r/AskBrits

The UK has had a rough couple of years and fixing the UK's many issues is a huge undertaking that certainly won't be easy.

We've now got:

• An aging population
• Wealth inequality (9th worst in the OECD)
• Regional inequality
• A birth rate of 1.4
• Asset rich, cash poor pensioners
• An over-capacitive NHS
• An unaffordable triple-lock state pension
• A migrant crisis
• A voting system that isn't particularly proportional
• A low voting turnout from younger people
• Stagnant wages since 2008 coupled with no real wage growth
• Underfunded councils
• A general litter problem
• Meal deal has gone up by 59p
• UK plummeting down the happiness index
• Exhausted, dirty, inconsistent and patchy street furniture
• Car-centric infrastructure that also sucks ass
• Mediocre public transport at best
• An economy almost entirely centred around London and the finance sector
• A regressive council tax system
• Declining high streets
• A hostile and powerful media landscape
• A restrictive and overbearing planning system
• A system that struggles to build basic infrastructure without going over budget
• The inability to actually supply new housing stock
• Low GDP per capita compared to general GDP.
• Skyrocketing cost of living
• Rent being ~40% of wages sometimes
• Low productivity

(I'm sure there's more)

These aren't issues unique to the UK and are multi-faceted. Fixing all of these issues is practically impossible unless you're a magician, demigod or the UK suddenly struck oil. What's far more likely is incremental reforms that'll take decades. We all know that.

However if you one day woke up as Prime Minister, leader of a party with a lot of seats and a loyal party, poised with doing SOMETHING to get this country back on track with a population that expects the quality of life to increase even just a little bit...what would you do?

What do you think would be your golden bill? What do you think is the one thing the UK Government struggles to do that you think would fix a big chunk of these problems?

This government inherited an open border immigration policy which saw 4.6 million arrivals in 3 years and net immigration of 2.6 million, the NHS was practically on its knees, the police were so understaffed and underfunded that there wasn’t enough police officers on the front line. Illegal immigration was on its peek and asylum claims peaked at 190K and the raise of nationalism and racism.

Starmer was supposed to solve all of this in his second day and when he wasn’t able to solve all of it in his second day they made him the most unpopular leader of all time and basically bullied him all around media but no one could tell why he was hated and what people expected from him. The far right expected him to kick all non whites and far left expected him to declare war on Israel, ban jews and open the borders wide and let everyone be citizens

So far in two years he had cut net immigration down by 80%, has cut inflation, removed the two child cap which lead to decrease of poverty among children, has a plan to solve the Boris wave, handled Trump very well, passed new tenant rights, invested in apprenticeship and education, increased minimum wage, increased work rights, made asylum a temporary status and to be permanent it’s needed a 30 years of residence, economy is up, fastest growing economy in G7, closer EU ties, better NHS and lower NHS waiting times.

So what do people want from Starmer and the government? For god’s sake let the man carry on with the job and let him finish his 5 year mandate. Just because he is not as charismatic and he is boring doesn’t mean he is bad.

I also do understand that far right people want to get rid of net

This good enough for you, Reform voters?

Where is Starmer taking the knee for this poor lad.

Both died in police custody, both couldn't breathe.

Here is the UK by the numbers:
1.6% of Brits play PADEL.
4.5% of Brits visit America annually—and it’s their favorite long haul destination by leaps.
10% of Brits attend stadium football matches.
10.6% of Brits smoke.
16% of UK citizens go to a gym or healthclub twice a week.
25% of UK residents stream shows on Disney.
36% of Brits go out to eat weekly.
36% of Brits own their homes outright, free and clear
Brits go on 3-4 annual holidays.
40% of British kids play tennis.
46% of Brits watch football matches.
50% of Brits have gone to a music festival
54% of Brits own at least one piece of designer fashion clothing—so ALL the women?
60% of Brits subscribe to Netflix
60% of Brits travel to a foreign country every single year.
62% of Brits book a massage annually
63% of Brits drink coffee daily
63% of Brits vacation in Spain annually
64% of UK adults afford recreational sports every week.
65% of Brits are homeowners.
77% of Brits drink tea once a week
78% of UK households have a car.
86% of Brits have a passport
90% of Britons eat in restaurants.
95% of UK households enjoy broadband internet service.
95% of UK households have central heating and hot water
99.9% of Brits have indoor plumbing with flushing toilets.
100% of Brits have electricity

Had a few lovely experiences with people holding one nostril closed and breathing hard out of the other one allowing their snot to come flying out

Also spitting whilst walking

Some cyclists spitting too

I do not remember seeing this in London 20 years ago, what’s going on?

[supprimé]

Yank here. Hi.

I read a random post here about grocery shopping and it got me thinking.

Do you folks have sections of merchandise locked up because those items are likely to be stolen?

In my relatively quiet corner of the US this is common.

Is that a thing in the UK? In Europe in general?

I'm not talking about random farmers and members of the public saying they saw a flying spaceship, I'm talking about the recent long serving, high ranking military, intelligence, CIA and navy officers that have come forward and said on record, in a court of law, under oath, that the we literately have non-human craft and biologics in our possession and it's being hidden from the public. Do you believe them?

I am 55 and haven't really thought about it. Happy to be cremated, but don't want anything formal at all. For whatever reason it does not bother me at all.

Hello,

(I’m a new international student in the UK, so not sure if I did something culturally wrong?)

So I was at the gym on the 2nd last bench available doing my workout, then this young lady sits on the bench beside me, which was the last available bench at the time, all fine.

Then she starts acting strange, like she felt uneasy with me being there? Staring at me through the mirror infront, I could feel something was off so did glance back at her through the mirror, eye contact for a couple seconds, but made sure to look away first because I felt like something was off, didn’t know if she felt uncomfortable even though I didn’t do anything?

Then I noticed she pulled her phone out and started sitting slanted on bench with her phone held higher up, like she was trying to take a picture of me using her phone?

Fyi I’m a south asian 20 year old international student with a beard (not a good looking person or anything, not sure if my looks came off as creepy?), not sure how old this girl looked but probably at least my age? ethnically white. Either way I’m worried, like was she taking a photo of me because I did something wrong? I swear I never did and would never even think of anything creepy, just don’t want my face plastered over the internet or something for nothing.

Any advice would be great, thanks

I always find it a fascinating thought that famous landscapers, architects, artists and industrialists that built and shaped our country have no idea that we still admire their work, talk about them, and enjoy and marvel at their achievements in their lifetime to this day, have you ever done anything that will mean you’re talked about long after you are gone?

I’m 24F and I know I have very low iron.

I’ve been sleeping for almost 12 hours a day, I struggle to wake up for work, and I’m always tired.

I’ve had a million blood tests and they keep saying I’m fine, but I’m not.

Is there anything else I can do?

My hair is starting to fall out a lot too :(