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    England

    England really is in a bit of a mess, isn’t it?

    Some observations from a four week visit. Nothing particularly new to residents, I suppose.

    Rural England is utterly stuffed. If you don’t own a car or can’t afford fuel you get an at best intermittent bus service, with massive further cuts being planned in Cambridgeshire.

    Some of the “roads” we drove on were worse than ungraded roads in places like Karijini. One well used fen road in particular had massive cracks, like some sort of earthquake, which had been there so long grass was growing up through the middle.

    We had occasion to seek a doctor’s appointment and were told there was no chance for at least a week at three different surgeries.

    Across the area I grew up there are now two pubs left from six the last time we visited. In a major tourist area we visited the two local pubs now operate for only four days per week.

    The Education department sought 11 billion pounds for essential school maintenance (actually needed 22b) and was given 3b. Schools, especially in lower socio-economic areas are literally falling apart.

    Prices are through the roof. We used to buy clothes etc because they were comparatively cheap. Not the case any longer. Literally the only thing that was much cheaper was alcohol.

    The absolute disconnect between politicians pledging to limit energy bill rises to $1000 or so and those who can't afford $10 extra is stunning.

    #2
    Originally posted by Uncle Ethan View Post
    Rural England is utterly stuffed. If you don’t own a car or can’t afford fuel you get an at best intermittent bus service, with massive further cuts being planned in Cambridgeshire.
    Are local transport options good in any country? At least here, the government is funding free travel:

    "As announced by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez last month, many train journeys in Spain are FREE from 1 September until 31 December 2022.

    The measure is part of the government’s plan to combat the consequences of the economic crisis that has afflicted the income of millions of families and businesses, besieged by inflation, the energy bill, and the escalation in fuel prices and raw materials.

    Spain’s Transport Ministry estimates that the scheme will benefit as many as 75 million journeys and attract between 15-20% more passengers than usual for the September-December period. It will particularly benefit commuters.

    Free train tickets became available for pre-order from 24 August, and they are available for residents and non-residents of Spain, including tourists and visitors of all nationalities."

    https://www.spainenglish.com/2022/08...-full-details/

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      #3
      Stop talking Britain down!

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        #4
        England is pretty dreadful, it's true. Lots of lovely things and people here, of course. But lots of imposed and worsening awfulness, indeed.

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          #5
          I've recently been in Austria Germany and The Netherlands - and I was absolutely astonished in the difference in infrastructure - not just roads but the presence of things like youth clubs and sports halls - and the public transport was excellent/

          One things that has also struck me is that almost every major town in England that i've visited has had any sense of town planning replaced by the need for the Local Authority to build as much as possible to replace lost income. So many centres disfigured by packing in vast amounts of student housing which seems to bear no relationship to the rest of the City- Sheffield struck me as particlarly bad.

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            #6
            Yes, our recent interrail trip took us into 12 countries, and England was by far the most chaotic and badly organised, and the infrastructure seems on the edge of total collapse. (I won;t say that the infrastructure was the worst of the 12 because of course we started and finished in Romania - but even in Romania the sense is that the infrastructure is being very slowly upgraded, whereas in England I don;t even feel that).

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              #7
              My recent trip to England largely matches the comments on here, except that as a tourist everything felt pretty dirt cheap thanks to the pound having collapsed against the US dollar (it's collapsed even more now, of course). We drove everywhere because public transport options took 3+ times as long, places were shut, roads were in poor shape, nothing seemed to be joined-up. Parts of it remain delightful, particularly the parts that cater to tourists who have a lot of disposable income, but that makes it not feel so much like a first-world destination.

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                #8
                England is chock full of stupid people who consistently vote for a party that tells them cutting public services, regulation and "red tape" is a brilliant thing, then moan when all the public services turn to shit, the customer services provided by private companies are nonexistent, and councils and even government begins awarding corrupt contracts to big investors to do what they want at the expense of local concerns. Then they go out and vote for the party that did all that again, because "it would have been worse under the other lot".

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by Nefertiti2 View Post
                  So many centres disfigured by packing in vast amounts of student housing which seems to bear no relationship to the rest of the City- Sheffield struck me as particularly bad.
                  Newcastle is very similar - large student accommodation blocks dominating the fringe of the city centre, which of course will be empty for four months of the year and limiting the amount of space available for permanent residents.

                  On the transport front, the West Coast main line is currently in chaos, making it impossible to plan ahead for a journey in a few weeks' time (I'm going to London in November and played it safe by booking from Newcastle, but from a cursory check it would be equally difficult to book for late October as well).

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                    #10
                    Fair comments on student accommodation but they still need somewhere to live.

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                      #11
                      As for travelling, are there not UK equivalents of bla bla car?

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                        #12
                        BlaBla Car (an app based carpooling/ride sharing service) operates in the UK, but does not seem to have a lot of customers.

                        This is from 2016, but suggests that cultural attitudes and insurance concerns are a barrier

                        Rob Vaughan, an economist with PriceWaterHouseCooper, who has produced several reports on the sharing economy, said that while there are some geographic and economic reasons why long distance ride-sharing has been slower to take off in the U.K., the main factor may be attitudes to sharing resources.

                        "I think the key factor is a cultural one—simply put, individuals [in continental Europe] are more comfortable sharing space in their car, building on the more collaborative and community-orientated neighbourhoods that are more typical," Vaughan told Motherboard.

                        For Brusson, the cultural argument holds little water. He says that in all the countries where Bla Bla Car has launched, with the possible exception of Germany, the vast majority of users have never hitchhiked and have probably not shared rides with strangers before using the service. In fact, a large part of the challenge is finding out what works best to build trust enough for people to get into a stranger's car.

                        "I don't think it's a behavioural thing in terms of wanting to share, because what is interesting is you have people booking rides, just not offering rides," he said. "We don't have a shortage of people wanting a seat in a car, we have a shortage of people offering seats in a car."

                        Brusson says the company's research has found that the British are uniquely anxious about their car insurance, fretting that taking a passenger may void their coverage—a fear he says is unfounded, given that carpooling is not a for-profit activity.
                        https://www.vice.com/en/article/bmvd...-uk-popularity

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                          #13
                          I'm not sure that if rural England did rely on such a service it would say much for the connectedness or quality of the infrastructure.

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                            #14
                            Originally posted by Sporting View Post
                            Fair comments on student accommodation but they still need somewhere to live.
                            I'm in a City right now that could urgently do with 10-15k student places there's 30k students between the two colleges, in a city of 90k people. Things are getting extremely grim it also goes without saying that most of those places being empty in the summer would not be a problem in Galway.

                            I suspect though that the flats nef is talking about are the ones that get thrown up to accommodate foreign students with a few Bob. The financial backbone of a severely underfunded third level sector, one of Britain's greatest exports of services, an immense tool of soft power, and something that Suella braverman is going to finish off for once and for all.

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                              #15
                              In the area where I grew up voting is a complete waste of time. The Tories have held the seat with a massive majority since way before I was born and I am now 59.

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                                #16
                                Originally posted by Sporting View Post
                                Fair comments on student accommodation but they still need somewhere to live.
                                Maybe go to their local university and live at home?

                                My wife is from other parts and it's one of the things she finds baffling about the UK that at 18 our children up sticks to the other end of the country for university with all the financial expense and other costs attached

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                                  #17
                                  Also "student accommodation" blocks don't have t he same requirements attached to them (eg a requirement in a development for social housing). And builders can then apply to convert the blocks into normal apartments.

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                                    #18
                                    One of the reasons for my uni choice was to get away from home. Not that it worked out, education-wise. But still.

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                                      #19
                                      Originally posted by colchestersid View Post

                                      Maybe go to their local university and live at home?

                                      My wife is from other parts and it's one of the things she finds baffling about the UK that at 18 our children up sticks to the other end of the country for university with all the financial expense and other costs attached
                                      Hmmm. Well, for one thing, for people from rural areas, there is probably very little choice but to go to a university away from home. Also, i'm not sure how unique this is to the UK. It seems very common in Romania for students to study in a different city depending on a number of factors. And to be honest, I think one of the key aspects to a university education is all that other stuff about living independently and dealing with all the stuff that students need to deal with. (As an occasional employer, if I look at a recent graduate as a potential hire, the fact that they successfully made it through university and passed their course while living away from home is of much more import to me than whatever subject they actually studied - though I concede this might not be the case if I wanted to hire an engineer or a lawyer or a doctor)

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                                        #20
                                        Originally posted by colchestersid View Post

                                        Maybe go to their local university and live at home?

                                        My wife is from other parts and it's one of the things she finds baffling about the UK that at 18 our children up sticks to the other end of the country for university with all the financial expense and other costs attached
                                        Leaving home is one of the best things a teenager can do.

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                                          #21
                                          As a youngster, I always found French kids to be much younger than English kids. I decided staying at home to go to uni was one of the reasons.

                                          Like I blamed the wild drinking age laws in the US for a lot that's wrong there.

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                                            #22
                                            Originally posted by ad hoc View Post

                                            Hmmm. Well, for one thing, for people from rural areas, there is probably very little choice but to go to a university away from home. Also, i'm not sure how unique this is to the UK. It seems very common in Romania for students to study in a different city depending on a number of factors. And to be honest, I think one of the key aspects to a university education is all that other stuff about living independently and dealing with all the stuff that students need to deal with. (As an occasional employer, if I look at a recent graduate as a potential hire, the fact that they successfully made it through university and passed their course while living away from home is of much more import to me than whatever subject they actually studied - though I concede this might not be the case if I wanted to hire an engineer or a lawyer or a doctor)
                                            To be fair, most Spanish university students live at home. I'd have to google the numbers but they are certainly high.

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                                              #23
                                              A lot of Slovak students who've gone to study at universities in the UK* tell me they find British students quite childish. Partly, this might be down to the type of Slovak student, since those who make the decision to go to a foreign university are likely to at least value the academic experience, even if their main motivation for going was to get out of Slovakia, study something that isn't much offered in Slovakia, or study in English. They find the whole Fresher's Week mentality somewhat bemusing.

                                              It's also about age. Nearly all Slovak school-leavers are at least 19 (some 20) rather than 18 and the extra year does seem to make a difference. By about January-February of their final year at secondary school, we have the sense with many of them that they are very very ready to leave.

                                              On the other hand, those who study in Slovakia or the Czech Republic tend to travel home most weekends where possible. There isn't that much of a weekend student life in these countries.

                                              *There are hardly any these days. Thanks to Brexit.

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                                                #24
                                                I wasn't making a comment on the number of students- or the need for student accommodation- though the point PT makes about the different planning laws for student accommodation are relevant these days- more the fact that they don't seem to be integrated in any plan for the city centres.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Originally posted by jameswba View Post
                                                  They find the whole Fresher's Week mentality somewhat bemusing.
                                                  God yes, best avoided, dreadful.

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