Everything is wrong in this country

Sar53 Well said, there is still ample opportunities in the UK.

Perhaps it’s time to stop taking free education for granted and make the most of it.

Stop clogging up A & E with the drunkards and drugged up wastrels, I have witnessed this with my own eyes and my friend is an A & E sister!!

There are too many people on a small island - and rising. Towns are crowded, roads are crowded. Part of the reason things are better in Denmark for example is because of its low population. Politicians just won't address the issue - overpopulation is the biggest problem the world faces.

janed666 we have the opposite in our family, people have come from Denmark and Sweden to live in UK.

Everything is not always greener on mainland Europe.

janed666 my sentiments exactly?

Incidentally, I have a huge amount of sympathy for traditional Tory voters and members. The party is not what it was 14 months ago, let alone 14 years ago when some of their more principled members held some sway. They must be having a very hard time being stuck with Johnson. I have never voted Tory, but I have still had a great deal of respect for some of their MPs and principles in the past.

Yes, I know some GNetters will be itching to say 'what about Corbyn and the Labour party?'. And I wouldn't entirely disagree, but when it comes to choosing the less bad, I think we would be hard pressed to find evidence for Corbyn being as guilty of the same level of disdain and disrespect for the electorate which I discussed in my previous post in relation to Johnson.

Opal, well said, I could have written the same post.
My 3 brothers and I were brought up, firstly in a flat with no bathroom, then in a council house. My parents worked very hard to give us a good life, they both always voted Conservative. We realised that if you wanted anything in life you had to work for it and not rely on anyone to hand it to you on a plate. We all live comfortable lives but there was no inheritance, both parents died in care homes and their house had to be sold to finance this.
My point is that the UK has it's share of problems but it is not all bad. If it was why, as others have said, do so many people risk their lives to try and get here.

My son and his wife emigrated to Denmark in 2017 because of all the hate stirred up by the EU referendum. He pays higher taxes there, but considers it worth it to live in a civilised, polite and supportive country. Posters who say how much better the UK is than some other countries are missing the point - the important measure is how much worse things are now than when we were younger. I'm an optimist, and always count my blessings, but I'm very depressed about the future. And particularly depressed about people who repeat the misinformation spread in the billionaire-owned media. Whatever the Conservative and Unionist Party might have been in the past, the current incarnation are extreme right-wing and proven liars. Unless you are rich and selfish, please do everything you can to stop them gaining a majority government. I'm optimistic enough to hope that enough people will rally to avert disaster.

Well said Rivernana it’s good to get some balanced opinion from someone with life experience. Thank you.

I hate the constant knocking of our great country

Quite so Jennifer Eccles and our diversity, social, ethnic and religious, is a part of that greatness, but is constantly knocked and belittled by Johnson, his father and Rees-Mogg, to name but a few in the Tory party.

Muslims, single mothers, the poor, the 'working class', people of colour, the disadvantaged, to name but a few groups, have all been insulted by the above toxic trio.
The trio seem to find the view from their ivory tower somewhat distasteful.

A vote for Johnson is a vote for racism, classism, sexism and religious intolerance. Not to mention mendacity and laziness.

This great country is indeed better than that and worth better than that.

When people always bang on the same drum, you do not hear.

Old Chinese proverb (no - just a thought)

Agree with Chewbacca. Technology/science has aided a lot of the problems with the NHS. Great advances but the funding just hasn't been able to keep up with demand. The population is growing. People's expectations are higher, unrealistic some would say eg 21 year old having their own accommodation. Even only 40 years ago people lived with parents until marrying or moving for a job. Human rights are now well known hence the change in the style of policing and education, even parenting. Corruotion has been with us since time began and will not go away, we can only try to limit it. These are just a few of the changes causing UK to be different. Unless we are prepared to pay a massive increase in taxation how will all the demands/expectations of people be met. Of course we could put a halt to the population numbers, only one child and no medical help for the aged. That would enable our increased taxes to be effective in solving many of the issues highlighted by whitewavemark2.

Social care

In June 2019 a report was published which stated that there are at present more than 1.4 million over 65s who are a social care need that is not being met.

Nearly £8 billion has been cut from social care since 2010, and further cuts are in the pipeline.

This will put 10s of thousands more elderly at critical risk.

why do you think it is only this country, or the USA

look at Syria... Lebanon, South America, Russia... France
Germany..

name a country that isn`t so afflicted...

good grief

and no I did not read all the posts, as it is all just too depressing... we have to do what we can as individuals.
corruption abounds throughout the world.....

as does poverty, etc.

Whitewave- so relieved you are not my next door neighbour!

The unemployed can fill the jobs.

I am so grateful to this country for accepting me because I was lucky enough to have a British passport. I have received so much help and support and much as I love South Africa where I came from originally, there was no future for me as an aging 'white' woman in what is by all accounts a Marxist government, with high levels of violence (my partner was shot dead in a car hijacking) bigotry and reverse racism. Yes, there are many problems facing the UK today, but those seem to me to be part of an increasingly global situation that is affecting us all. Thank you, Britain for giving me a life

je who is advocating an extreme socialist government?

One in 50 households use food banks to stave off hunger.

The level of food bank use has risen by 73% since 2010, due entirely to austerity cuts by the Tories

well i have worked hard all my life.....but i live in a council house ,paid my taxes.and still do when asked .yet when i applied for disabilty benefits .omg it was like getting blood out of a stone. i only have 34 percent working kidneys.slipped disc/hernia.liver damage .2 fractured skulls/IBS and hearing problems. oh and musklesleton /arthritis problems. and the assessments that i have to go through to prove i am not faking it ,regardless of a file of hospital papers.NHS do a wonderful job trying to keep things floing. was in friday for dehydration problems. they saw everyone and there was loads in A &E. but they never got flustered and saw everyone.tory cuts mean more in the tory pockets. when do they ever have to choose between eating and heating.

May I offer another perspective. I was born and brought up in India and was fortunate to have had a comfortable life, even though I witnessed extreme poverty and deprivation. I had no interest in moving to live abroad but in 1982 I met and fell in love with a dashing Englishman who had come out to run some training courses in India. Two years later he had to return to England and if we wanted to stay together I and our baby daughter had to follow. So I left everything familiar to me and came here for love. The point I now wish to make is that I have seen real deprivation and desperation. To be poor in India is to sleep on the streets and to have to beg for food - there is a basic government health care system but nothing as comprehensive as the NHS and you have to pay for medication. Homelessness may be increasing in the U.K. and there are problems with the NHS but there is help and support available on a scale the poor in India can't even dream of. What puzzles and frustrates me is if there are so many shortages and so much want in this country why is there so much waste? The amount of food households, supermarkets, restaurants etc throw away everyday would probably feed a good proportion of those in need here. The value of the amount of medication and mobility equipment wasted everyday would certainly fund a lot more services, staff and other facilities for th NHS. We can all do our bit to improve things or we can throw up our hands and bemoan the situation. The choice is clearly ours.

These increasingly ridiculous claims about how dreadful it is to live here will have the opposite effect to that intended.

It all smacks of desperation.

There is no appetite here for an extreme Socialist government which is apparent in all the opinion polls thankfully.

The UK is still a country where people can prosper and get on in life.

Some fact checks:
Immigrants (both in the UK and the US) pay approximately twice as much in taxes as they claim in benefits. Their main detrimental effect has been on lower-end wages which have been slightly depressed - part of which has been due to the little publicised EU Posted Workers Directive which allows EU firms to pay "temporary" employees the same (low) wages they would pay them back in their home country. An (enforced) minimum wage of £10 an hour would stop the latter.

A socialist country is one where the production of goods is mainly in the hands of the government. As only 30% of the Venezuelan GDP production is in government hands it CANNOT be a socialist country. Indeed it is being held to ransom by its capitalists and foreign investors much as Chile was in the 1970s.

Venezuela has the same alternatives that face this country - continue to give in to neo-liberalism and see poverty increase and the wealthy prosper, or nationalise, and run (democratically) production for the many.

I had better say that the big banks and corporations are what I mean. Small businesses (most struggling in the capitalist system) would be invaluable to a socialist society for local production and distribution.

A lovely, balanced perspective Opal that’s more like it!

Why do so many want to disparage our wonderful country and the freedoms we enjoy, our welfare state, our tolerant society? Beggars belief.

I agree about (some) single mums. Their partners or ‘baby daddies’ bugger off and the State is then expected to step in and become ‘dad’.

and a corrupt government.... they dont like spending money on the hard working or those that are too ill to work. its them and us and always will be.