The UK is fantastic, and we do have a brilliant education system. If you want to look at the bad points about anywhere, then EVERYWHERE has gone down the pan. It is a sign of changing times. Just because things aren't the way they used to be, people assume that means they are worse. It doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing.

Well I had nearly all of my education there, not that long ago, and it was about 1000 times better than the shoddy little school I had to endure here in Australia.

I'm very proud of the school I went to in England and visit it every time I go back.

I had an EXCELLENT education in England, not just a good one.

Try telling that to the old lady who now has no post office to walk to, or try telling it to the mother whose young son was shot in the head in Liverpool by "ganagsters", or my friend who was presenetd with the most complex and intricate series of websites when she just wanted to buy a f-----g train ticket, or tell that to my wife who has to manage a major financial operating center here and finds so many (even quite senior) staff are "on sick" month after month after month.

One person joined, was in for two weeks and THEN went sick for six months, came back for two weeks AND THEN went sick again, this time on FULL PAY because they had been employed for ONE YEAR by that time.

That person should be sacked and the job given to someone willing to work, it is crazy and embarassing tobe from here, such an outrage woukd not be possible in US, if your a lazy b-----d you will be dumped, period, but not here no, in "Great Britain" you can live a reasonably good life by being an utterly lazy leaching b-----d.

Honestly talk about deluded.

Please tell me what do YOU think are three of "Great Britan's" worst points?

Hugh

Crime happens everywhere! Ignorant people are everywhere, lazy people are everywhere, things get overlooked everywhere, and there are stupid complications everywhere! It's not a unique feature of the UK!

Well sorry, but that's a quote straight from the daily fail!

Nobody walks to a Post Office in Australia. There are far too many post offices in Britain because most of them were opened before cars & buses were invented and until now not much has changed.

The government is quite right to finally do something about this and bring the number of post offices to a sensible level.

Also many of the services once performed by post offices can now be done by email / on the internet / at banks / at supermarkets.

This is true. Little old lady with no post office could easily have her pension sent straight into a bank account.

Well Hugh, I agree with your points and I also hate lazy people, but again while I agree it's a problem, it's not a problem unique to Britain.

My last job before the one I am in now was working in the Australian equivalent of a Job Centre. In the 3 years or so I was working there, I had a total of about 400 clients, and there were 6 who I made special note of, because they actually genuinely wanted a job.

Needless to say all of those 6 found a job within a week of registering with us.

The remainder, lazy b-------ds, all of them, being paid to be lazy b------ds by the Australian Government, who was being paid by me to pay them!

Well you'll find the answers to that on my other thread called "I DO want to move back to UK BUT....."

Hey, I'm certainly not saying the UK is anything remotely near perfect! FAR from it. But it does still have a lot going for it, and it's NOT anywhere near as bad as the media would have us all believe, so I am trying to spread a little optimism and positivity! That's all!

You are poorly informed. The motivation is profit, pure and simple, reduce costs to a bare minimum, force more and more people to stand in longer and longer queues to mail packages or post foreign letters or cash pension cheques etc etc.

The Government are wrong, just as they are wrong to wine about costs when they spend multiple billions on nuclear submarines, weapons etc.

Your confidence in using the internet is incredible. How can I mail a letter to the US via my PC? or a small gift package? please.

What you do is you buy a stamp from a supermarket or newsagency, then stick the stamp to the package you want to post, and pop it into a mailbox.

Hope that helps!

Why should she be forced to do that? What if her husband has access to a joint account and it is frequently overdrawn or some other scenario?

I dont want to drift into politics, but society is FOR US and should be organized BY US to serve OUR NEEDS irrespective of Blair, Brown, Thatcher and all the other liars and career politicians that have and are destroying our nation.

Do not be surprised if one day, the Police get privatized, and you will need Police Insurance in order to call 999, this is where it is heading just keep watching. They already closed a great number of local police stations over the years, beleive me the UK has TONS of cash but it gets spent on weapons and is thus being handed over to private arms firms, that is the reality.

Hugh

It doesnt, because they cannot tell you what the cost is for a letter, card etc that is being mailed to the USA, hope that clears up your tiny mis-perception of this problem.

Hugh

I agree with you 100% on that point about wasted government (taxpayers) money Hugh.

It infuriates me.

Unfortunately the Australian government spend almost the exact same amount on unnecessary wars etc as the UK government does (per head of population) so again, it IS a serious problem, but it is NOT unique to the UK.

Incidentally the US government does likewise, but worse than the UK and Australia, and I believe that's one of the main reasons the 3 countries are now experiencing the economic problems they are.

You might be surprised to learn that, here in Australia, you actually DO already (and have for many years) need ambulance insurance in order to have an ambulance take you to hospital in an emergency (either that or they charge you $100s in the event that you need an ambulance and you don't have cover).

So again, the UK is NOT unique in going down this sort of path!

...and, of course, it is all free in America