If you had asked me a few years ago if our safety, pollution and consumer protection standards were any good as compared to the rest of the world, I would have said we must be in the top 10%. With our 3 pin plug, building control offices, road signs bloody everywhere and membership of the EU with all the thousands of standards and non political Eurocrats looking after Joe public. However with the events of the last few years I am beginning to think we are actually a bit crap and many other countries do things better than us.

So the VW emmisons standards showed us the EU emissions test are rubbish and more frightening is that the US emissions standards are more stringent than the EUs!!! That can’t be, the US have petrol guzzling cars. We have always been taught the US pollute loads and their cars are horrendous.

Then we get the Air Quality scandal where the EU has to take our government to court to force them to abide by rules they signed up for that are designed to ensure our air is clean. Oh and they think 30,000 people die from air pollution each year. 30,000!!!!! Why is this not the biggest ever scandal to hit this country. Why are the government not protecting the people. We slag off China for air pollution and then do bugger all ourselves.

Then we get the Grenfell Tower fire, and its beginning to look like tons of buildings are clad in an illegal material and our stringent building control offices have missed it time after time.
Is there not a department of government that are constantly looking at fire regulation and if it should be amended. I would bloody hope so and not just a bunch of civil servants that go from one project to another with no real expertise. (This is how it is beginning to look). Why can’t the regulations be changed as and when. If the current system requires any changes to go through the long winded procedures of Parliament even for the smallest of changes then why has the system not been changed. (I did read once that there would need to be a change of the law so that the Severn Bridge could take credit cards and not just cash, but there wasn’t time in Parliament to amend the law, hence why it has never been done!!! What bellend thought that level of detail should be written into a law about a bridge.

It just seems we are all a bit crap now and have our priorities completely screwed up. Why are we no longer striving to be the best or safest, cleanest, most efficient, etc, etc. We are just content to stay as is and a bit lack lustre.

Rant over.

I’m confused. I’ve been paying by card on the Severn Bridge for years now.

Because our governing members are governing for such small periods of time they are only interested in their personal short term gain?

Maybe things would be different if a majority of the general public voted based on matters that actually effect them rather than one lunatic driving a van into a few people?

Maybe we should vote for a leader who has actual political beliefs rather than a linear, self serving dick who will say whatever they think people want to hear.

On the other hand, who are these countries that are living it up?

Harsh but true. The general population who read news papers and vote like they are gospel..
It’s gonna be a slow painful demise for the UK.

Everything and everyone is awful.

Next.

It’s all gone a bit sh*te since the referendum. We were bumbling along, triple A* and everything. Bloody UKIP got involved and now we are an international embarrassment. Honestly; we should just fess up to our mistake, enthusiastically Brejoin Europe, and hope everybody will have the good grace to welcome us back in.

UKIP and every single Leave voter that you know have a lot to answer for.

No it isn’t, the UK is a great country full of great people. Get over your personal political disappointments and enjoy everything Britain has to offer you. The grass is definitely not greener on the other side.

I left the UK in 2001

Had chances to return and I have thought about it…….but I wouldnt bother to nowadays

I visit family and friends from time to time and the decay is evident. Perhaps I see it because I’m only there so occasionally

It’s what you make of it. Stop whining.

Sadly a lot of the time it is what other people make it and I do wonder what kind of country some of us want the UK to be.

I couldn’t care less whether we are the 5th, 6th, 7th or 20th largest economy in the world (which seems to be an obsession with our political “elite”); I’d rather the UK be a world leader in equality, healthcare, education, personal-freedom and honest foreign policy.

It certainly is not perfect but the UK has a lot of things going for it.

Us cars do pollute more greenhouse emissions due to being gas gussets this is different to air quality particular emmisions. 30,000 people die of conditions related to pollution not of pollution. It may be that pollution exasibates their problem , it may cause their problem it (pollution) may have nothing to do with their personal case but pollution could be a factor. This is very different to 30,000 die each year from pollution.

It’s what you make of it.

It really isn’t. It is like being in a team and finding out that most of the team are deluded, selfish and have no idea what being in a team means..

Ah, Britain has been quarter arsed ever since the time when we no longer ruled the waves with big wooden ships.

But at the risk of sounding like an echo it is what you make of it.

Because our governing members are governing for such small periods of time they are only interested in their personal short term gain?

Maybe things would be different if a majority of the general public voted based on matters that actually effect them rather than one lunatic driving a van into a few people?

Maybe we should vote for a leader who has actual political beliefs rather than a linear, self serving dick who will say whatever they think people want to hear.

This has always been true… well except the dick bit … it’s just that it has more recently gone from a mix of “what people want to hear” and a dash of reality to “what people want to hear this week/month”.

Much as politics has always had meaningless soundbites social media has made this increasingly prevalent.

I’d rather the UK be a world leader in equality, healthcare, education, personal-freedom and honest foreign policy.

Good luck with that.

I think it’s fair to say in an historical context that we are past our best. That may not be a bad thing.

The tinsel is finally being torn off.

The UK has been strutting the world stage for the last 70 years or so with a fur coat and no knickers. Two world wars did for us. The Suez Crisis should have awoken us to the new realities.

However it’s a country with lots going for it and it’s full of good people. It could be a great country if we stopped pursuing vainglorious military pretensions.

Perhaps if we can eliminate the notion of superiority due to birth rather than merit we will have a chance.

We do a very good job of selling ourselves to ourselves. Usually at the same time as running down other countries.

Good luck with that

Is that a clichéd, cynical comment or a supportive, hopeful desire to make this world a better place?

I don’t mean to pick on you but I sure as hell wish people would quit being cynical and add their weight to making this country truly great in a way that it has claimed to be but never actually achieved.

It’s a very different country than I thought it was a few years ago – run-down, petty, racist and a laughing stock.

We can try to survive and do okay in our own little bubbles, but when we’re surrounded and ruled by idiots then it’s difficult.

*see national football team as an indicator of our countries expectations versus it’s usual achievements

We are worse at some stuff better at others, we do give business too much and the the wellbing of our people too little influence in our desicions.

Whats feels bad at the moment is how divided we are politically, racially, age, wealth and health.

That time when Bo-Jo said that H&S is for stupid people

Or,

That other time when our PM said that great swathes of protection should be swept away

These two happen to be Conservatives, but they’re both typical of a govts who are in thrall to the needs and requirements of businesses and massive corporations who see protection of the environment and their own workforce as someone elses’ problem. Cheap fashion, cheap food, these things are only economically possible unless the true cost of making them is either hidden from view (made by brown people many miles away), or the consequences of making them happen to others (the rivers and forests of the same brown people many miles away). Asking a corporation (like say VW) to reduce it’s EBITDA to make sure that kids can breathe isn’t going to happen, unless we make them. to get around it, they bend the rules through daft politicians who don’t (or do, but don’t care) understand where their responsibilities lie.

I think possibly “we’re” about to find out that GB isn’t all that we thought it was – empire’s long gone and the embers of that boost are pretty much out economically and politically

We’re a small island with a big economy that’s to quite a degree sustained by a house-price bubble that in turn is dependent on London’s status as a financial centre mixed with it’s popularity as a place to sink/launder/hide dodgy cash amongst overseas “investors”

Yes, it’s possible that Farage’s golden dream of a bright new outward-facing world-trading future just could come to pass but it’s a bloody long shot and pretty much depends on luck and patronage of one or more actual superpowers. Oh, yeah, and skilled, subtle work by our politicians 😆 🙄

Short answer: Oh, shit – The globe’s not pink any more. What should we do now ?

It’s like suddenly being thrown back into the 1970s, when everyone was talking about “managed decline”, and the country was slowly falling apart.

Only we’re not being as nice about it now; we’re a nation sharply divided.

This isn’t a political complaint of should we be in the EU or not or should the Tories be in power. The crap safety standards are just as much the fault of Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

This I totally believe in.

sargey2003 – Member

I couldn’t care less whether we are the 5th, 6th, 7th or 20th largest economy in the world (which seems to be an obsession with our political “elite”); I’d rather the UK be a world leader in equality, healthcare, education, personal-freedom and honest foreign policy.

Best description I’ve heard of the UK was from an old matelot…”it’s a small Island in a cold sea”

We do a very good job of selling ourselves to ourselves. Usually at the same time as running down other countries.

‘Nationalism is a silly cock crowing on his own dung-hill.’

But this time? Yes, the hill of shit certainly is very ****** high, yet the crowing is tellingly sparse. ‘It’s what you make of it’?

We’ve been Robinson Crusoed by our parents.

Worse ‘character-building’ ploy ever.

‘And don’t trust any foreigners’

It really isn’t. It is like being in a team and finding out that most of the team are deluded, selfish and have no idea what being in a team means..

No.. it’s like the teachers pet who always got to choose who got picked for the football team.. The teacher decided his pet was a bad idea. So the ex teachers pet is now bitter, slagging the teacher off and running the team down at every opportunity even though it’s the same teacher and the same players, abiding by the same rules and playing to the same standard they were previously.

We’ve been Robinson Crusoed by our parents.

😀

We’ve been Robinson Crusoed by our parents.

Not by mine thankfully. One is dead, the other for all his faults has enough awareness to know that our future is dependent on our “tolerance” of others being re-introduced.

A slight +1 of Oldtalent but slightly better phrased:
Be the change you wish to see.

Just had 4 days last week in Morocco. It struck me there were more beggars and rough sleepers in Manchester than in Marrakesh and a more prevalent stench of rotting rodents.
Hargreaves Lansdown’s observations on the economic outlook are pretty depressing but not at all surprising.

Nah, the view out my window is ace.
As a couple of others have said, be the change you want to see.

I don’t mean to pick on you but I sure as hell wish people would quit being cynical and add their weight to making this country truly great in a way that it has claimed to be but never actually achieved.

be the change you want to see.

Not challenging or opposing either statement, but genuinely interested to see what people think this entails?

Supporting local business? Staycations? All of us running for local council? Voting the ‘right’ way?

I tend to keep my head down in a lot of respects (other than bitching about politics here and on FB) and have been lucky to lead a pretty charmed life so far. I have all sorts of ideas for what I would do if I was first minister (make the Seagull Scotland’s national bird being No.1 8) ) but then looking at the political landscape around us also realise that not one of my wonderful ideas would 1) Work or 2) Make it through the gauntlet of the Murdoch/Dacre press…

So how do I throw my weight behind my country?

I couldn’t care less whether we are the 5th, 6th, 7th or 20th largest economy in the world (which seems to be an obsession with our political “elite”); I’d rather the UK be a world leader in equality, healthcare, education, personal-freedom and honest foreign policy

^Oh, this x 100.

I think that there’s a growing realisation that society isn’t working for a growing number of people and the party in power and the press can’t skew the vote for much longer. Sooner or later you reach a tipping point.

There’s a reason why there are some voices in politics calling for only property owners to be allowed to vote.

Maybe try living in say Italy or Spain for example and you might think differently. I’ve lived abroad quite a bit. It’s not so rosey elsewhere.

Plenty of good people and good things here. UK

I think there will be a tipping point where the pound is properly crap where people “wake up” and say “hang on a second…”

And tbh its not far away, pound is already, historically, properly crap .

I find it is getting more and more difficult to stay positive, i have done nothing but work since i was 15 and started as kitchen porter, did my A-levels in a year as desperate to join the army, was injured so went to uni for 3 years whilst i recovered, went back in to army only to then be a casualty of cut backs and to find that the promises that my qualifications would see me right in civvie street was BS. Got a job in a law firm at the bottom of the rung, went to night school for four years to qualify, then made redundant when Government decided any shyster can call themselves a lawyer and deal with injury claims. Went to work on the Defendant side and made redundant twice in three years from insurance companies.

So i’ve despite having been laid off 4 times from various roles, i’ve never once claimed benefits, but any savings i’ve had have gone out of the window, i’m earning less now at 42 than i was at 21. My pay hasn’t changed for 4 years, my wife works all hours in the NHS and has had no pay rise for 3 years and yet is often asked to do jobs way above her Band Scale.

But despite all this, i try to be positive, things will turn round, UK is still a great place, but then i see the news, see the Daily Mail, see the shite that pours out of the politicians self-serving mouths, remember that half the UK was stupid enough to vote for Brexit on the back of half a promise and 3 soundbites and that our current Government contains people that have been accused of covering up child molestation, have been proven to have fiddled their expenses and have lied to us and done more u-turns than a drunk-driver in a police stop video and do wonder why and what the future will be like for my daughter.

I think our current situation was summed up by that fruit farmer in Kent on the news yesterday, who voted for Leave, then is now moaning he doesn’t have enough immigrant labour to run his farms and said only one local lad had applied for a job there in the last few years and he lasted a day. Stupid and short-sighted.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/the-sun-and-daily-mail-fuelling-prejudice-racist-violence-hate-crime-speech-uk-ecri-report-a7351856.html

No it isn’t, the UK is a great country full of great people. Get over your personal political disappointments and enjoy everything Britain has to offer you. The grass is definitely not greener on the other side.

Quite right…politics is shit, but the sun is shining, our countryside is wonderful, our children are shining beacons of hope and we are alive and healthy. Enjoy what you have and accentuate the positives……you’re going to be a long time dead!