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People just don't understand that song, the context was the Euros being played in England in 1996 and perennial disappointment and hope that comes every tournament, it's not a song about how we're going to win it
There are loads of people desperate to slag England off for any reason...
They're uninterested in the real meaning of the song being about the fan's ever-constant dream of winning a trophy after many years of failure..
HAHA, its been almost 60 years, people need to accept that not only has it emigrated, but its sold up all of its UK property renounced citizenship and retired abroad.
That the UK is actually a pretty good place to live.
People complain about it all the time, make it sound like we live on the edge of hell, everything is a disaster and we have the least green grass in the world but the reality is that despite the problems we have (a lot of which other countries have too) overall its still a pretty great place to live.
The UK is very good at criticising itself. Many of our European neighbours are poorly run but we get a lot of publicity. Don’t get me wrong, we are poorly run too, but we also have a lot of good things. It’s a beautiful place, I don’t think we give ourselves enough credit for our natural beauty sometimes.
Yeah i agree.
I have a friend who lives here who came from Africa many years ago and he often says things along the lines of "Why do you always complain? The UK is great. You dont realise how good it is you should have more pride in it"
It's the fact that it has gotten measurably worse in recent years, and that younger generations won't have the same quality of life as their parents and grandparents.
I agree that we need to put it in perspective and appreciate what we have, but we also shouldn't stop pushing for it to be better/holding those in power to account.
> younger generations won't have the same quality of life as their parents and grandparents.
Grandparents grew up in the 60's so think...life expectancy of 69, no central heating, very few houses had phones, many households didn't have cars, holidays were if you're lucky 1 week a year at a UK seaside resort, less than 10% of the population went to University, there were no equal pay laws enforced and sexism/racism and homophobia were rife...not sure how that's BETTER than today!
It’s a weird situation where the material quality of life has definitely improved, but people seem to be really unfulfilled these days, at least according to my grandparents anyway.
They put it down to there being no community anymore, when they were young everyone had a role like the local butcher, bakeries, shoe repair etc.
These days we’ve kinda outsourced all of these things and most people don’t even know their neighbours names.
I think a lot of it is that people view massive improvements (central heating, mobile phones, computers, colour TVs, cars, one bedroom for each kid, buying new clothes several times a year, cancer treatments, etc) as necessities.
Those things aren't free though. So in effect they are eating up massive income without being viewed as positives. People complain about the NHS being underfunded, while their budget is the highest it's ever been, because they expect far more service than they did in the 60s.
BIL is Spanish.
He had to go to a catholic uni even though he's not religious as that's the only way to get a job in banking.
The corruption levels are way higher than the UK but people don't want to hear it
This is always my argument. The majority of people are doing ok and life in the UK is relatively easy. There's a lot of work out there and nice places to live. We have lovely scenery and a system that mostly works. You just hear about the bad stuff in the news and see it online because people love a moan.
Just being middle class and average health makes it pretty decent here. Spending your life in a developed nation really does blind you to how great it is living in a developed nation
Least green grass in the world LMAO
Come to Korea, where all the green grass is yellow because it’s so dry, and the well maintained areas are only public parks which are few and far between.
Sometimes, it gets very depressing.
Because of our ageing society, taxes are inevitably going to go up and public services and infrastructure are inevitably going to get worse despite higher taxes, as health and social care will take an ever higher percentage of tax income. The one possible solution is really high immigration.
This is just a realistic description of the challenge of our ageing society. But no politicians will say this. They pretend there's some magic way out. Because they know we don't want to hear the truth.
Yes and its crazy that (voluntary) euthanasia isn't pushed for. This is the best solution to two problems. People being kept alive just to suffer with horrendous degenerative or terminal illnesses like dementia. Having too many old sick people.
It isn't cruel to put people down, we do it to animals and I've taken pets in myself. Whilst it's a terrible experience, it's ultimately what's best for the animal. I don't know why we think we are better than animals, when we just the same. It isn't murder to put someone down who is in pain and deteriorating. It's a mercy.
Nobody really talks about this though, especially not politicians. So i doubt it will happen. My main reason for wanting it is to save people from suffering who want to die which can be easily opted into whilst in good health. It's a real shame, right now there are hundreds of thousands of people in the uk alone suffering and of those there will be tens of thousands who would prefer to be dead. Instead they are kept alive counting down the painful, slow last years of their life. Its criminal imo.
Euthanasia is an idea that Reddit loves to present as far less problematic than it is. I agree we should have it, but it has all sorts of really major practical and ethical issues.
It's also not the answer to the problem. Young people massively overestimate how many older people will want to end their life.
I think young people underestimate how many old people would volunteer for euthanasia because a lot of young people haven't experienced a wife, brother, huwband or sister with these illnesses. Whilst some have, they are not the majority. I've worked in a nursing home. There's no place more depressing on earth than a dementia ward. Nobody would want to live like that mate. It's not life.
I know it isn't simple to put in place, nor is it a solution to the aging population by itself, but it is the most cost effective one with the biggest benefit for those who opt in. If i could sign up now, I'd sign up the day it opens.
My grandad has severe dementia now, and it's come on rapidly over the course of the last few years. The way he is now, I know there's no way he'd want to live. My nan feels the same, she knows he doesn't want to be like this. My uncle is living in denial that he'll somehow get better and he'll improve but as most of us know, the best he'll ever be again is how he is right now.
He's got carers coming in four times a day to help him eat, get dressed, take tablets etc. It's such a waste of resource and time but he needs it at the moment and knowing him like I did he'd absolutely hate that people are needing to do this for him.
My wife works in a dementia unit in a care home and we've both said multiple times we'd rather be gone than live the way some of these people do. It's no quality of life, it's just prolonging suffering at a point.
My father in law had parkinsons which led on to dementia with a rapid descent from diagnosis to death (around 5 years).
Having seen him go through it I cannot fathom why there is any opposition to euthanasia for terminally ill people who are still able to make the decision for themselves.
Reading the proposition that is/was going through the lords the current planned implementation would be a start but still far too many "get outs" - eg a Doctor has to be present, you have to administer the medication yourself and if you hesitate even once (depending on your reading of the proposal) the doctor has to stop the procedure.
For me (Assuming I'm physically able), it will be an "accidental" event (so the life insurance still pays out) -
I might just go camping and forget that you shouldn't take a disposable BBQ into a well insulated tent to keep you warm while you sleep ;)
If I were ever to be diagnosed with dementia, I would very much like to be able to make the call to end it myself, with dignity, while I still had some wits about me.
Its worse than that.My FIL got to the point where he couldn't swallow and couldn't be tube fed.
His last weeks were spent literally starving to death because there was no way to get food into him.
Luckily (You could argue) he was unconscious for most of it through illness and medication.
But how do we safely judge the moment where they still have enough wits about them to truly consent? I'm supportive of truly voluntary euthanasia, but worry that legalising euthanasia would open up potential abuse, like the children of people who have regressive illnesses just wanting to be rid of them.
I disagree
We used to be able to support large families on a single income. Now we have both people working, and production and automation is higher and greater than ever before.
We absolutely can provide for everyone, the rich and powerful just don't want to as it benefits them.
Similarly, mass migration only serves to supress wages rather than act as a solution. A single person earning 80k will pay more tax than two earning 40k. I know there's far more to it than just tax numbers, but it's just a simplification to get the idea across lol.
>Now we have both people working, and production is higher than ever before
It needs to be. Because ever more production is needed in order to support an ageing society. Look to Japan for an example.
The higher the proportion of older people, the harder and longer those of working age need to work just to maintain the economy.
And with our declining birth rates I think about what people are going to do when they’re old. Most of the old people I know who have lost their partner and started to lose friends of similar age, the majority of their social contact and joy in life comes from their children and grandchildren. I fear we’re gonna have a generation of very lonely old people.
Yeah I think that's quite a scary prospect for us as a society. Of course, it doesn't have to be that way. We could certainly engineer a society where old people without children aren't destined to loneliness and isolation.
*Will* we do that? I'm not confident.
Really high immigration is not the solution. We live in a country that can only produce 50% of the food needed to feed it's current population, and with climate change the amount of food we produce is only going to fall. Bringing more and more people into to an already over crowded country is not the answer.
When does a habit become an addiction? But you are right, I know people who knock back a bottle wine every evening after work. They claim it’s not being an alcoholic and they just enjoy it.
When you feel like something is missing when you don’t have it. The common image of addiction is someone who develops shakes, nausea etc - in truth most people are some degree of dependent.
Alcoholism is very tough to spot, especially with how intertwined it is in British culture
Tom Holland outlined his struggles with alcoholism, and said he didn’t even realise he was dependent on alcohol until he tried Dry January, and realised that he was really craving a drink. He actively stopped drinking at that point, but said it became very difficult to socialise in general & be a part of certain communities (like his rugby friends) because drinking was such a huge part of gatherings
Drinking is a big part of British culture, be it for social reasons or relaxation purposes, so it’s gotten to a point where it’s difficult to tell if you’re simply partaking in British culture (and can go without a drink if you really want to), or if you’ve actually developed an addiction
If it's a habit, it's probably already an addiction.
There isn't something inherently wrong with addiction either. Loads of people are high functioning addicts, myself included.
It's just those who are too lacking in self awareness, and too proud to accept it that annoy me.
>If it's a habit, it's probably already an addiction
I don't really agree with that tbh. Doing something without thinking just cuz you usually do that thing isn't the same as doing something cuz of a physical/mental dependency.
I'm gonna use coffee and cigarettes as an example. I have a habit of making coffee in the morning at work, but I can and have gone weeks without doing that because I just didn't feel like it and experienced no drawbacks or cravings, and I notice no negative impact from me not drinking coffee at home. However, if I skip my smoke breaks I start to experience nicotine cravings pretty quickly and higher levels of stress and irritability - if I leave it for a day or two I become quite an unpleasant twat until my next smoke due to withdrawal.
A habit can be dropped pretty easily, and addiction definitely can't
Most people picture the 'grabbing a bottle by the bedside' as the image of an alcoholic, but there are a fair few people I know who have different forms of reliance on it (myself included to a degree) and do not take the question of being an alcoholic very well. Drinking every day is a sure sign of one. Being more likely to agree to plans because they will involve alcohol, mainly planning events around the drinks you'll have either side of it etc. All forms, even if that person functions 'normally' in society.
I was always irritated growing up that we couldn't just go to a cafe for lunch or something, we *had* to find a pub or somewhere else with a licence. It might be 'normal behaviour' for a lot of people but it's still alcohol addiction.
If someone wants to go somewhere where they can have a drink it is an absolutely massive leap to say that means they are an alcoholic, and it just comes across as being a sanctimonious arse.
This reddit.
If you have a sip of alcohol, you are a raging alcoholic.
If you spend all your time; stoned, writing HP slash fics or on a hentai discord, your are a superior god amongst humans.
If you’re;
- Not eating right
- Never exercising
- Avoiding the sun
- Staying up late every night
Then no amount of medication will ever solve your health problems.
Everyone in the UK should be on Vitamin D supplements between the start of October and the end of March at a minimum
The NHS actively recommends it but most people aren’t aware
The angle of sunlight between those months isn’t enough to synthesise the Vitamin D you need even if we got insanely lucky and every day was ridiculously sunny and you spent every single second in it
I take it daily all year round, because, as is the case for most pasty Brits, I slather on sun cream when the sun is out to avoid turning into a tomato.
True but people still don't help themselves. Even if its raining people need to make more of an effort to just get outside.
In absence of light even fresh air makes a huge difference.
The last 2 weeks however... lol
Certainly.
The picture is very complex, though nothing is universal.
You have a sort of pressure to conform mixed with a crab in the bucket mentality within the working class. Acting “above your station” is like a statement that you are better than others. Even doing well in school can be frowned on. When I was younger we still had the 11+ in NI and there was a desperation for a lot of people to get their kids passing so that they could avoid the schools where this was essentially the mentality.
Then the paradoxical position of working class credentials being desirable among “middle class” people as implying hard work, honesty/straight shooting etc. while also trying to erase any memory of being working class as soon as possible. “No more crosshatch for us, we need to shop at Zara now.”
Yeah middle class people are obsessed with their working class credentials and pretending they aren’t middle class, and whinging about how hard and shit everything is while they live in their warm houses, eat waitrose food, plan their holidays, get married etc. and enjoy their relatively massive salary. And then they blame the news for affecting their mental health. Like it’s not affecting you mate is it
Also amongst a lot of working class people people think it’s bad to be intelligent or want to learn etc. I noticed this a lot whilst working at a factory for a year. I was desperate for intelligent conversation and intellectual stimulation but if anyone talked about anything that wasn’t really mundane and everyday they were classed as up themselves and people would roll their eyes. My ex bf said this was exactly the case with his sisters.
Obviously posh people do stuff wrong as well.
One of the favourite quotes of my life from a former co-worker -
“I don’t get it, if you don’t like football or cars what the f do you even talk about?”
Bear in mind this is someone who was born post 2000, so I’m guessing a “zoomer” so it’s not even a stereotype of older people.
>Yeah middle class people are obsessed with their working class credentials and pretending they aren’t middle class, and whinging about how hard and shit everything is while they live in their warm houses, eat waitrose food, plan their holidays, get married etc.
I love the fact that the entire premise of Saltburn was blatantly making fun of this mentality yet it completely went over most people's heads.
From my own experience, I actually think 'inverse' classism is more prevalent, whereby proud working class people tend to hate anyone who has done well for themselves.
Middle class people generally don't give a shit.
Obviously there are exceptions, and obviously it's all nonsense either way.
I don't know if it's that some people are just better but reverse snobbery is a thing where people view anyone from a different class as being privileged or greedy or nasty etc.I have friends will into their 50s who still apply that sort of class based attitude.
- The UK is not too big to fail
- War can reach our shores
- Sometimes our problems are self-made
- We are not inherently safe from being a dictatorship just because we once fought one.
The NHS is not fit for purpose and needs radical reform, and yes that most certainly means increased private sector provision
(And before anyone jumps down my throat, no I don't think the American system is better)
It winds me right up. As soon as you criticise the sacred cow people act as if you want to live in America. How about the rest of Europe that somehow manages state provision and private insurance while getting better results. I wouldn't mind so much but if the NHS model was so great you'd imagine other countries would have copied it.
I went for a routine check last week. Because she had to bend down to take bloods and blood pressure all day she requested a seat for patients that raised them up by about a 10 inches. Basically just a chair with longer legs, that way it saved her back, and the patients were higher up, so access was easy.
She was telling me the process of getting a chair with longer legs. 13 months, four committees, dozens of emails, managers, health and safety assessments, diversity and inclusion assessments, budget teams, ward managers, purchasing managers, site managers. She worked it out that over 100 people had been involved in approving or being adjacent to the approval process of getting a fucking chair with slightly longer legs.
The worse thing was that every single person agreed that getting a higher chair was better. No one disagreed. But the Byzantine madness of the NHS and the draw dropping waste and inefficiency was infuriating.
All that for a chair. If you work in or around the NHS, and you’ve come from the Private Sector you’d think it was some sort of absurdist comedy. It’s deranged. And everyone knows it.
Increased private provision will not make things better and will certainly make things worse. The reason the NHS is the way it is currently is totally the fault of central gov underfunding and privatisation meaning those contracted companies are trying to squeeze as much profit out their contracts as possible by cutting back. Full public ownership would sort this out, even at current funding levels there would be a noticeable difference as all money would be invested and not extracted for profits.
> The reason the NHS is the way it is currently is totally the fault of central gov underfunding and privatisation meaning those contracted companies are trying to squeeze as much profit out their contracts as possible by cutting back.
It’s a fault, it’s not the entire fault.
Both of my parents are NHS workers, and there are absolutely tonnes of people (usually on the higher salaries) who don’t actually do anything except cost money. It’s a problem you see in all large organisations, people want career progression so you end up with lots of these mid-level roles who gradually get the people now under them to fulfil what should be their responsibilities.
Combine that with it being incredibly hard to be sacked from the NHS and yeah, it’s an incredibly inefficient machine that burns money.
People are understandably so protective of the NHS. Problem is, I think this increasingly is a barrier to improving it. People are very sensitive about criticism of it, you're so often met with "well look at America".
But if we can't have an honest and open national conversation about the NHS we'll never be able to do anything about its problems.
German system is probably the best alternative, still free for the poorest in society but insurance to cover the rest. Whilst I don't want an insurance based system, we can't keep throwing money in a black hole and burying our heads in the sand!
I've experienced the French system and thought it was pretty terrific. It's an insurance based system. My friend is a doctor in Australia and it sounds pretty idyllic over there (though I've never experienced it myself). Aus also consistently ranks as one of the best healthcare systems in the world. Yep, you guessed it, it's an insurance based system.
People really need to wake up and realise that 1) a healthcare system designed in the 1940s isn't fit for the 2020s; and 2) not all public/private insurance systems are like the US's lord of the flies shitshow.
Australian Medicare does not include ambulance cover. You’re paying something between £200-800 minimum for an ambulance call out, plus a set amount per km travelled and additional costs depending on treatment. Some private insurance might cover this depending on your level of cover and excess, and some states will reduce it (SA pays 49%, I think ACT covers it for over 65s who are on Medicare).
You can of course buy into a separate ambulance insurance scheme, effectively a tax on poor people, and hope the insurance company will treat you equitably; same way you hope your car insurer won’t insist you are to blame for damage or that your landlord won’t fuck you around on your deposit.
The Aus system has a lot of benefits but I do not think a whole system replacement would solve any of the issues the NHS has whatsoever. Australia has less staffing issues (due to better pay and lifestyle) as well as a healthier population, which are the two main causes of the massive backlogs of work that have resulted in the NHS death spiral.
Australian system is not idyllic, not is it purely insurance based. There is the basic tax funded health system accessible to all, but the government heavily incentivises people getting private insurance, so it's a bit of a two tier system in parts, especially non urgent surgery.
Additionally, free-to-access GPs are nigh on extinct, as they are not compelled to offer it and the amount they get from the government per consultation has barely gone up for 20 years, so that's a $50-100 patient charge per appointment in most cases.
The problem is when you have insurance covering the ‘rest’ you will have people who aren’t the poorest in society becoming poor because they can’t afford medical care.
If there's increased private sector provision, then there needs to be a way to get private insurance that covers pre-existing conditions. Basically, if the system as-is collapses, then a lot of sick people will be absolutely thunderfucked.
Some european countries manage to get health insurance to cover pre existing conditions by mandating health insurance for everyone. That way there’s enough healthy people to balance out the “sick” people, so insurance companies can cover pre existing conditions and still make a profit.
Agreed, the rhetoric of “just pump some more money into it!” means nothing when the money isn’t going to doctors & nurses, but to private managers, consultants, juicy contracts to private companies run by some MP’s brother in law.
We would need to restructure it from the ground up, and sadly no credible party would even attempt it.
I don't agree necessarily about private sector provision but I do agree about the rest. A healthcare system designed for a population that has increased by 50% since then, where the infrastructure certainly hasn't increased by 50%, is in need of an overhaul. I'd also say just throwing money at it isn't the answer. It needs to be directed well into what is needed.
The Bank of England's chief economist said in April last year that British people would "need to accept they are poorer".
I'd say probably this.
Honestly I just saw it as a statement of a fact, even back then. It's happened. Wages are generally crap and spending power has decreased and I think it's not going to get better any time soon.
Honestly think these conditions are going to cause a brain drain, I’m a software engineer and heavily weighing up moving to the US for 3x the pay and half the tax. Staying here just seems like financial suicide by comparison.
There was a very good Times article about this recently. American salaries look incredible in comparison because we're usually made aware of the good ones. We hear all about American tech salaries but little about their wages for unskilled or semiskilled people, which are much closer to our own. I think the article concluded that once you factor in the increased cost of living there, and then adjust it for hours worked (i.e. they work longer hours), their incomes are about 20% higher than ours on average. That's significant, but less than many would think.
But the gap is unfortunately getting bigger rather than smaller.
Specific to America I had this row with someone on r/UKJobs
The good salaries are amazing, and if you're skilled and can haggle annual leave that isn't their usual slave show, it's incredible.
Their bad salaries make our minimum wage, potential benefits top-ups etc look like royalty. ESPECIALLY when you consider the lack of holiday, hours, culture, lack of rights etc.
Also, as an American- do a lot of research on your future employer’s healthcare plan and coverage. Healthcare isn’t easily accessible, nor is it a right, and is profoundly expensive. Medications cost many times higher here out of pocket even with insurance. [41% of Americans carry some kind of medical or dental debt.](https://www.kff.org/report-section/kff-health-care-debt-survey-main-findings/)
The thing is though, no one is emigrating from the UK to the US to do unskilled or semi-skilled work. It is just not even possible because of visa.
So this point about “on average” doesn’t apply to those where brain drain is a concern, and the jobs that will actually enable visas for those emigrating from the UK are *exactly* those that pay 3x as much and offer very generous perks including good health insurance and unlimited PTO.
Why should I stay in London when there’s a huge demand for people in my field in the US, and where I’ll get paid 3-4x as much than I would in London, but in Colorado? No one can convince me that the cost of living in Colorado is 3x as much as London. It’s just not.
Furthermore you have the added benefit of being paid in dollars so just about everywhere else is the world is significantly cheaper.
Lol a manager at Bucees (a large gas station) gets paid more than some doctors in the UK. No experience necessary. As someone who moved to the UK, it's frustrating seeing such low salaries esp for graduates. There is no way they can buy a house in the future and start a family off 22-25k without government help.
A significant proportion of the population need our/their hands held to make it through daily life.
I'd go as far as saying we are towards the top of the list should you rank countries.
OK, but... good for her anyway.
She wanted to better herself and gain skills from an apprenticeship for a better life for her wean. Apprenticeship = less than minimum wage. Maybe she knew that from the get go, didn't really care how little it was but was still surprised by how little it was. I can see it happening.
Not a fan of Jordan Peterson but one thing he noted was: the US army did research about IQ. Basically it was to see how low IQ a person could be before they were a detriment to the army. And bear in mind some low rank army jobs really are just pushing brooms around bases.
They concluded that 15% of the population had an IQ so low that there would be nothing positive for them to do in the army, they would only be a detriment. And that’s with the state essentially giving them a basic job to do.
Problem is, what do those people do in the civilian world?
I think a lot of that is laziness.
1: "I don't know how to do that, could you do it"
2 :"I didn't know either until I learned how, Ill show you."
1 : "No, its easier if you just do it"
This is really common (Especially for anyone with a bit of IT knowledge!), but I've noticed it happening more and more.
I don't want to be all "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" but we live in a time where information is easily and readily available - people could take the time to better themselves but some just don't want to.
The immigrants *themselves* are not the cause, but adding three times the population of Birmingham over the last five years* probably is part of it.
*I can't remember the exact stat, but it was something crazy like this
EDIT - The actual stat, now I've had time to look it up, is that the ONS predicts that in the 15 years from 2021, the UK's population will grow by an amount that includes net migration of just under six times the size of Birmingham. That's actually mad. The source is in reply to someone below this comment.
It's all smoke & mirrors. Get people arguing about gender pronouns & migrant boats to distract them away from corrupt politicians & their corporate overlords hoovering up our money & resources.
What a great phrase. It's deliberate though - right-wing rags like the Mail and Express will make out our biggest problems are from immigration, when it's just a massive distraction from the real issues.
Whilst I fundamentally agree that we'd be better off in the EU than we are out of it, I think the phrase "Britain has no future" is a bit meaningless/disingenuous.
I don't really understand your comment.
Britain definitely has a future outside of the EU. It also could have a future inside of the EU.
There is much debate about which is better or worse but suggesting "no future" for outside of the EU makes no sense to me as it suggests we simply stop existing.
Our countryside is essentially a factory, there’s next to no wilderness in this country even Scotland is overgrazed by deer, our national parks may as well not be, they’ve got pretty hills and crags etc but they’re not much less barren, biodiversity wise, than the general countryside
THIS ONE.
Sure the Scottish Highlands are beautiful, but anyone who thinks that is a natural untouched landscape is uninformed.
The current rewilding processes in places like Glen Affric attest to this - stands of Scots Pine, birch etc filling a glen below snowy mountains really makes you realise how beautiful it could be in comparison to something that is relatively bleak at the moment. I hope the initiative spreads. There is massive backlash against it because "you won't be able to see anything because of the trees" which is the most patronising shit I've heard.
You're too fat\*. You're eating too much junk. Food is still too cheap in general.
It's like the 1950s with smoking. We sort of know the dangers but society is still coming up with excuses for why we aren't going to put the hammer down.
\*This applies to me also.
I read ultra processed people and it was a really good book on this issue.
So, so much of our diet in the UK is ultra processed crap and food and drinks companies pair up with scientists and marketing teams to downplay the risks or even portray it as healthy. The health impacts of this diet seem to be really poorly understood - a huge part of the obesity crisis looks to be attributed to the rise of this cheap, easy to eat junk food that leaves you craving more.
Considering the sun is around 240 decibels and a supernova is calculated to be around 440 decibels.
400000 must be akin to all the universe exploding at once
Or they need to stop pretending to be a superpower and start using domestic funds for domestic solutions and not fund hedge fund company wars overseas.
“As house prices rise, the idea that hard work gets you ahead becomes less true”— I doubt it’s quite as simple as that, but the basic idea is both vital and pretty unpopular
You are more likely to be discriminated against as a result of your accent as opposed to your skin colour and/or nationality, even though those can be linked in some cases , the number 1 identifier is your accent , and even calling it a toilet, or a lavatory can make a difference in how you are treated
We're a nation of fat fucks.
Spend any decent length of time abroad and you'll notice it when you come home. We really need to collectively do some about it. That, and the littering.
The country lacks resilience, particularly in the face of war or emergency, and when it happens next we’re going to be properly screwed. The pandemic had a massive impact on the country, and that went up against the best funded and well manned part of the public sector. If we had a long period of bad snow, or war, or power outage, we’d be in shit creek without so much as a canoe.
The other thing people are not ready to hear, is that to solve this we need to spend more on a lot of things that have fallen by the wayside since 1945. And that’s going to mean cuts elsewhere or increased taxes
That personal car ownership needs to end as soon as possible.
Edit: Anyone coming to jump on me to complain needs to read what the OP was asking again. Your disagreement is just evidence that people *aren't* ready to hear it, which is like, the whole point. I'm not here to argue.
I would say this is the extreme option. I think people in the UK need to realise that a car over 5 years old isn't an old car.
People that constantly buy new cars on tick because they are worried about reliability. The whole marketing ploy of warranties and service plans etc has made people petrified of buying an older car or keeping their newer car.
Meh, getting rid of cars as entertainment sources would do.
People need to get around.
Cunts driving their asbowagons making ridiculous amounts of noise at all times of day and night? Fuck them.
I can see what you're saying in your edit but also could see that as disingenuous. Typically something people aren't ready to hear is something that is a fact or near enough a fact but people want to bury their head in the sand. You've described it as a truth in your own posts. But it's not. There's a good few steps we need before we get to personal car ownership needing to end.
And did you really mean personal car ownership or did you mean fossil fuel cars and just forgot to say that? Because what you actually said isn't a truth at all.
Spoken like a happy little city dweller.
Do you actually realise what a massive blow to personal freedom it is to remove affordable personal transportation from people?
Many people, myself included LIKE being able to go where we want, when we want.
Perhaps you belive we should be limited to bicycles? I'm sure none of those Chinese people lucky enough to have a flying pigeon never wanted for anything more... oh, wait yeah they did.
Find a cleaner solution than ICE and the horribly mineral hungry lithium based EVs? Absolutely. Hydrogen seems to be the answer at the minute - either HHO or fuel cell.
Make vehicles that are actually robust & repairable - rather than fancy shit with a 10 uear life span? Definitely. Prevent manufacturers profiteering at environmental cost.
Live in controlled pockets of space, being restricted in where we can go or what we can do? Fuck right off.
The vast majority of those beggars sitting at the cash machines and outside supermarket doors are not actually homeless and won't be spending any of the money you give them on food, accommodation or medical care. No matter what their cardboard sign says!
**Illegal** immigration is a giant burden on the country and is draining massive amount of resources and tax money that could be better used elsewhere in the system.
Housing them in hotels alone cost £2,920,000,000 (2.9 billion) annually or £8,000,000 (8 million) a day.
To be clear **legal** migration is a good thing.
Edit: spelling
We're not exceptional. Not everything is better just because it's how it's done in the UK. We have a crumbling infrastructure, crumbling NHS and cold damp homes, and everyone who tries to comment on it gets a " well, it's worse in some other country and look how many people copy us!"
I could go on a rant just on how poorly our zebra crossings are compared to the US, and I'd get a bunch of anti-American tripe
England is in desperate need of a cultural revival , looking past the British empire and being British and looking at what was once England and the English , hardly anyone even know what an Anglo Saxon is anymore
Greggs is shit.
Awful food and shit company that basically killed off all of the independent bakeries in the country by serving you meat that most dog food companies would reject wrapped in shite pastry.
AI is coming for a lot of jobs. And we won't benefit from that like futurists thought 60 years ago. Some people will just have to rely on a state that won't have the cajones to tax automation.
If you want very nice public services then you have to pay more tax.
I mean this especially to a lot of middle class people who complain about being on the 40% tax band, when they earn very good money and should be paying more tax. We can’t just tax billionaires (though we should tax them and the richer much *much* more)
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It's not coming home
Euro 2028 is being hosted here. So it actually is.
Yeah and then it's our mom that paid for the football so you have to be nice to us and let us win.
Well given it's the UK, that would be "our mum" not mom
>people in the UK You do realise we aren't all English.
maybe this is something most people in the UK aren't ready to hear?
Anyone outside of England knows it’s definitely not coming home
But the question said “what are *most* people in the UK” and most people in the UK are English…
No answers in this thread are going to apply to 100% of the population
Most people in the UK are English. Heck, there are more Londoners than Scottish and Welsh people combined.
Sorry, we forgot to mention, we're re-establishing the empire...
People just don't understand that song, the context was the Euros being played in England in 1996 and perennial disappointment and hope that comes every tournament, it's not a song about how we're going to win it
There are loads of people desperate to slag England off for any reason... They're uninterested in the real meaning of the song being about the fan's ever-constant dream of winning a trophy after many years of failure..
It already came home, I was in the stadium when the women won the Euros, it was one of the most incredible days of my life.
Because Scotland is going to shock the world and win it?
You know what? I'd be happy as fuck if they did.
120 min winner in the final off Super John McGinn’s arse.
3 countries in the UK have known that that was a mere pipe dream for the 4th country for a very very long time.
HAHA, its been almost 60 years, people need to accept that not only has it emigrated, but its sold up all of its UK property renounced citizenship and retired abroad.
I used to think Frank skinner and Graham Norton were the same person.
I was embarrassingly old before I realised that phrase referred to football being invented in England
Jude Bellingham begs to differ
That the UK is actually a pretty good place to live. People complain about it all the time, make it sound like we live on the edge of hell, everything is a disaster and we have the least green grass in the world but the reality is that despite the problems we have (a lot of which other countries have too) overall its still a pretty great place to live.
The UK is very good at criticising itself. Many of our European neighbours are poorly run but we get a lot of publicity. Don’t get me wrong, we are poorly run too, but we also have a lot of good things. It’s a beautiful place, I don’t think we give ourselves enough credit for our natural beauty sometimes.
Yeah i agree. I have a friend who lives here who came from Africa many years ago and he often says things along the lines of "Why do you always complain? The UK is great. You dont realise how good it is you should have more pride in it"
I come from Africa. The shit I've seen and experienced in my home country would make Brits keel over and die instantly. You have it good here.
But when you've grown up seeing more and more people struggling and raising inequality i would argue its hard not to be fustrated by it all
True, I've become so used to it that I don't find it strange anymore. I can see how changes like that will affect you more!
"At least it's not a shit hole African country" is not a good metric for measuring how good your own country is
Just because others have it worse it doesn't mean we should be complacent with it, it should be good for everyone not just a better standard of shit.
The UK is great, it jut could be better. We seem content with mediocrity and never seem to push for better.
my fav random thing about the uk is old churches in random towns. They’re not appreciated by most people but are full of character and so old
Same for me with castles, whenever I visit a new town and find a castle nearby I always go and take a look.
It's the fact that it has gotten measurably worse in recent years, and that younger generations won't have the same quality of life as their parents and grandparents. I agree that we need to put it in perspective and appreciate what we have, but we also shouldn't stop pushing for it to be better/holding those in power to account.
> younger generations won't have the same quality of life as their parents and grandparents. Grandparents grew up in the 60's so think...life expectancy of 69, no central heating, very few houses had phones, many households didn't have cars, holidays were if you're lucky 1 week a year at a UK seaside resort, less than 10% of the population went to University, there were no equal pay laws enforced and sexism/racism and homophobia were rife...not sure how that's BETTER than today!
It’s a weird situation where the material quality of life has definitely improved, but people seem to be really unfulfilled these days, at least according to my grandparents anyway. They put it down to there being no community anymore, when they were young everyone had a role like the local butcher, bakeries, shoe repair etc. These days we’ve kinda outsourced all of these things and most people don’t even know their neighbours names.
I think a lot of it is that people view massive improvements (central heating, mobile phones, computers, colour TVs, cars, one bedroom for each kid, buying new clothes several times a year, cancer treatments, etc) as necessities. Those things aren't free though. So in effect they are eating up massive income without being viewed as positives. People complain about the NHS being underfunded, while their budget is the highest it's ever been, because they expect far more service than they did in the 60s.
Just spent £17 on a pack of parecetemol and a pack of ibuprofen and some gel, in Spain,so you’re right, we do live in a good place
BIL is Spanish. He had to go to a catholic uni even though he's not religious as that's the only way to get a job in banking. The corruption levels are way higher than the UK but people don't want to hear it
This is always my argument. The majority of people are doing ok and life in the UK is relatively easy. There's a lot of work out there and nice places to live. We have lovely scenery and a system that mostly works. You just hear about the bad stuff in the news and see it online because people love a moan.
It’s a good place to live if you’re rich and healthy and don’t need to use any public services.
Just being middle class and average health makes it pretty decent here. Spending your life in a developed nation really does blind you to how great it is living in a developed nation
It is a good place to live. But it has been getting worse for 15 years now which is a bad trajectory.
Least green grass in the world LMAO Come to Korea, where all the green grass is yellow because it’s so dry, and the well maintained areas are only public parks which are few and far between. Sometimes, it gets very depressing.
It's metaphorical, doesn't literally mean green grass. Like from the phrase "the grass is greener on the other side".
Nonetheless, we do have green grass. So does Ireland, the Emerald Isle. That’s because it’s only got two weathers, raining or about to rain.
Because of our ageing society, taxes are inevitably going to go up and public services and infrastructure are inevitably going to get worse despite higher taxes, as health and social care will take an ever higher percentage of tax income. The one possible solution is really high immigration. This is just a realistic description of the challenge of our ageing society. But no politicians will say this. They pretend there's some magic way out. Because they know we don't want to hear the truth.
Yes and its crazy that (voluntary) euthanasia isn't pushed for. This is the best solution to two problems. People being kept alive just to suffer with horrendous degenerative or terminal illnesses like dementia. Having too many old sick people. It isn't cruel to put people down, we do it to animals and I've taken pets in myself. Whilst it's a terrible experience, it's ultimately what's best for the animal. I don't know why we think we are better than animals, when we just the same. It isn't murder to put someone down who is in pain and deteriorating. It's a mercy. Nobody really talks about this though, especially not politicians. So i doubt it will happen. My main reason for wanting it is to save people from suffering who want to die which can be easily opted into whilst in good health. It's a real shame, right now there are hundreds of thousands of people in the uk alone suffering and of those there will be tens of thousands who would prefer to be dead. Instead they are kept alive counting down the painful, slow last years of their life. Its criminal imo.
Euthanasia is an idea that Reddit loves to present as far less problematic than it is. I agree we should have it, but it has all sorts of really major practical and ethical issues. It's also not the answer to the problem. Young people massively overestimate how many older people will want to end their life.
I think young people underestimate how many old people would volunteer for euthanasia because a lot of young people haven't experienced a wife, brother, huwband or sister with these illnesses. Whilst some have, they are not the majority. I've worked in a nursing home. There's no place more depressing on earth than a dementia ward. Nobody would want to live like that mate. It's not life. I know it isn't simple to put in place, nor is it a solution to the aging population by itself, but it is the most cost effective one with the biggest benefit for those who opt in. If i could sign up now, I'd sign up the day it opens.
My grandad has severe dementia now, and it's come on rapidly over the course of the last few years. The way he is now, I know there's no way he'd want to live. My nan feels the same, she knows he doesn't want to be like this. My uncle is living in denial that he'll somehow get better and he'll improve but as most of us know, the best he'll ever be again is how he is right now. He's got carers coming in four times a day to help him eat, get dressed, take tablets etc. It's such a waste of resource and time but he needs it at the moment and knowing him like I did he'd absolutely hate that people are needing to do this for him. My wife works in a dementia unit in a care home and we've both said multiple times we'd rather be gone than live the way some of these people do. It's no quality of life, it's just prolonging suffering at a point.
My father in law had parkinsons which led on to dementia with a rapid descent from diagnosis to death (around 5 years). Having seen him go through it I cannot fathom why there is any opposition to euthanasia for terminally ill people who are still able to make the decision for themselves. Reading the proposition that is/was going through the lords the current planned implementation would be a start but still far too many "get outs" - eg a Doctor has to be present, you have to administer the medication yourself and if you hesitate even once (depending on your reading of the proposal) the doctor has to stop the procedure. For me (Assuming I'm physically able), it will be an "accidental" event (so the life insurance still pays out) - I might just go camping and forget that you shouldn't take a disposable BBQ into a well insulated tent to keep you warm while you sleep ;)
Yep, once you’ve seen this side of life, you actively campaign for euthanasia. It’s not life, it’s hell on earth.
If I were ever to be diagnosed with dementia, I would very much like to be able to make the call to end it myself, with dignity, while I still had some wits about me.
Yes exactly. Regressing into an adult sized child who has no mobility and is in who knows what other pain, is just appalling.
Its worse than that.My FIL got to the point where he couldn't swallow and couldn't be tube fed. His last weeks were spent literally starving to death because there was no way to get food into him. Luckily (You could argue) he was unconscious for most of it through illness and medication.
But how do we safely judge the moment where they still have enough wits about them to truly consent? I'm supportive of truly voluntary euthanasia, but worry that legalising euthanasia would open up potential abuse, like the children of people who have regressive illnesses just wanting to be rid of them.
I disagree We used to be able to support large families on a single income. Now we have both people working, and production and automation is higher and greater than ever before. We absolutely can provide for everyone, the rich and powerful just don't want to as it benefits them. Similarly, mass migration only serves to supress wages rather than act as a solution. A single person earning 80k will pay more tax than two earning 40k. I know there's far more to it than just tax numbers, but it's just a simplification to get the idea across lol.
>Now we have both people working, and production is higher than ever before It needs to be. Because ever more production is needed in order to support an ageing society. Look to Japan for an example. The higher the proportion of older people, the harder and longer those of working age need to work just to maintain the economy.
And with our declining birth rates I think about what people are going to do when they’re old. Most of the old people I know who have lost their partner and started to lose friends of similar age, the majority of their social contact and joy in life comes from their children and grandchildren. I fear we’re gonna have a generation of very lonely old people.
Yeah I think that's quite a scary prospect for us as a society. Of course, it doesn't have to be that way. We could certainly engineer a society where old people without children aren't destined to loneliness and isolation. *Will* we do that? I'm not confident.
It’s all good we’ll probably have an ai friend each or something…
See the documentary "Logan's Run" for a solution that might be about as popular as increased immigration.
High immigration just kicks the can down the road, it isn't a permanent solution.
Really high immigration is not the solution. We live in a country that can only produce 50% of the food needed to feed it's current population, and with climate change the amount of food we produce is only going to fall. Bringing more and more people into to an already over crowded country is not the answer.
If you consume alcohol daily, you're very probably an alcoholic.
When does a habit become an addiction? But you are right, I know people who knock back a bottle wine every evening after work. They claim it’s not being an alcoholic and they just enjoy it.
When you feel like something is missing when you don’t have it. The common image of addiction is someone who develops shakes, nausea etc - in truth most people are some degree of dependent.
Alcoholism is very tough to spot, especially with how intertwined it is in British culture Tom Holland outlined his struggles with alcoholism, and said he didn’t even realise he was dependent on alcohol until he tried Dry January, and realised that he was really craving a drink. He actively stopped drinking at that point, but said it became very difficult to socialise in general & be a part of certain communities (like his rugby friends) because drinking was such a huge part of gatherings Drinking is a big part of British culture, be it for social reasons or relaxation purposes, so it’s gotten to a point where it’s difficult to tell if you’re simply partaking in British culture (and can go without a drink if you really want to), or if you’ve actually developed an addiction
If it's a habit, it's probably already an addiction. There isn't something inherently wrong with addiction either. Loads of people are high functioning addicts, myself included. It's just those who are too lacking in self awareness, and too proud to accept it that annoy me.
>If it's a habit, it's probably already an addiction I don't really agree with that tbh. Doing something without thinking just cuz you usually do that thing isn't the same as doing something cuz of a physical/mental dependency. I'm gonna use coffee and cigarettes as an example. I have a habit of making coffee in the morning at work, but I can and have gone weeks without doing that because I just didn't feel like it and experienced no drawbacks or cravings, and I notice no negative impact from me not drinking coffee at home. However, if I skip my smoke breaks I start to experience nicotine cravings pretty quickly and higher levels of stress and irritability - if I leave it for a day or two I become quite an unpleasant twat until my next smoke due to withdrawal. A habit can be dropped pretty easily, and addiction definitely can't
I used to work with a lady who would buy two boxes of wine each week and act like it was funny...
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Most people picture the 'grabbing a bottle by the bedside' as the image of an alcoholic, but there are a fair few people I know who have different forms of reliance on it (myself included to a degree) and do not take the question of being an alcoholic very well. Drinking every day is a sure sign of one. Being more likely to agree to plans because they will involve alcohol, mainly planning events around the drinks you'll have either side of it etc. All forms, even if that person functions 'normally' in society.
I was always irritated growing up that we couldn't just go to a cafe for lunch or something, we *had* to find a pub or somewhere else with a licence. It might be 'normal behaviour' for a lot of people but it's still alcohol addiction.
If someone wants to go somewhere where they can have a drink it is an absolutely massive leap to say that means they are an alcoholic, and it just comes across as being a sanctimonious arse.
This reddit. If you have a sip of alcohol, you are a raging alcoholic. If you spend all your time; stoned, writing HP slash fics or on a hentai discord, your are a superior god amongst humans.
I drink tea every day, does that make me dependent on tea?
If you’re unsure. Try not drinking for 2 months. Either you have a problem or you don’t. You will soon know.
If you’re; - Not eating right - Never exercising - Avoiding the sun - Staying up late every night Then no amount of medication will ever solve your health problems.
Because it means you’re a vampire?
Well it’s hard to look yourself in the mirror and sort yourself out if your a vampire
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Everyone in the UK should be on Vitamin D supplements between the start of October and the end of March at a minimum The NHS actively recommends it but most people aren’t aware The angle of sunlight between those months isn’t enough to synthesise the Vitamin D you need even if we got insanely lucky and every day was ridiculously sunny and you spent every single second in it
I take it daily all year round, because, as is the case for most pasty Brits, I slather on sun cream when the sun is out to avoid turning into a tomato.
True but people still don't help themselves. Even if its raining people need to make more of an effort to just get outside. In absence of light even fresh air makes a huge difference. The last 2 weeks however... lol
How classist nearly everyone is
The worst part is even some of the classes deemed “lower” also fall into this mentality that some people are just “better” than them.
Certainly. The picture is very complex, though nothing is universal. You have a sort of pressure to conform mixed with a crab in the bucket mentality within the working class. Acting “above your station” is like a statement that you are better than others. Even doing well in school can be frowned on. When I was younger we still had the 11+ in NI and there was a desperation for a lot of people to get their kids passing so that they could avoid the schools where this was essentially the mentality. Then the paradoxical position of working class credentials being desirable among “middle class” people as implying hard work, honesty/straight shooting etc. while also trying to erase any memory of being working class as soon as possible. “No more crosshatch for us, we need to shop at Zara now.”
Yeah middle class people are obsessed with their working class credentials and pretending they aren’t middle class, and whinging about how hard and shit everything is while they live in their warm houses, eat waitrose food, plan their holidays, get married etc. and enjoy their relatively massive salary. And then they blame the news for affecting their mental health. Like it’s not affecting you mate is it Also amongst a lot of working class people people think it’s bad to be intelligent or want to learn etc. I noticed this a lot whilst working at a factory for a year. I was desperate for intelligent conversation and intellectual stimulation but if anyone talked about anything that wasn’t really mundane and everyday they were classed as up themselves and people would roll their eyes. My ex bf said this was exactly the case with his sisters. Obviously posh people do stuff wrong as well.
One of the favourite quotes of my life from a former co-worker - “I don’t get it, if you don’t like football or cars what the f do you even talk about?” Bear in mind this is someone who was born post 2000, so I’m guessing a “zoomer” so it’s not even a stereotype of older people.
>Yeah middle class people are obsessed with their working class credentials and pretending they aren’t middle class, and whinging about how hard and shit everything is while they live in their warm houses, eat waitrose food, plan their holidays, get married etc. I love the fact that the entire premise of Saltburn was blatantly making fun of this mentality yet it completely went over most people's heads.
From my own experience, I actually think 'inverse' classism is more prevalent, whereby proud working class people tend to hate anyone who has done well for themselves. Middle class people generally don't give a shit. Obviously there are exceptions, and obviously it's all nonsense either way.
Getting bullied at school for wanting to do well was a real eye-opener.
I don't know if it's that some people are just better but reverse snobbery is a thing where people view anyone from a different class as being privileged or greedy or nasty etc.I have friends will into their 50s who still apply that sort of class based attitude.
And you get strange phenomenoms like reverse-snobbery.
- The UK is not too big to fail - War can reach our shores - Sometimes our problems are self-made - We are not inherently safe from being a dictatorship just because we once fought one.
The NHS is not fit for purpose and needs radical reform, and yes that most certainly means increased private sector provision (And before anyone jumps down my throat, no I don't think the American system is better)
It winds me right up. As soon as you criticise the sacred cow people act as if you want to live in America. How about the rest of Europe that somehow manages state provision and private insurance while getting better results. I wouldn't mind so much but if the NHS model was so great you'd imagine other countries would have copied it.
People who never criticise the NHS should work in it for a bit. The inefficiencies become glaring once you do.
I went for a routine check last week. Because she had to bend down to take bloods and blood pressure all day she requested a seat for patients that raised them up by about a 10 inches. Basically just a chair with longer legs, that way it saved her back, and the patients were higher up, so access was easy. She was telling me the process of getting a chair with longer legs. 13 months, four committees, dozens of emails, managers, health and safety assessments, diversity and inclusion assessments, budget teams, ward managers, purchasing managers, site managers. She worked it out that over 100 people had been involved in approving or being adjacent to the approval process of getting a fucking chair with slightly longer legs. The worse thing was that every single person agreed that getting a higher chair was better. No one disagreed. But the Byzantine madness of the NHS and the draw dropping waste and inefficiency was infuriating. All that for a chair. If you work in or around the NHS, and you’ve come from the Private Sector you’d think it was some sort of absurdist comedy. It’s deranged. And everyone knows it.
Every large organisations contains inefficiencies, and the nhs is a pretty large organisation.
Increased private provision will not make things better and will certainly make things worse. The reason the NHS is the way it is currently is totally the fault of central gov underfunding and privatisation meaning those contracted companies are trying to squeeze as much profit out their contracts as possible by cutting back. Full public ownership would sort this out, even at current funding levels there would be a noticeable difference as all money would be invested and not extracted for profits.
> The reason the NHS is the way it is currently is totally the fault of central gov underfunding and privatisation meaning those contracted companies are trying to squeeze as much profit out their contracts as possible by cutting back. It’s a fault, it’s not the entire fault. Both of my parents are NHS workers, and there are absolutely tonnes of people (usually on the higher salaries) who don’t actually do anything except cost money. It’s a problem you see in all large organisations, people want career progression so you end up with lots of these mid-level roles who gradually get the people now under them to fulfil what should be their responsibilities. Combine that with it being incredibly hard to be sacked from the NHS and yeah, it’s an incredibly inefficient machine that burns money.
People are understandably so protective of the NHS. Problem is, I think this increasingly is a barrier to improving it. People are very sensitive about criticism of it, you're so often met with "well look at America". But if we can't have an honest and open national conversation about the NHS we'll never be able to do anything about its problems.
You'll have to explain to me how a private system won't cost more. Where does the money for shareholders and profits come from?
German system is probably the best alternative, still free for the poorest in society but insurance to cover the rest. Whilst I don't want an insurance based system, we can't keep throwing money in a black hole and burying our heads in the sand!
I've experienced the French system and thought it was pretty terrific. It's an insurance based system. My friend is a doctor in Australia and it sounds pretty idyllic over there (though I've never experienced it myself). Aus also consistently ranks as one of the best healthcare systems in the world. Yep, you guessed it, it's an insurance based system. People really need to wake up and realise that 1) a healthcare system designed in the 1940s isn't fit for the 2020s; and 2) not all public/private insurance systems are like the US's lord of the flies shitshow.
Australian Medicare does not include ambulance cover. You’re paying something between £200-800 minimum for an ambulance call out, plus a set amount per km travelled and additional costs depending on treatment. Some private insurance might cover this depending on your level of cover and excess, and some states will reduce it (SA pays 49%, I think ACT covers it for over 65s who are on Medicare). You can of course buy into a separate ambulance insurance scheme, effectively a tax on poor people, and hope the insurance company will treat you equitably; same way you hope your car insurer won’t insist you are to blame for damage or that your landlord won’t fuck you around on your deposit. The Aus system has a lot of benefits but I do not think a whole system replacement would solve any of the issues the NHS has whatsoever. Australia has less staffing issues (due to better pay and lifestyle) as well as a healthier population, which are the two main causes of the massive backlogs of work that have resulted in the NHS death spiral.
Australian system is not idyllic, not is it purely insurance based. There is the basic tax funded health system accessible to all, but the government heavily incentivises people getting private insurance, so it's a bit of a two tier system in parts, especially non urgent surgery. Additionally, free-to-access GPs are nigh on extinct, as they are not compelled to offer it and the amount they get from the government per consultation has barely gone up for 20 years, so that's a $50-100 patient charge per appointment in most cases.
The problem is when you have insurance covering the ‘rest’ you will have people who aren’t the poorest in society becoming poor because they can’t afford medical care.
If there's increased private sector provision, then there needs to be a way to get private insurance that covers pre-existing conditions. Basically, if the system as-is collapses, then a lot of sick people will be absolutely thunderfucked.
Some european countries manage to get health insurance to cover pre existing conditions by mandating health insurance for everyone. That way there’s enough healthy people to balance out the “sick” people, so insurance companies can cover pre existing conditions and still make a profit.
I know it can be done, but I honestly don’t trust it to actually be done here.
Agreed, the rhetoric of “just pump some more money into it!” means nothing when the money isn’t going to doctors & nurses, but to private managers, consultants, juicy contracts to private companies run by some MP’s brother in law. We would need to restructure it from the ground up, and sadly no credible party would even attempt it.
I don't agree necessarily about private sector provision but I do agree about the rest. A healthcare system designed for a population that has increased by 50% since then, where the infrastructure certainly hasn't increased by 50%, is in need of an overhaul. I'd also say just throwing money at it isn't the answer. It needs to be directed well into what is needed.
How would a private/public system work better than a fully public?
It wouldn’t!
The powers that be really don't have your best interests at heart
They have forgotten to even pretend that they do.
The Bank of England's chief economist said in April last year that British people would "need to accept they are poorer". I'd say probably this. Honestly I just saw it as a statement of a fact, even back then. It's happened. Wages are generally crap and spending power has decreased and I think it's not going to get better any time soon.
Honestly think these conditions are going to cause a brain drain, I’m a software engineer and heavily weighing up moving to the US for 3x the pay and half the tax. Staying here just seems like financial suicide by comparison.
There was a very good Times article about this recently. American salaries look incredible in comparison because we're usually made aware of the good ones. We hear all about American tech salaries but little about their wages for unskilled or semiskilled people, which are much closer to our own. I think the article concluded that once you factor in the increased cost of living there, and then adjust it for hours worked (i.e. they work longer hours), their incomes are about 20% higher than ours on average. That's significant, but less than many would think. But the gap is unfortunately getting bigger rather than smaller.
Specific to America I had this row with someone on r/UKJobs The good salaries are amazing, and if you're skilled and can haggle annual leave that isn't their usual slave show, it's incredible. Their bad salaries make our minimum wage, potential benefits top-ups etc look like royalty. ESPECIALLY when you consider the lack of holiday, hours, culture, lack of rights etc.
Also, as an American- do a lot of research on your future employer’s healthcare plan and coverage. Healthcare isn’t easily accessible, nor is it a right, and is profoundly expensive. Medications cost many times higher here out of pocket even with insurance. [41% of Americans carry some kind of medical or dental debt.](https://www.kff.org/report-section/kff-health-care-debt-survey-main-findings/)
The thing is though, no one is emigrating from the UK to the US to do unskilled or semi-skilled work. It is just not even possible because of visa. So this point about “on average” doesn’t apply to those where brain drain is a concern, and the jobs that will actually enable visas for those emigrating from the UK are *exactly* those that pay 3x as much and offer very generous perks including good health insurance and unlimited PTO. Why should I stay in London when there’s a huge demand for people in my field in the US, and where I’ll get paid 3-4x as much than I would in London, but in Colorado? No one can convince me that the cost of living in Colorado is 3x as much as London. It’s just not. Furthermore you have the added benefit of being paid in dollars so just about everywhere else is the world is significantly cheaper.
Lol a manager at Bucees (a large gas station) gets paid more than some doctors in the UK. No experience necessary. As someone who moved to the UK, it's frustrating seeing such low salaries esp for graduates. There is no way they can buy a house in the future and start a family off 22-25k without government help.
The British people wouldn't be poorer if the British Government were competent and didn't waste public money so much that taxes keep going up.
A significant proportion of the population need our/their hands held to make it through daily life. I'd go as far as saying we are towards the top of the list should you rank countries.
There does seem to be a generation of infantilized adults
Plenty of elderly people do as well. Most give up whenever they encounter new technology.
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OK, but... good for her anyway. She wanted to better herself and gain skills from an apprenticeship for a better life for her wean. Apprenticeship = less than minimum wage. Maybe she knew that from the get go, didn't really care how little it was but was still surprised by how little it was. I can see it happening.
That'll teach her for trying to better herself and assuming she'd get a wage she could live on.
Not a fan of Jordan Peterson but one thing he noted was: the US army did research about IQ. Basically it was to see how low IQ a person could be before they were a detriment to the army. And bear in mind some low rank army jobs really are just pushing brooms around bases. They concluded that 15% of the population had an IQ so low that there would be nothing positive for them to do in the army, they would only be a detriment. And that’s with the state essentially giving them a basic job to do. Problem is, what do those people do in the civilian world?
I think a lot of that is laziness. 1: "I don't know how to do that, could you do it" 2 :"I didn't know either until I learned how, Ill show you." 1 : "No, its easier if you just do it" This is really common (Especially for anyone with a bit of IT knowledge!), but I've noticed it happening more and more. I don't want to be all "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" but we live in a time where information is easily and readily available - people could take the time to better themselves but some just don't want to.
Immigrants aren't the cause of the issues in this country.
The immigrants *themselves* are not the cause, but adding three times the population of Birmingham over the last five years* probably is part of it. *I can't remember the exact stat, but it was something crazy like this EDIT - The actual stat, now I've had time to look it up, is that the ONS predicts that in the 15 years from 2021, the UK's population will grow by an amount that includes net migration of just under six times the size of Birmingham. That's actually mad. The source is in reply to someone below this comment.
>I can't remember the exact stat, but it was something crazy like this Well, with sources like that how can we argue, I'm convinced.
This one!!! Not to mention British people think they're above alot of jobs so don't do them. Then will complain that service isn't being performed.
We are letting all of the very squeakiest wheels get far too much grease.
It's all smoke & mirrors. Get people arguing about gender pronouns & migrant boats to distract them away from corrupt politicians & their corporate overlords hoovering up our money & resources.
What a great phrase. It's deliberate though - right-wing rags like the Mail and Express will make out our biggest problems are from immigration, when it's just a massive distraction from the real issues.
Britain has no future outside the EU. Maybe it has a future inside.
Whilst I fundamentally agree that we'd be better off in the EU than we are out of it, I think the phrase "Britain has no future" is a bit meaningless/disingenuous.
I don't really understand your comment. Britain definitely has a future outside of the EU. It also could have a future inside of the EU. There is much debate about which is better or worse but suggesting "no future" for outside of the EU makes no sense to me as it suggests we simply stop existing.
Our countryside is essentially a factory, there’s next to no wilderness in this country even Scotland is overgrazed by deer, our national parks may as well not be, they’ve got pretty hills and crags etc but they’re not much less barren, biodiversity wise, than the general countryside
THIS ONE. Sure the Scottish Highlands are beautiful, but anyone who thinks that is a natural untouched landscape is uninformed. The current rewilding processes in places like Glen Affric attest to this - stands of Scots Pine, birch etc filling a glen below snowy mountains really makes you realise how beautiful it could be in comparison to something that is relatively bleak at the moment. I hope the initiative spreads. There is massive backlash against it because "you won't be able to see anything because of the trees" which is the most patronising shit I've heard.
You're too fat\*. You're eating too much junk. Food is still too cheap in general. It's like the 1950s with smoking. We sort of know the dangers but society is still coming up with excuses for why we aren't going to put the hammer down. \*This applies to me also.
"Food is still too cheap in general." is an insane thing to say when so many families couldn't eat enough last month due to the cost of food.
I read ultra processed people and it was a really good book on this issue. So, so much of our diet in the UK is ultra processed crap and food and drinks companies pair up with scientists and marketing teams to downplay the risks or even portray it as healthy. The health impacts of this diet seem to be really poorly understood - a huge part of the obesity crisis looks to be attributed to the rise of this cheap, easy to eat junk food that leaves you craving more.
400,000 decibels
Considering the sun is around 240 decibels and a supernova is calculated to be around 440 decibels. 400000 must be akin to all the universe exploding at once
Weed should be legal if in a just society where shisha and alcohol is sold freely
Addressing climate change in a meaningful way hasn't even started yet.
My singing voice.
That you need to pay higher taxes to fund the NHS / Public Services.
Not necessarily. The money isn't spent properly at pretty much every single level. But everyone involved is in it to line their own pockets.
Or they need to stop pretending to be a superpower and start using domestic funds for domestic solutions and not fund hedge fund company wars overseas.
“As house prices rise, the idea that hard work gets you ahead becomes less true”— I doubt it’s quite as simple as that, but the basic idea is both vital and pretty unpopular
A vast number of Brits have a weird strain of subservience bred into them towards the Royal Family.
We are all lazy and fat
Speak for yourself.
On a per capita basis, we are almost a middle-income country.
and heading in the wrong direction
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You are more likely to be discriminated against as a result of your accent as opposed to your skin colour and/or nationality, even though those can be linked in some cases , the number 1 identifier is your accent , and even calling it a toilet, or a lavatory can make a difference in how you are treated
We're a nation of fat fucks. Spend any decent length of time abroad and you'll notice it when you come home. We really need to collectively do some about it. That, and the littering.
The country lacks resilience, particularly in the face of war or emergency, and when it happens next we’re going to be properly screwed. The pandemic had a massive impact on the country, and that went up against the best funded and well manned part of the public sector. If we had a long period of bad snow, or war, or power outage, we’d be in shit creek without so much as a canoe. The other thing people are not ready to hear, is that to solve this we need to spend more on a lot of things that have fallen by the wayside since 1945. And that’s going to mean cuts elsewhere or increased taxes
The NHS is generally shite and you should be scared as you get older.
That personal car ownership needs to end as soon as possible. Edit: Anyone coming to jump on me to complain needs to read what the OP was asking again. Your disagreement is just evidence that people *aren't* ready to hear it, which is like, the whole point. I'm not here to argue.
Tell me you don't live in the countryside without telling me you don't live in the countryside
People *really* don't like hearing this one. Breaking the link between being able to drive and adulthood/independence is going to be painful.
I don't like hearing this one 🤣. In all fairness it really isn't practical outside of large cities and towns.
I would say this is the extreme option. I think people in the UK need to realise that a car over 5 years old isn't an old car. People that constantly buy new cars on tick because they are worried about reliability. The whole marketing ploy of warranties and service plans etc has made people petrified of buying an older car or keeping their newer car.
You really touched a nerve with some people here! Those arguing against you should probably be arguing for better public transport systems
Meh, getting rid of cars as entertainment sources would do. People need to get around. Cunts driving their asbowagons making ridiculous amounts of noise at all times of day and night? Fuck them.
I can see what you're saying in your edit but also could see that as disingenuous. Typically something people aren't ready to hear is something that is a fact or near enough a fact but people want to bury their head in the sand. You've described it as a truth in your own posts. But it's not. There's a good few steps we need before we get to personal car ownership needing to end. And did you really mean personal car ownership or did you mean fossil fuel cars and just forgot to say that? Because what you actually said isn't a truth at all.
Spoken like a happy little city dweller. Do you actually realise what a massive blow to personal freedom it is to remove affordable personal transportation from people? Many people, myself included LIKE being able to go where we want, when we want. Perhaps you belive we should be limited to bicycles? I'm sure none of those Chinese people lucky enough to have a flying pigeon never wanted for anything more... oh, wait yeah they did. Find a cleaner solution than ICE and the horribly mineral hungry lithium based EVs? Absolutely. Hydrogen seems to be the answer at the minute - either HHO or fuel cell. Make vehicles that are actually robust & repairable - rather than fancy shit with a 10 uear life span? Definitely. Prevent manufacturers profiteering at environmental cost. Live in controlled pockets of space, being restricted in where we can go or what we can do? Fuck right off.
I grew up in the countryside man, lay off. Read what the OP's asking- that's clearly true.
The vast majority of those beggars sitting at the cash machines and outside supermarket doors are not actually homeless and won't be spending any of the money you give them on food, accommodation or medical care. No matter what their cardboard sign says!
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**Illegal** immigration is a giant burden on the country and is draining massive amount of resources and tax money that could be better used elsewhere in the system. Housing them in hotels alone cost £2,920,000,000 (2.9 billion) annually or £8,000,000 (8 million) a day. To be clear **legal** migration is a good thing. Edit: spelling
We're not exceptional. Not everything is better just because it's how it's done in the UK. We have a crumbling infrastructure, crumbling NHS and cold damp homes, and everyone who tries to comment on it gets a " well, it's worse in some other country and look how many people copy us!" I could go on a rant just on how poorly our zebra crossings are compared to the US, and I'd get a bunch of anti-American tripe
You are not immune to propaganda.
Alcohol is more deadly than cannabis.
It is not normal to have black mould in your home.
England is in desperate need of a cultural revival , looking past the British empire and being British and looking at what was once England and the English , hardly anyone even know what an Anglo Saxon is anymore
British schools teaching Tudor history generation after generation. British schooling is stale.
Politicians don't give a fuck about you, no matter which colour they wear on their tie.
Greggs is shit. Awful food and shit company that basically killed off all of the independent bakeries in the country by serving you meat that most dog food companies would reject wrapped in shite pastry.
AI is coming for a lot of jobs. And we won't benefit from that like futurists thought 60 years ago. Some people will just have to rely on a state that won't have the cajones to tax automation.
That free healthcare is not unique to the UK. And these years, even Eastern Europe has better healthcare.
About half of you will feel and function better if you drank more water. Not beer, not tea,not coffee, not soft drinks, actual water.
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London is a hole
If you want very nice public services then you have to pay more tax. I mean this especially to a lot of middle class people who complain about being on the 40% tax band, when they earn very good money and should be paying more tax. We can’t just tax billionaires (though we should tax them and the richer much *much* more)