Little Britain - the state of England today

I fear if all you know of England is rural, beautiful Dorset and then equally beautiful rural France then what goes on anywhere nowadays must be an awful shock. I do wonder what the people who come to our shores in small boats make of it all. Once here they are trapped on a relatively small island.

MerylStreep

MissAdventure
In a nutshell ??

I would no more dream of putting on GN what I do than skateboard down Everest.

Why not? I sometimes bumble in on GN just to show those who may be blinkered in one area just what others might be doing in a completely different way.
By the way we had 10 toilets in our French property and 3 septic tanks. Believe me a hole in the ground or a compost loo would have caused far less trouble!

MissAdventure
In a nutshell ??

I would no more dream of putting on GN what I do than skateboard down Everest.

Alegrias1

Well I was hoping for a grown up discussion rather than sarcasm and ad hominem arguments.

Vain hope I guess.

Just to add that IMO , OP set the tone of ad hominem arguing with her
Why aren't you all caring about the wrongs? And, if you do, why aren't you doing something about it?

Touchy, touchy.

Methinks they do protest too much.

Where does one begin?

the early fifties we moved to Dorset. Parents under 30 with 3 children. We got a council house, possibly because of my Father's job - I don't know. In those days we had one bath a week and didn't have individual towels. The loo was in the bathroom
For heavens sake! Many households in the 50’s considered themselves lucky to have an indoor loo at all, so your moans about not having a separate toilet do not tug my heartstrings.
The England that I loved has disappeared - well we can all regret changes for the worse, and god knows there are plenty in countries all over the world- but how rose-tinted actually are your glasses?.
Finally- don’t do as I do , do as I say?
I care about these things and yet I don't live in the UK at the moment. Why aren't you all caring about the wrongs? And, if you do, why aren't you doing something about it?
I find this blatantly offensive
Who says we don’t care? Who says we don’t do anything about it? Who says maybe stay in a country and work or fight to do what you can for society - or decamp to fresh fields and snipe from the sidelines?

Well I was hoping for a grown up discussion rather than sarcasm and ad hominem arguments.

Vain hope I guess.

I find it highly amusing, and regularly laugh like a drain about it all.
Is that the kind of answer you're looking for?
It really is a ridiculous question.
People do what they can, if they're able, and according to the means available to them, exactly the same as folk all over the world.

With kudos to those volunteering in their local areas, I think the OP is more concerned with the apparent lack of concern over things such as erosion of environmental standards, lack of protection for tenants and disregard for the commitments we have made to other countries.

Do we care about that? What is everybody doing about that?

I like your TV description of the British MawBe! And don't forget, France actually buys a large number of English programmes because the viewing audience loves observing our quaint British ways. (and also because their own dramas aren't as good!) I think the French are sometimes envious of the beautiful UK.

I rather liked losing touch with my homeland whilst living abroad. It gave me time to let go, to destress and not get het up about politics. I came back to England far less judgemental. Live and let live. Most importantly it gave me the realisation that I couldn't change the world, but that I had to volunteer in a little way at local level to make a difference.

Sorry if this is repeating previous discussion, (I have not been on GN as long as others), but maybe the very fact that it is being repeated means there is truth in the niggles.

MayBee70
Is this another attack on someone who has no right to care about the U.K. because they don’t live here?
Ellianne
No, not at all. It is an interesting discussion touching on many aspects - primarily the perception of one's homeland from a distance. Maybe the title of the thread was a bit provocative and the suggestion that people might not care seems unfair, but as I tired to explain earlier on, it is quite common for expats to take this view

But I do wonder, from what you say, if it says more about the expats holding such views, than about the country they have left.
Distance does not always lend focus, and society is in a constant change of flux and development - good and bad.
“Keeping in touch” through ex-pat websites or British TV in no way confers a full picture - if I were to judge or assess the country where I live now through the eyes of TV it would be one hell of an weird place- Eastenders meets Downton Abbey, with a bit of Love Island and just a sprinkling of Newsnight?
Maybee makes a good point - there have been similar threads /discussions in the past and somehow they have always niggled.

MayBee70

Is this another attack on someone who has no right to care about the U.K. because they don’t live here?

No, not at all. It is an interesting discussion touching on many aspects - primarily the perception of one's homeland from a distance. Maybe the title of the thread was a bit provocative and the suggestion that people might not care seems unfair, but as I tired to explain earlier on, it is quite common for expats to take this view.

When I lived in France to show my appreciation I volunteered every afternoon to run the after school club in the village and helped children with their homework. I also supported the local SPA and ended up taking on a couple of stray cats! Back in the UK I now do beach litter pick ups and bake for my elderly neighbour. Caring goes on in every country and people all over are doing their best

Law to put private companies at the centre of the NHS passes second reading. Where are the news reports?

Backhander: the new Health and Care Bill will apparently allow private companies to take your tax money – intended to support the NHS – and then use “commercial confidentiality” laws to hide how they spend it.

What a blackout.

The Health and Care Bill – a planned law by the Conservative government that aims to put private, profit-making businesses at the centre of the English NHS – passed by a huge majority just after 7pm today (July 14).

At the time of writing – more than two and a half hours later – I found only one news report about it, in Scottish website The National.

Where’s your report, BBC? Where’s yours, ITV, Channel 4, Sky News? How about you, The Guardian? The Mirror? Anyone else at all?

voxpoliticalonline.com/2021/07/14/law-to-put-private-companies-at-the-centre-of-the-nhs-passes-second-reading-where-are-the-news-reports/

In just a couple of days over one million people have signed a petition to the FA, the UK government demanding that those guilty of racism be banned permanently from football matches.
People here are generally decent and do care.

Football hooliganism and racism are both alive and thrive in France.
Today my house has 3 bedrooms and 3 bath/shower rooms. And at the same time there are tens of thousands of families living in sub standard housing. WHY?
People live in disgusting slums and shanty towns in France - perhaps petition the French government and ask WHY?
UK has just reduced overseas aid as a %of GDP to the level of that in France.

There are riots in France as we speak.
Things set on fire, and tear gas used by police.

MayBee70

Is this another attack on someone who has no right to care about the U.K. because they don’t live here?

No, it is a response to someone who has watched a TV news programme which has shown the worst aspects of life in England and thinks that is the norm and assumes that no-one cares or does anything.

France has very many similar problems which the OP may never see, because, as she says, she lives a fairly privileged life there and perhaps does not see those problems and the reality of life for many in France.

Perhaps it might be considered ill-mannered to campaign for better conditions for the many under-privileged in one's adopted country.

Hmmm, I care about the dreadful social problems and poor housing for immigrants and the poor in France, but I wouldn’t go on social media ( on a French Gransnet) to complain about conditions there, when I live in England and only know what I see on some tv news programmes. See?
Things in England and the whole of the UK are much better than they ever used to be, particularly as regards housing, but in other areas as well.People have more than they have ever done before.

No.
I think it's a defensive response to being told that those of us who live here don't care, and are being asked what we're doing about these issues.

Is this another attack on someone who has no right to care about the U.K. because they don’t live here?

She isn’t having a moan. She actually cares about what is happening to this country unlike some people.

It reads Dinahmo that you are simply having a moan about the ‘state’ of the UK, whilst not living here to really know much about what’s going on and thinking things were better in ‘the good old days’ here.Things are much better now!
You also know that France has many of the same social problems that we do here.

Who do you donate money to and what exactly and how do you campaign, and where, the UK or France?

However, I campaign and I donate.

Do you mean you campaign against the extremely poor living conditions of those families who live in slums and shanty towns in France? And donate to organisations which campaign for better housing?

Or campaign for better housing in England?

Actually Latin is very good for teaching grammar and the use of language. I persuaded DD to take Latin instead of PE because I thought it would look better on her CV but she has found it very useful writing her own papers and correcting other people's.

Don't start me on the cuts to art, music, dance and theatre. God forbid that we should have children who were encouraged to be creative who knows what that might lead to.

Thanks for clearing that up.