1. When I left, 1991/2, there were no jobs for people leaving college. Everyone moaned about the state of the country. Plus ca change.
2. In the intervening time, so many parts of London have "gentrified" areas even I wouldn't have lived in back then have become fashionable. People would mainline in the alley behind our Cally Rd flat. Perhaps they still do, but the whole area is much nicer. I visited fund managers there recently!
3. Not to be Londoncentric, it's true that lots of smaller towns in the UK have hollowed out completely, but this process was beginning at least as early as the 80s, and there are plenty of spots where things are much nicer than they used to be.
4. If you speak English, London is the world's cultural capital. No, sorry, not New York. Did you know Succession was written in Peckham?
5. Food? Don't even try...
6. "Multiculturism has failed," say all the children of immigrants married to grandchildren of immigrants running the Tory party.
7. And, the most easy one to quantify, we finally have Mediterranean weather. The sea is as dirty as the Med was in the 80s too! Win-win.
Yes, we had better clothes in the 70s, music in the 80s, etc, etc, but I can't remember a year where the government wasn't a mess, and the football team didn't flatter to deceive.
Social media apps and BTL like here have given people a taste for being distasteful. I think it might be particularly tricky in the UK, where we're never happier than when being miserable and our devices and their connectivity have given millions of Victor Meldrew's their chance to spew, and more people than his long-suffering neighbours have to see it.
On which complaining note, I'm almost three years past my own Meldrew point: "I don't believe it!"
Most of the positives you mention are either entirely relative or apply to a very small percentage of people in the country.
Public debt is high; productivity seems irremediably weak; taxes are at extraordinary levels for peacetime; public services are weak and perceived to be so; the civil service / government agencies are complicit in scandal after scandal (Windrush, Post Office, pensions, blood . . . ). The stock market can’t hold on to successful growth firms. As you say, regional imbalances — a decades-old problem — continue because nobody has any idea how to fix them. Energy is hugely expensive. Planning and over-regulation are a disaster. The UK is caught between the US, EU and China and unsure how to tack, given it needs them all.
The ability and propensity to work of the local population is so weak that no government has been able to control or optimize — for skills — immigration. Social cohesion has fractured — whether you are conservative or liberal or anything else.
All of these issues look like stagnating at best; many are going to get a lot worse (the tax / debt dynamic e.g.).
Meanwhile, a government with a huge majority, near the beginning of its electoral term cannot make cuts to the welfare state — even in those cases where these cuts affect people who don’t vote for it (pensioners). Not only is the UK heading downward but there is nothing within sight to suggest that either people (voters) or politicians have the will to do anything meaningful to avert the decline. We await the bond and currency markets.
Ah. My optimistic take sadly fails to convince! I think all your criticisms have truth to them. But, we need to believe we can do something about this - I agree the u-turn on unwanted benefits (eg UK winter fuel are really not a good sign)
Maybe you are right. The rate of change is negative and decelerating; but I still think our flow can be positive even at this lower level. We need to believe!
I hope so. One huge UK failing, in my opinion, is the unwritten constitution. I think that’s a major error and own goal. And the lack of it worries me since there isn’t much check on Parliament doing silly things.
I used to think this. I’m now more neutral and unsure; I listen to David Deutsch and a few others who argue that the election system enabling large swings every 4 years was the check and balance for this (and why I think they favour first past post over PR voting). But I do think in an ideal world we would have written done more things; as there are many things Brits disagree with esp re: freedoms - I guess why the curtailing on free speech is galling.
I’ve heard Deutsch talk about that too. What the argument misses is that each election is a package deal and only certain points are salient each time. There isn’t a way of increasing salience of the important but not urgent.
I am inclined to agree with you, Ben.
Few notes, not as well thought out as yours:
1. When I left, 1991/2, there were no jobs for people leaving college. Everyone moaned about the state of the country. Plus ca change.
2. In the intervening time, so many parts of London have "gentrified" areas even I wouldn't have lived in back then have become fashionable. People would mainline in the alley behind our Cally Rd flat. Perhaps they still do, but the whole area is much nicer. I visited fund managers there recently!
3. Not to be Londoncentric, it's true that lots of smaller towns in the UK have hollowed out completely, but this process was beginning at least as early as the 80s, and there are plenty of spots where things are much nicer than they used to be.
4. If you speak English, London is the world's cultural capital. No, sorry, not New York. Did you know Succession was written in Peckham?
5. Food? Don't even try...
6. "Multiculturism has failed," say all the children of immigrants married to grandchildren of immigrants running the Tory party.
7. And, the most easy one to quantify, we finally have Mediterranean weather. The sea is as dirty as the Med was in the 80s too! Win-win.
Yes, we had better clothes in the 70s, music in the 80s, etc, etc, but I can't remember a year where the government wasn't a mess, and the football team didn't flatter to deceive.
Social media apps and BTL like here have given people a taste for being distasteful. I think it might be particularly tricky in the UK, where we're never happier than when being miserable and our devices and their connectivity have given millions of Victor Meldrew's their chance to spew, and more people than his long-suffering neighbours have to see it.
On which complaining note, I'm almost three years past my own Meldrew point: "I don't believe it!"
https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/neil.richards/viz/meldrew/MeldrewPoint
Most of the positives you mention are either entirely relative or apply to a very small percentage of people in the country.
Public debt is high; productivity seems irremediably weak; taxes are at extraordinary levels for peacetime; public services are weak and perceived to be so; the civil service / government agencies are complicit in scandal after scandal (Windrush, Post Office, pensions, blood . . . ). The stock market can’t hold on to successful growth firms. As you say, regional imbalances — a decades-old problem — continue because nobody has any idea how to fix them. Energy is hugely expensive. Planning and over-regulation are a disaster. The UK is caught between the US, EU and China and unsure how to tack, given it needs them all.
The ability and propensity to work of the local population is so weak that no government has been able to control or optimize — for skills — immigration. Social cohesion has fractured — whether you are conservative or liberal or anything else.
All of these issues look like stagnating at best; many are going to get a lot worse (the tax / debt dynamic e.g.).
Meanwhile, a government with a huge majority, near the beginning of its electoral term cannot make cuts to the welfare state — even in those cases where these cuts affect people who don’t vote for it (pensioners). Not only is the UK heading downward but there is nothing within sight to suggest that either people (voters) or politicians have the will to do anything meaningful to avert the decline. We await the bond and currency markets.
Ah. My optimistic take sadly fails to convince! I think all your criticisms have truth to them. But, we need to believe we can do something about this - I agree the u-turn on unwanted benefits (eg UK winter fuel are really not a good sign)
Ben, I think the issue is that the trajectory is not good. The UK is losing some of what is most distinctive about it. Here is one glaring example from Tyler Cowen: https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2025/06/cmon-british-people-you-can-do-better-than-this.html. The UK (and London, still my favorite city in the world) are headed the wrong way: I think that's the issue. The stock is great; the flow is terrible!
Also - I guess - it is the slight contrarian in me. If everyone agrees UK is going downhill, I like to find some of the counters!
You might be right. But the flow is possibly reversible! But not if we don’t think we can do it! These are somewhat solvable problems. (I hope)
Yes. But that goes back to stock versus flow, I think. The stock is great… The UK produced Pink Floyd, The Beatles and Cricket. But that is stock!
Maybe you are right. The rate of change is negative and decelerating; but I still think our flow can be positive even at this lower level. We need to believe!
Someone needs to tell your Parliament!
I hope so. One huge UK failing, in my opinion, is the unwritten constitution. I think that’s a major error and own goal. And the lack of it worries me since there isn’t much check on Parliament doing silly things.
I used to think this. I’m now more neutral and unsure; I listen to David Deutsch and a few others who argue that the election system enabling large swings every 4 years was the check and balance for this (and why I think they favour first past post over PR voting). But I do think in an ideal world we would have written done more things; as there are many things Brits disagree with esp re: freedoms - I guess why the curtailing on free speech is galling.
I’ve heard Deutsch talk about that too. What the argument misses is that each election is a package deal and only certain points are salient each time. There isn’t a way of increasing salience of the important but not urgent.