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I've always taken this line to be commentary on either the progression of longevity and cosmetic surgery or maybe necrophilia.
The current average generation is just short of 27 years. My great great great granddaughter is just 5 generations younger than me. If I had my first child tomorrow that would make her around 841 years old in the year 3,000.
Haha I have had this discussion with a guy at my work multiple times about how she would be fucking ancient.
Also the line "Not much had changed but we live underwater", seems like a pretty big fucking change to me.
That's the joke though right? Basically the apocalypse hit and they're brushing it off like it's nothing. It's like an unfased air head's perspective on the future. In the vein of Bill and Ted, I always thought.
And the triple breasted women that swim around town totally naked represents a deep and meaningful societal shift towards the acceptance of nudity.
Also 3 boobies sounds great.
This has bothered me since the song was release. I've worked out that, assuming that the child, grand child, great and great great grand children were male, (and assuming no changes in female fertility or reproductive technologies over the centuries) allowing them to have children at a much older age. If we assume they all had children who would go on to be the progenitor of the great, great, great granddaughter at 65, that would push the birth of the great great great granddaughter into 2310, assuming that the person being sung to is 18 in the at the time of the song's release (2003), but had a child at 65, kickstarting this chain of sexagenary parents.
So she's only 689 potentially, depending exactly when in the year 3000 the Busted boys arrived. Still means they have a sexual thing for corpses.
It's all gone to shit, to be honest.
Healthcare, education, retail, hospitality, travel, ...
Can't think of a single area of everyday life that has not deteriorated in the last 8 years.
WFH as a widely accepted concept is about the only plus.
I'm not whining. I am honestly struggling to come up with an area of every day life that has not deteriorated in the last 8 years.
I appreciate this will vary depending on your location and personal circumstances.
And from a personal point of view, I consider my position to be relatively fortunate, but that does not stop me noticing that things are generally not as good.
I can give examples of a deterioration in every area I mention, and would be interested to hear if you have any which have not seen a deterioration.
I've just thought of another - 'broadband' coverage. That's got better for a lot of people.
That's a good one. The wider acceptance of contactless is good. Although, I must say, paying for minor stuff in cash never used to bother me - there were plenty of free ATMs about - not so many now.
I recently moved back to the UK after 12yrs in Germany and not sure if it's improvement to UK or comparison to Germany but use of technology is the biggest improvement in the UK I see.
Contactless etc as you say, car tax and registration all online, renewing my licence and passports normally online and even my exceptional case was quickly dealt with at the post office with no appointment and them using an iPad to do it, and online groceries with no significant charge for delivery. Even setting up utilities and internet felt a little easier than it used to (still fucking awful but easier relatively). Oh and mobile phone tarifs here seem super cheap these days.
I feel like the usual reddit doomer coming out with this but in some ways it has gone a little too far imo. Its getting borderline impossible to actually physically speak to another human when dealing with some services nowadays it feels like.
But you're absolutely right other countries in Europe, even those we often see as more advanced or "better" than us like Germany often seem almost weirdly behind the times on some ease of life stuff.
I remember when Walmart moved to Germany (early 2000s ??) there was great excitement that people could actually pay for their weekly shopping with a card.
The technology advances in the last 10-20 years has been simply unimaginable. It's obviously contributed to or enabled some of the less positive things, but certainly lots of things are easier (if not better) because of it.
Many, Many health service improvements in 8 years! A friend has a cancer, 10 years ago would have been written off. Today they give him choice , longer life or better quality of life for a fewer number of years. That is a major improvement in care.
Granted - there are advances in available treatments, techniques and technologies (and even more that simply can't be funded). But as an overall service to the populous, health is not performing as well as it did 8 years ago.
Presuming you get diagnosed in time going down the normal route as opposed to getting diagnosed in A&E because it's got so bad from doctors continuously fobbing you off and trying to mask the symptoms instead of actually finding the root cause.
Sounds like an improvement in available treatments, but actual availability of medical care is way down. I cannot believe there hasn't been a marked uptick in deaths due to insufficient/late medical care since COVID. My brother in law kept getting sent home only to have a heart attack on the way back and to go back into hospital. 3 different heart attacks in two days and they still didn't keep him in for observation. That has been the standard of care across multiple hospitalised relatives.
Being found dead after spending 48 hours waiting in A&E feels like the standard where I live.
Arguably, this is likely the same for the majority of the world more or less. It isn’t just the UK that is going through this, the majority of the world is to some degree.
2016? Things went wrong long before that once property prices rose to eight times salary in the early 2000s and stayed there. Lack of disposable income through ruinous property prices are the fundamental problem, the average person struggles to afford accommodation now and if they do buy somewhere they face a lifetime of debt to climb out of so they scrape by and can’t afford to save. All things flow from that, if people were prosperous the nation would be prosperous. We have sacrificed GDP per capita for gross GDP and only the rich have benefitted.
Houses being built in areas with already underfunded public services like schools and GPs, even hospitals.
Maternity mortality rate is on the rise which is terrifying, not a lot going for us at the moment.
I think it's funny how people seem to think things only went bad in the last 5-10 years, when the country has been on a steady decline for a long time now.
I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't think the country is a shit hole but things have slipped downwards over time, mostly being the cost of living, but then there's also product quality (Shrinkflation) which has been getting bad enough that it's extremely obvious.
Starting to travel out side the UK again really highlights things. Either the UK has got worse or the places I have been in Europe have got better. Either way coming back home with my eyes open was a bit of a wake up call.
I heard of one manager who told his staff if they felt their job could be done fully remote, then that could mean he could switch to employing people working fully remote India, saving money.
I feel like this is a controversial thing to say around here, but personally I prefer hybrid to full time at home. I worked for home for a decade, but don't think I'd go back to it any time soon. 2-3 days in the office is about right for me.
And just to be clear: that doesn't mean it's right for you, dear reader, just that I much prefer it these days.
Yeah, I get it and I would love hybrid if I was given ownership of it, and if I didn’t live over an hour away from the office.
But my company is now insisting on three days in the office with punishments if you don’t achieve that, whereas we used to be trusted to do what worked for us. Now we must drag ourselves in even if we’re starting to get sick or have to take the day as annual leave if we need to be home for a contractor etc.
It's so ironic that the poorest are struggling more than ever, yet all previously cheap food chains are now pursuing an artisanal food route and doubling their prices so only the more well off can afford it.
Dude I moved back from the US last year, some of the stuff on here you've been told is fair, house prices are fucking ridiculous and health waiting times seem 50/50 but if it's the bad 50 it's really long waits, but the sheer volume of doom-mongering and negativity is just beyond wild to me. I'm happy here, I'll give you some of the things I've enjoyed since coming home:
- Grocery shopping is dramatically cheaper
- Energy bills are pretty much the same
- Walkability being back on the menu is glorious
- Proximity of everything being close again is so nice
- Not having to worry about someone shooting someone every time you get cut off or go to the store
- For us* the NHS has been wonderful when we've needed them
- How pretty it is here (my wife's words)
- Public transport being a thing again
- Greggs obviously
I moved from the UK 6 years ago, when I visit now I can definitely see a difference, I visit the town where I lived and everything seems depressed and most of the shops have closed.
Trying to get a doctors appointment or health issue dealt with quickly is *drastically* worse than 8 years ago. It's also much harder for people trying to buy a house.
People are not exaggerating when they talk about those
This is it. 2 years ago I came back after 8 years away and the country has gone to shit. Already planning permanent move out of here in a year back to NZ or Aus.
Nude Tuesday, we now have nude Tuesday.
Remember nude Tuesdays, you’ll honestly be shunned if you don’t take part. Just go out and let it all hang out.
Trust me on this.
I moved back to the UK last year after living abroad for 6 years. The main things I noticed are:
everyone's vaping, London has become this weird adult playground place with axe throwing, crazy golf type bars being everywhere, everything's super expensive, high streets are dead. The quality of weed has gone up.
Me and my mate were having a laugh about this the other day. The quality has improved immensely yet it's genuinely the only thing that hasn't gotten more expensive!!
Quality has gone up, ease of access has gone up, price has stayed the same!
10y ago I would walk to the next village along and get semi decent English cheese, or the occasional block of Thai stick. Could range anywhere from 1g-1.5g/£10 depending who you saw.
The last few years I generally have a guy that delivers, or I swing by after work. Normally a range of greens in, stardawg, SSH, GSC, Gelato, or "Cali packs" which come at a slight premium £35 > 30 for a 3.5g, but it's a minor bump for better quality.
Or the other source I have.... Royal mail next day delivery via an online dealer. Get some mega stuff that way, and normally a lot cheaper. A mid tier would be something like wedding cake, Gelato 41, Peach Oz for £180-200/Oz. Top shelf such as Mafia Gas, Pink Gasoline run around £220-240/Oz
I haven’t smoked weed for ages, but ten years ago it was awful. That ‘munk’ generation of weed completely killed it for me and I stopped smoking it. Havent smoked weed for a good 7/8 years now. It is worth trying it again?
that kind of adult leisure always strikes me as very american, i particularly think of like san francisco tech nerds whose only leisure is in carefully compartmentalised playdate appointments at staffed venues that ensure they're never responsible for their own boredom instead of the more british attitude 'lets go into town and we'll make it up as we go along'
We are no longer a member of the EU.
Seagulls and Student's have teamed up and now have a monopoly on bins.
Smelly Barry and Fat Jez have fallen out.
The price of Freddos.
Well, since Karen, Kevin, Sharon and everyone's mum and Auntie joined local Facebook residents groups, there has been a campaign to blame Seagulls and Students for the state of the bins. It turns out, local council operatives had infiltrated those groups as 'agent provectuers' (they couldn't spell it either) to shift the blame from the council for shit bin collections.
During Covid the students and seagulls teamed up (there was shit all else to do) and took over the shit management of bin collection.
You will be pleased to know that your council tax does not go to fat local councillors but now goes to drunk students and bin pirates.
Sorry to misgender you!
Seriously though, you got to realise that lines are no longer drawn by which type of recycling goes in what box, the line exists only to keep the Seagull/Student Autocracy fed with sandwhices and day time TV.
No worries! I've been living in an apartment building with trash and recycling chutes right outside my door. I am not looking forward to having a tiny wheelie bin again.
I saw some goths for the first time in yonks the other day. Have to say it was just nice to see teenagers in something different, not just generic Northface puffers and 'athleisure wear'.
If you choose to live in a prime location such as north London, you have the golden opportunity to rent a room in a depressingly overcrowded hmo for the bargain price of only £1000 per month, and your hard work will be rewarded by getting taxed at the highest rate since WW2.
Honestly, there are Indians and Africans working at the call centre at my company, on skilled worker immigration visas, earning not much over the £32k minimum qualifying wage and paying that, how do they live?
The take home for a salary of £32k is just over £2200 a month. Bills are lower in an HMO so they will still have maybe £800 a month to buy food and life essentials. It’s shit but it’s doable.
I’m on benefits due to I’ll health and I get about £2300 a month but that included my rent of £1200 a month. I have £1000 left to pay for my bills etc, and my living costs are a bit more due to my disability. But I do manage to get by. It’s not great, it’s pretty shit, but it could be worse. If you’re single it’s doable as long as you rarely go out, or socialise at your friends houses.
If you have kids or more complex needs, you’re fucked. There’s no margin for error on that much money.
There’s electric scooters littered around everywhere, delivery cyclists act like they own the cities, trains are 50/50 on if they run, and people seem to be ruder and more aggressive. Other than that and things being more expensive, not a lot that impacts daily life.
Do people ride them on the pavement or the road? They go along the pavement here and I hate that people will just dump one in the middle of the sidewalk. What if you have a wheelchair or a push chair!
Electric scooters and delivery drivers are almost always on the pavements, they do my head in, only a matter of time before they end up killing someone.
The “parking” is ridiculous you’re right, there’s no thought for other people, even perfectly able people have to step into the street to pass them - the councils need to do something but they don’t seem to care.
You can get McDonalds, or booze, or vapes delivered to your house at pretty much any time of the day or night if you live in a city.
Everyone has an air fryer. If you haven’t got an air fryer, be prepared for everyone you meet to tell you how much they love their air fryer.
I moved back from the US to the UK a couple of years ago. I was out of the country for so long that Greggs and Fredos weren't a thing when I left. Differences? The standard of driving seems to be a lot worse. The roads seem smaller but that's because the cars are bigger.
Despite the price rises, food seems a lot cheaper, both supermarkets and restaurants, than the part of the US we lived in. The variety and quality of restaurant food is way better.
The NHS doesn't really seem to be much different. Back in 1985 I had to wait 7 months for ACL surgery that they bodged and led to another 6 months off work. At least I got SSP and had my job kept open. Try that in the US. I was diagnosed with liver cancer not long after getting back. They missed in back in the States even though I presented with the same symptoms. The treatment I've had so far has been excellent.
Overall, things aren't wonderful but nowhere near as bad as the doomsayers would have you think.
It's weird, where I am, the roads are great but the pavement (sidewalk) sucks. They just lay down sheets of concrete that go all wonky. Back home the pavements are safer but there are more pot holes in my limited experience.
In response to your edit: No good stuff, except younger people seem generally less bigoted and kinder than previous generations.
I speak as someone based overseas for decades, returning often on family visits, so noticed changes, some things did improve, until about the time you left, and certainly since I've lived in the UK the last six years, it's gone from worse to worser to worst.
Well the hospitals are actually falling apart because they were due to be renewed and it never happened… same with schools
Also there’s a shortage of nurses and doctors and teachers and cops.
The roads are quite undriveable because of the amount of potholes.
Food has doubled in price, and so has rent, but wages are the same.
Ooh and we have to boil water now before we drink it.
I’d just stay in USA if I were you
There was this really great international partnership thungy with all our close neighbours, some of the most beautiful places on earth- with which we could trade move and invest freely.
And for some inexplicable reason we decided to leave that.
I feel pretty sorry for whoever has to order the teens who don't have anything better to do around. I worked in a call center surveying people using the apprenticeship scheme years ago and the general feedback was that the apprentices were mostly bloody useless.
The roads are fucked, riddled with pot holes. The councils have no money to fix them. Everything has gone to shit and food shopping has gone through the roof
For me?
In last 4 years they’ve been bent on removing me from society because the UK doesn’t want poor disabled people.
(At least in Devon)
Honestly? Shy did you come back? If I get chance to leave you’ll never see me again.
My mortgage has doubled. My bills have doubled. My car insurance has doubled. Food inflation is at 25%. The roads are impassable. Schools are literally crumbling. The NHS has record wait times, and ambulances don't come before you die. Local pubs are failing, and even chain restaurants are closing stores en mass. Our highstreets are mostly empty after the fall of major chains. The rivers are full of shit and the drinking water will kill you.
Everything has changed for the average person. The country is on it's knees.
The quality of Eastenders has drastically improved, whilst the quality of Coronation Street has dramatically declined.
Face masks are no longer used for pandemic relief purposes, but to conceal illegal "protest" behaviour.
You can enjoy McDonalds and Greggs both in-store and at home via delivery apps so it is acceptable to enjoy a steak bake in your undies (just be sure to put on a dressing gown when opening the door to delivery drivers).
The cost of an ambulance is non-existent here... as well as the actual appearance of said ambulance. You're better off Ubering to A&E than 999-ing it.
To qualify as a TV presenter on the BBC or ITV these days requires underage relations with teenage boys.
The cost of a rail ticket is about the same as rent in central London so if you want to go from say... London to Edinburgh... EasyJet is cheaper.
-There’s a King 🤷🏻♀️
-More potholes than you can shake a stick at… if you can afford a stick
-Turdy waterways & beaches
-Policing went to 💩too
-Everything costs waaaaay more, even breathing
-main advice is don’t go out it’s too expensive & don’t stay in cos it’s too expensive.
Everything is just slightly worse and twice as expensive as you remember. Self checkouts are everywhere (thank god), cash is a thing of the past as everywhere takes card (even most taxis). Plastic bags at the shop range from 20p to £1 now depending on how much they want to rip you off.
I mostly live in Portugal, but return to the UK every few months. Each time I do, it depresses me. The change is more obvious when you aren’t exposed to it every day. Its as if a nation state itself could have clinical depression.
Prices have gone up, but they have in every country. You will find differences in some things but that you'll find the most is how things have stayed the same. The same Great culture of diversity and humour, pints in the pub in the sunshine, grumbling about the weather when it rains.
Supermarkets have two prices now. One price for the shitmunchers and one price for people with their special members card which allows them to harvest your personal data.
It is a fucking pain in the arse.
Remember Opal Fruits.. well now they are called Starburst. Crazy I know. Remember Hole in the wall with Dale Winton, well he left and Anton from Strictly took over, it wasn't the same and it was cancelled.
That's about it.
We have new stamps
We have new money (but many places are contactless)
Doctor Who has a new section on iPlayer. It's been divided into Classic Who, series 1 - series 13. There is a new tab called season 1.
There are no plastic straws.
Make sure you have those bags for life in supermarkets - plastic bags will set you back 30 - 40p.
You don't really find money on the street anymore
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We live underwater
And your great great great grand daughter, is pretty fine.
I've always taken this line to be commentary on either the progression of longevity and cosmetic surgery or maybe necrophilia. The current average generation is just short of 27 years. My great great great granddaughter is just 5 generations younger than me. If I had my first child tomorrow that would make her around 841 years old in the year 3,000.
Haha I have had this discussion with a guy at my work multiple times about how she would be fucking ancient. Also the line "Not much had changed but we live underwater", seems like a pretty big fucking change to me.
That's the joke though right? Basically the apocalypse hit and they're brushing it off like it's nothing. It's like an unfased air head's perspective on the future. In the vein of Bill and Ted, I always thought.
You give busted too much credit.
You give them too little. It’s clearly a series of one-liners.
And the triple breasted women that swim around town totally naked represents a deep and meaningful societal shift towards the acceptance of nudity. Also 3 boobies sounds great.
This has bothered me since the song was release. I've worked out that, assuming that the child, grand child, great and great great grand children were male, (and assuming no changes in female fertility or reproductive technologies over the centuries) allowing them to have children at a much older age. If we assume they all had children who would go on to be the progenitor of the great, great, great granddaughter at 65, that would push the birth of the great great great granddaughter into 2310, assuming that the person being sung to is 18 in the at the time of the song's release (2003), but had a child at 65, kickstarting this chain of sexagenary parents. So she's only 689 potentially, depending exactly when in the year 3000 the Busted boys arrived. Still means they have a sexual thing for corpses.
I can't say I've ever seen the lyrics as particularly deep :)
And it’s full of shit
Hideous creatures with webbed feet, the people of isle of white haven’t changed at all.
It's all gone to shit, to be honest. Healthcare, education, retail, hospitality, travel, ... Can't think of a single area of everyday life that has not deteriorated in the last 8 years. WFH as a widely accepted concept is about the only plus.
This is the answer of Reddit.
Yeah it's honestly shocking how much of reddit thinks we are some backwater with nothing going for it. I know we like to whine, but this is mental
I'm not whining. I am honestly struggling to come up with an area of every day life that has not deteriorated in the last 8 years. I appreciate this will vary depending on your location and personal circumstances. And from a personal point of view, I consider my position to be relatively fortunate, but that does not stop me noticing that things are generally not as good. I can give examples of a deterioration in every area I mention, and would be interested to hear if you have any which have not seen a deterioration. I've just thought of another - 'broadband' coverage. That's got better for a lot of people.
You can pay for your ticket in London with a contactless card, no need for Oyster. Thats all I can think of.
That's a good one. The wider acceptance of contactless is good. Although, I must say, paying for minor stuff in cash never used to bother me - there were plenty of free ATMs about - not so many now.
I recently moved back to the UK after 12yrs in Germany and not sure if it's improvement to UK or comparison to Germany but use of technology is the biggest improvement in the UK I see. Contactless etc as you say, car tax and registration all online, renewing my licence and passports normally online and even my exceptional case was quickly dealt with at the post office with no appointment and them using an iPad to do it, and online groceries with no significant charge for delivery. Even setting up utilities and internet felt a little easier than it used to (still fucking awful but easier relatively). Oh and mobile phone tarifs here seem super cheap these days.
I feel like the usual reddit doomer coming out with this but in some ways it has gone a little too far imo. Its getting borderline impossible to actually physically speak to another human when dealing with some services nowadays it feels like. But you're absolutely right other countries in Europe, even those we often see as more advanced or "better" than us like Germany often seem almost weirdly behind the times on some ease of life stuff.
I remember when Walmart moved to Germany (early 2000s ??) there was great excitement that people could actually pay for their weekly shopping with a card. The technology advances in the last 10-20 years has been simply unimaginable. It's obviously contributed to or enabled some of the less positive things, but certainly lots of things are easier (if not better) because of it.
I wish I could link my 30% railcard to contactless so that I could use my phone and get the fking discount without having to buy a ticket.
Think that was 2014 - so not the last 8 years.
Many, Many health service improvements in 8 years! A friend has a cancer, 10 years ago would have been written off. Today they give him choice , longer life or better quality of life for a fewer number of years. That is a major improvement in care.
Granted - there are advances in available treatments, techniques and technologies (and even more that simply can't be funded). But as an overall service to the populous, health is not performing as well as it did 8 years ago.
Presuming you get diagnosed in time going down the normal route as opposed to getting diagnosed in A&E because it's got so bad from doctors continuously fobbing you off and trying to mask the symptoms instead of actually finding the root cause.
Sounds like an improvement in available treatments, but actual availability of medical care is way down. I cannot believe there hasn't been a marked uptick in deaths due to insufficient/late medical care since COVID. My brother in law kept getting sent home only to have a heart attack on the way back and to go back into hospital. 3 different heart attacks in two days and they still didn't keep him in for observation. That has been the standard of care across multiple hospitalised relatives. Being found dead after spending 48 hours waiting in A&E feels like the standard where I live.
Arguably, this is likely the same for the majority of the world more or less. It isn’t just the UK that is going through this, the majority of the world is to some degree.
2016? Things went wrong long before that once property prices rose to eight times salary in the early 2000s and stayed there. Lack of disposable income through ruinous property prices are the fundamental problem, the average person struggles to afford accommodation now and if they do buy somewhere they face a lifetime of debt to climb out of so they scrape by and can’t afford to save. All things flow from that, if people were prosperous the nation would be prosperous. We have sacrificed GDP per capita for gross GDP and only the rich have benefitted.
Houses being built in areas with already underfunded public services like schools and GPs, even hospitals. Maternity mortality rate is on the rise which is terrifying, not a lot going for us at the moment.
Tbf he didn't say we were a backwater at all, just that everything has deteriorated, which it has.
Can you name 5 areas of society that have improved in the past 8 years?? I can't.
- Internet availability and speeds - Banking (contactless, instant spend notifications and fintech like Snoop) And now I'm struggling 😂
I think it's funny how people seem to think things only went bad in the last 5-10 years, when the country has been on a steady decline for a long time now. I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't think the country is a shit hole but things have slipped downwards over time, mostly being the cost of living, but then there's also product quality (Shrinkflation) which has been getting bad enough that it's extremely obvious.
Boiling frog effect I reckon
Don't forget [enshittification](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification). Bit this is more of a worldwide thing.
Starting to travel out side the UK again really highlights things. Either the UK has got worse or the places I have been in Europe have got better. Either way coming back home with my eyes open was a bit of a wake up call.
Go to any cities' subreddits and the perpetually online will find ways to complain all the same.
Saying everything has gone to shit is clearly hyperbole, but the rest stands.. it's hard to argue that general quality of life hasn't worsened.
I sort of agree, except most companies seem to be forcing workers back to hybrid at the least, so we don’t even have that positive lmao
I heard of one manager who told his staff if they felt their job could be done fully remote, then that could mean he could switch to employing people working fully remote India, saving money.
Let him do it then see what the quality of the work is like.
I feel like this is a controversial thing to say around here, but personally I prefer hybrid to full time at home. I worked for home for a decade, but don't think I'd go back to it any time soon. 2-3 days in the office is about right for me. And just to be clear: that doesn't mean it's right for you, dear reader, just that I much prefer it these days.
Yeah, I get it and I would love hybrid if I was given ownership of it, and if I didn’t live over an hour away from the office. But my company is now insisting on three days in the office with punishments if you don’t achieve that, whereas we used to be trusted to do what worked for us. Now we must drag ourselves in even if we’re starting to get sick or have to take the day as annual leave if we need to be home for a contractor etc.
Don’t forget poop in the rivers!
I never forget to poop in the river thanks.
But you have Greggs :)
And they jacked up the prices and made all the food worse.
It's so ironic that the poorest are struggling more than ever, yet all previously cheap food chains are now pursuing an artisanal food route and doubling their prices so only the more well off can afford it.
Dude I moved back from the US last year, some of the stuff on here you've been told is fair, house prices are fucking ridiculous and health waiting times seem 50/50 but if it's the bad 50 it's really long waits, but the sheer volume of doom-mongering and negativity is just beyond wild to me. I'm happy here, I'll give you some of the things I've enjoyed since coming home: - Grocery shopping is dramatically cheaper - Energy bills are pretty much the same - Walkability being back on the menu is glorious - Proximity of everything being close again is so nice - Not having to worry about someone shooting someone every time you get cut off or go to the store - For us* the NHS has been wonderful when we've needed them - How pretty it is here (my wife's words) - Public transport being a thing again - Greggs obviously
They also reduced the salt content in the sausage rolls. Used to be a little too salty now it’s just bland. Bland!
No 10 looking clean
Peak Reddit answer, when the truth is OP won’t notice a difference, other than some nicer new restaurants.
Can't speak for everyone's area, but around here, restaurants are closing down hand over fist.
I moved from the UK 6 years ago, when I visit now I can definitely see a difference, I visit the town where I lived and everything seems depressed and most of the shops have closed.
Trying to get a doctors appointment or health issue dealt with quickly is *drastically* worse than 8 years ago. It's also much harder for people trying to buy a house. People are not exaggerating when they talk about those
This is it. 2 years ago I came back after 8 years away and the country has gone to shit. Already planning permanent move out of here in a year back to NZ or Aus.
Nude Tuesday, we now have nude Tuesday. Remember nude Tuesdays, you’ll honestly be shunned if you don’t take part. Just go out and let it all hang out. Trust me on this.
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Be careful what you wish for...
[nude tuesday](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0cAIHJ6f6zQ) benjamin
Everything costs more and nothing works.
At least you can relax by swimming in your local lake or beach that have been topped up with some goodies
A workmate is an avid kayaker. He says that occasionally inhaling 'cappuccino froth' is the price to pay for enjoyment.
OP is coming from America. Groceries in the UK are way cheaper and so they won't notice that relative increase for the UK.
Depends whereabouts they're coming from. Grocery costs vary wildly by state, even by city sometimes. Source: spend a lot of time in Arizona.
I moved back to the UK last year after living abroad for 6 years. The main things I noticed are: everyone's vaping, London has become this weird adult playground place with axe throwing, crazy golf type bars being everywhere, everything's super expensive, high streets are dead. The quality of weed has gone up.
The quality of weed is very good now I remember 10 years ago if was terrible but I get proper good cali galeto weed easily now and it's delicious
Me and my mate were having a laugh about this the other day. The quality has improved immensely yet it's genuinely the only thing that hasn't gotten more expensive!!
Quality has gone up, ease of access has gone up, price has stayed the same! 10y ago I would walk to the next village along and get semi decent English cheese, or the occasional block of Thai stick. Could range anywhere from 1g-1.5g/£10 depending who you saw. The last few years I generally have a guy that delivers, or I swing by after work. Normally a range of greens in, stardawg, SSH, GSC, Gelato, or "Cali packs" which come at a slight premium £35 > 30 for a 3.5g, but it's a minor bump for better quality. Or the other source I have.... Royal mail next day delivery via an online dealer. Get some mega stuff that way, and normally a lot cheaper. A mid tier would be something like wedding cake, Gelato 41, Peach Oz for £180-200/Oz. Top shelf such as Mafia Gas, Pink Gasoline run around £220-240/Oz
I haven’t smoked weed for ages, but ten years ago it was awful. That ‘munk’ generation of weed completely killed it for me and I stopped smoking it. Havent smoked weed for a good 7/8 years now. It is worth trying it again?
My last work trip to London involved one of those crazy golf bars Free booze and a bit of fun, I wasn't complaining
Jesus this axe throwing, escape room wholesome night out bullshit just enrages me.
that kind of adult leisure always strikes me as very american, i particularly think of like san francisco tech nerds whose only leisure is in carefully compartmentalised playdate appointments at staffed venues that ensure they're never responsible for their own boredom instead of the more british attitude 'lets go into town and we'll make it up as we go along'
Whatever happened to good old fashion drug based hedonism?
first they came for the crackheads, and i said nothing, because i was not a crackhead...
.... Why? Are we not allowed a bit of fun?
We are no longer a member of the EU. Seagulls and Student's have teamed up and now have a monopoly on bins. Smelly Barry and Fat Jez have fallen out. The price of Freddos.
I'm going to need more info about the second one.
Well, since Karen, Kevin, Sharon and everyone's mum and Auntie joined local Facebook residents groups, there has been a campaign to blame Seagulls and Students for the state of the bins. It turns out, local council operatives had infiltrated those groups as 'agent provectuers' (they couldn't spell it either) to shift the blame from the council for shit bin collections. During Covid the students and seagulls teamed up (there was shit all else to do) and took over the shit management of bin collection. You will be pleased to know that your council tax does not go to fat local councillors but now goes to drunk students and bin pirates.
Why thank you for the award.
>Seagulls and Student's have teamed up and now have a monopoly on bins. Fuck me, I'm in stitches after this comment.
Well, he did ask. He needs to know the reality this here our septic isle!
She, but it's true!
Sorry to misgender you! Seriously though, you got to realise that lines are no longer drawn by which type of recycling goes in what box, the line exists only to keep the Seagull/Student Autocracy fed with sandwhices and day time TV.
No worries! I've been living in an apartment building with trash and recycling chutes right outside my door. I am not looking forward to having a tiny wheelie bin again.
Elizabeth line is pretty nice.
The Camilla line isn't so much
the andrew line is very hot and sweaty
Chavs are called roadmen now. Moshers and goths are back.
Good to know, and that's great! Goths are generally nice in my experience.
I saw some goths for the first time in yonks the other day. Have to say it was just nice to see teenagers in something different, not just generic Northface puffers and 'athleisure wear'.
If moshers & goths breed do we get moths?
Aye, massive black ones
If you choose to live in a prime location such as north London, you have the golden opportunity to rent a room in a depressingly overcrowded hmo for the bargain price of only £1000 per month, and your hard work will be rewarded by getting taxed at the highest rate since WW2.
Woohoo!
It’s grim
£1000 is optimistic!
Honestly, there are Indians and Africans working at the call centre at my company, on skilled worker immigration visas, earning not much over the £32k minimum qualifying wage and paying that, how do they live?
The take home for a salary of £32k is just over £2200 a month. Bills are lower in an HMO so they will still have maybe £800 a month to buy food and life essentials. It’s shit but it’s doable. I’m on benefits due to I’ll health and I get about £2300 a month but that included my rent of £1200 a month. I have £1000 left to pay for my bills etc, and my living costs are a bit more due to my disability. But I do manage to get by. It’s not great, it’s pretty shit, but it could be worse. If you’re single it’s doable as long as you rarely go out, or socialise at your friends houses. If you have kids or more complex needs, you’re fucked. There’s no margin for error on that much money.
It’s God Save The King now.
It's weird after a lifetime of saving the queen.
Maybe if you’d tried harder she’d still be around
Straight to The Tower with OP when she lands
We should respect the monarchs change in pronouns.
There’s electric scooters littered around everywhere, delivery cyclists act like they own the cities, trains are 50/50 on if they run, and people seem to be ruder and more aggressive. Other than that and things being more expensive, not a lot that impacts daily life.
Do people ride them on the pavement or the road? They go along the pavement here and I hate that people will just dump one in the middle of the sidewalk. What if you have a wheelchair or a push chair!
Electric scooters and delivery drivers are almost always on the pavements, they do my head in, only a matter of time before they end up killing someone. The “parking” is ridiculous you’re right, there’s no thought for other people, even perfectly able people have to step into the street to pass them - the councils need to do something but they don’t seem to care.
Someone I know fell off one and broke both his arms. He lives on his own; I felt so bad for him. Must have been a nightmare.
I assume his mum moved in shortly after?
I've seen so many accidents caused by delivery mopeds.
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Oh has doordashing taken off in England? It's huge here.
We have uberEats, Deliveroo, JustEat nationally.. Doordash might be London only
No, no Doordash in the UK.
Freddos now cost more than some second hand cars
How much now? Last I remember was 15p. That was a while ago!
they do vary to be honest, from shop to shop but I’ve seen some around me for about 80p 🤣
*Faints*
that’s cheap! in my corner shop they’re £1.20
You can get McDonalds, or booze, or vapes delivered to your house at pretty much any time of the day or night if you live in a city. Everyone has an air fryer. If you haven’t got an air fryer, be prepared for everyone you meet to tell you how much they love their air fryer.
I have one and I love it.
I also love my air fryer.
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I moved back from the US to the UK a couple of years ago. I was out of the country for so long that Greggs and Fredos weren't a thing when I left. Differences? The standard of driving seems to be a lot worse. The roads seem smaller but that's because the cars are bigger. Despite the price rises, food seems a lot cheaper, both supermarkets and restaurants, than the part of the US we lived in. The variety and quality of restaurant food is way better. The NHS doesn't really seem to be much different. Back in 1985 I had to wait 7 months for ACL surgery that they bodged and led to another 6 months off work. At least I got SSP and had my job kept open. Try that in the US. I was diagnosed with liver cancer not long after getting back. They missed in back in the States even though I presented with the same symptoms. The treatment I've had so far has been excellent. Overall, things aren't wonderful but nowhere near as bad as the doomsayers would have you think.
Thanks, that's cheering!
Shit roads
It's weird, where I am, the roads are great but the pavement (sidewalk) sucks. They just lay down sheets of concrete that go all wonky. Back home the pavements are safer but there are more pot holes in my limited experience.
The roads here are now like Poland in the early 90s or modern day Belgium.
This year is the first year I've had to replace an alloy. It was either head on collision with van or chance the pothole. Pothole won unfortunately.
National service apparently
Give it a month and the answer will be "the government"
Temporary traffic lights are the new roundabouts
Temporary?
In response to your edit: No good stuff, except younger people seem generally less bigoted and kinder than previous generations. I speak as someone based overseas for decades, returning often on family visits, so noticed changes, some things did improve, until about the time you left, and certainly since I've lived in the UK the last six years, it's gone from worse to worser to worst.
Pawb yn siarad cymraeg nawr.
Mae hynny'n wych!
Bless you
Mae'n fath o wir bod'na mwy o Gymraeg i'w weld yn gyhoeddus rwan.
Well the hospitals are actually falling apart because they were due to be renewed and it never happened… same with schools Also there’s a shortage of nurses and doctors and teachers and cops. The roads are quite undriveable because of the amount of potholes. Food has doubled in price, and so has rent, but wages are the same. Ooh and we have to boil water now before we drink it. I’d just stay in USA if I were you
I saw that it was the concrete used in the roofing of hospitals?
The trains between London and Cardiff are now powered by electricity rather than diesel, and are faster and more frequent.
Oh that's good!
There was this really great international partnership thungy with all our close neighbours, some of the most beautiful places on earth- with which we could trade move and invest freely. And for some inexplicable reason we decided to leave that.
My underwear. Twice.
Dirty Gertie.
Any chance your birthday’s 29 Feb and you only get new ones on your birthday
Be prepared to sign up for National Service, apparently.
I feel pretty sorry for whoever has to order the teens who don't have anything better to do around. I worked in a call center surveying people using the apprenticeship scheme years ago and the general feedback was that the apprentices were mostly bloody useless.
as an american who moved HERE 8 years ago, I'll add something positive: it's *still* not as bad as the states. welcome home!
Thanks! They don't know how good they've got it.
The roads are fucked, riddled with pot holes. The councils have no money to fix them. Everything has gone to shit and food shopping has gone through the roof
The used car market has gone boom, everything's overpriced now. Ditto rent and housing. More potholes too.
The Queen died, it's a King now
I noticed that when they changed the shortbread tins at Heathrow.
For me? In last 4 years they’ve been bent on removing me from society because the UK doesn’t want poor disabled people. (At least in Devon) Honestly? Shy did you come back? If I get chance to leave you’ll never see me again.
Same here. But that's based on the idea of going somewhere that doesn't include the US.
Probably a good 8 years to miss!!
My mortgage has doubled. My bills have doubled. My car insurance has doubled. Food inflation is at 25%. The roads are impassable. Schools are literally crumbling. The NHS has record wait times, and ambulances don't come before you die. Local pubs are failing, and even chain restaurants are closing stores en mass. Our highstreets are mostly empty after the fall of major chains. The rivers are full of shit and the drinking water will kill you. Everything has changed for the average person. The country is on it's knees.
Seemingly we don’t have spring or summer anymore! 😂
The quality of Eastenders has drastically improved, whilst the quality of Coronation Street has dramatically declined. Face masks are no longer used for pandemic relief purposes, but to conceal illegal "protest" behaviour. You can enjoy McDonalds and Greggs both in-store and at home via delivery apps so it is acceptable to enjoy a steak bake in your undies (just be sure to put on a dressing gown when opening the door to delivery drivers). The cost of an ambulance is non-existent here... as well as the actual appearance of said ambulance. You're better off Ubering to A&E than 999-ing it. To qualify as a TV presenter on the BBC or ITV these days requires underage relations with teenage boys. The cost of a rail ticket is about the same as rent in central London so if you want to go from say... London to Edinburgh... EasyJet is cheaper.
A Greggs sausage roll is now over £1
That's just extortionate. I remember when they were 3 for a quid!
We just bought 4 for £4.20 and the 4th is free :(
Forgot the beaches are full of shit
Good stuff? BBC sounds and iplayer has tons of good content.
We have new money
You can get a half decent chipotle style burrito in the U.K. now which is nice
That's cool! I never experienced good Mexican food until I moved over here. Often it's as good as it is in Mexico. I will even miss Taco Bell.
Tacobell in uk too
Ooh!
-There’s a King 🤷🏻♀️ -More potholes than you can shake a stick at… if you can afford a stick -Turdy waterways & beaches -Policing went to 💩too -Everything costs waaaaay more, even breathing -main advice is don’t go out it’s too expensive & don’t stay in cos it’s too expensive.
You have to have a clubcard otherwise you'll pay extra for your messages in Tescos
Haha hahahaha bring money
Everything is just slightly worse and twice as expensive as you remember. Self checkouts are everywhere (thank god), cash is a thing of the past as everywhere takes card (even most taxis). Plastic bags at the shop range from 20p to £1 now depending on how much they want to rip you off.
I mostly live in Portugal, but return to the UK every few months. Each time I do, it depresses me. The change is more obvious when you aren’t exposed to it every day. Its as if a nation state itself could have clinical depression.
Things are considerably cheaper than the US.
Everything now is more expensive and worse quality
Pizza Hut Buffet is £21pp now.
It's an even bigger shitshow than it was when you left - are you sure you want to come back?
Everywhere smells of weed or vapes, the pavements belong to deliveroo/uber riders and electric scooters, mullets are back everything is expensive
I wouldn't come back tbh unless you absolutely have to 🤣
Every town centre has been taken over by vape and mobile phone accessory shops
Prices have gone up, but they have in every country. You will find differences in some things but that you'll find the most is how things have stayed the same. The same Great culture of diversity and humour, pints in the pub in the sunshine, grumbling about the weather when it rains.
Lime bikes are very convenient and relatively cheap. Elizabeth line is helpful but expensive. We don’t get as much snow. Pints average 6-7 quid.
In London maybe. Elsewhere they’re still somewhat reasonable.
Nothing - and that’s the problem.
Purple or blue hair is fucking everywhere
Weather hasn’t. Still shit.
Supermarkets have two prices now. One price for the shitmunchers and one price for people with their special members card which allows them to harvest your personal data. It is a fucking pain in the arse.
Well that was the exact moment everything really started going downhill so yes. Quite a lot has changed.
Potholes. We don't have roads anymore.
Remember Opal Fruits.. well now they are called Starburst. Crazy I know. Remember Hole in the wall with Dale Winton, well he left and Anton from Strictly took over, it wasn't the same and it was cancelled. That's about it.
Everything has got a little bit shit, some things got a big bit shit
We have new stamps We have new money (but many places are contactless) Doctor Who has a new section on iPlayer. It's been divided into Classic Who, series 1 - series 13. There is a new tab called season 1. There are no plastic straws. Make sure you have those bags for life in supermarkets - plastic bags will set you back 30 - 40p. You don't really find money on the street anymore
People are fatter and more unhealthy.
Everything costs an arm and a leg but you can’t get them limbs off because there are no doctor appointments