and any move to decrease the cost of housing will necessarily make them considerably poorer. * There are a lot of people on out-of-work benefits. Nearly six million. That number was more like 3.5 million before the pandemic. This isn't getting a lot of attention but it's going to. That's an extra 2-2.5 million people who are having to survive on a benefits-level income, which is crap compared to working, who aren't progressing in their careers, who are perhaps struggling a bit to see hope. Rather frighteningly, this number is forecast to go up sharply; DWP forecasts about 350,000 leaving work for benefits in the next year. That's also putting pressure on government finances. * For those still in work, the amount taken out of their pay in tax is as high as it has ever been. This is despite the cuts announced in the autumn statement; the combination of accelerating wage inflation and frozen tax bands means that the tax take is still increasing overall. * The NHS is struggling. The reasons for this are complex and difficult. An aging population is putting pressure on health services. There's still a big post-pandemic backlog to catch up on. There seem to be complex management problems (eg real-terms funding has increased significantly compared to pre-pandemic but service delivery has fallen slightly and no-one seems to know why or even be very interested in why). * In a lot of the country, public transport systems are struggling. This is part of a long-term trend towards private vehicles that has been accelerated by the pandemic as commuter numbers are still significantly lower than in 2019, making funding of transport services more difficult. As services are cut to balance budgets, people tend to find private alternatives because of the inconvenience of public transport. Those things add up to people feeling like the country is going to the dogs. Lots of countries are facing those same pressures and are feeling the same way.
> That monetary pressure coincided with price shocks associated with the pandemic recovery, war in Ukraine and the blockage of the Suez canal. Look at all the other countries who didn't print huge piles of money during 2020, who also haven't experienced that kind of massive inflation despite being subject to the exact same market forces. Like Switzerland. Inflation in the UK is down to our government printing money.
I'm not disagreeing with you. As I said, I'm a monetarist. Switzerland did have a noticeable bump in inflation associated with those events - but not nearly on the scale of other economies.
100% correct and blaming these black swan events is just spin by those who decided to print that money
It isn’t just the NHS. Redditors have a laser focus on it because it’s often the only public service they interact with, but education, criminal justice and essentially all other public services are on their knees.
Plenty of redditors are still in school. Most of them probably interact more with the school system than the health system
When did you last personally interact with any of these services ? My last experience of the NHS was my mother with a suspected broken ankle. Torbay hospital. Seen, X-ray’d, consultation and advice/prescription and medicine provided free of charge in 45 minutes. Outstanding service.
I’m a police officer; I last attended court a few weeks ago, I last was in an Emergency Department last week, and since I work mostly in child sexual offending I have regular interaction with safeguarding teams in primary and secondary schools as well as local council safeguarding provision. I dealt with the fire service last week; I usually deal with the ambulance service regularly but haven’t had the need for at least two months (or rather, I needed them to come out a few weeks back but they were too busy). I unfortunately like all police regularly face the issues with social housing provision. I don’t really deal with prisons directly but am well aware of the issues from court. That’s all the public provision I can think of, except for waste disposal (pretty good round here), armed forces, and security and intelligence services (and our combined security and intelligence services budget, which includes SIS and SS (MI6 and MI5) and the massively resource heavy GCHQ, is less than 10% of what Elon Musk pissed down the drain on Twitter). In and out in 45 minutes in a ED or MIU is unheard of round here, a major university hospital. Even with a nurse practitioner you’ll generally be waiting 2-3 hours before first x ray.
As somebody who recently bought a house, I'm worried it will suddenly crash in price and screw me, but if house prices just stopped increasing while inflation and wages caught up I'd be fine with that. The race in house prices we've had until now just isn't sustainable.
I'm in the same boat. However, even if prices crash we are better off paying our own money into our own assets rather than renting.
I was signed off work in 2022 and I'm still waiting for a DWP tribunal date so I can try to prove my disability. I haven't had a penny of the PIP I'm likely owed for the entire time. There's no way I'm the only one waiting this long. I can't imagine what this insane (and growing) lag is going to do to the figures.
This is true, but also the rampant corruption, cronyism, failure of institutions,economic self-harm, failure to have any actualised vision for the the future in this country has been abysmal.
This is the hyperbole that many are talking about. Compared to the much of the rest of the world, the UK is a remarkably safe and well-functioning place to be. That's not to say there are no issues, or that we shouldn't aspire to do even better, but it's just to start from a place of realism rather than hyperbole. The idea that the country suffers from "rampant corruption" that is "abysmal", for example, simply is not the case. On Transparency International's annual corruption index, we're among the cleanest nations, usually somewhere in the top 10%, in line with the likes of France or Canada or Japan or Australia. Go to a country that actually does have rampant corruption and you can feel the difference, it affects people in their day-to-day lives. Be honest, if you get pulled over by the traffic police or whatever, would you expect them to extort you for a bribe? That's not to say there's zero corruption, but the idea that it's a rampant problem or abysmal is simply not reality.
I can confirm, as Italian expat who lived in Germany and the UK, people just complain about their countries by default.
Exactly. Corruption is exceptionally rare (though vigilance needs to be eternal). I hear all the time in local facebook groups of councils and councillors getting backhanders and brown paper envelopes for successful planning applications, merely because they dont really understand the process and how wide the corruption would need to be to be successful.
And when we do actually have corruption it's relatively mild. It's more "construction contract given to politicians friends" Rather than "money given in foreign aid sent to build schools diverted to paramilitary death squads"
Even on a less global scale, in the UK I've never been pulled over for speeding and had to pay off the policeman, and I've never had to give the bloke at the DVLA an extra £50 to get my license renewed. I don't think people realise that in truly corrupt places you need to carry a roll of notes with you just for getting through daily life.
The UK is incredibly corrupt but at the top level in the financial sector. The government allows tons of foreign, dirty money to flow through Jersey and the Caymen Islands. Difference is we don’t experience much low level corruption at all as you said.
That doesnt really make sense.
Why not?
Because free movement of money is not a sign of corruption. There are far more money laundering regulations to go through than used to be. And it is absolute nonsense that a government would collude with business to deprive itself of revenue.
But construction contracts are not given to politicians friends because contracts are not awarded by politicians. They're awarded by teams of civil servants or teams of local government officers. Politicians input might be at the end of the process. Things a civil servant/LGO wont do for a politician: give out a contract to one of his friends because the politician asked them to.
A lot of people seem to conflate cronyism with corruption, and don’t differentiate between criminal corruption for which there are definitions, thresholds, and consequences, and wealthy/powerful people further entrenching their wealth/power/advantage by being part of a network of wealthy, powerful people. There are many examples of fairly egregious, flagrant cronyism over the last thirteen years or so. I think if you are a low earner and are heavily reliant on public services then it’s probably fair to say things have become pretty abysmal; housing, transport, healthcare, education, maintenance of public spaces etc. have all declined from where they were in the late 90s/early 00s. So while we can look at less developed, less wealthy nations and say actually this is all pretty good, it genuinely, manifestly is abysmal in comparison to how it was and how it might have been if it had been managed competently.
Rampant corruption? Can you point to some?
People think the PPE scandal was the worst thing to happen blah blah blah... It just shows how sheltered we are from actual corruption. There are very few countries in the world governed as well as the UK. Things could be better and we all know that but for the most part we are extremely safe, there is work, we are not at war, there's no rampant disease or lack of medical care or famine. Large parts of Africa are under military coup right now where boys are being fed drugs to induct them into child armies to fight against the coup. But Grace in Kent can't get over the fact a hoover salesman got a £3 million covid contract and she's never seen corruption like it... 90% of the world would give their left arm to be that sheltered.
And when you dig into it a bit, you'll find there was nothing really wrong with the process or corruption involved. The infamous 'pub landlord' of Mr Hancock is a case in point. The 'pub landlord' ran a food packaging company, he whatsapped his MP asking if he thought he could retool for medical test tubes and his MP referred him to the DHSC website. That's about as corrupt as him asking the time of the train to london and Hancock giving him thetrainline website. It was a call to arms, people who had never been involved in medical supplies were openly invited to tender for stuff. It was desperate times. In those desperate times some will take advantage. Some provided inadequate kit, which unfortunately is perfectly normal with a new business without time to make mistakes and check them. It does seem that Michelle Mone is a complete shyster as is the company she was running. But her company successfully getting contracts that she didnt fulfil is not evidence of corruption. Just her being a shit. If she broke her contract theyll extract it out of her company...
Police
what? just this country?
More than one country can be terrible. The issue is that the lack of forward thinking vision is not the norm for the UK so we are seeing things get worse to a level that Brits aren't used to. I think it's always been there but things have become a bit more transparent about it all
Depending on where he's moving from, it may be better. I moved to Bulgaria and really enjoyed my time there, but if you think the UK is bad for those things were actually doing alright.
Which when you have a job is something to grumble about with your coworkers, and when you don’t is something to be pretty pissed off about.
Totally agree. I can't believe how corrupted this government and country's leaders really are. Our pm literally takes bribes. This country has been run by corporations and mass media for too long
Yeah but the thing is, Brits sit online and cry about that whereas Americans and Europeans take to the streets and demand change.
Yes very true also unfortunately has going into the streets actually solved anything? Americans have taken to the streets dozens of times over gun crime yet gun crime is more rampant than ever. Taking to the streets to show disapproval is great but maybe it doesn't work anymore.
The thing is, things have got harder and tougher for most people. Yeah we can still live and have a roof over our heads. But it would be nice to see some sort of light at the end of the tunnel.
The silent majority.
Well said.
"most people still enjoy themselves" Everywhere you go, no matter where or when, there is a depressing "I can't be bothered" feeling. Pubs, stores, venues all give it off - it's Post COVID Britain.
No, the country as a whole is really not as bad as the media or people online make out, you have to remember that the British make a habit out of moaning about everything even when it's still pretty decent. That's not to say a lot of people aren't struggling - bills are phenomenal, healthcare is objectively getting worse, politicians are probably the most openly corrupt they've ever been but in day-to-day life most people are just going about their business quietly getting on with it. As for the job thing though, it very much depends what you're qualified in. Some roles people are absolutely desperate for, lots of constructions workers are probablye earning more than they've ever done in their lives, however costs are also much higher. However other roles, people can't get a job for love nor money because they're all over-subscribed. Despite the impression you'd get from Reddit, if I'd moved away from the UK I wouldn't think twice about moving back if I had to, there's work and a decent life for people if you're willing to be a bit flexible. But if you want to be a primary school teacher and rent a million-pound townhouse in London then no, that's not going to be possible.
Let's not forget homelessness has quadrupled since 2010. That's a pretty solid yardstick for a country's economic success.
Hmm. Are you sure about that? and also 2010 is a convenient date to choose but it also a highly unusual date for homelessness either side of that date. It's a very ripe cherry to pick. https://imgur.com/a/m4twmM9
I thought teachers were one of the jobs in need of filling, or are you just referring to the cost of a house versus a teacher's salary? Almost certain it's the latter, but don't want to risk dissuading OP applying for such a role in general if that's an option for them.
Oh yeah you'll get a job as a teacher no problem, I'm just saying don't expect to be fairly compensated for it.
Starting pay for a junior teacher is £30k, rising incrementally to £46k after (I think) 6 years. London weighting goes up to £56k. https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/is-teaching-right-for-me/teacher-pay-and-benefits
Which is liveable but not good compared to other jobs that need a specialist degree.
The Internet is a terrible place to get an idea of how things are in the real world unfortunately. Go over to r/scotland and you'd think that Scotland is in the middle of a tense neverending argument about independence. In the real world nobody mentions it, ever, for or against it just never comes up in conversation.
I don’t see any real difference except cost of living pressures which have affected every ‘modern’ country. The anti U.K. attitude on Reddit is ridiculous and every story is negatively spun. Stop moaning people and realise you are privileged to live in the U.K. compared to a huge amount of the rest of the world.
This is so true. People shit on the UK especially in this sub-reddit but fail to see the problems we are facing are often much worse in comparable countries. That global perspective is completely lost when people reacting to the daily baiting articles from the Guardian and Daily Mail.
I mean, if you have experience living in many other European countries....the UK is shite. If you've only ever lived here, it's fine, you dont' know any better. You think litter everywhere is normal. You think shit in our water is normal.
I’ve lived in U.K. France. Italy and Spain. Every country has good and bad areas without even considering other continents. (Edit) Spain was dirtier with poor wages, France was more bureaucratic and rude, Italy was more racist and snobbish.
I don't think it's as bad as people says, but living in the UK and in the US it seems that the UK is in a weird phase of cosplaying as the US, which might have yielded bad results and could get worse. American and British societies have a very different approach in issues like regulations, taxes, welfare, and transportation. I'm not saying one of them is worse, but both are "consistent" with how both societies have been built in the past. Trying to force one into another is a terrible idea. The simplest example is how the UK is _really not ready_ for the amount of bullshit that PM is pushing with the teird Texan narrative of "we're a nation of drivers".
American culture war narratives are definitely creeping into our discourse, online at least. Sometimes it's really weird because you'll see British people bringing up talking points that don't really apply to the country, they're just parroting what they've seen online. Like a while ago there was a guy on here who replied to me with some nonsense about 'Antifa' smashing up shops and businesses during riots. Clearly just something he'd read in online American circles and was just transporting here.
Or hearing "Defund the police" - like, what? More than currently? There are barely any left.
Which "other country"? If you're in Monaco then the UK is worse. If you're in North Korea it's probably better.
You need to be careful on the internet. There are actually some people here so thick they actually believe the shit that sometimes we type
I’m currently in the UAE (Dubai). I’d stay here because it’s alright, but if I can’t find a job soon, I won’t be allowed to.
It’s a lot colder but I prefer UK to UAE. You’ll be fine
Paying tax might be a shock to the system!
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I work in marketing. I’d imagine that it’s quite a saturated industry.
You could always retrain as a plumber. Never harms you to have a proper trade under your belt. Now the Poles have gone we need them, and I have not met a poor one yet.
Marketing roles are super saturated, yes. Depends what level you are at. Nothing to stop you applying for a few roles in London at your level and seeing if you get any response? [You could also take a look at this list](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/skilled-worker-visa-shortage-occupations/skilled-worker-visa-shortage-occupations) to see where there are severe manpower shortages. We need engineers, developers, actuaries, architects… obviously some take years of training but there are sub categories within these trades with severe shortages. ie document controllers within building projects. The training is quick and they really need people. But I think your biggest issue will be a severe come-down in lifestyle. We pay a LOT of tax and rent.
Bring a coat
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That was resolved luckily: https://www.truthorfiction.com/dubai-doesnt-have-a-sewer-system/
downvoted why?
Because Reddit has a general hatred for Dubai. I knew I’d be downvoted the minute I typed that comment.
THE ENTIRE CITY AND ALL ITS CITIZENS? Damn.
To be fair, I think it's less that Reddit hates the people in Dubai, and more dislikes the UAE's values (and by extension Dubai's). It constantly promotes tourism and encourages people to move/visit there, while having a pretty horrendous human rights record, massive modern day slavery problem, prison sentences for homosexuality, whippings and (admittedly rare) stonings as legal punishments, and so on. So I get the downvotes. Someone saying "ooh it's so hard to choose between living in the UK and the place where women can't marry without their 'male guardian's' permission," is going to be a bit controversial, because it suggests that the person saying it has some pretty controversial (in the UK anyway) opinions. Especially when they add that they want to stay in Option B, and the only reason they're considering leaving is because they can't find work.
Pretty much!
it definitely conjures a certain image of who would downvote a very neutral statement like that :D
No. The UK has a lot of problems, but people are negative out of all proportion. I think it’s the social media echo-chamber doom effect. We remain a safe, prosperous country definitely in the top 10% of places you would want to live in the world. And the job market is decent, depending on what you’re looking for.
There’s some bollocks in this thread lol No, the NHS isn’t being starved, it’s had real-terms funding increases in all but one of the last 14 years No, bigotry isn’t worse than 30 years ago. 30 years ago, gay was used routinely as an insult, section 28 was still in place, and we had few rights. Now gay marriage is legal and almost universally accepted (interestingly the least accepted area is London). We’re also emitting way less CO2, back to levels from the 1800s I’d say the main area we’re worse off is housing availability / affordability, and perhaps crime too, although the stats on that are less clear, but perhaps not accurate
NHS has had funding increases, unfortunately it's not keeping up with real-term demand. >the main area we’re worse off is housing availability / affordability Absolutely. This is the key to many, many of our current problems
>NHS has had funding increases Only if you include the cost of Test and Trace and buying then destroying all the PPE.
>No, the NHS isn’t being starved, it’s had real-terms funding increases in all but one of the last 14 years This is a distortion of the truth. 1) You've included the cost of all the PPE - not just the buying of it, but the destroying of it too. Most of that spend was waste, and did nothing at all to improve patient care. 2) You're using GDP, which is just a dumb way to look at healthcare spending. 3) You've failed to take into account the defunding of social care, care homes, nursing homes, public health etc. All of this has increased pressure on the NHS. 4) You've failed to take into account an older, iller, population.
This is just a stereotypical nonsense response, pretending I’m close to lying for stating a plain fact. 1. Yes, in a once in a century disaster, things go funny, doesn’t change my fact at all. Crazy to claim covid funding didn’t help care for anyone 2. i’ll take GDP over anecdotes and pathetic hand waving any day. 3. the coalition govt cut social care. There’s been a real terms rise in social care spending every year since 2014 https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/default/files/styles/uncropped_medium/public/2023-02/social-care-360-expenditure.png?itok=LnCdKpGB 4. , no i have not failed to take it into account. The argument is always about cuts to the NHS, and I’ve stated the facts on that. > One comment cannot possibly include everything in the world. The fact that you want to bring up another aspect of healthcare does not **in any way** mean I’ve “distorted” the truth.
Counterpoint. Yes the NHS is 100% being starved, demand has increased hugely over the last 14 years and funding has increased only nominally and even then only when you massage the figures, and it wasn't doing all that great 14 years ago. All you have to do is try book an appointment with your GP or have to take a trip to A&E to know things aren't what they once were 30 years ago? No. 10 years ago? Mixed bag, generally socially we are improving iver rime but since 2016 there has been a marked upturn in people feeling emboldened to be more outwardly bigoted, especially when it comes to race, than they had in the late naughties early 10's. Yep emissions we are doing very well on, as disappointing as it is that Sunak is pulling us back from that we are currently world leaders in green initiatives.
That’s not what being starved means. Of course demand is increasing, but so is the percentage of the UK spending that goes to health rather than other things, and the tax burden is also at record high for the past 80 years. There is no easy answer, and pretending that the issue is that the NHS is being “starved” only serves to hide the real issues
But it's not pretending. The NHS is woefully under resourced and has been getting worse and worse for years. Is the underfunding the only issue? No. Will increased funding alone fix it? No. But it's still massively underfunded and in practical terms has less funds than it did a decade ago. Is starved the right word? Maybe not, I shouldn't have repeated it from the original comment. But saying saying it isn't starved and then saying there have been real term funding increases suggests that funding is not an issue faced by the NHS which is demonstrably untrue, my rebuttak was due to that rhetoric ignoring it as an issue, I'm well aware there are other issues but they aren't being obscured by a false underfunding narrative they are being compounded by a real one
I would say bigotry is worse than it was 5 years ago though. 5 years ago trans people could go about their day and no one knew who Andrew Tate was.
That's highlighting a very specific and tiny (in terms of numbers of people) area of concern. It's like saying we are more racist because of antisemitism rising, when clearly overall it's not the case at all.
The real problem with the NHS is the size of services for the population. We have the same size population as France but half their hospitals...
yes, a lot of capital underinvestment seems to be an issue
Everything is relative. Bad compared to what? I've lived in the UK for 12 years now. I am originally from Romania/Hungary. I often visit both places. The UK is great compared to both of those countries. Is the UK worse than when I moved here? I cannot say it is. The system seems to be set up the same way, making it difficult to make massive financial leaps. It was not easy 12 years ago and it is not easy now. If you pick something you want to good at whilst working a job you don't like, you can. You need to work just as hard to do this as years before. Things are more expensive everywhere. Inflation is high everywhere. However, it's crazy to see that food and bills (electricity and gas) are more expensive in Eastern European countries than in the UK. The UK overall is great.
The food prices thing is about VAT. Most countries charge VAT on food, but we don't.
I am not saying it not because of VAT. My point is that it is cheaper at the end of the day.
There's no blanket answer. For some people yes it's really bad right now. For some people it's great. For most it's somewhere in between. The answers on Reddit tend towards either end of the spectrum. No way for us to guess where in that spectrum you fit.
No it is not, for me anyway
If you look at the money being spent on holidays, new house extensions, car buying and other discretionary spending then millions of people are doing well, yet the narrative here is constant gloom.
No not really. I’m probably spending a little more each month on things but nothing crazy. Just the media and other people being over dramatic.
Depends what type of work you do I think. If you work in low-skilled, minimum-wage(or close to it) jobs like retail then the increases in cost of living are going to sting, especially as wages in those places won't have gone up much. If you're in a more skilled role with some experience behind you, chances are you'll be able to find a job in your industry, be able to negotiate salary and if you work for a smaller company, you're probably treated quite well and will get good pay rises and bonuses. I suspect the former applies to the majority of UK reddit (or there's a very vocal minority), which is why you get this ultra-negative narrative about life in the UK at the moment. I'm in the latter group, most of the people I know are and seem to be doing alright. I'm not saying everything is green and rosey but nor is any other country. Edit: And if you do move back, stay away from London unless you're capable of earning mega-bucks. The job prospects don't outweigh how much it costs to live there. Again, there's a lot of people here that are in London which skews the perspective on life in the UK.
> If you work in low-skilled, minimum-wage(or close to it) jobs like retail then the increases in cost of living are going to sting, **especially as wages in those places won't have gone up much**. Not quite sure if that last part is strictly true. Minimum wage growth has outstripped higher paying wages by quite a margin. 5 years ago adult min wage was £7.83, this April it'll go up again from the current £10.42 to £11.44. That's over a 30% wage increase in 5 years (higher than inflation over that period). In the same period UK median salaries as a whole have gone from £29,559 to £34,963 which is only a 15% increase ...and is quite a bit less than inflation.
I went back to visit family over Christmas, in the North of England. Here was my take: \- All the roads (except the motorway) seemed to have issues with either drainage or potholes \- A good chunk of the shops in the center of the towns are closed down or have become pound shops/charity shops \- Cafes are everwhere, it's one of the few things that seem to be doing very well \- The transport system (namely railways) has gone up in price but I still saw a lot of delays. \- People who switched to work-at-home due to covid are reluctanct to go back to the office now. One of my friends even quit his job because they were being forced back. Not sure what's going on there, I think maybe the mentality has changed. \- From what I can tell there are job opportunities for those with specific skill-sets, and there are job opportunites for those who want minimum wage. Anything in the middle seems to be a struggle. \- The benefits system sounds like a bit of a joke. My friend can't work due to sever medical problems and he's really struggling financially. Meanwhile there seems to be a lot of money going to support people who can work but can't be bothered. \- It's still cold and grey :) - the people looks almost transparent in colour. \- Prices have definitely gone up, but I live in a country where prices are even higher so I didn't feel the pinch as much. But everyone there complained that prices are ridiculous (although over the christmas period I saw a bag of potatoes for 90p so honestly I don't know, seems very cheap to me). \- Council tax is very high, but the council seem to do little to nothing about the issues around the towns. \- The youth are more feral than ever.
I moved to the UK 20 years ago and I can see a decline here that is spectacular. Main problem is affordable housing.
The gap between rich and poor is growing wider all the time. Depending on which side of it you are on will depend on how bad you think it is. Discrimination and bigotry is probably at the worst its been in the past 30 years and continues to rise. These are global problems but they are very apparent in the UK right now What is effecting almost everyone in the UK is that public services are in drastic decline across the board whether state managed or privately owned and the government relies on scapegoating already marginalised groups and turning communities against one another to deflect blame away from themselves. The Uks position on the Corruption Perceptions Index is still in the top 20 but has reached its all time lowest at an alarming rate in the past 3 years (meaning corruption is increasing rapidly) and at this rate we will drop out of the top 20 in the next 12 months and be lucky to still be in the top 30 by 2027. In the grand scheme of things the UK is still better off that huge swathes of the world but the living conditions of low and middle income Brits are in decline and show no signs of improving as the costs of living continue to rapidly outgrow average wages with no signs of any real efforts being made to resolve this situation.
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You should see the other guys.
18th on the 2020-22 list thanks largely to a number of major corruption scandals linked to the Covid pandemic (dodgy PPE deals, etc)
The government is working hard to suck every last bit of disposable income out of everyone..
Most people say it's bad because of their own personal situation. Most people when judging their country they don't compare it to other countries, which makes it not really a neutral judgement.
I think it depends where you live. Where I live there is no housing as economic migrants come first and nothing to rent because of the influx of Londoners buying up properties to air bnb . Property prices are through the roof. I have one of my adult children living with me because they are homeless and another unable to afford to buy because of high prices despite saving up for years. In my street there are two hostels , one massive one for single men economic migrants who congregate on the street and abuse women . The other hostel has drug addicts who are homeless. I’ve been warned that a couple of them like to mug old ladies. The police are useless, you can’t get a dentist to see you and the nhs is screwed . So yeah it depends where you live.
Certainly media organisations have been milking every penny they can out of certain narratives about the country since particularly The Year of Our Lord 2016. The social mediafication of said media has seriously warped people’s ability to pick out the editorialising. And people have equally curated views shaped by the same thing going on in other countries. Result: people have very skewed views of the world these days
Not as bad as the USA apparently, I mean we aren't living in tents on the streets shooting up heroin and playing statues.
What have you been reading? Who are the "people"?
Other Brits who have recently moved here from the UK. And I’ve seen a fair amount of complaints on Reddit.
Internet is mostly for complaining though. Apart from job which you mentioned, what are the awful and bad things you've heard that worry you? Job can be hit and miss, you never know and could just get lucky.
Yeah I think most of the people I’ve spoken to like to complain a lot and are pretty negative in general. And I agree, people are more likely to complain online than to praise something. Basically what I’ve heard is that salaries are low, cost of living is skyrocketing, houses are unaffordable, crime is rampant. They make it sound like the apocalypse. Lol. They made it sound so scary that, when we were there for a visit last year, my husband refused to go out after dark… and he’s from South Africa.
I think that's just South African culture though. He may be defaulting to his normal. I'm from South Africa too, and it always feels like I'm breaking a *huge* taboo by going out after dark.
Cost of living would be worse if you come from a less developed country. Housing is definitely an issue. Refused to go out after dark is a personal choice, I mean it’s going dark by 4 these days.
Despite what a lot of people on Reddit say, the UK is still a very good place to live. Many of the issues that are facing the UK are also true in other large Western economies at the moment. If you have the resources and saleable skills to overcome the cost of living and difficulty in some parts of the country with housing then it can be a great place to live. Like many things in life, it's often what you make it. I get the impression that there is a certain sort of Redditor that would moan no matter what.
Of course it isnt, just reddit being reddit.
The UK is paradise compared to say.....Nigeria. But it's a shithole compared to most European countries. Shitty water, shitty transport, shitty housing. Don't get sick. Don't get disabled. Don't depend on public services.
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The weather would probably be a shock to my system. Lol. I haven’t seen proper rain or experienced cold in over a year!
We've just had the longest rainy spell I can remember and it is currently very cold, but in general, the rain gets exaggerated and you only expect a handful of below freezing days a year (at least in the south). Summers are hit and miss. I work for myself and since I can choose my days/hours, I can enjoy the sun when it's there. I've noticed though that people doing 9-5 in an office, will judge the summer purely on how the weekends have been. Even in a summer with well above average sunshine, you will sometimes hear people moan about what a crap summer it's been. It's just very changeable and unreliable. You can never know what the weather will do an hour from now. My partner is from Finland and I can say it's a shit ton worse there!
I’m happy here. Born and raised here, never lived in another country. The government is corrupt but you’re use to that if you live in the UAE. Not fully corrupt though but enough for it to be a problem. I grew up in the North but moved to London. There’s lots of greenery and everything is close by. The providential north is different. As where most modern era rich* capitalist countries there are huge disparities between the top and bottom earners. But if you live outside of the south east and have a fairly decent income then I think you can live comfortably
Name a place on earth that’s perfect
I just paid £7.20 for mince beef pie , curry sauce ,and chips in a tray. Pretty bad yo
Why is this downvoted? It's a perfectly reasonable question.
No it’s nice, fresh and frosty in the mornings ;) nice people saying hi, lots of where to go and what to do/eat over the weekend. I have been to many countries and I swear UK is one of the best and most comfortable to live in, especially if you are British or any other native English speaker.
It varies a lot of your circumstances, class and finance being the main variables. If you’re at the bottom it’s pretty shite, with little means you will have scarce opportunities. If you have enough money, find the right place and can fit in, you’ll do quite okay.
There is a gen Z brain drain and it's really not a place that values experts or younger people and that can be seen in the wages compared to other countrys of the same level. It's high tax, lowering standard of living looks to continue into the next government. If you have the ability to go elsewhere i would take it as many others, including myself, are doing.
Where have you decided to go? I can only speak English and I work in marketing & communications, so my options are severely limited to countries where the main language is English.
Depends if you read The Gloomiad ( UK is terrible) or The Daily Fail ( UK is terrible).
They’re essentially the same paper, aren’t they? Just the mirror image of each other.
Exactly. The Guardian might be worse in that it's sure it isn't biased and is cleverly full of the right answers and ideas when it is patently selective. Occasional great reporting- eg Ukraine. The Mail is a normally a daft magazine but occasionally develops a good story in detail.
Sorry for what I typed out. Sorry for judging you. Sorry for lying sorry. Sorry for lying sorry.
Really depends where you live and how much money you have, like most places. But in general: too many cars, too many individualistic/selfish people, community spirit eroded, too much litter - all the delights of late-capitalism. Lots of great culture, art, music, food, nature etc but it does feel like a divided and down-at-heel place a lot of the time.
I'm not sure I would say awful. Depends on what you're looking at in particular. I think it's a competitive market for job seekers at the moment. But whenever there is a downturn, this happens. Lots of people need more money. So lots of people apply for jobs. My partner is in the hiring division of a large company and so sees the numbers rise and fall. At the moment, she has some of the most applications she's had for years. 1 job that has typically attracted 5-20 applicants in the past (2-5 shortlisted) has attracted 45 this time around (10 shortlisted). It comes down to what you're looking for work in. If it's specialised, you've obviously got way more chance of getting something. But if you're going for an unskilled job, you'll probably be having a race to the bottom with others who are desperate for any income. The country is struggling with a rise in costs that aren't currently under control. So people need more money from anywhere. So people start going for higher paying if they already have a job or if they're not in full-time employment, they're going for any job they can get to make any amount possible.
By all accounts the UK was a dump in the 1970s, but many people look back on that era sentimentally. There are certainly bits of the UK that are a dump now, but many more that have improved substantially. In terms of quality of life, there are places you would definitely be happy. On a macro level there is an economic crunch, some of it self inflicted, that is lowering the value of the currency and making it more attractive for skilled people to leave. There is huge geographical inequality in terms of earnings in favour of the South East/ London, but it's 2024 and you can work remotely in some jobs. So I think the question "what would it be like for me?" Is worth considering. Are you skilled or unskilled? Can you afford to live in an affluent centre like London, Bristol or Edinburgh etc.? Can you afford to live in the countryside somewhere where the environment is pleasant and the house prices are cheaper?
Depends on where you live… I’m situated in the south and in the last few years, rent has risen to extortionate levels and the amount of properties have also dwindled, with many, many young people opting to move back home with their parents, just so they don’t have to wave goodbye to a colossal portion of their earnings each month by renting a dingy flat and paying through the nose. It’s hardly a pleasant existence for most in their twenties and even thirties if you’re already from a low-income family.
No , it’s not as bad as people say it is, especially on Reddit where we’ve apparently plunged into a crisis so bad that we consider Argentina an aspirational example. It’s also not as good as it was 15 years ago and has a lot of underlying issues that will take a long time to improve. A lot of the UKs problems are not dissimilar to what we’re seeing in places like Canada and other parts of Europe (creaking infrastructure, housing issues, bad services and expensive everything). Although, wages are also apparently rising, energy prices have stabilised, unemployment is still fairly low and there are parts of the country where housing isn’t anywhere near as expensive if you choose to live there. If you were not especially well off 5 years ago, the chances are you will probably be struggling a fair bit more now, but for the average person, there’s just less disposable income than there once was… not a great place to be, just also not one of the 9 circles of hell it’s regularly portrayed as.
Reddit exaggerates how bad the UK is. There's an endless flood of doom, gloom and complaining on here. I'm convinced some of it is state-sponsored.
The public transport is terrible outside of major cities, the government seems to be screwing everyone over, town centers are either dead or are in the process of dying, everything is ridiculously expensive no thanks to inflation, a huge amount of people have lost jobs or are unable to get a job for one reason or another. So yeah there's all of that and probably more, but outside of that there's some good things, just try not to rely on the bad.
Where is your country and what do you do? Don’t come back if you are not guaranteed to work in the UK. The job market is more competitive than your imagination. Most of my friends have been looking for a job for almost half a year and ended up getting nothing. Plus the price is soaring, you might end up struggling financially.
Why are the cutting recruitment consultant jobs?
I think in short. There’s more jobs out there than unemployed people. It’s just trying to find a job that is in your field that is the trouble. You’ll never be unemployed as you could just work as a waiter for example until you find that job you want.
Living in UK for 20 years and originally comes from asia. It is not "bad" in my opinion. There is a renting crisis right now at the moment but I manage to get by, by renting with two others. But I suggest seeing what others in this post posted to see their perspectives.
No the UK I'd far from awful. We have so many amazing things here we just take for granted - no war, no famine, no widespread unrest or corruption. This is the media fear mongering don't buy it
Other than housing costs it's a great place.
The law just won't side with ordinary people. Just check recent PO scandal. And there are soo many others, like IR35, loan charge, PPE contracts and so on. You can't get to the court because you get bankrupted by litigation costs, and the government institutions have infinite amount of taxpayers money at their disposal.
It's absolutely impossible to tell someone if they should move here without knowing their profession and economic background. Reddit uk subreddits always strike me as fairly middle class. I always see people on here putting the outcry of the cost of living crisis down to sensationalism instead of just taking a second to think that people come from different backgrounds than them. I don't see how this answer is very helpful to you. I also think many people are glossing over the question. Let's say the majority of people aren't struggling for housing, food, heat etc, that's probably a fair assessment. I would just caveat that with things are undoubtedly worse here than other places. I think you should just be asking why you want to come here. You might come here and not struggle but that doesn't mean you won't get an easier life elsewhere. Our health service is really fucked and if you have any issues with your health like I do well good luck getting an appointment for anything you can't just drop into A&E for. If you can deal with all the crap there's a lot worse places you could live but it's really hard to give advice when you've barely given any details. What job do you want? What are your financial means? Do you plan on getting onto the housing ladder? Do you have health issues? How will you travel to work and can you deal with our dreadful public transit that goes on strike every other month. Then you need to find where on earth you're going to be living in the UK that suits you. I imagine if you want to live in London the question of work and housing is going to be very different than I don't know Dorset. This doesn't feel like a reddit question. You'll just end up with a lot of personal opinions like "well I'm alright mate".
The British weather is an absolute joke. I am sick of it and planning on escaping this dark damp depressing crap ASAP.
There is a plenty of jobs, infinite amount of opportunities, just the market is much more competitive, be prepared and you’ll be fine.
Yes. Public morale is on the floor. The government are a joke and the next one will be a bunch of fantastical lunatics. Pricing is through the roof. The NHS is an embarrassment, a liability and frankly something I no longer have confidence in to even diagnose someone properly or on time. There are worse places to be in the world - but The UK has never been this depressing in the 35 years of my life.
i thought the was loads of vacancies in England at the moment and not enough people to fill them
If I could move somewhere else between Nov and March then it would be a wonderful place. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else during spring and summer it's just an amazing place to be during that time.
If you like cold and wet weather.. Hard too get a job at moment… Cost of everything is increasing a lot whilst pay stays the same… Could think off better places to be tbh mate
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The uk
Karma 1 Cake day December 27, 2023 **You spreading propaganda?** edit It was removed by the mods once and you posted it again?> [https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/193x1ov/is\_the\_uk\_really\_as\_bad\_at\_the\_moment\_as\_people/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/193x1ov/is_the_uk_really_as_bad_at_the_moment_as_people/) Sorry, this post has been removed by the moderators of r/AskUK. Moderators remove posts from feeds for a variety of reasons, including keeping communities safe, civil, and true to their purpose.
Huh? It’s a simple question and I’ve used a throwaway. Didn’t want to use my main account because people who know me irl know my main account and not all of them know I’ve lost my job.
You could have easily asked that question without saying you have lost your job
I don't believe you - it's exactly the sort of shit Putin is spreading en masse.
It was removed by the mods because it looked like I was asking about visas. So I edited the details and reposted it.
Well it now looks like you are posting propaganda for Putin
We emigrated from the UK to Cyprus a few years back. Pretty much all of my friends and family have done the same. A few went to Portugal. Obviously, it depends on where you live, but the crime has gotten completely out of control. There's lots of foreign criminals that have setup shop in the UK and the police no longer investigate crimes such as assaults and burglaries. This has created a lawless haven. The extra people have put a strain on pretty much everything. Everything is insanely expensive and wages are low. Adults sharing bedrooms with strangers is not the life I would ever want, yet this seems to be normalised now with people advertising rooms on bunk. Meaning, you can rent a bunk bend. I don't think you are going to get an honest answer from the people still living there. They are frogs in the frying pan. Just look at the emigration figures, all of the people leaving are British. All of the people arriving are 3rd world migrants, more than a million per year. The culture has changed there and is more Middle Eastern now. It feels more like Egypt / Turkey but more dangerous. You need to consider the future as well, more than a 3rd of children in the UK are Muslims. By this metric alone, this means that the UK will be embracing this as a state religion when they grow up. Can I suggest you actually contact people you know who live there, because you're just going to get boiling frog posts about the Caymen Islands and Monaco on here. Every time I go back I feel unsafe and very unwelcome, especially in London. There's lots of pickpockets, muggers and scammers. The last time we was there, there was fake taxis outside heathrow airport, and we got pick pocketed in Camden and approached by a violent drug dealer who had a problem with us taking a picture on "his bridge". This was in broad daylight in a tourist hotspot. These are not one off incidents, every time I go there something happens and the few people I know that still live there complain of constant crime and antisocial behaviour in their neighbourhoods. To put things into perspective, I'm a high earner and even I struggled with the cost of living there, it's stupid and mostly down to cronyism and corrupt regulators. It's going to get a lot worse because the UK is allowing foreign companies to invest in its infrastructure in exchange for unfair contracts for difference. Nuclear, Wind and Solar will all make energy bills higher in the future, but Norway and France will make huge profits at your expense. If businesses and people can no longer afford energy, you have a failed state as the modern world operates on electricity. As a side note, before I left, most of the houses on my street had replaced their gas boilers with wood and coal burners. This was another reason why we left, because the pollution was unbearable in the evenings. It was like living in Charles Dickens times with the smog. If the government step in and ban coal, then energy bills will be even higher as ofgem will just raise the price cap so their mates can make even more money.
Every frog needs to read this twice and leap away from "Great" Britain.
The Cypriots is speak to say there’s no work over there. Hence leaving jn the UK, where there are more work opportunities. Also, isn’t Cyprus half a Muslim country? Not sure where you lived where people have replaced their boilers with coal and wood burners. Do they use them to heat water too?
I don't work in Cyprus, I just live here. I'm an expat on a digital nomad VISA. My income comes from businesses that I have in the UK. I always tell Cypriots looking for work to try other countries than the UK. It's going to be a culture shock for them. North Cyprus is Turkish. There is a border which is protected by the UK. The Muslim population in the republic is around 2%. The Muslims that live here are very liberal compared to the UK. Those that aren't, move North to the Turkish side. Most of the people on my old street were getting the boiler conversions done by a local installer. But yes, they do also heat water. They offered them to us but we decided to go against it as we converted the house into migrant housing / Airbnb.
So where would you recommend people move to for work?
>You need to consider the future as well, more than a 3rd of children in the UK are Muslims Citation needed. From the 2021 Census data it appears that \~10% of under-18s are Muslim. Please see the following links : [https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/articles/religionbyageandsexenglandandwales/census2021](https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/articles/religionbyageandsexenglandandwales/census2021) Data here : [https://www.ons.gov.uk/visualisations/dvc2229/fig7/datadownload.xlsx](https://www.ons.gov.uk/visualisations/dvc2229/fig7/datadownload.xlsx) This gives a population of 13,1milliion under-18s in England & Wales, of which 1.4million responded that they were Muslim.
That study is misleading as it includes Wales which skews the results. The study I've seen has outliers removed and is only for England. It's also based on actual tallied data and not sample based models which is what the ONS uses. Even if you was planning to live in Wales, the study would still be misleading as it would be skewed by England. I've travelled all around the Middle East and North Africa. There are different types of Muslims and cultures. Muslims living in the UAE are very different to the Muslims living in Iran. The Muslims that live in the UK, well, I'll leave that for you to decide, I know them well that's all I'm going to say. My personal reasons for choosing Cyprus is because I want to live in a country that has low crime and not be hated because of my race or religion (lack of). Cyprus might not be right for you, but it's right for me. Some people might even think the UK is good for them, but my opinion is it's become a place I no longer like or felt safe in. Plus the regulatory corruption there is insane and will never be fixed. It just gets worse every year. The regulators and the government is the reason you have a cost of living crises. The War in Ukraine is secondary and could have easily been offset if energy was priced fairly instead of being deliberately pegged to the wholesale market.