Can you name one area where things are working better than 13 years ago.

The Internet is better and faster - we can monitor our use of heating from the municipal plant and our use of electricity, by simple accessing the relevant home-page.

No need any longer to waste hours waiting for someone to come and read the meter either, it is "read" online.

Here all government depts. can likewise be contacted online, as can hospitals and the GPs.

All right, the railway online ticket booking is a right pain in the you-know-what, but reserving railway tickets always was.

Can't agree that banking has improved I thing it's got far worse than it's ever been. Local branches closing, staff in local branches don't know their products - recently had a query on an account only to be told they don't have such an account, told the chap yes you do I already have one. Eventually spoke to mgr who said same thing, gave her my a/c number and asked her to look it up and no apology just said she didn't know that they did such things - couldn't answer my query though. Regularly have to hang on phone for around 30 mins to get through to a bank and then get transferred to to other depts or told they will ring me back which often doesn't happen. Dreadful service from my 2 banks!

|The ban on smoking in public places became law in England in 2007, Scotland and Wales brought it into law earlier I believe. I agree it is an improvement, but not down to the current administration.

Online shopping I suppose, but can that be down to government? More like market forces, same as improved broadband and mobile networks.

The only centralised service that has improved that I can think of is the gov.uk website where everything from taxing a car to checking Foreign Office advice on travel is in one place. Not sure when this started though.

Scans for cancer treatment and cancer treatment in general. With each passing year more is learned and more people are saved.

I love the Buschecker app which tells me when a bus is going to arrive (when it’s two minutes away I put my coat on, lock up and cross the road to the bus stop). Absolutely brilliant. I don’t think it was around 13 years ago

Yes

M0nica

Huge growth in renewable energy and offshore wind farms, due as much to advances in technology as anything else. This means the amount of money going into research into emission free energy production

The improvement in electric car technology making them now more practical to run by now going considerable distances on one charge.

Has all this happened in the last 13 years?

What a good question. I can think of things that are different today but what is actually better? Perhaps, complaints of sexual and physical abuse of adults and children are being taken seriously now. Or is it?

Been trying to think what’s better now.
I’ve retired. Genuinely can’t think of anything that’s better now than 13years ago.

I have a better husband!

Online shopping. Living in a rural area seven miles from the nearest shop, I am very grateful for online deliveries of all sorts.

Huge growth in renewable energy and offshore wind farms, due as much to advances in technology as anything else. This means the amount of money going into research into emission free energy production

The improvement in electric car technology making them now more practical to run by now going considerable distances on one charge.

Modern cars are less polluting? Computers are faster? Computer games and graphics cards are better. We have private companies making space rockets. We have better mobile phones….

Women's sport is given more coverage. The lights come on properly. The original low energy bulbs that replaced incandescent lighting were rubbish.

Online shopping and delivery but it's probably to the detriment of the high street.

I'm not sure it's what you wanted
BUT
Government ministers are better at denying responsibility and shifting the blame. They also move more quickly from one Dept to another so you can never be absolutely certain who is responsible for the latest cock up!!

The efficient recycling and composting collections in our area mean that far less rubbish is going into landfill now. Although this won't benefit us directly it will help future generations as methane emissions (and land used for tips) will be reduced.
Although local authority recycling has been going on for more than 20 years around this area, the regular collections now mean that more people bother to do it. Many people don't have space to store recycling if collections are less regular, but there is no excuse now.
When I recycle I think of the scifi films about the future, with people living in domes etc., and believe that every bit of recycling that I do will be of benefit in the long-term.

LRavenscroft

Non smoking areas.

Yes, I'm really grateful for these, especially on public transport and when out for a meal.

*silverlining48 - I am with you .... I really fear for my granddaughters growing up in this.

Katie59

DaisyAnne

Katie59

The challenge for the day

Renewable energy - there must be others.

How has that improved Katie? The government has cancelled the subsidies, so growth in the domestic area seems to have shrunk.

I hope we are using less carbon-based power, but I don't know if that is true. I can have a Ten Point Plan or "proposed" reforms. However, I would love to know the positive things that have happened rather than just been talked about over the last 13 years.

Sorry you hadn’t noticed that we are using up to 60%
renewable electricity, conserving gas during those times or that solar is now much cheaper. Some schemes allow you to export to grid a peak rates, at 10am today we were only using 25% from gas.

I am poor - my gas boiler is over 20 years old, and I am entitled to help from the ECO4 scheme.

I filled in the form however because what I need is not a new gas boiler, but Solar PV Panels, as the room I live in doesn't have radiators and is heated by electric underfloor heating at a cost of over £21 a day - hence I have had NO heating on all winter. It costs, just to run electrical appliances, have a bowlful of hot water a day (can't get to my bathroom) pus handwashing, 1 load of washing and drying a week and 1 dishwasher load - £150 a month! I am paying £100 a month, so am in debt already, the £301 cost of living payment will only cover my energy debt, nothing for food, nothing to improve my miserable existence, nothing to maintain my house - hence the need for the Solar Panels!! But no, am getting a combi boiler, which after offering it to me in the first place, basically the Govt are saying that it needs to come out in 7 years anyway! I do actually have room for a heat pump, (but not the money) my house is completely south facing and there are no trees overshadowing it .... what would be the most sensible thing? They would also keep me alive in the winter, as there were days when it was 2*C in here ....

I cant think of anything sadly. We seem to be coasting along from crisis to crisis. Listening to a British woman in Sudan on r4 this morning who has 2 children. She has contacted the authorities but not heard a word from them about how they are going to get out from there. She could hardly speak through her tears.
Then later it was reported that 77% of businesses feel brexit has affected them because of workforce shortage and costs of transporting goods. An 8 generation lace company which made lace fir Catherine's wedding dress interviewed is about to go out of business.
I used to feel that in the main we were a safe, honest, efficient and reliable country, but cant believe a word they say now. Cynical? Moi? Oui!

Wisefalcon

Simple stuff that is automated seems to have improved, say like a driving license renewal, or change of status etc.
Where it all gets complicated is when there's too many boxes, too much information, too many hoops. That's just life I think. But it's not progress.

Improved yes for those that are digitally active, there are still many that aren't, my mum for one!

NotAGran55

Banking.

Why do you say that? Not saying it isn't wrong, but just wondered?

Most High Street banks have gone now, not everyone has digital access, and many elderly people still rely on their bank and won't necessarily know how to do things without it - my mum for example wouldn't have a clue (not that she does use a bank, I do it for her now) ....

More women in senior positions.
Bullying in the workplace more easily called out.

Whitewavemark2

No I can’t how ever hard I try. I get so depressed at the way our country has been absolutely ravaged by this government. This morning I was depressing myself even more by reading about “Freeport’s” and worrying about what will happen to Dartmoor and the New Forest if the plans go ahead. Apparently we can’t find out as the planning is commercially sensitive. But the fact that planning laws will be put aside in these designated areas should set off every alarm bell in the country.

NO ..... not one.

Land grab by the Dutch Government from their farmers, in the name of climate change allegedly show the way it's going, 15 minute cities, surveillance cameras everywhere. In China, a chap crossed the road in the wrong place and his place was on big screens all over the city - social credit scoring. You Gov (lots of money made by Zahadi there) let out the results of a poll saying a huge amount of people wanted to live in these 15 min cities, but that wasn't the question they asked! They phrased the questions so the result was, like most of these polls, skewed.

Planning is 'commercially sensitive', says it all really! I fear for my DGD's, this will not be the country I grew up in sadly.

Anyone not seeing the way this is going needs to do some research - and turn the 'emergency alert notifications' off on your phones now!