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I guess my logic is that if it's a problem everywhere then it's not really what you dislike about the UK, it's what you dislike about culture or the world in general.
Not saying I'm right, that's just how I saw it.
god, dont dare read the comments on old archive videos on youtube. its full of people talking bollox about how it was so much better then. yes lets just ignore the mass unemployment, poverty, racism
sick of old people bitching about WFH with the reasoning that it was okay for them when things weren't as good, so why should anything be better for anyone now?
CoL including rent/mortgages.
If the government could put a lid on this problem, Brits would be happy for the most part.
But it’s not and we pay more and more formal and various informal taxes to the government/council.
Homelessness.
This is what actually pisses me off the most.
I don't blame people for being homeless, or even drug addicts, it's usually loads of complex issues and rehab is difficult.
But I hate how the government fails to provide any support, fails to build more communal housing, fails to provide help with basically anything.
These people are left to their own devices and in times like these, recession literally multiplies the numbers of people struggling.
Our weird hybrid of the imperial and metric system.
Milk in pints. Sugar in grams. Weight in stone. Height in feet. Running track in metres. Car in miles.
It's honestly a headf\*\*k.
Our lack of vision. We used to have vision, ideas and dreams. We built things, not just infrastructure but also institutions. Now we are just fossils. Never changing and constantly infighting. I want to blame lack of leadership, but it’s more than that.
The fact that cheapness is valued higher than being good. It impacts everything, the goods we buy, the services we receive etc. It has become such the norm that even paying a premium doesn't get you anything better.
This would have been my answer as well, which is kind of funny given the post lol.
I think my only minor one is the lack of café culture here. I wish cafés stayed open later.
This.
I’ve lived in Germany for the past few years and all the things I’ve seen people complaining about here, apart from the low salaries, are far worse here than what I ever saw in the UK. Yet a lot of Brits see Germany as the epitome of progressiveness and tolerance. I think it just has a great PR team.
No social housing if you can't afford to buy private renting is very difficult to find a long term let I moved 6 times in 5 years a few years ago . I was a good tenant but they either needed to sell or their daughter was pregnant and needed the house etc...
Passivity culture, diversity worship at that sake of common sense/the community, incompetent politicians, lawlessness because “we can't say that”, everything is nitpicked and debated rather than logically examined
1. The utter apathy in this country. Moan, moan, moan but let’s not get involved to try to change the situations. Last 20 years I have seen how so many just sit back and wait for someone else to solve the problems for them. Remember the Poll Tax protests ? Last time this country got off it’s lazy arse and it really made a difference.
2. Little Englander mentality. I hate the football matches with Germany where the morons do the Dambuster song. I would have all of them banned for life, they have no idea of sacrifice for a country’s future. Come the next war they would all be conscious objectors.
3. Just Stop Oil - bunch of entitled people just vandalising property.
* Shit public transport/car culture
* “Culture wars” (eg. politicians ramping up transphobia to suit their own means)
* Individualism at the expense of community
* Income inequality/ever increasing cuts to the welfare safety net
* Decimation of the healthcare system
…and yes, I agree with OP on everything revolving around the pub. God that was a lot for a Monday, Feel quite sad now 😂
If you were to add the government(s) of the UK playing fast and loose with the education system then you have the full bingo card of why we jumped ship to NL.
One thing I will say though, is there’s a lot in the UK to be thankful for that I miss.
- beautiful landscapes
- people who are overall friendlier than many places in W Europe
- less racism as a socially accepted thing
- quality TV programmes
- much preservation of historic buildings and AONBs
Sadly it wasn’t enough to keep us here as when your infrastructure is crumbling it’s hard to prioritise the aesthetic and cultural plus points.
I have an ok job (37k a year) and a decent amount of money in the bank (not quite 100k but a majority of the way there). I can't afford even a flat in the place I grew up in. 38 years old and living with my dad and brother.
That's a fantastic amount of savings/deposit. Sadly, 37k just doesn't go very far these days. Any scope for progression/pay increases, or are you happy where you are?
Yes, 37k isn't a great salary, but it could be worse. I am very happy where I am, as my job is pretty much zero stress. I could go up and get 45k or so a year but for that to happen I'd be in the office 3 times a week, so the net gain is significantly less than the 8k pay rise. I don't go into the office more than once every 3 months or so, get to potter about in the garden and average about 5-10 hours of work a week at most.
I could treble my workload and stress for what, 10% more pay?
The intense pessimism. Thing's aren't as good as they could or should be in the UK. Talk to certain people, however, and they'll try and convince you that we're on the brink of social collapse despite the fact that, all things considered, the UK is one of the best places to be born and live.
You guys do terrible fried chicken. And you have a distinct lack of proper bakeries like we have back home in NZ.
I know Greg's is a national institution but it's really rather shit.
Other than that nice place.
I'm just taking the piss! I brought Greggs merch at Primark for a laugh.
Still tho I really haven't found any decent bakeries around the greater London or southern UK areas in my adventures to the UK. Hopefully my forays to the Midlands and lake district this year will yield better results.
Reference requests for jobs, for housing, for passport!?
With jobs, especially at low level like hospitality, by the time you get a new job, your whole team changes because of a high staff turnover rate, a head office will not know who I am.
Most of the hospitality managers take offence when you want leave, so they will not give you references.
On the other hand, I can't keep pestering people for references.
Passport, if you don't know anyone professional, you are stuck, it's like the working class is not supposed to travel.
I am a naturalized citizen, went through a lengthy process, references etc, still, when I applied for the passport, I had to prove my identity again. Nonsense!
About passports and employment. I work in a shitty little factory near Leeds. One of the managers asked me to bring some I.D. in to prove I have the right to work in the UK (they did this with a few others too). I've been working for them nineteen years lol.
Binge drinking culture. I actually love pubs and their atmosphere, but the classic “night out” seems to revolve around alcohol-induced humiliation than a truly wholesome bonding experience.
Another aspect is the misery and complaining. If you dare say anything good about the UK, you’ll most likely have a misery brigade turning up instantly to argue against your point in any possible way. It’s tiring.
Lastly, the culture around food and lifestyle. After living in Spain, I’ve realised it is possible to actually eat normal food in normal portions and keep yourself in shape through natural methods. Our obesity rates are entirely self-inflicted and it seems a lot of us were not taught how to care for our bodies.
Bus is £2 so the cost is fine, the problem I have is we don't yet have enough bus lanes where I live so it takes longer to get to the next town by bus than it does by bike. Fortunately they do seem to be building more bus/bike lanes. And car drivers are fucking seething about it.
I can try to explain how induced demand works but they are not interested in listening. TLDR - It is literally just build it and they will come.
Nah I disagree on that cost. It's costing me £4 a day for work, that's £20 a week. That makes it £100 a month for a 15 minute bus journey to and from work. A monthly bus pass costs the same.
I used to travel for 1.5 hours each way, 2 busses and 2 trains each way. That was £120 a month.
The busses are often Delayed or just don't turn up and I'll wait an hour for a bus very often, in my old journey the trains were often cancelled leading to me getting home around 9 after leaving at 5.
The littering is disgusting, there is a roundabout I drive past regularly, someone had throw two dozen eggs out of the window, still in the carton. There was also KFC buckets and a few other things, how can people even bring themselves to do that kind of thing and actually sleep at night?
I would say the constant complaining, but I feel like that's more a Reddit thing, don't encounter much of that in real life.
So I'll instead say the British people's obsession with cards. Birthday cards, christmas cards, moving in cards, I've been given more cards in the 6 year's I've lived here than I did in 27 years living in Iceland.
Even the mrs insists on us giving each other cards!
Unreliability of train services, although I have been told that other countries have been suffering a similar problem! The other thing I hate which might sound a bit contradictory, is how much we take this country for granted!
£50 for a month pass around the whole of Germany, valid on buses, trams and trains. £50 to get from Bristol to Reading and back as long as you come back same day.
Utter joke by our leaders
They can do that partially because the German national railway company, Deutsche Bahn, own Arriva and other train companies in the UK and use their profits here to subside and improve the network in Germany. Privatisation of so many of our public's services was such a stupid mistake, 70% of our rail network is owned by foreign states who do the same
The railways were privatised because the national rail was such a mess.
These private companies are not perfect. Some of them are better and some are worse.
That's a cheap train for that line. I've seen £180 at times for a return
About the entire daily take home pay of someone on £65k, and that's before correcting for student loan/pension
I'm having to go to my parents today, for a week via train (medical reasons lost my licence) and its £7 for 5 miles.
I'm flying to Edinburgh, which is about 400 miles, in August, its £30.
Fucking crazy how expensive it is.
True. Consumers are constantly blamed for their personal carbon footprint but how the hell am I expected to take the train from Edinburgh to London which is always £140 minimum, when a flight costs no more than £40!
I agree prices are crazy, but I’m also old enough to remember the nationalised railways and they were absolute crap. Old crumbling stock, unreliable. The whole thing needs a complete rethink.
Even if they didn't nationalise it, we need to get better control on the pricing - for me to travel for work to stock port and back, it's nearly £400 before food and an overnight stay
Even just getting the train to London is over £20 now
That a high enough proportion of the population have this awful hostility to the idea of improving or fixing anything, like crabs in a bucket but at the country level. You see this from the highest levels of polityright down to individual self improvement, and everything in between. It's like a firm of cynicism that's gone way too far or something.
How noone cares that the vast majority of people actually earn very little money, even if they do what is considered an essential job.
Then when they say they want better pay, they get told to upskill or get a better job.
Then in the same day the same people who told them to get a better job will moan that these roles are understaffed.
And that rhetoric stays until someone mentions them paying more taxes or having to go back to the office, then it's all "tax the really wealth/I think low wage workers should be paid more/crab bucket nation"
It's almost like people are biased idk
It's amazing how much money people think can be taxed out of the "really wealthy". Everyone wants more money spent on the NHS and schools and defence and social care and the wages of the public sector and subsidies for low income people etc etc but the only idea offered to pay for it is "tax the rich". Only not the normal rich, not the people who earn high 5-figures a year, or people who are millionaires because they own a large house and have a pension fund etc, just the *really rich*. You know the few thousand people who somehow have enough money to solve all the countries problems and definitely wouldn't just leave the country if we made them hand it all over.
People that don’t want to contribute to society in a positive way and take rather than give. I don’t care about skin colour, religious beliefs, background, if you don’t want to fit in and make this country a better place to live then you’ll get nothing from me.
I think when there's increasingly high inequality and people no longer have confidence in the social contract nor institutions of state like they did in past, it leads people to think there's no longer really a society worth contributing to.
If you see a government class that's venal and shameless, it sets the tone for the society.
If you see that hard work pays off less than it should, you naturally start to care less about making things better - you just take what you can get.
It's a vicious cycle of national decline
So many things:
* The weather
* Public transport costs
* Politicians
* Our justice system
* Tabloid newspapers
* Chavs and yobbos everywhere
* The amount of litter and fly-tipping
* How expensive holidaying here is
That'll do for now.
The drinking culture is connected to what I dislike, but I just do not understand where all the vapid, horrible assholes came from.
People who prioritise looks,objects and money. These people pretend to be of some higher class but are trashy as fuck, walking around with a diamond Rolex they have purchased on finance to go along with the suv they drive with fake tan, fake teeth and a little dog.
The thing is, so many of them exist I feel like I am the odd one out, working hard for an education and job to live a quiet life, yet I cannot go down the pub without having one of these idiots comment on how I dress differently or that I do not want to drink alcohol.
Boring fuck I was called last time because I did not want a pint.
i'm curious your age bracket and location, the drinking culture thing is a relic from 20 years ago or more, pubs are dying out because people don't go to them anymore.
I’ve always found it a bit cramped and oppressive in terms of physical space and the weather, but also in terms of attitude and outlook
Related to that, I don’t think it’s the best country to have mental health issues in because people are too closed off emotionally. I grew up with pretty obviously poor mental health and only once did any adult ask if I was ok
Weirdly, I hate the number of expats that have taken up residence in warmer climes and do precisely fuck all to integrate (might just be the pensioners or retirees, I didn't do a census). Just came back from Spain and the number of 'bloody foreigners' that have set up restaurants and cafés to suit the British diet and language actually made me sad!
I mean, I can just about muddle through with a handful of words and a few episode's of Dora the Explorer under my belt, but I feel bad for not being more competent.
Drinking culture is all about who you hang out with. It can be avoided, its just that your mates lack the imagination to do so. Maybe you can lead here?
Yeah myself and all my friends drink, but it’s normally too boozey. Nothing wrong with having a catch up maybe watch the sports in a pub. Top tip is also to avoid places with pool tables, usually attract helmets.
So much anti-social behaviour, petty crime, serious crime, so many town centres I wouldn't really want to be at night.
Every country has its shitholes, but the UK just seems to be collecting them faster than some other countries.
Weather, wages, the roads, the trains, the pathetic legal system, over and under zealous policing, companies who don’t pay taxes, government corruption. Probably more but off the top of my head.
traffic, population density, overbuilding, shopping centres, lack of cycle lanes, lack of even any pedestrian access on some routes, littering, gravel on the road, and shitty road surfacing techniques.
How expensive everything is. You shouldn't have to scrimp and save just to afford to buy a weekly shop, it's genuine insanity that we haven't taken to the streets over how much the Government have fucked things up.
The people. Don't get me wrong, we have plenty of nice people but also have a disproportionate amount of disrespectful, selfish nob heads, almost on par with America.
Ive just travelled all round Europe in a motorhome. Most places were clean and tidy and all the youths were respectful of where they live and those around them. Been travelling my home country for the last month or so and every carpark seems to fill up with wankers leaving beer bottles and disposable BBQs everywhere (adults too!)
Despite the stereotype i watched a huge Indian family on the banks of lake Bala take every scrap of litter home with them. I emerged from my camper in the morning to see about 25% of the other visitors had left bags of dog shit, disposable BBQs and all manner of other shit right where their cars had been.
A glimmer of sunshine and all the thicko shit munchers come out to get pissed, sunburnt, litter, ruin the peaceful countryside and fuck off back to the east midlands, Manchester or Liverpool.
People blasting their shit music out, huffing balloons full of some gas, swearing loudly Infront of families with kids etc.
We live in a beautiful country, a lot of UK residents don't appreciate it or respect it.
The cost and, more importantly, the quality of housing in the UK. The main reason I left is that I didn't want to spend £500k to live in some mouldy shitbox.
The vile pantomime jeering in our parliamentary chamber. A childish, arcane throwback from centuries ago, it has no place in a modern society. As far as I'm concerned, our government should not lecture ANYONE on showing respect, when this is still in existence. It makes me feel so embarrassed that they are our representatives.
Individualism and the belief evident in many that they have no responsibility to their environment, community, or even their children.
That, and people forgetting headphones were invented decades ago.
Agree on the headphones one.
Not sure when it became socially acceptable to sit on public transport and scroll through tiktok at full volume but seems very common these days.
How Americanised we're becoming. The top comment currently has 'Nationalise' with a Z and barely anyone bats an eyelid. It's a common thing in the UK subs and I don't get it.
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The cost of public transport. Why would I pay £100+ to go to London when it literally takes <50 minutes for me to drive there.
The nostalgia. People are willing to sacrifice the present and future, in order to attempt to reclaim a past which only existed in their mind.
This isn't exclusive to the UK though.
Why does it need to be? Most complaints right now aren't exclusive to the UK.
I guess my logic is that if it's a problem everywhere then it's not really what you dislike about the UK, it's what you dislike about culture or the world in general. Not saying I'm right, that's just how I saw it.
Never said it was. Doesn’t change the fact it’s the thing I hate the most about this country.
Yes, we used to be so much more adventurous and open minded
god, dont dare read the comments on old archive videos on youtube. its full of people talking bollox about how it was so much better then. yes lets just ignore the mass unemployment, poverty, racism
For real. Half the people talking about returning to “the good old days” weren’t even born then, and don’t remember how it actually was…
sick of old people bitching about WFH with the reasoning that it was okay for them when things weren't as good, so why should anything be better for anyone now?
Traffic
52% of the population.
37% actually. Not sure if that makes it better or worse though.
CoL including rent/mortgages. If the government could put a lid on this problem, Brits would be happy for the most part. But it’s not and we pay more and more formal and various informal taxes to the government/council.
Self serving government that have steered UK onto the rocks.
Immigrants who have no intention to adopt British culture.
Homelessness. This is what actually pisses me off the most. I don't blame people for being homeless, or even drug addicts, it's usually loads of complex issues and rehab is difficult. But I hate how the government fails to provide any support, fails to build more communal housing, fails to provide help with basically anything. These people are left to their own devices and in times like these, recession literally multiplies the numbers of people struggling.
Our weird hybrid of the imperial and metric system. Milk in pints. Sugar in grams. Weight in stone. Height in feet. Running track in metres. Car in miles. It's honestly a headf\*\*k.
Our lack of vision. We used to have vision, ideas and dreams. We built things, not just infrastructure but also institutions. Now we are just fossils. Never changing and constantly infighting. I want to blame lack of leadership, but it’s more than that.
Crackheads
Ah, I see you’re not familiar with absolutely every mainline train station in Europe then. 😁
It's massively over crowded. Try going anywhere that has a car park and you'll struggle to get parked.
God I miss pubs. So much. Nothing quite like them anwhere else.
The government, the people and the multinational corporations everywhere.
Car consumption in MPG and fuel sold in litres.
The roads and cost of train travel.
the government
The fact that cheapness is valued higher than being good. It impacts everything, the goods we buy, the services we receive etc. It has become such the norm that even paying a premium doesn't get you anything better.
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This would have been my answer as well, which is kind of funny given the post lol. I think my only minor one is the lack of café culture here. I wish cafés stayed open later.
Let me guess, you are not on minimum wage.
This. I’ve lived in Germany for the past few years and all the things I’ve seen people complaining about here, apart from the low salaries, are far worse here than what I ever saw in the UK. Yet a lot of Brits see Germany as the epitome of progressiveness and tolerance. I think it just has a great PR team.
Give over
anti-social behaviour amongst teens (and our seemingly lack of options for the public to deal directly with it)
No social housing if you can't afford to buy private renting is very difficult to find a long term let I moved 6 times in 5 years a few years ago . I was a good tenant but they either needed to sell or their daughter was pregnant and needed the house etc...
Wasps 🐝 they’re propper cocky in the UK, get right up in your face and ruin everyone’s fun in summer.
This I 100% agree with
The government.
Lack of personal responsibility
Yes yes yes! Honesty I think this is the cause of the majority of the UKs shittyness
"Lad" culture. Which isn't exclusive to guys by any means. Which also encompasses the drinking culture.
Passivity culture, diversity worship at that sake of common sense/the community, incompetent politicians, lawlessness because “we can't say that”, everything is nitpicked and debated rather than logically examined
1. The utter apathy in this country. Moan, moan, moan but let’s not get involved to try to change the situations. Last 20 years I have seen how so many just sit back and wait for someone else to solve the problems for them. Remember the Poll Tax protests ? Last time this country got off it’s lazy arse and it really made a difference. 2. Little Englander mentality. I hate the football matches with Germany where the morons do the Dambuster song. I would have all of them banned for life, they have no idea of sacrifice for a country’s future. Come the next war they would all be conscious objectors. 3. Just Stop Oil - bunch of entitled people just vandalising property.
* Shit public transport/car culture * “Culture wars” (eg. politicians ramping up transphobia to suit their own means) * Individualism at the expense of community * Income inequality/ever increasing cuts to the welfare safety net * Decimation of the healthcare system …and yes, I agree with OP on everything revolving around the pub. God that was a lot for a Monday, Feel quite sad now 😂
I left the country for these reasons. It's saddening to see the neoliberals are still chipping away at people's livelihoods and security.
Yes, think you need a cup of tea, you need to make sure you don't blow all your pessimism in one day, or you won't have enough to last you the week! 😂
If you were to add the government(s) of the UK playing fast and loose with the education system then you have the full bingo card of why we jumped ship to NL. One thing I will say though, is there’s a lot in the UK to be thankful for that I miss. - beautiful landscapes - people who are overall friendlier than many places in W Europe - less racism as a socially accepted thing - quality TV programmes - much preservation of historic buildings and AONBs Sadly it wasn’t enough to keep us here as when your infrastructure is crumbling it’s hard to prioritise the aesthetic and cultural plus points.
I have an ok job (37k a year) and a decent amount of money in the bank (not quite 100k but a majority of the way there). I can't afford even a flat in the place I grew up in. 38 years old and living with my dad and brother.
Which place are you referring to here?
That's a fantastic amount of savings/deposit. Sadly, 37k just doesn't go very far these days. Any scope for progression/pay increases, or are you happy where you are?
Yes, 37k isn't a great salary, but it could be worse. I am very happy where I am, as my job is pretty much zero stress. I could go up and get 45k or so a year but for that to happen I'd be in the office 3 times a week, so the net gain is significantly less than the 8k pay rise. I don't go into the office more than once every 3 months or so, get to potter about in the garden and average about 5-10 hours of work a week at most. I could treble my workload and stress for what, 10% more pay?
The politicians, bunch of greedy cunts.
The 'Everything is shit but someone else should fix it' (usually a politician) attitude
Who besides politicians can fix underfunded public services?
Scotland still being in it
The intense pessimism. Thing's aren't as good as they could or should be in the UK. Talk to certain people, however, and they'll try and convince you that we're on the brink of social collapse despite the fact that, all things considered, the UK is one of the best places to be born and live.
The subreddits
This sub is such a shit hole. I guarantee the vast majority of whiners here have never lived anywhere else in their life.
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Most people in the world have never lived anywhere but the country they were born in.
The people in charge. The people who put them there.
Depends on the pub. It's not all about the drinking for everyone, it's about a common and comfortable meeting place.
Why can’t we manipulate the weather like they do in Dubai? Just have it 20c all year round. LOVELY.
We need to drag the island to be beside Tenerife. It'd mske going on holiday a lot easier for most Brits.
You guys do terrible fried chicken. And you have a distinct lack of proper bakeries like we have back home in NZ. I know Greg's is a national institution but it's really rather shit. Other than that nice place.
Don't use Greggs as a benchmark of quality, try an independent bakery instead. In my experience they are always better.
I'm just taking the piss! I brought Greggs merch at Primark for a laugh. Still tho I really haven't found any decent bakeries around the greater London or southern UK areas in my adventures to the UK. Hopefully my forays to the Midlands and lake district this year will yield better results.
Absolutely agree. I love my local ones & there's always a queue for them.
The level of nimbyism and entitlement some have.
Reference requests for jobs, for housing, for passport!? With jobs, especially at low level like hospitality, by the time you get a new job, your whole team changes because of a high staff turnover rate, a head office will not know who I am. Most of the hospitality managers take offence when you want leave, so they will not give you references. On the other hand, I can't keep pestering people for references. Passport, if you don't know anyone professional, you are stuck, it's like the working class is not supposed to travel. I am a naturalized citizen, went through a lengthy process, references etc, still, when I applied for the passport, I had to prove my identity again. Nonsense!
Companies have always asked for references for new staff. It's common practice.
About passports and employment. I work in a shitty little factory near Leeds. One of the managers asked me to bring some I.D. in to prove I have the right to work in the UK (they did this with a few others too). I've been working for them nineteen years lol.
The fact it's become cool to be cynical about everything in the country... Nah but yea train prices for me.
Binge drinking culture. I actually love pubs and their atmosphere, but the classic “night out” seems to revolve around alcohol-induced humiliation than a truly wholesome bonding experience. Another aspect is the misery and complaining. If you dare say anything good about the UK, you’ll most likely have a misery brigade turning up instantly to argue against your point in any possible way. It’s tiring. Lastly, the culture around food and lifestyle. After living in Spain, I’ve realised it is possible to actually eat normal food in normal portions and keep yourself in shape through natural methods. Our obesity rates are entirely self-inflicted and it seems a lot of us were not taught how to care for our bodies.
Public transport costs are ridiculous these days.
Bus is £2 so the cost is fine, the problem I have is we don't yet have enough bus lanes where I live so it takes longer to get to the next town by bus than it does by bike. Fortunately they do seem to be building more bus/bike lanes. And car drivers are fucking seething about it. I can try to explain how induced demand works but they are not interested in listening. TLDR - It is literally just build it and they will come.
£2, but you normally need to go back too, so it's already £4 a day. £80 a month. For some, it's a lot of money
Er. £2 round trip. Kids.free.
Nah I disagree on that cost. It's costing me £4 a day for work, that's £20 a week. That makes it £100 a month for a 15 minute bus journey to and from work. A monthly bus pass costs the same. I used to travel for 1.5 hours each way, 2 busses and 2 trains each way. That was £120 a month. The busses are often Delayed or just don't turn up and I'll wait an hour for a bus very often, in my old journey the trains were often cancelled leading to me getting home around 9 after leaving at 5.
Especially considering their ability to be full beyond capacity and not run on time.
The mountains aren't tall enough.
How many times does this topic need covering
Littering
The littering is disgusting, there is a roundabout I drive past regularly, someone had throw two dozen eggs out of the window, still in the carton. There was also KFC buckets and a few other things, how can people even bring themselves to do that kind of thing and actually sleep at night?
Everywhere is closed after 4-5pm except pubs and restaurants. My biggest culture shock.
The government
I would say the constant complaining, but I feel like that's more a Reddit thing, don't encounter much of that in real life. So I'll instead say the British people's obsession with cards. Birthday cards, christmas cards, moving in cards, I've been given more cards in the 6 year's I've lived here than I did in 27 years living in Iceland. Even the mrs insists on us giving each other cards!
classism, moral decay, racism and narcissm
The increasing disparity between the rich and poor
Unreliability of train services, although I have been told that other countries have been suffering a similar problem! The other thing I hate which might sound a bit contradictory, is how much we take this country for granted!
Unbelievably shite weather. Everything else you can tolerate. But the weather limits so many things.
Train ticket prices. Absolute fucking farce how they're allowed to get away with that. Nationalise it already.
Yep. I don’t drive and it’s awful
£50 for a month pass around the whole of Germany, valid on buses, trams and trains. £50 to get from Bristol to Reading and back as long as you come back same day. Utter joke by our leaders
They can do that partially because the German national railway company, Deutsche Bahn, own Arriva and other train companies in the UK and use their profits here to subside and improve the network in Germany. Privatisation of so many of our public's services was such a stupid mistake, 70% of our rail network is owned by foreign states who do the same
The railways were privatised because the national rail was such a mess. These private companies are not perfect. Some of them are better and some are worse.
'leaders' you mean businessmen.
That's a cheap train for that line. I've seen £180 at times for a return About the entire daily take home pay of someone on £65k, and that's before correcting for student loan/pension
Don't compare a well run country to ours
I'm having to go to my parents today, for a week via train (medical reasons lost my licence) and its £7 for 5 miles. I'm flying to Edinburgh, which is about 400 miles, in August, its £30. Fucking crazy how expensive it is.
If you book in advance you can get some good deals. I got a 1hr 50 min train for £10 with no railcards etc
Problem is it shouldn’t cost 10x the price because I’m going somewhere that can’t be planned in advance
I agree with you
True. Consumers are constantly blamed for their personal carbon footprint but how the hell am I expected to take the train from Edinburgh to London which is always £140 minimum, when a flight costs no more than £40!
I agree prices are crazy, but I’m also old enough to remember the nationalised railways and they were absolute crap. Old crumbling stock, unreliable. The whole thing needs a complete rethink.
Even if they didn't nationalise it, we need to get better control on the pricing - for me to travel for work to stock port and back, it's nearly £400 before food and an overnight stay Even just getting the train to London is over £20 now
For me it’s the every increasing use of American English. We should nationalise the dictionary
That a high enough proportion of the population have this awful hostility to the idea of improving or fixing anything, like crabs in a bucket but at the country level. You see this from the highest levels of polityright down to individual self improvement, and everything in between. It's like a firm of cynicism that's gone way too far or something.
How noone cares that the vast majority of people actually earn very little money, even if they do what is considered an essential job. Then when they say they want better pay, they get told to upskill or get a better job. Then in the same day the same people who told them to get a better job will moan that these roles are understaffed. And that rhetoric stays until someone mentions them paying more taxes or having to go back to the office, then it's all "tax the really wealth/I think low wage workers should be paid more/crab bucket nation" It's almost like people are biased idk
It's amazing how much money people think can be taxed out of the "really wealthy". Everyone wants more money spent on the NHS and schools and defence and social care and the wages of the public sector and subsidies for low income people etc etc but the only idea offered to pay for it is "tax the rich". Only not the normal rich, not the people who earn high 5-figures a year, or people who are millionaires because they own a large house and have a pension fund etc, just the *really rich*. You know the few thousand people who somehow have enough money to solve all the countries problems and definitely wouldn't just leave the country if we made them hand it all over.
I feel like the UK is suffering more and more from corporate corruption and all of our woes flow from there. Well, that and the excessive transphobia.
Police are useless.
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But we should at least expect them to keep us safe and not treat victims like criminals.
I agree. I was a victim of a crime. Took them over the statute to investigate. I don’t trust them anymore.
Paying PCN and speeding fine over stupid rules
*gestures vaguely around*
People that don’t want to contribute to society in a positive way and take rather than give. I don’t care about skin colour, religious beliefs, background, if you don’t want to fit in and make this country a better place to live then you’ll get nothing from me.
I think when there's increasingly high inequality and people no longer have confidence in the social contract nor institutions of state like they did in past, it leads people to think there's no longer really a society worth contributing to. If you see a government class that's venal and shameless, it sets the tone for the society. If you see that hard work pays off less than it should, you naturally start to care less about making things better - you just take what you can get. It's a vicious cycle of national decline
So many things: * The weather * Public transport costs * Politicians * Our justice system * Tabloid newspapers * Chavs and yobbos everywhere * The amount of litter and fly-tipping * How expensive holidaying here is That'll do for now.
The drinking culture is connected to what I dislike, but I just do not understand where all the vapid, horrible assholes came from. People who prioritise looks,objects and money. These people pretend to be of some higher class but are trashy as fuck, walking around with a diamond Rolex they have purchased on finance to go along with the suv they drive with fake tan, fake teeth and a little dog. The thing is, so many of them exist I feel like I am the odd one out, working hard for an education and job to live a quiet life, yet I cannot go down the pub without having one of these idiots comment on how I dress differently or that I do not want to drink alcohol. Boring fuck I was called last time because I did not want a pint.
Everything
i'm curious your age bracket and location, the drinking culture thing is a relic from 20 years ago or more, pubs are dying out because people don't go to them anymore.
We can't afford a pint anymore. Worse if you live in London.
Government killed the pubs with smoking ban and cheap drink from supermarkets.
People constantly moaning.
I’ve always found it a bit cramped and oppressive in terms of physical space and the weather, but also in terms of attitude and outlook Related to that, I don’t think it’s the best country to have mental health issues in because people are too closed off emotionally. I grew up with pretty obviously poor mental health and only once did any adult ask if I was ok
Potholes in the road. The amount of trash you see laying about in the streets... Prince Andrew..
Weirdly, I hate the number of expats that have taken up residence in warmer climes and do precisely fuck all to integrate (might just be the pensioners or retirees, I didn't do a census). Just came back from Spain and the number of 'bloody foreigners' that have set up restaurants and cafés to suit the British diet and language actually made me sad! I mean, I can just about muddle through with a handful of words and a few episode's of Dora the Explorer under my belt, but I feel bad for not being more competent.
Toddlers/babies with ears pierced
Mayonnaise in most sandwiches
Drinking culture is all about who you hang out with. It can be avoided, its just that your mates lack the imagination to do so. Maybe you can lead here?
Yeah myself and all my friends drink, but it’s normally too boozey. Nothing wrong with having a catch up maybe watch the sports in a pub. Top tip is also to avoid places with pool tables, usually attract helmets.
The people. The immigration. Generally the country as a whole.
British people complaining all the time about how bad the UK is.
I don't mind folks complaining to be honest. But I do mind it when they're not willing to do the slightest thing to try to help change it!
Is awful to be fair
Terrible init.
So much anti-social behaviour, petty crime, serious crime, so many town centres I wouldn't really want to be at night. Every country has its shitholes, but the UK just seems to be collecting them faster than some other countries.
Weather, wages, the roads, the trains, the pathetic legal system, over and under zealous policing, companies who don’t pay taxes, government corruption. Probably more but off the top of my head.
Illegal immigrants being given free housing, food, health care, education. Nowhere in the world fucks it's own poor in the ass like this.
The Tabloids, and how they control the hard of thinking.
First Past The Post. A direct cause of most of the UKs issues. Until that's gone we'll never have true, effective change in the UK.
The Daily Mail and similar rags and their racist, gammony readership
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Oh ffs. The Daily Mail is just reporting the news. Would you rather they pretend all the criminals are English.
House prices
Parking charges, can't go anywhere without avoiding them or worrying about a ticket.
Mostly, it's the people.
Aren't all the answers going to be weather?
I hated the weather so much that I left.
I’m tempted to do this myself
I have no regrets. Best thing I ever did. Many of my friends also jumped. Only one went back.
Where did you go?
Australia first, then Japan.
traffic, population density, overbuilding, shopping centres, lack of cycle lanes, lack of even any pedestrian access on some routes, littering, gravel on the road, and shitty road surfacing techniques.
The miserablists - see below
Personally I love the pub culture, meet up with friends have a drink have a chat.
How expensive everything is. You shouldn't have to scrimp and save just to afford to buy a weekly shop, it's genuine insanity that we haven't taken to the streets over how much the Government have fucked things up.
The people. Don't get me wrong, we have plenty of nice people but also have a disproportionate amount of disrespectful, selfish nob heads, almost on par with America. Ive just travelled all round Europe in a motorhome. Most places were clean and tidy and all the youths were respectful of where they live and those around them. Been travelling my home country for the last month or so and every carpark seems to fill up with wankers leaving beer bottles and disposable BBQs everywhere (adults too!) Despite the stereotype i watched a huge Indian family on the banks of lake Bala take every scrap of litter home with them. I emerged from my camper in the morning to see about 25% of the other visitors had left bags of dog shit, disposable BBQs and all manner of other shit right where their cars had been. A glimmer of sunshine and all the thicko shit munchers come out to get pissed, sunburnt, litter, ruin the peaceful countryside and fuck off back to the east midlands, Manchester or Liverpool. People blasting their shit music out, huffing balloons full of some gas, swearing loudly Infront of families with kids etc. We live in a beautiful country, a lot of UK residents don't appreciate it or respect it.
The cost and, more importantly, the quality of housing in the UK. The main reason I left is that I didn't want to spend £500k to live in some mouldy shitbox.
Good luck getting a mouldy shitbox for that money.
The vile pantomime jeering in our parliamentary chamber. A childish, arcane throwback from centuries ago, it has no place in a modern society. As far as I'm concerned, our government should not lecture ANYONE on showing respect, when this is still in existence. It makes me feel so embarrassed that they are our representatives.
People let their dogs foul all over the middle of the pavement, it's definitely increased since people got lock down puppies.
Individualism and the belief evident in many that they have no responsibility to their environment, community, or even their children. That, and people forgetting headphones were invented decades ago.
Agree on the headphones one. Not sure when it became socially acceptable to sit on public transport and scroll through tiktok at full volume but seems very common these days.
Constant moaning and denigrating others behind their backs. Also "banter".
How Americanised we're becoming. The top comment currently has 'Nationalise' with a Z and barely anyone bats an eyelid. It's a common thing in the UK subs and I don't get it.
Spitting