Is the UK now giving off strong Third World vibes?

Is this all about England, or do Wales Scotland and NI qualify as Third World also?

Wouldn't go so far as to say '3rd world vibes', but it is definitely in trouble.

Saw a stat a few weeks back that if you take london and its surrounds out of the equation, the UK is poorer than Mississippi. A stat that was debunked to some degree by the Financial Times, but even in doing so, they acknowledged that it was not that far away from being the case.

The biggest concern I would have for the UK is that the hole it is in is so deep, and was dug by people focused on their own gains (cough cough brexiteers) and Thatherites, that it's very difficult to see a way back from where it is right now. And when we see the drop in living standards, coupled with rising interest rates and inflation over the last number of years, Labour have their work cut out in a big way. Unfortunately, I don't think Starmer is forceful enough to develop a plan and to sell it to people for the longer term greater good in the same way Blair was.

The nature of the FPTP voting system means that it has been easy for conservatives to retain power and while they will likely lose it at the next election, immediately they, and the media will switch to the narrative that they could and will do better than Labour and so could likely be back in after just 1 term. This is largely because of the Right leaning nature of British media and how it pretty much runs the tories election campaigns for them.

In a country that has prostrated itself entirely at the behest of the free market, it is left with sewage on its beaches, and the cost of an open return train ticket between London and Manchester being in the hundreds of pounds, I'd be very worried about what is ahead for the NHS, and as a consequence, the people who rely on it.

No one who thought for a second that Brexit was in the UK's best interest has any chance of improving the standard of living of the vast majority of the people living in it. And these people are going to continue to be on scene, and influencing power for tens of years to come.

Allowing constant waves of asylum immigration is the exact opposite of Brexit principle.

Kind of ironic...

The salient point is that rich countries will not be rich forever, unless they protect their wealth.

They're not coming from the continent, Francis; they're coming from further afield that that. We know that, since Brexit, as between the UK and the EU net migration flows have been very strongly from the UK to the EU. I can't believe you're unaware of this.

The migrants who attempt to enter the UK in small boats are coming from much further away; they come to the UK through the EU, not from the EU. While the UK press would like to create the impression that all the migrants who enter the EU are on their way to the UK, in fact only a small minority are. The great bulk apply for protection in the EU.

This is one of the problems the Tory government has created for itself. For partisan reasons, it suits them if the right-wing press create the impression that the UK is besieged, that all migrants would come to the UK if they could, that the EU is simply a transit point, etc. In fact, none of this is true. This is a problem for the government because, having bigged up the issue, the public will now expect them to take effective action to address it. The nature of the problem is such that the only action likely to be effective is multilateral, co-operative action. Any chance of the UK making a multilateral deal on migration will undoubtedly involve the UK taking its fair share of migrants, and contributing its fair share towards solutions. That will involve the UK doing rather more than it does now, not less. And the Tories' domestic positioning on this makes it very difficult for them to do that.

I don't think that's true.

We have similar social issues in Ireland with only 10% of the population.

Things are generally ok long as you have enough of the right people in healthcare,education and other civil service jobs. But the UK, like Ireland and a lot of western countries is failing here.

Cant hire nurses and doctors because conditions are bad, can't improve conditions without more nurses and doctors. Cant pay them more to do the sh*t jobs because of the public/private divide and setting a precedent for everyone else.

You're right that huge immigration is straining the system, but it was already under pressure 10 years ago and nothing was done (same as Ireland)

Much of this is a manufactured "crisis" by the right wing press. They know that immigration and refugees winds up their readers, so creating a non existing crisis is great for sales. They went down the same route in the year or two before the referendum, claiming that EU freedom of movement was ruining the UK, as so many migrant workers were arriving.

It also seems to be a great distraction from the failings of the Tory government - the right wing press mostly sees its role as to keep the Tory Party in power and to keep Labour out.

The Red Tops went into a frenzy about Romanians having freedom of movement in the EU Apparently tens of thousands were heading for the UK so after the borders opened the BBC went to an airport to see what was happening, They found two Romanians who had come over.

Parts of the UK are very poor parts are very wealthy much more so than here, How many high-end Italian sports car dealerships are there in Ireland not far outside Manchester there are half a dozen.

One word: Serco.

Starmer was hand picked by the British establishment to replace the Tories. If they had have got Corbyn out before the last election they would have rowed in behind Starmer and labour would now be in government.

None of this instills any confidence that Starmer will do anything significant to improve Britain.

The abject collapse of the Tories under incompetence and corruption is not what the establishment wanted at all.

Starmer has no platform comparable to new labour, he has made a virtue of having virtually no platform at all.

Whatever the question is Starmer is not the answer.

He seems very, very weak compared to Tony Blair. He doesn't appear to have any policies of his own bar saying he is "not the Tories". His obvious terror of offending the Red Wall (cannot criticise Brexit or say anything positive about immigration for example) makes him look an ineffective leader.

the evidence would suggest otherwise.

britain still has unions, and strong ones at that.

she only went after the week ones in industries which would have probably closed eventually down the line but never went after the stronger ones, only being able to implement legislation to try but ultimately fail to counteract them.

she was popular because she sold people a pup, and there was also an engineered war thanks to her cutting the north atlantic fleet covering the malvinas.

all of the issues with britain today come back to her failed and ultimately bankrupt policies which amounted to giving people a bung while ultimately she robbed them blind.

Tbf some of the richest nations have monarchies and the failed/failing ones often have the word "democratic" in the name!