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While there are more pot holes than there used to be, their impact on modern cars is significantly worse than on older cars due to most modern cars having big wheels with very low profile tyres (for styling) and harder suspension to keep the journos happy when reviewing them on a track.
I tend to go through the same conversations when I'm back in the UK.
Billy: Oh, you live in Scandinavia? I think I should emigrate before it gets worse in Britain.
Me: Why? Britain's great.
Billy: The schools are terrible. The NHS is failing. There's potholes in the roads. I've heard it's much better in Norway or Sweden or Finland.
Me: It's no different.
Britain has more surfaced road the Russia despite being 1/60th the area.
[i]There are quite a few shit things about this country but there's a lot of great things too. People who moan about it going down the pan have absolutely zero sense of perspective (or maybe you just live somewhere shit, or have a shit life ).[/i]
Wow...Grum just said something I agree with! 😯
The NHS is not failing, it's one of the best in the world. What fails is people's inability to get the best from the NHS; if you are dogged, persistant and articulate you can get superb medical care. Same goes for Social Services. Unfortunately few people have those qualities.
This thread is an interesting read. Its basic question is one I've begun to ask myself more frequently, now that I've reached the grand age of 35. 🙄
I often look at the physical environment around me - including people, mand-made things, buildings, rivers, flora, fauna etc - which led me to recently ask [url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/roadside-rubbish-is-it-getting-worse-everywhere ]whether roadside rubbish is getting worse[/url]. The rubbish that I see seems to reflect some interesting long-term trends.
As a society, I think we have become a lot more [b]commodity-focused[/b] and look towards self and possibly family more than before; but not further. Interestingly, this doesn't seem to be showing in greater levels of self-care - quite the opposite - but it is definitely showing in terms our collective to attitudes to the physical space around us.
I wonder, especially, why an [b]ageing society[/b] - where generally older people value cleanliness and order - is so accepting of the degradation of public space and all the litter in particular that entails?
I think we are now seeing the outcomes of 6-7 years of [b]austerity[/b] in the physical environment: this is the manifestation of lower public spending and an attitude that treats public spending as waste unless proven otherwise.
Changes in services like the NHS, social care and local government are less visible until the moment you need them: but you can [i]really[/i] see that there are far fewer new or refurbished public buildings, less "street scene" care (litter collection, graffiti), potholed roads and little new infrastructure to speak of.
This also follows the general principle of our [b]collective wealth now concentrating in few people and places[/b]. There are more smaller places to live (houses and flats). I live in an area that is generally looking more gentrified that 5-10 years' ago; but it is the public space - the parks, the roadside verges - and the newly-built space that looks smaller / worse / littered.
Set against this, we are enjoying the benefits of [b]technology[/b]: being able to control heating from our phones, stalking ex-lovers on Facebook and so on. I'm sure we're living more convenient lives as a result, although living in a digital world again shows in our lack of respect for the physical one outside.
On the whole, I'd far rather live in this UK version of a slightly tarnished Utopia - but there are plenty of other countries out there who have balanced all the above without trashing public space and public services.
Great place to live. I've needed a serious operation on the NHS in the last year and the Wife has banged out two kids on the NHS. Superb 'service' on all three occasions. Prompt clean, efficient & effective. Just incredible. Roads are overcrowded her in the South but a big part of that is because the UK is so ace loads of people want to live here.
If people think the UK sucks you have free movement in the EU, just move to any of the EU countries you think are significantly better.
It's a great place to live.
[quote=globalti ]The NHS is not failing, it's one of the best in the world. What fails is people's inability to get the best from the NHS; if you are dogged, persistant and articulate you can get superb medical care. Same goes for Social Services. Unfortunately few people have those qualities.
Sorry what?! Have you had to use an NHS service lately?
My local hospitals are understaffed by probably 10-20% or more. Their workload is ludicrous. It is quite remarkable there are not more clinical errors, that's a testament to how hard the staff work.
After giving birth, my wife was in hospital blocking a bed for an extra 24 hours because there was nobody available to give her the (5 minute) outgoing patient check. I was going and asking at the front desk for somebody to see her, every 30-60 mins or so for 12 hours and nobody had the time to do it.
My B-I-L was on some combination of drugs which caused immune problems. He was put in an isolation ward, but even after repeated requests they didn't lock his private toilet, so randoms left puke, piss, blood and runny shit all over it. Simply because nobody had the time to get the keys and lock it.
My father has some skin complaint I've forgotten the name of. He has laser/light treatment to treat it, but it has to be done on time, every time, to remain effective. His last two treatments have been delayed by months due to his appointments being booked 1) when no consultants of the correct type were in 2) when the equipment was having routine maintenance. Both things could have been avoided, if staff had the time and joined up computer systems to actually check things out rather than just whamming appointments into the book as quickly as possible.
At work I go by the mantra 'under-promise and over-deliver'
Our politicians generally do the opposite. Sometimes it's because they're just over-ambitious, sometimes it's because they're just dim, often it's because it gets them votes - we all like a freebie and we all like to feel rich after all. We do like to get angry at our leaders but I think a little more reflection on our own expectations wouldn't go amiss given the crisis we're in.
There's a balance between being grateful for what we have (one of the richest countries in the world and one of the free-est) and making the best of it through our own actions and they way we live our lives (don't be a git and be nice to other people) and holding our politicians to account and show our anger when we think they're making what we think are wrong decisions (not being angry about everything they do, and avoid blind partisan dogma).
Right now, I think we have incredibly high living standards but life is getting harder for a lot of the population and we're in a very serious long-term debt crisis which is going to hold down living standards for at least a generation. Somewhere in there, there's a balance of things to get angry about, things to demand of our politicians and things to shrug our shoulders about and be grateful for what we have...
Personally I don't think roads are really that high in this hierarchy. Inequality of wealth, tax avoidance when the government debt is so high, £170bn of foreign money in UK property pricing out the younger generation and decreasing disposable incomes, obesity and education (inequality of outcomes across the income and class bands) are priorities...
I think the biggest problem with the UK is not the politicians, the roads, the rich, the poor, the weather, the NHS, the Tories, Labour etc . . . . it's the bloody media!
The media make people scared, make sensationalist stories out of even the most mundane of events, make people afraid of pedophiles, potholes, cash for crash, immigrants, the weather etc, etc.
Last time it snowed for example, the BBC breakfast team told us to watch out, terrible weather, terrible driving conditions, doom and gloom etc. In reality kids round here had the day off school, threw snowballs, got the sledges out, I worked from home drinking coffee and most of us had a fantastic day enjoying the snow.
Linking to another thread, no wonder some people feel the need to film everything these days with a dashcam - the media has made them scared to even go outside without a fear that 'someone is out to get them' or that 'something might happen'.
Ditch the news, ditch the papers for a week and I bet you'll feel a lot happier with life in the UK?
Frances roads are better than ours - no $h1t sherlock - its a country 5 times the size of the UK but the same population - but the Champs Elyse is a pretty $h1tty road! My experiences of Italy's roads are that they are just as crap as ours, if not crapper, and they drive alot worse than we do, so on balance the UK's roads are better.
I think that the very nature of this debate i.e. complaining about the roads and the NHS is indicative that things are actually not that bad in the UK. Our roads are crap - that is due to over use because most people are rich enough to have cars and use them, so the roads are understandably a bit knackered. I'd be more concerned if people could't afford cars or use them. The NHS for all its faults and difficulties is still the gold standard of a civilised countries health service, and though it faces severe challenges we are determined to keep it - and quite rightly so. In alot of other countries around the world people are dying or suffering from treatable or curable conditions simply because they can't afford the treatment or medicines they need. One of the US's most successful TV serials is all about a teacher who can't afford his cancer treatment - what does that say about the so called best country in the world - apart from the fact that if they're not dying of curable and treatable conditions they're shooting each other with military grade weaponry that are easier to get hold of than a Snickers bar? So when all is considered the UK is not doing too badly at all.
Sometimes you need to just stop yourself from being a glass is half empty person to a glass is half full.
If you look over any meaningful period, the NHS (and medical science) has improved immensely since, say 1970s e.g.
People suffering from some of the most common forms of cancer are twice as likely to survive for at least 10 years, compared with patients diagnosed in the early 1970s, research showed today.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/jul/12/cancer-survival-rates-doubled
Some other random comparisons from the 1970s...
*In 1971, UK residents made 6.7 million holiday trips abroad.*In 1970/71, there were 621,000 students in the UK in higher education.
*In 1974, 26 per cent of men and 13 per cent of women in Great Britain who smoked regularly were classed as heavy smokers.
*In 1970, life expectancy at birth for males in the UK was 68.7 years and for females was 75.0 years.
*In 1970, there were 340,000 first marriages in England and Wales.
*In 1970, nearly half (48 per cent) of all households in Great Britain did not have regular use of a car.
*In 1971, the average household size in Great Britain was 2.9 people per household, with one-person households accounting for 18 per cent of all households.
*In 1971, the proportion of babies born to women aged under 25 in England and Wales was 47 per cent (369,600 live births).
*In 1970, food and non-alcoholic drinks was the largest category of expenditure, accounting for 21 per cent of UK total domestic household expenditure.
2000s: Longer lives and more holidays
*In 2008, UK residents made 45.5 million holiday trips abroad.
*In 2007/08, there were 2.5 million students in the UK in higher education.
*In 2008, 7 per cent of men and 5 per cent of women in Great Britain who smoked regularly were classed as heavy smokers.
*In 2008, life expectancy at birth for males in the UK was 77.8 years and for females was 81.9 years.
*In 2007, the number of first marriages in England and Wales was 143,000.
*In the second quarter of 2009, the average household size in Great Britain was 2.4 people per household, with one-person households accounting for 29 per cent of all households.
*In 2008, just over a fifth (22 per cent) of all households in Great Britain did not have regular use of a car.
*In 2008, the proportion of babies born to women aged under 25 in England and Wales was 25 per cent (180,700 live births).
*In 2008, housing, water and fuel was the largest category of expenditure, accounting for 21 per cent of UK total domestic household expenditure.
Compared to when I was a kid, life (in the UK) is way better....
We're richer, we're living longer, we're safer (in the UK at least), our kids have better life chances than ever no matter where they're born, they no longer are at risk of suffering TB, Ricketts, or consumption, our kids are more likely to be cleverer than us, wealthier than us, live longer than us etc. That is not a typical indication of a nation going down the pan.
Its not perfect, never will be, but better than it was and that is progress. Like someone on R4 said the other day - there is no other decade or period in human history that you'd rather be born in than right now.
We're a victim of our own success and it is a uniquely British trait to always do ourselves and things in general down. Maybe that is a symptom of our success that we're never satisfied and always striving for something better, which is fine, but it does pay to once in a while take stock.
Come on people - it's Friday night and if there is any night of the week to be optimistic (especially with a beer on the go and a few more lined up - the wife has the pass out tonight) then it's tonight.
Like someone on R4 said the other day - there is no other decade or period in human history that you'd rather be born in than right now.
I was born in 1981, and had rather grow up then, than now.
Will we ever seen an event so spectacular as Michael Jackson laying down the Moonwalk?
Seriously, the main issue we have in the UK is rising inequality. It's getting to the point where a revolution could be on the cards, led by what remains of the middle-class as they see their prospects going down the pan like the working class before them.
there are more pot holes than there used to be
Are there?
I want to pay more tax for better services, the govt need to tax everyone more we need to spend more money on inequality, I love stewart lee, isnt the guardian great, hey I care cos ive got a mortgagae ......do I win five pounds?, i never voted for blair honest, Aay up john has tha got a new motor..........KA !
ffs cheer up
It's getting to the point where a revolution could be on the cards, led by what remains of the middle-class as they see their prospects going down the pan like the working class before them.
In your dreams, people have never been so politically apathetic!
We've been sold a pup. Savings through removing bureaucracy springs to mind; a great Tory mantra.
I call bollocks: good things done well -cost. We're just lowering the quality of things so the wealthy can pay less tax and the rest of us suffer.
They're mean-spirited. They'd be better off admitting it and their ideology would make more sense.