Is the UK now giving off strong Third World vibes?

Francis McM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121197652#Comment_121197652

You are still wrong, very wrong, Pearse. According to the nala.ie , and I quote from the homepage of the NATIONAL ADULT LITERACY AGENCY, :" the Central Statistic Office (CSO) assessed 6,000 people aged 16 – 65 in Ireland. The survey was done in 2012 and the results were announced in 2013."

These are the latest statistics available. Blame the Central Statistics Office and the National Adult Literacy Agency if they do not have more up to date statistics.

According to them, and I quote from the top of their homepage:

"The OECD Adult Skills Survey shows that 17.9% or about 1 in 6, Irish adults are at or below level 1 on a five level literacy scale. At this level a person may be unable to understand basic written information.

25% or 1 in 4 Irish adults score at or below level 1 for numeracy. At this level a person may struggle with doing simple math calculations. 42% of Irish adults score at or below level 1 on using technology to solve problems and accomplish tasks."

https://www.nala.ie/literacy-and-numeracy-in-ireland/

Slightly Kwackers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121197415#Comment_121197415

I go into Tralee weekly, which is about the same as I did in my town center in England. In England there were a number of food banks, one clearly indicated when I walked past, the others I was aware of as an acquaintance found them indispensable when his benefits were stopped.

Were I back in my home town and Googled the town and "food bank" the returns are obvious and I would have a clear choice of where to go.

Try it, Google "Burslem" and "food bank", then try the same for Tralee.

Do you not think the reason I am not aware of the charitable food distribution is because it is pretty insignificant?

What definition of "food poverty" are you using? Are you applying the same definition to the two countries? Do you have a source?

You didn't enlighten me as to where in Tralee the services of a food bank are available and when. Surely having so many people in "food poverty" would suggest an accessible food bank would be needed somewhere in town on a daily basis?

I will have to accept what you say regarding literacy, but my experience and a quick Google suggests no significant difference.

I would think a country where they are not gullible enough to believe the EU only want straight bananas and they don't have to escort fans out of football matches using police would win hands down educationally though, regardless of ability to communicate via the written word. Well the Brits have Brexit do they not? It say's quite a lot about the educational system there.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121197978#Comment_121197978

If Britain has better literacy skills then why did they swallow all the brexit promises?

Perhaps there's a deficit in rational thinking.

Badly Drunk Boy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121194414#Comment_121194414

So Ireland was 17.9% at or below Level 1, while England was 17.8%. Wow, that's an amazing difference!!

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121198196#Comment_121198196

And that's a decade old research.

Demographics will have seen a gap open up since then. I commonly meet older people over seventy who struggle with anything beyond a tabloid, whereas that's the norm in England.

Francis McM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121198163#Comment_121198163

Maybe they are just at university instead.  The UK has four Universities which make it into the global top 10, with a further four in the global top 50.

By comparison, Ireland's top university is Trinity, which is only 81st world wide nowadays, with UCD next and is ranked only 171 worldwide.

So at least UK universities still are not giving off a Third World Vibe, the subject of this thread.

Unflushable Turd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121198186#Comment_121198186

So you have just moved to a rural town with less than 10% of the population of the city you lived in and you are wondering why there are less food banks? duh

just check out people like the Muslim sisters or Eire, or Crosscare and see the work they are forced to do, or the number of food parcels and children's toys given out each year by the various Lions clubs.

Out of curiosity, how many football matches have you been to in Ireland? have you watched Bohs play Rovers?

enjoy your new home, but you have a very rude awakening. I just hope it doesn't come in the form of waiting four hours for an ambulance to drive from Waterford, or having to join the 28 people who spent the night on a hospital trolley in Kerry last night.

Slightly Kwackers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121198378#Comment_121198378

I lived in a town. The city was made up of six towns. I wouldn't begin to know how many food banks were in the city as a total. I would guess scores.

If I was better off in the UK, I could be there tomorrow. I would have every right as a UK citizen to take up where I left off.

We had loads of charities in the UK also, but there is a considerable difference between giving to help people have an improvement to their life and giving to keep them alive. Maybe you don't have benefits withdrawn from people here as a "punishment", but it's common in the UK

When were UNICEF last in Ireland feeding Irish children?

UNICEF tend to be more active collecting in Ireland :-)

BlueSkyDreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121198430#Comment_121198430

No offence to Stoke, but by UK standards it is s a pretty poor city economically.

You are right that there is greater poverty there than we would see anywhere in Ireland.

Unflushable Turd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121198430#Comment_121198430

Crosscare (who are heavily fnded by the EU) and the MSOE aren't giving out food to give people a leg up, they are trying to help them live. Take a stroll around Dublin, Cork or Limerick any evening and you will see the food banks, soup kitchens etc all in action.

Are you seriously trying to suggest that the UK doesn't help UNICEF? the biggest contributor after the US?

We get it, you hated living in England and you need to justify moving to Ireland (and to a rural backwater no less) that's fair enough, but you are in for a rude awakening. Just wait until you have to throw yourself at the mercy of the HSE, then you will really be wishing you were back enjoying the luxuries of the NHS.

By the way, watch yourself in Tralee. This is the town where it is perfectly acceptable for a local councillor to beat up someone for being English and not have to resign their seat despite being convicted of assault and where a lot of the locals will queue up to shake hands with a convicted rapist before they are sent to jail. But what would expect from a town where the local GAA club is named after a white supremicist.

irishguitarlad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121198598#Comment_121198598

Where the coucillor beat someone up was in Kenmare. The people that shook the hand of the rapist were from Listowel. As for the gaa club I don't think the people that play for them or follow them are racists. Tralee in general is one of the more open-minded places in Kerry.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121198598#Comment_121198598

Just wait until you have to throw yourself at the mercy of the HSE, then you will really be wishing you were back enjoying the luxuries of the NHS.

As someone with long term health issues and who has spent time in public hospitals, I'm curious as to what exactly you are referring to because it really does sound like the usual uninformed crap that choosed a few outlier cases to try and make it sound like you know what you're talking about!

Slightly Kwackers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121198598#Comment_121198598

I don't live in Limerick, Cork or Dublin. I'm relating what my experiences are here with those in the UK. UNICEF feeding Britain's jkids has been general knowledge though since some English footballer campaigned for free school meals.

My experience of the NHS was trying for over a week to phone my UK doctor. I didn't even get as far as an appointment offer. All I got was the usual pre recorded garbage about emergencies and different advice numbers.

I can see a doctor here the following day for a none urgent appointment.

I don't need to justify moving here. I worked all over the world and there were several places I would be happier than in England. In actual fact post Brexit if I didn't have the right to Irish citizenship I would probably have gone to Scotland. The only place on the planet I was racially abused for being English incidentally.

You seem to paint a bleak picture of Ireland. I have yet to find a downside other than the reluctance to state prices for goods. The inability to see what you have to pay before nominating an article and the need I am told to mention a third party to get a favourable deal is something I detest. Apart from that everything is grand!

The Tories would be right chuffed if they had someone with your skills to welcome the migrants as they approached England's coast, have you thought of applying? :-)

PommieBast

@Slightly Kwackers

My experience of the NHS was trying for over a week to phone my UK doctor. I didn't even get as far as an appointment offer. All I got was the usual pre recorded garbage about emergencies and different advice numbers.

When I did my back in earlier this year (visiting Howth with a heavy backpack was not a good idea) the NHS physio told me point-blank that practice policy is not to book appointments for people unless they had been in pain for at least three weeks. And this was one of the "better" NHS trusts.

To be fair in all my time in Dublin I had health insurance so can't really compare the HSE and NHS..

goodlad_ourvlad

I don't know why everyone tries to ring their doctors on the NHS... give them a go, and if it they don't answer first time, go through 111.

Did that this eve for the youngest who hasn't been great for a few days.... no response from the GP, rang 111 this afternoon and had an out of hours appointment this eve.

I have a non urgent appointment in process with the GP... filled out an e-consult, told I would have a response by tomorrow with an appointment in a 2 week timeframe, can't really complain with that.

Meanwhile, in IE, I have 2 relations, one waiting on a referral for a back injury which may cause permanent damage (already been to the physio and had an MRI), but because they weren't referred the "right" way, they have to go through the lot again. They were told if they lose sensation in their legs or lose control of bowel movements, they are to go to A&E immediately...

Other is still to be assessed for an injury keeping them off work... if they stay public, first consultation is 4-5 months away, if they pay to go private they were told 2-3 weeks ...

it's not all rosy on either side

Slightly Kwackers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121199212#Comment_121199212

This seems logical. I don't know if the "system" was used for me, but having back problems myself I was on increasing levels of painkillers/ anti-inflammatories before being referred. It would be about four weeks.

It seems logical to do things that way, I didn't find the physio that beneficial anyway.

That was a few years back when the NHS had a few bob.

RetroEncabulator

The risks of poverty and social exclusion in Ireland are broadly in line with Central European countries : https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Living_conditions_in_Europe_-_poverty_and_social_exclusion&oldid=584082

UK stats are no longer received by Eurostat, so it's quite hard to get an objective read on anything anymore (which is probably the intention.)

However, the stats were almost identical for both countries in 2016-17: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=File:People_AROPE_2019_2.png

Ireland's were reducing, largely due to coming out of the economic crisis.

The UK's are likely to have worsened since then, due to direct policy measures taken by the current and previous Tory governments, which have genuinely sliced and diced the social welfare system.

Unflushable Turd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121199001#Comment_121199001

When you start throwing around baseless as hominem it shows how much shite you are spouting.

K-9

I really don't think the media paints a rosey picture of how hard things are here. We are well informed of how people are struggling to put food on the table, pay bills, rent/mortgages, put kids through third level education, put up with a dysfunctional health system, crime, drugs etc.

But we aren't pretending we live in the world's fifth richest and thriving economy (as if that means anything, was 4th a few years back, had an Empire 60 years ago), and Brexit made us stronger, Cruella Braverman coming out with stuff that just 10 years ago, would have been treated as downright hate speech.

I mean this is a government that thought painting cartoons in an asylum kids was too left wing and touchy feely, and anything bright and colourful to make a kid smile was dangerous, and should be removed. They are the type of psychopathic ministers that are in that government. Show a bit of common decency and respect for kids in an asylum centre, and actually act like the world's 5th largest economy.

Do people think Boris, Liz Truss, Cruella, Patel and the rest, actually believe any of the shyte that comes out of their mouths?

If I thought they actually believed it, I'd have a little respect for them. Most of them were remainers who are coming out with the most vile shyte to appeal to UKIPers.

F*cking absolute charlatans. Little Donald Trumpers.

Slightly Kwackers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121199733#Comment_121199733

Baseless?

Isn't "as hominem" as baseless as it gets? It seems baseless in every possible interpretation.

My happy smiley face was obviously lost on you.

I leave you to your misery.

K-9

As for that dangerous clown Boris, I'd forgotten some of the Covid stuff. Didn't go to any Cobra meetings about Covid for 2 months then, the day after he attends his first one, goes into a hospital and shakes hands with infected patients and then tells the world everything is fine, I shook people's hands, everybody else do it.

We can't tell people to stay at home, the British love their freedom too much. Cummings following their own Covid models, because we know more than every other country in the world. That delay in lockdown cost thousands of lives.

Same moron editing blogs after he was caught driving to test his eyes in Durham. Trying to say he warned about Covid way back. A dangerous know it all bastard.

Using charts in the briefings at the start of Covid to show how great Britain is doing, then ditching them when they started catching up with Spain and Italy.

Every f*cking statement has to include world leading. Tell you what, never mind world leading, just have a basic level of competence and listen to advisors who know what they are talking about.

Drafting up plans to send refugees to South Georgia and paint over cartoons on walls of child refugee centres. Just solve the immigration problem that you've failed to do for the last 13 years and stop wasting time on shyte that everybody knows will never, ever get implemented because it's crazy, batshit stuff.

That's just off the top of my head stuff. Our shower mostly listened to the experts. They f*cked up on nursing homes and trying to keep the country open for Christmas that time, but they got most things right because they listened to experts. That inaction cost hundreds of lives though. Just multiply that by 10 to get the level of incompetence in Boris's government.

Too much time spent on slogans and clapping for the NHS, and wasting time doing Brexit preparations that could have been spent elsewhere.

I forgot, everybody is sick of experts. That Gove clown is largely responsible for that school buildings mess, private sector knows best. Another mess was the Covid tracking and tracing system.

That's only a few things under Boris. Then Liz Truss. I don't what words you use to describe that imbecile.

kirk.

Boris was at least half right about COVID

We could have carried on

The cancellation of the Birmingham Manchester HS2 is an embarrassment, i see they're even selling the properties on the route

Francis McM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121200728#Comment_121200728

Exactly. The UK handled Covid much better than us. We even shut down OUTDOOR construction workers for a long time in 2020, and now wonder why our construction industry is such a mess, from the lack of housing, lack of skilled trades to the National Childrens Hospital fiasco.

Francis McM

Incidentally, do not forget, when the world was on its knees, the U K government formed a COVID‑19 vaccine task force in April 2020 to stimulate local efforts for accelerated development of a vaccine through collaborations between industries, universities, and government agencies. The UK's Vaccine Taskforce contributed to every phase of development, from research to manufacturing. No surprise in December 2020 the UK was the first country in the world with a vaccine.

Not bad for a country with strong third world vibes.

K-9

Boris never got anything half right in his life, if he did it was by pure accident.

When he did up 2 letters on Brexit, 1 supporting Remain, the other Brexit, he got that half right purely by accident.

He famously said he'd stand in front of the bulldozers for the new runway at Heathrow, then f*cked off abroad when the vote came up in the Commons. What I didn't know is he did up 2 letters again at the planning stage. 1 he gave to the groups supporting the runway, the other to groups opposing it. When it got to the planning hearing everybody was looking at each other going wtf? So he got that half right.

When he decided to stand down from the leadership contest in 16, he got that half right too, should have left it that and he'd have got it completely right.

kirk.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121201023#Comment_121201023

UK is a world leader in this area if I recall correctly

Slightly Kwackers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121200678#Comment_121200678

To get a bunch of uneducated muppets to vote for self harm needs faith. Experts are not really that much into relying on faith.

Like the US, the Tories are using the union flag as a brand, as a motivator for the hard of thinking. The republicans and Tories are equally enthusiastic for stirring up hate against their own citizens if they are unable to contribute and take part in this drive for "growth".

A funny kind of patriotism methinks, that excludes an increasingly large number of Americans and Brit's.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121199780#Comment_121199780

The lurch towards right wing populism by the Tories and their numerous press pals has been a strange sight to behold. Even the Conservative Party of Thatcher and Major wasn't a particular racist or reactionary one and they would probably have recoiled at the language of Braverman & Co. It's not something that anyone would have anticipated even a decade ago, that by 2023 the Tories and their right wing press cronies would be retreating into racism and bigotry against numerous minorities.

jetsonx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121201023#Comment_121201023

This is what I find quite sad about the whole situation in the UK.

Forgetting about some their really mediocre retail companies like Tesco and Currys, some of their companies (niche software, engineering, etc.,) are absolutely world-class. A lot of their science research is also world-class. There is an agility there that you just don't get with continental organisations.

All of these have been stymied by the decisions of an older / retired demographic and a few elites. Very sad.

swampgas

The UK is giving off corrupt, Bolsanaro/Trump/Erdogan/Berlusconi vibes. There isn't much corruption by international standards in the lives of most ordinary people, but at government level ... wow. Over the last dozen or so years the Tories have been robbing the country blind with corrupt payments to cronies, messing with elections (voter ID), and stuffing the House of Lords with very dodgy people. And getting away with it. They still have the backing of much of the press, itself massively corrupt, and also a completely biased GB News, as part of their Americanisation of their political campaigning. Given another term in office they would probably (definitely!) continue making it harder and harder for anyone to beat them fairly in an election. I wouldn't put it past them to consider some sort of emergency powers / martial law to stay in power, not something I would have said ten years ago.

So no, not a "third world" country as that term is often understood - but definitely heading towards banana republic status in terms of how it is governed.