Did we have the best of it ? Is Britain Lost ?

[coxyhog]

On 4/17/2025 at 3:38 PM, sidjameson said:

Better food now.

Skilled working class labour like plumbing much better paid now.

Better TV, free (entertainment online) now.

Better minimum wage now.

Houses better heated now.

Anyone can and does enter university now.

Better flights to Europe now. Much cheaper.

Better state pension now.

Better access to information now.

Less perverts like Jimmy saville now.

Better place to be gay now.

Better place to be a woman now.

People less racist now.

Cheaper pubs now.

 

Things much better now, albeit there are problems that need fixing.

Cheaper pubs,absolutely wrong.

Houses better heated,not when heat pumps are installed.

Better state pension,yes but it buys less due to inflation & is taxed.

Better TV is a matter of opinion & the licence fee has just gone up(again).

Less perverts like Saville,yes but lots more perverts of a different creed that are ignored.

[Thingamabob]

19 hours ago, Red Forever said:

The, not so, thinly veiled racism in many of posts on this subject show that (at least here on A.N.) many of the racist, low IQ, far right posters yearn for a return to the days of polio, food rationing and signs in rooming houses saying “No blacks, no Irish, no dogs”.

Yeah right. The good old days eh?

How old are you ? Polio vaccines were in use by the mid 1950s, food rationing, which had virtually stopped by 1950, was necessitated by the allies resistance fight against fascism in Europe, and the rumours of the existence of no blacks, no Irish, no dogs signs in rooming houses were just that, rumours.  

[baansgr]

Better food now./ More E.numbers than ever

 

Skilled working class labour like plumbing

much better paid now/ No it's not, the decline in plumbers wages has been prevalent for 15 years.

 

Better TV, free (entertainment online) now./ Also everywhere else in the world, and in fact most of it banned in UK

 

Better minimum wage now./ On zero hours contracts, hence no pensions, sick pay or holiday entitlement.

 

Houses better heated now. At extra cost

 

Anyone can and does enter university now./ No they can't without the necessary grades and it costs at least £9000 a year in tuition fees.

 

Better flights to Europe now. Much cheaper./And that works both ways, 

 

Better state pension now. The triple lock is one thing I will agree on with you.

 

Better access to information now./ Same as the rest of the world however getting a Freedom of Information in UK can be declined without reason or charged extortionate fees.

 

Less perverts like Jimmy saville now./ So apart from a few BBC pervs, you are forgetting the 500,000 white girls raped by pakistani grooming gangs 

 

Better place to be gay now/ Being gay was never a problem, in fact it has got a lot worse now.

 

Better place to be a woman now./ Yes for work but safety NO

 

People less racist now./ Devine racism,? living in Thailand you must know...the same does not and never has happened in UK..but yes, very anti semitic now.

 

Cheaper pubs now/. Weather spoons are.the only ones, plus there are only a fraction of pubs there used to be all charging a lot more than years ago.

 

Things much better now, albeit there are problems that need fixing./ In whole it's not better, quality of life is almost non existent

[Brick Top]

I left the UK in 2001 , what made me leave was , every year i would drive up to Bradford from down south to see my accountant .

I would stay in the same hotel as ut wss convenient. 

I drove up there in the year 2000 , and went to the hotel ,this time to my shock a muslim man answered the door and informed me , " Asylum seekers only " and then rudely closed the the door in my face. That together with the fact that at the time they were coming in via the channel tunnel at that time. I realised the UK was doomed and it was best to leave while i had the chance , i was 43 at the time and the UK has done nothing but get worse since then .

 

[Kinok Farang]

10 hours ago, youreavinalaff said:

You need to read his comment again.

Sorry for being a bit of a thicko😏

[Kinok Farang]

4 hours ago, coxyhog said:

Cheaper pubs,absolutely wrong.

Houses better heated,not when heat pumps are installed.

Better state pension,yes but it buys less due to inflation & is taxed.

Better TV is a matter of opinion & the licence fee has just gone up(again).

Less perverts like Saville,yes but lots more perverts of a different creed that are ignored.

Which creed is that then?

[ElsaS]

The same can be said for the whole of Europe. The Kalergi Plan is not a conspiracy theory - it's a glaring FACT!

[BangkokReady]

8 hours ago, Terry2905 said:

I have just been diagnosed in Thailand with cancer. 

 

I looked into returning to the UK for treatment, which I can't afford to pay for in Thailand, but my local gp placed me on an 18 month waiting list to see an oncologist!

 

Emergency ambulance response time has gone up enormously!

 

The local Blackpool council told me to live rough on the streets!

 

And yes I am British and paid all my NI and taxes.

 

But refugees get put up in 5 star hotels and given money!

 

I agree that the UK has lost all it's morals!

 

 

 

I'm sorry to hear that. I hope you can find a way around it.

 

Might it be better to just go back to England and demand to be seen?

[Terry2905]

4 hours ago, BangkokReady said:

 

I'm sorry to hear that. I hope you can find a way around it.

 

Might it be better to just go back to England and demand to be seen?

Thank you for your kind concern. 

 

I was going to return to the UK, but my previous local gp has refused even emergency treatment!

 

I actually did book a flight, and 3 weeks hotel, which I have cancelled, because I am unable to fly!

 

I have bipolar, and only just found out that it is extremely dangerous to fly with bipolar. 

 

Living rough in the streets of Blackpool doesn't appeal to me! Yes I know that I could get emergency shelter,  but with the constant diarrhea from the cancer, how would I manage? Yeah, wear nappies is an option!

 

Anyway, I will go to a Thai government hospital, if I can afford all the tests involved for a prognosis. 

 

1st thing would be a colonoscopy, which will have to be done under a general anaesthetic, due to scar tissue from a previous operation. I had a colonoscopy done 2 years ago,following a heart stent operation, and the pain was excruciating!

 

The oncologist advised me that any future colonoscopy should be done under general anaesthetic, which will be expensive. 

 

I have very limited savings, so I don't know if I will be able to afford even the tests to find out how bad my cancer is!

 

Life has been cruel to me. 

 

I have a very good heart, and I will take that thought with me to my grave. 

 

Thank you again for replying, with sympathy. 

 

Regards. 

 

Terry 

[RayC]

15 hours ago, Thingamabob said:

How old are you ? Polio vaccines were in use by the mid 1950s, food rationing, which had virtually stopped by 1950, was necessitated by the allies resistance fight against fascism in Europe, and the rumours of the existence of no blacks, no Irish, no dogs signs in rooming houses were just that, rumours.  

 

Rumours?

[freedomnow]

The free expression laws are now ridiculous, the tax rises and tax allowances cuts.

Cost of a night out.

Cost of living getting out of control.

The women are a nightmare to date - redflag mode at every turn early days phase due to social media 'education' for women. Fatties/loonies thinking that a young Brad Pitt/Tom Cruise is on the way for them....enjoy the wait.

 

I

can't wait

to

leave the UK now.

[MicroB]

All my life people have said it was better in the good old days. With the 70s, there was National Front, Gary Glitter on Top of the Pops and Jim Fixed It. The memories are illusory.

 

Cicero apparently said "Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book".  Only he didn't. The Chaldean King, Naram Sin, in 5000BC said "We have fallen upon evil times, the world has waxed old and wicked. Politics are very corrupt. Children are no longer respectful to their elders. Each man wants to make himself conspicuous and write a book." But againm he probably didn't. But someone thought this in 1908 when these quotes first appeared in print.

 

People have always complained life was better in the past. Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe etc) coined "the Gold Old Days", referring to trade.

 

Research shows as we age, our memory becomes increasingly selective.

 

https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2003/06/aging-memory

 

Basically as we age, we become more preoccupied with the end. A physiological reaction  is to recall more positive memories. I'm not sure if its part of a defensive reaction by the brain  (I don't know, changing dopamine, serotonin levels etc) as we gradually lose our faculties. Its a casual observation that those who beat the odds and make it to extreme old age, tend to be very optimistic people. They are very optimistic about the present (life is wonderful and all that).

 

My father passed away a couple of years ago. He had Alzheimers. We were lucky that he didn't forget us. Sometimes he would have momentary struggle to recognise me, but that quickly passed. My grandfather though completely forgot he had a son, and he was very frightened as a result.

 

Towards the end, my father's anecdotes were increasingly when he was a young child in WW2. For him, these were happy memories of going to sleep in the garden air raid shelter, and how all the adults saved their egg ration for him. Its a bit curious, because objectively, he had a sad childhood. His father said goodbye to him in 1940, ended up captured at Singapore, and everyone in the family thought he was dead until 1944. I suspect his mum struggled. His dad got back by 1946. By 1950, he had a new baby brother. In 1951, his mum was dead from TB, and his brother went off with her family, and basically not seen again until they were adults. But all my dad remembered was the happy time. Of course, he hadn't forgotten his mum died when he was 11, but it didn't seem to register with him emotionally. And did e really remember being in an air raid shelter. I barely remember when I was 4 or 5; its more a series of fleeting impressions. So perhaps the memories were constructed based on what people talked about afterwards.

 

Yeah, for me the past was better because I was closer to the start. The present is less good because I'm nearer to the end. In the future I am doomed. And my father's end fills me with dread. But maybe I'm not my father.

[Cameroni]

5 hours ago, MicroB said:

All my life people have said it was better in the good old days. With the 70s, there was National Front, Gary Glitter on Top of the Pops and Jim Fixed It. The memories are illusory.

 

It's not all illusory by a long shot. Some things WERE objectively better in the past. Air travel for instance, no micro-security checks, in the past air travellers were not treated like little children and had more freedom.

 

The lack of overcrowding was better, much easier to get an appointment with a doctor, as some here have testified that's hard now.

 

The British car industry was definitely doing better.

 

A lot of things were better in the past. It's not all illusory.

[superal]

Starmer & cabinet are hypocrites . In opposition at PMQT they heavily criticized Sunak on immigration numbers . In government Labour has no deterrent to halt the boat crossings , which are at record high numbers  and give the impression that they are encouraging it . They plan to build 1.5 million new homes in the next 4 years and these will be used mostly by immigrants . Trades to build these homes will be sourced from the E.U. because there are not enough British tradesmen

Last year 79,000 British citizens emigrated from the UK  , comprising skilled trades and professional people . Indeed it is a brain drain .    

The UK state pension is the lowest of any developed country with 2 million living in poverty and equates to 29% of their wages when they were employed .

       

 

[simon43]

I had a good time growing up in Leicester in the 60's and 70's. The city was multicultural, in that there were hard-working Hindus and Sikhs with their sari and jewelry shops.  Not so many West Indians, but certainly they were there and never any problems.

 

Then came the Muslims from Pakistan and Bangladesh (when it became independent from West Pakistan)....

 

Everything changed.  No-go Muslim areas in the city were the norm. My parents took me out of the government school because teachers were teaching us Urdu!

 

The local council was very good about paying college fees.  As long as you successfully passed the course that you were studying, they would pay the tuition fees and living allowance for the next, higher course.  I studied 3 years for an HNC, 1 year for an HND, 2 years for a BSc and 1 year for an MSc.  All fees fully paid, plus rent allowance and money for food/beer 🙂

 

Today Leicester is a cesspit.  I know, because I've visited my old home town.  It's like entering Islamabad.....

 

 

[giddyup]

On 4/18/2025 at 8:19 AM, giddyup said:

If you opt for assisted dying you aren't letting nature run it's course, are you?

Some people are easily confused.

[rickudon]

Yes, we had the best. I when a teenager, lived in Surrey and no ethnic pupils in my school apart from a couple of Sephardic Jews until we got one from Biafra. Only place you saw a black person was at the railway station - they worked there.

Went to University In Birmingham ,  and it was multi-cultural in the 70's, but not very much friction - plenty of jobs. And Government paid for my BSc course (unlike today), actually left university debt free and a couple of hundred in the bank. After University had 7 jobs in 7 years, not always the jobs i wanted, but never unemployed for more than a week or two, and never failed  to get a job iwas interviewed for. 2 of those were expat jobs; bought a house and did an MSc (self funded) on the proceeds.

Returned in 1980 and a different world. The local pub (mainly West indians) was no longer welcoming, and 2 riots within a couple of miles in 2 years. No work - unemployed for nearly 18 months (that's another story). Moved back to south (Hampshire) when i finally got a job. Bought a new (old) house, 4 times more expensive but it was doable just. Had developed a taste for dusky maidens of all ethnicities while in Birmingham and abroad (not a racist, like many of the posters on this thread). Got married to one and raised a family. Finally got made redundant/early retired and then divorced. Had realised that owning a house again and actually having a life was going to be hard in the UK, so left for Thailand in 2010 (had already met future wife).

 

I did at first think that once inheriance and OAP kicked in i would be able to buy a house again in the UK, but cost of everything except food had gone through the roof and inheritance went on my mothers nursing home. Son and daughter in the UK, both Graduates and on fairly good salaries, are still homeless in their 30's; they have to wait for ex-wife to sell up before they can become home owners.

 

I cruised casually through life but always saw a future - bigger house, nicer holidays. My kids see none. Student debt, predatory landlords, expensive bills eat up what they earn; the little they can save is dwarfed by rising costs.

[3NUMBAS]

Cod and chips about a tenner and cod from Russia 

its no longer cheap meal 

[3NUMBAS]

Birmingham among UK's first ‘super-diverse’ cities with more than half of residents from minorities

'People make a home and that’s something we’re proud to be, a welcoming home to all who come here'

[NanLaew]

On 4/20/2025 at 2:21 PM, simon43 said:

I had a good time growing up in Leicester in the 60's and 70's. The city was multicultural, in that there were hard-working Hindus and Sikhs with their sari and jewelry shops.  Not so many West Indians, but certainly they were there and never any problems.

 

Then came the Muslims from Pakistan and Bangladesh (when it became independent from West Pakistan)....

 

Everything changed.  No-go Muslim areas in the city were the norm. My parents took me out of the government school because teachers were teaching us Urdu!

 

The local council was very good about paying college fees.  As long as you successfully passed the course that you were studying, they would pay the tuition fees and living allowance for the next, higher course.  I studied 3 years for an HNC, 1 year for an HND, 2 years for a BSc and 1 year for an MSc.  All fees fully paid, plus rent allowance and money for food/beer 🙂

 

Today Leicester is a cesspit.  I know, because I've visited my old home town.  It's like entering Islamabad.....

 

 

 

Have you been to Islamabad then?

 

I haven't been to Leicester either.