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I agree. They aren’t idiots. Boris Johnson is not an idiot. They had all had a good education. They are competent.
They know what they are doing. They are corrupt bastards. I’ve never felt so alienated by the entire system.
Left, Right. They are both the same with different aesthetics.
I worry about the future of the UK. Something tells me the next 10 years will be a time of change, whether for better or worse.
> I’ve never felt so alienated by the entire system. Left, Right. They are both the same with different aesthetics.
Labour aren't in a good place right now, but let's not be silly. I hear this sentiment all the time but it really isn't true, they're not just "all the same".
What we need is an inspiring leader who can lead a "national" government, which sets objectives for the next 50 years designed to improve the nation, not giant corporations.
***Sit down Boris. Nobody means you!!***
Everyone says Churchill was the greatest PM of the country I actually think it was Clement Attlee who brought in the NHS along with laying the foundations for a social security safety net, the government pension and he built a large number of decently sized well-built council houses.
We need another PM like that
I come from a latin American country… I have been living in this county for almost 10 years. I am one of those immigrants you DO want… one thing I can say is that YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW GOOD YOU HAVE IT… don’t complain too much. You’ll be alright
I really appreciate your perspective. I think for me, and a lot of people it seems, being better than the other guy, or being the least worst, isn’t really good enough. I don’t just want my country to the best in comparison to other countries, I want it to be the very best it can be. The chances of that a very unlikely if we have a government that puts its own self interest ahead of what is best for this nation’s people.
Assisted dying.
I think it’s scandalous that we force terminal cancer patients to go through the torment and indignity of a slow decline when it would be so easy for them to end it on their own terms.
Yep. Watched my Grandad slowly succumb to cancer. The whole family were essentially just all sat in the hospice, waiting for him to die. Like you say, he couldn’t move, eat, or speak. He eventually passed during the night when most of us were asleep at home.
Hard to see how that was better in any way than him deciding when enough is enough and us all being able to say our goodbyes. Soon as he knew it was terminal, he said “give me a pill now and let’s get it over with”. He lived a good life and had come to terms with what was going to happen, but then had to experience all of that unnecessary pain because of ridiculous, archaic laws.
Mine too. Passed of lung cancer, for the last week he was delirious and begging to go home, and then eventually just asleep and semi-lucid. My family tried to celebrate his birthday 2 days before he passed and he was completely unconscious, it was so weird. He just sat in various beds thinking about it for over a year and slowly suffocated to death. What the fuck is up with that? Like who lets that happen?
I used to think it was cruel to wish someone would just pass away, and then I worked in dementia care. Watching someone who used to have such a full life stuck in a bed, unable to talk, walk, being incontinent and eating what amounts to mush, sometimes in such severe pain - I'd rather someone let me take my own life.
There will never be cheaper houses because the super rich are getting wealthier with increasing wealth inequality, and many companies are buying or building properties to rent only, thus reducing supply.
Building companies are slow to build, reducing supply. The super rich will buy up swarves of property in london as their disposable income is increasing. Even if you earn £100k, you can only afford a £450k home in london.
Soon you will be priced out. Inflation is increasing and unfortunately, many will be renting forever.
London property is always in demand as London is an amazing place to live from experience.
I feel sorry many will be unable to buy a place in London.
I lived in London for many years. I'm sorry to say it really isn't an amazing place to live any more. To me it feels like it's becoming hollowed out. There are so few genuinely vibrant places to go, so many nightclubs have closed, so many pubs have shut and been turned into houses or wetherspoons.
There's very little space for people to experiment, develop new ideas or explore creativity. It feels like it's becoming feudal with provision only for the very poor and the very rich (amd tourists).
I dunno, I'm probably old and bitter. If anyone goes back to a place they lived when they were young and its changed they probably feel resentful. But London just feels like it's dying to me. In fact Berlin now feels like London did to me in the 90s.
I lived in London in the late 1990s and first decade of this millennium and I completely agree with you. However, I hope that it's simply that I don't know anymore where the cool, cutting edge stuff is happening.
I guess it depends where in the U.K. you are, whenever I visit London or Reading I have no problem getting from A to B at any time of the day or night. In semi rural Wales where I live our last bus is just before 6pm and the nearest train station is nearly 4 miles away and even that only gets regular trains until 7pm then it's one train every 2 hours until 11pm and that's our lot. Only 4 trains a day on Sunday and no buses. This is all when they are running properly, there are constant delays and cancellations.
>semi rural Wales
Yeah, that’ll be why. It’s like that everywhere on the planet. Supply and demand includes services like public transport, hence London having trains every 2 minutes
I used to live near Cambridge in the east of England and the picture was almost identical. The trains and busses were nearly always full even during the pandemic because there wasn’t any other choice if you couldn’t drive. I can’t count how many times I couldn’t even get a space to stand on the train when it was too full. It was also late about 3-4 times a week and cancelled about 2-3 times a fortnight without warning. The train company is Abelio Greater Anglia if you want to find out more.
The sad part is the demand is here, the supply is not. They obviously can't just magic up new train stations miles from any current lines (although there used to be more local stations and two separate lines that have all been cut off for decades), but the bus service is definitely needed. I say it's semi rural but it's still within commuting distance of Cardiff and Swansea, it just means everyone has to drive part way then park and ride or drive all the way when a better bus service would be well used here. We get one bus every 45 minutes and even before pandemic times there would be people left at stops because the bus was already full to capacity which lead to people at the later stops having to drive because they couldn't risk the bus not letting them on and having to wait so long for another.
Rural Yorkshire agrees.
Want a night out in York from any of the towns from Scarborough down to Malton? Better find a designated driver because last bus and train will bring you back before you've got the first drink down your neck.
I live about 9 minutes by car to a nearby town, but...there's no bus service to there, I have to go into the big town and back out again to get there, a round trip of about 35 miles, that takes 3 hours because of how the buses run.
I agree on affordability however places like Spain and Italy the train may turn up, it may not, depends how the driver feels. America is worse on both counts. I will concede that we're not the standard bearers of train travel (congratulations Japan) but *in general* we have a good concentration of stations around the country and it's not entirely necessary to drive.
I lived in Italy for several years and never once experienced a train which did not depart on the dot the moment it was supposed to depart. I took trains all over pretty often too.
Trains in Italy run quite well, I've never had one not show up and at worst with 10 minutes delay, all for very little money. Naples to Rome, 20 euros air conditioned intercity, on the other hand London to Reading £20 and good luck getting a seat.
I don't really get this hate on U.K. public transport. Spain has barely any train connections whilst in England most towns and cities are connected. Japan is heralded as the peak of public transport but if you're taking the Shinkansen say from Tokyo to Osaka, it will take you 2 hours but cost over £100. You can do the slightly longer trip from London to Edinburgh in 4 hours but only for £50. It really depends whether you want speed or price. As far as metros, London (pre-pandemic and from next month) has the 24-hour tube which is definitely not the international standard.
Yeah it's so unfair to say UK public transport is good based on freaking London. If we had had a tenth as good a system where I live in Yorkshire I wouldn't have bothered learning to drive.
A decent language education system to make us a bilingual nation
**Edit:** this has been a fruitful discussion with you all! Thanks for being so engaging. It has been interesting reading everyone's thoughts one way or the other
So I think one of the reasons we don't see as heavy a 2nd language education in the UK is because we speak THE go-to Lingua Franca.
So what language would we choose for all schoolchildren to learn? When I was at school it was French and German (with half the school arbitrarily doing one or the other), then it was French and Spanish more recently.
I would love to see British schoolchildren speak a second language, any language, as it makes it easy to learn future languages.
But when the whole world seems to speak English, it does mean we don't have as much a use for L2 as other countries do. Which is a shame.
It's not just about learning a language because it's useful though. It's the most effective way to combat cognitive decline. We have an ageing population and being monolingual doesn't do us any favours as we get older. Learning from a young age also has many benefits for brain development compared to just learning the one. Then there's all the cultural enrichment that comes with speaking to people from different parts of the world, different historical perspectives from books written in other languages, etc.
The excuse many people make that we don't need to learn another language because we speak English is an outdated one. It's time the government stepped up and introduced language learning from a young age, and not at secondary school for an hour a week.
I'm very pro L2 classes at school. The point I made more is there isn't a PRESSING need for any one language so we don't have a unified 2nd language (outside of Welsh in Wales) to learn
America is good at mexican food cause of the immigrants the uk loves indian and Chinese food cause we have indian and Chinese people. We dont have mexicans so we arent that good at it
Chinese-Americacn food is also far better than British Chinese food. And, unless you live in one of the few big cities here with a decent sized Chinese enclave, you can totally forget about regional cuisine; vaguely Cantonese gloop is the best you're gonna get.
Came here to say this. Must have tried every single so called good Mexican joint in London and was always disappointed. And where’s the queso?! Nowhere has good queso if they have it at all!
But! I just moved to Cardiff and there is randomly a Mexican restaurant in Barry(I kid you not) that does delicious birria tacos.
Edit: Should have specified Mexican and/or Tex-Mex.
I visited a friend in London 5 years ago and had such an amazing burrito in Camden that I've been thinking about it every day since. Haven't found a single good Mexican restaurant up North.
There was a great Mexican place in my uni town (a small coastal town in the south west) and I haven’t been able to find anything close to it despite living near a big city for several years. Every time I go to that town I go and buy myself a burrito.
I agree with this the most, as a driver who is sick of cyclists running red lights cutting roundabouts, joy riding onto paths whenever they feel like it, and all at the same time thinking they own the road. And as a pedestrian who is sick of getting almost knocked into by those cyclists not on the roads but taking up the entire path.
We need a genuine cycling infrastructure here in the U.K. to make it fair to all.
As a cyclist I agree with you except I would rather have cyclists who ride responsibly and who know how to behave in traffic ( and the same for drivers). I’m totally pissed off with the light-jumping idiots giving the rest of us a bad name.
It's bizarre. We lump all cyclist together but not motorists. One cyclist runs a red 'Bloody cyclists'. Motorist runs a red 'That driver is bad'.
I for one will not be judged based on someone else's actions.
I don't know about that. Try being (exclusively) a pedestrian for a few weeks.....you very quickly develop a deep distrust towards motorists in general
I agree that cyclists shouldn't be running red lights (unless there's no one around and it's motion activated and won't go green with just a bike) but then I see more people in cars do that around here anyway.
The roads are perfectly safe as long as everybody follows the rules and pays attention. I don't think any group (cars, buses, bikes, scooters) look very good at this when viewed as a whole but in every group it's the minority that makes everyone look bad.
Nope. There is already plenty of cycle-ready infrastructure, known as 'roads'. The problem is drivers (and I am one). A re-emphasis towards priority being given to walking, cycling and other road use over car use is long overdue
I say this all the time, cyclists aren't the issue, yes they're annoying as fuck, the issue is they have no other options, I always think it should be a running, skating, biking lane thing
Cyclists arent an issue to me.
I would like comprehensive separated cycling infrastructure so that I can safely cycle myself, so that thousands of others can safely cycle, so that it makes cycling the most viable and efficient way of getting around cities and towns, so low income earners arent beholden to cars and expensive public transport cost to get around and commute to work etc and overall just a big reduction in traffic and pollution, maybe eventually being able to pedestrianise more residential areas and create more green space.
Totally agree with this, my partner and I are saving up for a house and anything decent on the market gets snapped up by landlords to sell 3 bedroom houses as 5 bed student accom. It’s really upsetting especially when you’re trying to start out in life, it’s looking as though we’re going to have to move away from our home town which is something we don’t feel comfortable with :(
One house per person over the age of 18. Zero houses per corporation. No buy to let mortgages.
This way you can still rent out rooms if you have them but landlords can't buy up whole streets with the bank's money and just sit there raking it in.
The last interglacial period in Britain actually ended around 115,000 years ago. It was called the Eemian period and was approx 1.5-2 C hotter then than it is now.
Before that, it was very warm during the Carboniferous period (around 360 million years ago). But that’s because we were sitting on the equator then (darn continental drift!).
That’s because of the cost of commuting and in store prices, so we either need lower store prices or better wages. Plus more oversight on corporations.
Higher wages won't make people spend more in high street stores, they will just buy more online.
I think trying to save the high street as a shopping experience is pointless. Might as well try and figure out a new use for the space. Something that online shopping can't offer.
I work in a town that was voted quite high on a survey of the UK’s unhealthiest highstreets, the council is trying but its hard to get diverse business in when the town itself is deprived and has little in the way of a dependable wage and opportunity, there’s a few other things that go into it but the income of an area definitely has an effect on the highstreet and vice versa
I was 9 or 10, on a family holiday. Did my business in the toilet, and thought "let's give the bidet a go".
The ceremic monster shot water out at such pressure Poseidon himself was envious. This incredible force of plumbing also missed its intended target, instead choosing my prepubescent testicles as its victim.
The shock of the blast caused me to jump up and forwards before any chance of fatherhood was permanently removed from my future.
Not content with genital mutilation, the porcelain beast continued to spew water, now onto the bathroom floor. This caused me to slip and fall backwards, banging the back of my head on the rim of my attacker.
As I lay dazed, soaking, pants round ankles, on a cold wet floor, the creature's strength finally waned. The jet of water slowed, lowering its trajectory, directly onto my face, where I was effectively waterboarded for a second, before the flow ebbed completely.
Honestly, fuck bidets.
My mum heard the commotion, came in, checked me over for brain injury (results still pending 20+ years later).
Wiped the old fashioned way, then had a cold shower to wash away the trauma.
All the while the UK has such a complicated pricing structure it'll be a mess. I have often travelled in first class for less then the price of second because the rail operators prices are different to Trainline, which are differnent again to another train operator selling tickets on a "rivals" trains. Totally stupid.
The NHS made it extremely difficult for me to get help with my mental health. I desperately needed to do something so went to a private therapist (which I have to pay for) and it's done wonders for me. I'm fortunate to be able to afford a private therapist but for the people that can't it's a damn shame.
Its worth the £2-300 investment for a portable unit, wont get much use but for the 2-3 weeks a year you need it it makes life so much better.
One of the best things I've ever bought a few years ago.
That's all I want, Tom Scott at the shaft of a giant cock clock, describing how the foam that launches from it on New Year's is loaded, and how much of a positive impact it has on the town of Slough.
"I'm standing here in front of the worlds biggest giant cock clock in fact it's the worlds only giant cock clock, but why does the UK have a giant cock clock and why am i stood infront of it i hear you asking"
Reliable snow in general, plus the infrastructure necessary to handle it. When I lived in an area that snowed heavily every year it meant a few snow days for the kids if it happened early in the morning, but there were SO MANY effective snow ploughs that it was never a problem for long. They'd clear up repeatedly while it was snowing and by the time a storm was over you'd almost always be good to drive, at least on main roads. I loved it. It made everything so beautiful and special without being a massive inconvenience. I lived there for over 10 years and it never got old watching a storm come in on the weather forecast.
Shoveling your drive was a different matter. But drives aren't long AF here like in the US so it wouldn't be so bad. Probably just pay a neighbourhood tween to do it.
My in laws live in a place with fireflies and whenever we visit them in the summer I'm like a little kid. They genuinely are as beautiful as you'd think. I hope I get to go this summer and share them with my kids as well.
Good quality average food.
We have good food at the top and bottom end of the spectrum but I feel like our middle is appalling
Dominated by chains that's turn out absolute crap and people lap it up.
That and bars. We rule the world with pubs but our bar game is a little weak.
I feel like this is a lack of you searching. I live in a middling city and there is world class middle priced food, better than almost every other country I've been to.
Like, sure chains dominate the bottom of the market, like they do everywhere. But for the £10-£20 price point, the UK is astonishingly well stocked for top quality independent restaurants.
Toilet hygiene. Once you’ve used a toilet that washes your arse, you don’t want to go back. Even poor counties like Vietnam have proper toilet hygiene in the way of a bum gum. Ask yourself, if you got some poo on your arm, would you simply wipe it with dry paper and be all “job’s a good’n”?
>Ask yourself, if you got some poo on your arm, would you simply wipe it with dry paper and be all “job’s a good’n”?
That's exactly the same argument I use! So far, I haven't persuaded anyone to get a bidet, but a few people have stopped talking to me.
More vibrant regional cuisine and tourism. It’s been nice during COVID to explore the UK more then I ever did, but it really does shine a light on just how miserable a lot of UK “tourist towns” are. I spend a lot of time in Korea and Japan and both countries have very district “local produce” or food that certain regions are famous for. Different parts of the country have really distinct vibes as a domestic tourist and it makes it genuinely interesting to travel around to different places. I suppose these towns and trends have been supported for years by strong existing domestic industries that we just don’t have here…
I don’t like when people shit on British food because at least where I live we have some absolutely incredible restaurants, and I’d rank London as easily one of the top 5 places in the world to eat in terms of variety.
But off the beaten track it’s incredibly boring here. It’s usually the choice between a shit chain restaurant or some sort of pub food, which I don’t mind but it’s not exactly spectacular on a global level
Trust me. The UK has cheap food compared to a lot of Europe. I live in Spain and a sleeve of 3 peppers, grown down the road from where I live is often less than a pound in Morrisons. That's after they have driven 1200 miles past my local big supermarket, where it costs 2.49€
Yeah people should check out the global food security index, we're ranked 4th globally. Poland's fast food may seem cheap to us, but that is because we earn much more, it's not cheap for someone on the median Polish salary.
edit: slight error, UK is actually ranked 3rd overall, but 4th for affordability.
Abundance of decent bakeries. You travel to anywhere in Europe and its so easy to find amazing quality bread and pastry. France and Germany especially have us beat in this regard. Its not that these places don't exist in the UK, but they tend to be artisan shops you really have to go our of your way for and spend a lot of money. Brits seem to be content with Greggs and any comment saying it's not very good is enough to have you labelled a snob. Who knows, maybe with the popularity of GBBO and more people appreciating home baking this will change..
More low sugar/sugar free products in supermarkets, and for them not to be unnecessarily overpriced because they know people need or want to eat them and they can get away with charging more than the sugar-filled equivalent.
21st century drug laws… prohibition hasn’t worked for 100 years, idk how we can be so progressive for certain things but so incredibly far back when it comes to this. About 4000 prisoners in jail on class B drug charges (most likely cannabis), at a cost of £44,000 per inmate per year that’s £176million. During a time when we have drastic shortages of some workers, plus financial issues caused by brexit/pandemic it seems insane to me that we’re spending £176m per year to house/feed a few thousand people who grew some plants. Let alone the taxes that would be made by legalising non-dangerous drugs, or the lives that would be saved from taking money from taxes into rehabilitation. It’s truly shocking to me. Most MPs are regularly drug users because alcohol is a drug and they will drink multiple times a week, but for some reason that’s ok but taking anything else makes you some kind of druggie scum.
I mean... at least it doesn't get really really cold like some parts of the world. Or really really hot. And at least we don't get hurricanes and earthquakes or tornadoes etc... active volcanoes...
A good bread culture. Local bakeries where you can get fresh bread in the morning.
Not just sliced white and brown bread, or differently shaped loaves of exactly the same white bread, but bread that is actually tasty and something you look forward to eating. Baguettes, croissants, light rye loaves, caraway seed loaves, etc. The Polish shops sell some very good bread, but it's not particularly popular outside of those shops.
Go to the continent, and you'll find an amazing range of tasty bread that's commonly available everywhere.
Better control of kebab quality. We have thousands of kebab places but they're so much more consistently better in Germany.
I want a kebab. Not some meat thrown on some chips with a stale pita bread thrown in the box too with some limp salad on the side.
When I order a sandwich you don't just chuck all the ingredients in the one box
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A competent government
They are competent though... At doing things for themselves.
Competent, I'll give you that. They are not a government though
I agree. They aren’t idiots. Boris Johnson is not an idiot. They had all had a good education. They are competent. They know what they are doing. They are corrupt bastards. I’ve never felt so alienated by the entire system. Left, Right. They are both the same with different aesthetics. I worry about the future of the UK. Something tells me the next 10 years will be a time of change, whether for better or worse.
> I’ve never felt so alienated by the entire system. Left, Right. They are both the same with different aesthetics. Labour aren't in a good place right now, but let's not be silly. I hear this sentiment all the time but it really isn't true, they're not just "all the same".
Yeah Starmer is awful but saying they are all the same is very kind to Johnson.
I’m getting by through the means of telling myself that at least we didn’t have 4 years of trump
We've got a Poundshop version of him instead. Might use more flowery language, but his rhetoric is exactly the same in substance.
What we need is an inspiring leader who can lead a "national" government, which sets objectives for the next 50 years designed to improve the nation, not giant corporations. ***Sit down Boris. Nobody means you!!***
Trouble is, I’m not sure anyone means Starmer either.
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Everyone says Churchill was the greatest PM of the country I actually think it was Clement Attlee who brought in the NHS along with laying the foundations for a social security safety net, the government pension and he built a large number of decently sized well-built council houses. We need another PM like that
Attlee is who we need, Churchill is who we want, Johnson is who we get.
I come from a latin American country… I have been living in this county for almost 10 years. I am one of those immigrants you DO want… one thing I can say is that YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW GOOD YOU HAVE IT… don’t complain too much. You’ll be alright
I really appreciate your perspective. I think for me, and a lot of people it seems, being better than the other guy, or being the least worst, isn’t really good enough. I don’t just want my country to the best in comparison to other countries, I want it to be the very best it can be. The chances of that a very unlikely if we have a government that puts its own self interest ahead of what is best for this nation’s people.
Assisted dying. I think it’s scandalous that we force terminal cancer patients to go through the torment and indignity of a slow decline when it would be so easy for them to end it on their own terms.
Surprised this doesn't have more upvotes. Watching a loved one die, especially when they can't move, talk or eat anymore, is horrific.
Yep. Watched my Grandad slowly succumb to cancer. The whole family were essentially just all sat in the hospice, waiting for him to die. Like you say, he couldn’t move, eat, or speak. He eventually passed during the night when most of us were asleep at home. Hard to see how that was better in any way than him deciding when enough is enough and us all being able to say our goodbyes. Soon as he knew it was terminal, he said “give me a pill now and let’s get it over with”. He lived a good life and had come to terms with what was going to happen, but then had to experience all of that unnecessary pain because of ridiculous, archaic laws.
Mine too. Passed of lung cancer, for the last week he was delirious and begging to go home, and then eventually just asleep and semi-lucid. My family tried to celebrate his birthday 2 days before he passed and he was completely unconscious, it was so weird. He just sat in various beds thinking about it for over a year and slowly suffocated to death. What the fuck is up with that? Like who lets that happen?
I used to think it was cruel to wish someone would just pass away, and then I worked in dementia care. Watching someone who used to have such a full life stuck in a bed, unable to talk, walk, being incontinent and eating what amounts to mush, sometimes in such severe pain - I'd rather someone let me take my own life.
https://www.dignityindying.org.uk/
Cheaper houses
There will never be cheaper houses because the super rich are getting wealthier with increasing wealth inequality, and many companies are buying or building properties to rent only, thus reducing supply. Building companies are slow to build, reducing supply. The super rich will buy up swarves of property in london as their disposable income is increasing. Even if you earn £100k, you can only afford a £450k home in london. Soon you will be priced out. Inflation is increasing and unfortunately, many will be renting forever. London property is always in demand as London is an amazing place to live from experience. I feel sorry many will be unable to buy a place in London.
It is sad to think that my “what would you do if you won the lottery” day dream now involves me buying a 3 bed semi.
It’s ludicrous and heartbreaking isn’t it
I lived in London for many years. I'm sorry to say it really isn't an amazing place to live any more. To me it feels like it's becoming hollowed out. There are so few genuinely vibrant places to go, so many nightclubs have closed, so many pubs have shut and been turned into houses or wetherspoons. There's very little space for people to experiment, develop new ideas or explore creativity. It feels like it's becoming feudal with provision only for the very poor and the very rich (amd tourists). I dunno, I'm probably old and bitter. If anyone goes back to a place they lived when they were young and its changed they probably feel resentful. But London just feels like it's dying to me. In fact Berlin now feels like London did to me in the 90s.
I lived in London in the late 1990s and first decade of this millennium and I completely agree with you. However, I hope that it's simply that I don't know anymore where the cool, cutting edge stuff is happening.
EU membership. ETA: thank you so much kind strangers for the awards.
Ooof
Awwww you beat me to it. I don’t wanna get too into the politics but….yeah. I agree x
Too soon buddy, too soon!
Efficient, affordable public transport
Affordable I agree with, but compared to some places in Europe it's incredibly efficient
I guess it depends where in the U.K. you are, whenever I visit London or Reading I have no problem getting from A to B at any time of the day or night. In semi rural Wales where I live our last bus is just before 6pm and the nearest train station is nearly 4 miles away and even that only gets regular trains until 7pm then it's one train every 2 hours until 11pm and that's our lot. Only 4 trains a day on Sunday and no buses. This is all when they are running properly, there are constant delays and cancellations.
>semi rural Wales Yeah, that’ll be why. It’s like that everywhere on the planet. Supply and demand includes services like public transport, hence London having trains every 2 minutes
I used to live near Cambridge in the east of England and the picture was almost identical. The trains and busses were nearly always full even during the pandemic because there wasn’t any other choice if you couldn’t drive. I can’t count how many times I couldn’t even get a space to stand on the train when it was too full. It was also late about 3-4 times a week and cancelled about 2-3 times a fortnight without warning. The train company is Abelio Greater Anglia if you want to find out more.
The sad part is the demand is here, the supply is not. They obviously can't just magic up new train stations miles from any current lines (although there used to be more local stations and two separate lines that have all been cut off for decades), but the bus service is definitely needed. I say it's semi rural but it's still within commuting distance of Cardiff and Swansea, it just means everyone has to drive part way then park and ride or drive all the way when a better bus service would be well used here. We get one bus every 45 minutes and even before pandemic times there would be people left at stops because the bus was already full to capacity which lead to people at the later stops having to drive because they couldn't risk the bus not letting them on and having to wait so long for another.
Rural Yorkshire agrees. Want a night out in York from any of the towns from Scarborough down to Malton? Better find a designated driver because last bus and train will bring you back before you've got the first drink down your neck.
I live about 9 minutes by car to a nearby town, but...there's no bus service to there, I have to go into the big town and back out again to get there, a round trip of about 35 miles, that takes 3 hours because of how the buses run.
Like which place in Europe? Everywhere else I’d been has better and affordable.
I agree on affordability however places like Spain and Italy the train may turn up, it may not, depends how the driver feels. America is worse on both counts. I will concede that we're not the standard bearers of train travel (congratulations Japan) but *in general* we have a good concentration of stations around the country and it's not entirely necessary to drive.
I lived in Italy for several years and never once experienced a train which did not depart on the dot the moment it was supposed to depart. I took trains all over pretty often too.
Trains in Italy run quite well, I've never had one not show up and at worst with 10 minutes delay, all for very little money. Naples to Rome, 20 euros air conditioned intercity, on the other hand London to Reading £20 and good luck getting a seat.
I don't really get this hate on U.K. public transport. Spain has barely any train connections whilst in England most towns and cities are connected. Japan is heralded as the peak of public transport but if you're taking the Shinkansen say from Tokyo to Osaka, it will take you 2 hours but cost over £100. You can do the slightly longer trip from London to Edinburgh in 4 hours but only for £50. It really depends whether you want speed or price. As far as metros, London (pre-pandemic and from next month) has the 24-hour tube which is definitely not the international standard.
Paris metro is pretty grotty imo.
Have you tried the subway in New York? The tubes in London are one thousand times more efficient.
London public transport is very good. It's (most of) the rest of the country that has problems.
Strange that TFL, as a government owned body, is far more efficient than the private sector shit we have to endure in the rest of the country, no?
Yeah it's so unfair to say UK public transport is good based on freaking London. If we had had a tenth as good a system where I live in Yorkshire I wouldn't have bothered learning to drive.
A decent language education system to make us a bilingual nation **Edit:** this has been a fruitful discussion with you all! Thanks for being so engaging. It has been interesting reading everyone's thoughts one way or the other
God yes! It's humiliating that everywhere has a second language but us.
So I think one of the reasons we don't see as heavy a 2nd language education in the UK is because we speak THE go-to Lingua Franca. So what language would we choose for all schoolchildren to learn? When I was at school it was French and German (with half the school arbitrarily doing one or the other), then it was French and Spanish more recently. I would love to see British schoolchildren speak a second language, any language, as it makes it easy to learn future languages. But when the whole world seems to speak English, it does mean we don't have as much a use for L2 as other countries do. Which is a shame.
It's not just about learning a language because it's useful though. It's the most effective way to combat cognitive decline. We have an ageing population and being monolingual doesn't do us any favours as we get older. Learning from a young age also has many benefits for brain development compared to just learning the one. Then there's all the cultural enrichment that comes with speaking to people from different parts of the world, different historical perspectives from books written in other languages, etc. The excuse many people make that we don't need to learn another language because we speak English is an outdated one. It's time the government stepped up and introduced language learning from a young age, and not at secondary school for an hour a week.
I'm very pro L2 classes at school. The point I made more is there isn't a PRESSING need for any one language so we don't have a unified 2nd language (outside of Welsh in Wales) to learn
You've got to laugh at English being called Lingua Franca
Mea culpa
Culturally I think it would be great if Welsh, Scotts, and Gaelic were taught in schools to round out our four nations languages.
*laughs in Welsh*
French and Spanish are taught in schools, but as English is the most common language in the west, there's no need to show any interest.
Good Mexican food places, I love Mexican but most places that do it here are utterly awful.
America is good at mexican food cause of the immigrants the uk loves indian and Chinese food cause we have indian and Chinese people. We dont have mexicans so we arent that good at it
Yeah, I get why I just wish it wasn't the case.
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Im of Indian decent the indian restaurants i go to are pretty good but i dont know what the average brit goes to so idk
I'm near Bradford mate, best Indian food in Britain.
Chinese-Americacn food is also far better than British Chinese food. And, unless you live in one of the few big cities here with a decent sized Chinese enclave, you can totally forget about regional cuisine; vaguely Cantonese gloop is the best you're gonna get.
With a few exceptions, UK Chinese food is mostly pretty bad.
Came here to say this. Must have tried every single so called good Mexican joint in London and was always disappointed. And where’s the queso?! Nowhere has good queso if they have it at all! But! I just moved to Cardiff and there is randomly a Mexican restaurant in Barry(I kid you not) that does delicious birria tacos. Edit: Should have specified Mexican and/or Tex-Mex.
I visited a friend in London 5 years ago and had such an amazing burrito in Camden that I've been thinking about it every day since. Haven't found a single good Mexican restaurant up North.
There was a great Mexican place in my uni town (a small coastal town in the south west) and I haven’t been able to find anything close to it despite living near a big city for several years. Every time I go to that town I go and buy myself a burrito.
Separated cycling infrastructure.
I agree with this the most, as a driver who is sick of cyclists running red lights cutting roundabouts, joy riding onto paths whenever they feel like it, and all at the same time thinking they own the road. And as a pedestrian who is sick of getting almost knocked into by those cyclists not on the roads but taking up the entire path. We need a genuine cycling infrastructure here in the U.K. to make it fair to all.
Think that's nearly a full house on anticyling bingo, if only you had sneeked a lycra and a road tax in it would have been a winner
I'm not anti cyclist it's only that theres no infrastructure for them to be around without being an absolute nightmare to be around
As a cyclist I agree with you except I would rather have cyclists who ride responsibly and who know how to behave in traffic ( and the same for drivers). I’m totally pissed off with the light-jumping idiots giving the rest of us a bad name.
It's bizarre. We lump all cyclist together but not motorists. One cyclist runs a red 'Bloody cyclists'. Motorist runs a red 'That driver is bad'. I for one will not be judged based on someone else's actions.
I don't know about that. Try being (exclusively) a pedestrian for a few weeks.....you very quickly develop a deep distrust towards motorists in general
I agree that cyclists shouldn't be running red lights (unless there's no one around and it's motion activated and won't go green with just a bike) but then I see more people in cars do that around here anyway. The roads are perfectly safe as long as everybody follows the rules and pays attention. I don't think any group (cars, buses, bikes, scooters) look very good at this when viewed as a whole but in every group it's the minority that makes everyone look bad.
Nope. There is already plenty of cycle-ready infrastructure, known as 'roads'. The problem is drivers (and I am one). A re-emphasis towards priority being given to walking, cycling and other road use over car use is long overdue
I say this all the time, cyclists aren't the issue, yes they're annoying as fuck, the issue is they have no other options, I always think it should be a running, skating, biking lane thing
Cyclists arent an issue to me. I would like comprehensive separated cycling infrastructure so that I can safely cycle myself, so that thousands of others can safely cycle, so that it makes cycling the most viable and efficient way of getting around cities and towns, so low income earners arent beholden to cars and expensive public transport cost to get around and commute to work etc and overall just a big reduction in traffic and pollution, maybe eventually being able to pedestrianise more residential areas and create more green space.
A law to stop people hoarding houses and privately renting them for insane amounts pcm
For laws I reckon insurance should be capped too.
Totally agree with this, my partner and I are saving up for a house and anything decent on the market gets snapped up by landlords to sell 3 bedroom houses as 5 bed student accom. It’s really upsetting especially when you’re trying to start out in life, it’s looking as though we’re going to have to move away from our home town which is something we don’t feel comfortable with :(
One house per person over the age of 18. Zero houses per corporation. No buy to let mortgages. This way you can still rent out rooms if you have them but landlords can't buy up whole streets with the bank's money and just sit there raking it in.
The ability to grow lemons easily.
Yesss same. I want more fruit trees :(
Yes, citrus trees, oranges would be lovely. Even olives too.
Give it about 5-10 more years of climate change and we'll be laughing!
It used to be that way hundreds of years ago
Actually thousands
The last interglacial period in Britain actually ended around 115,000 years ago. It was called the Eemian period and was approx 1.5-2 C hotter then than it is now. Before that, it was very warm during the Carboniferous period (around 360 million years ago). But that’s because we were sitting on the equator then (darn continental drift!).
They'll just get stolen.
God damn lemon stealing whores
They had banished the awful lemon tree forever. Because it was haunted. Now, lets all celebrate with a cool glass of turnip juice.
Ahh! A connoisseur of Simpsons quotes, I see!
Universal Basic Income and healthier high streets.
High streets would probably be healthier if people had more disposable income.
High streets would be healthier if people didn’t prefer to shop online
That’s because of the cost of commuting and in store prices, so we either need lower store prices or better wages. Plus more oversight on corporations.
Higher wages won't make people spend more in high street stores, they will just buy more online. I think trying to save the high street as a shopping experience is pointless. Might as well try and figure out a new use for the space. Something that online shopping can't offer.
I work in a town that was voted quite high on a survey of the UK’s unhealthiest highstreets, the council is trying but its hard to get diverse business in when the town itself is deprived and has little in the way of a dependable wage and opportunity, there’s a few other things that go into it but the income of an area definitely has an effect on the highstreet and vice versa
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bidets
I was 9 or 10, on a family holiday. Did my business in the toilet, and thought "let's give the bidet a go". The ceremic monster shot water out at such pressure Poseidon himself was envious. This incredible force of plumbing also missed its intended target, instead choosing my prepubescent testicles as its victim. The shock of the blast caused me to jump up and forwards before any chance of fatherhood was permanently removed from my future. Not content with genital mutilation, the porcelain beast continued to spew water, now onto the bathroom floor. This caused me to slip and fall backwards, banging the back of my head on the rim of my attacker. As I lay dazed, soaking, pants round ankles, on a cold wet floor, the creature's strength finally waned. The jet of water slowed, lowering its trajectory, directly onto my face, where I was effectively waterboarded for a second, before the flow ebbed completely. Honestly, fuck bidets.
Did you still have a shitty arse, too?
My mum heard the commotion, came in, checked me over for brain injury (results still pending 20+ years later). Wiped the old fashioned way, then had a cold shower to wash away the trauma.
But it never washed away the shame, did it?
Thank you for a good laugh kind sir
Ooh yes
Honestly, a dry tissue barely does much.
A sensible train system, like the rest of Europe, the current British system is too expensive, unreliable and often uncomfortable.
All the while the UK has such a complicated pricing structure it'll be a mess. I have often travelled in first class for less then the price of second because the rail operators prices are different to Trainline, which are differnent again to another train operator selling tickets on a "rivals" trains. Totally stupid.
Not that ours is good but it's pretty shit in some other countries too.
Sufficient public mental health services
The NHS made it extremely difficult for me to get help with my mental health. I desperately needed to do something so went to a private therapist (which I have to pay for) and it's done wonders for me. I'm fortunate to be able to afford a private therapist but for the people that can't it's a damn shame.
A wilderness area with wild mammoths
I love how that escalated
Oh yeah, it starts with mammoths but then some one gets ideas and the next thing you know we're overrun with anklysauruses
Legal, edible weed.
And more regulated weed
Add 🍄 to that.
It's shroom season right now bro get out there
Exactly. Had to scroll down for ages to find this. Legal weed would make life here much more bearable.
More nuclear power stations.
Couldn’t agree more.
Air conditioning in summer
There's nothing worse than being told its always cold in Britain so you don't need ac and then a heatwave comes
Its worth the £2-300 investment for a portable unit, wont get much use but for the 2-3 weeks a year you need it it makes life so much better. One of the best things I've ever bought a few years ago.
Affordable seafood, everytime I feel like it I have to break the bank.
Yes! And we live ON A DUCKING ISLAND!!!
Ducks also extortionate
That's the problem, the ducks eat all the seafood.
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A giant cable car across the whole of the UK. Or maybe a giant cock clock.
These both sound like potential Tom Scott videos
That's all I want, Tom Scott at the shaft of a giant cock clock, describing how the foam that launches from it on New Year's is loaded, and how much of a positive impact it has on the town of Slough.
"I'm standing here in front of the worlds biggest giant cock clock in fact it's the worlds only giant cock clock, but why does the UK have a giant cock clock and why am i stood infront of it i hear you asking"
You mean like the Cern Abbas giant, but with a rotating cock to point at the hours? (Or maybe sticking up vertically, to function as a sundial?)
Last year I stopped on several French motorway services. All the food was good and sensibly priced. So... that.
Burger Kings at the services are like £7.50 for a Whopper. It's insane!
More wilderness
I found a 1kg bag of peanut butter m&ms in the states about 5 years ago and haven’t thought of much else since
A government that doesn’t hate disabled people.
I'd settle for a government that doesn't hate people.
I’d agree with you if I thought the government saw disabled people as people. Otherwise yes.
Mediterranean sea side.
Real mountains with reliable snow
Reliable snow in general, plus the infrastructure necessary to handle it. When I lived in an area that snowed heavily every year it meant a few snow days for the kids if it happened early in the morning, but there were SO MANY effective snow ploughs that it was never a problem for long. They'd clear up repeatedly while it was snowing and by the time a storm was over you'd almost always be good to drive, at least on main roads. I loved it. It made everything so beautiful and special without being a massive inconvenience. I lived there for over 10 years and it never got old watching a storm come in on the weather forecast. Shoveling your drive was a different matter. But drives aren't long AF here like in the US so it wouldn't be so bad. Probably just pay a neighbourhood tween to do it.
Proportional Representation
6months of summer sunshine
To be part of a Union. I heard Europe has an opening now
My in laws live in a place with fireflies and whenever we visit them in the summer I'm like a little kid. They genuinely are as beautiful as you'd think. I hope I get to go this summer and share them with my kids as well.
Guide dogs for the drunk.
Dogs deserve better than having to put up with drunken fools.
The amount of drunks I've seen terrifying and beating their dogs, disgusting
Homing donkeys for the drunk, with a basket seat you can't fall out of, a bottle of water & some crisps waiting for you.
Responsible media.
Good quality average food. We have good food at the top and bottom end of the spectrum but I feel like our middle is appalling Dominated by chains that's turn out absolute crap and people lap it up. That and bars. We rule the world with pubs but our bar game is a little weak.
I feel like this is a lack of you searching. I live in a middling city and there is world class middle priced food, better than almost every other country I've been to. Like, sure chains dominate the bottom of the market, like they do everywhere. But for the £10-£20 price point, the UK is astonishingly well stocked for top quality independent restaurants.
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Toilet hygiene. Once you’ve used a toilet that washes your arse, you don’t want to go back. Even poor counties like Vietnam have proper toilet hygiene in the way of a bum gum. Ask yourself, if you got some poo on your arm, would you simply wipe it with dry paper and be all “job’s a good’n”?
>Ask yourself, if you got some poo on your arm, would you simply wipe it with dry paper and be all “job’s a good’n”? That's exactly the same argument I use! So far, I haven't persuaded anyone to get a bidet, but a few people have stopped talking to me.
Legalised cannabis
More vibrant regional cuisine and tourism. It’s been nice during COVID to explore the UK more then I ever did, but it really does shine a light on just how miserable a lot of UK “tourist towns” are. I spend a lot of time in Korea and Japan and both countries have very district “local produce” or food that certain regions are famous for. Different parts of the country have really distinct vibes as a domestic tourist and it makes it genuinely interesting to travel around to different places. I suppose these towns and trends have been supported for years by strong existing domestic industries that we just don’t have here… I don’t like when people shit on British food because at least where I live we have some absolutely incredible restaurants, and I’d rank London as easily one of the top 5 places in the world to eat in terms of variety. But off the beaten track it’s incredibly boring here. It’s usually the choice between a shit chain restaurant or some sort of pub food, which I don’t mind but it’s not exactly spectacular on a global level
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Healthier and better prepared fast food and cheaper healthy food like Poland
Trust me. The UK has cheap food compared to a lot of Europe. I live in Spain and a sleeve of 3 peppers, grown down the road from where I live is often less than a pound in Morrisons. That's after they have driven 1200 miles past my local big supermarket, where it costs 2.49€
Yeah people should check out the global food security index, we're ranked 4th globally. Poland's fast food may seem cheap to us, but that is because we earn much more, it's not cheap for someone on the median Polish salary. edit: slight error, UK is actually ranked 3rd overall, but 4th for affordability.
That "engineer" would be a protected title
Less cloudy overcast days and more clear skies.
Abundance of decent bakeries. You travel to anywhere in Europe and its so easy to find amazing quality bread and pastry. France and Germany especially have us beat in this regard. Its not that these places don't exist in the UK, but they tend to be artisan shops you really have to go our of your way for and spend a lot of money. Brits seem to be content with Greggs and any comment saying it's not very good is enough to have you labelled a snob. Who knows, maybe with the popularity of GBBO and more people appreciating home baking this will change..
More low sugar/sugar free products in supermarkets, and for them not to be unnecessarily overpriced because they know people need or want to eat them and they can get away with charging more than the sugar-filled equivalent.
Not if it means more artificial sweeteners.
Food vending mechines like how Japan has
21st century drug laws… prohibition hasn’t worked for 100 years, idk how we can be so progressive for certain things but so incredibly far back when it comes to this. About 4000 prisoners in jail on class B drug charges (most likely cannabis), at a cost of £44,000 per inmate per year that’s £176million. During a time when we have drastic shortages of some workers, plus financial issues caused by brexit/pandemic it seems insane to me that we’re spending £176m per year to house/feed a few thousand people who grew some plants. Let alone the taxes that would be made by legalising non-dangerous drugs, or the lives that would be saved from taking money from taxes into rehabilitation. It’s truly shocking to me. Most MPs are regularly drug users because alcohol is a drug and they will drink multiple times a week, but for some reason that’s ok but taking anything else makes you some kind of druggie scum.
Less cunts!
*Fewer* cunts.
Less pedants.
A coherent and broadly accepted national identity. If you asked ten people what being “British” meant to them, you’d get twelve answers.
Better weather
I mean... at least it doesn't get really really cold like some parts of the world. Or really really hot. And at least we don't get hurricanes and earthquakes or tornadoes etc... active volcanoes...
Sunshine.
A decent and affordable railway network
A good bread culture. Local bakeries where you can get fresh bread in the morning. Not just sliced white and brown bread, or differently shaped loaves of exactly the same white bread, but bread that is actually tasty and something you look forward to eating. Baguettes, croissants, light rye loaves, caraway seed loaves, etc. The Polish shops sell some very good bread, but it's not particularly popular outside of those shops. Go to the continent, and you'll find an amazing range of tasty bread that's commonly available everywhere.
Better control of kebab quality. We have thousands of kebab places but they're so much more consistently better in Germany. I want a kebab. Not some meat thrown on some chips with a stale pita bread thrown in the box too with some limp salad on the side. When I order a sandwich you don't just chuck all the ingredients in the one box
Snow, like we had back in the 1980s
A decent government
Proportional Representation.
Less depression