**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!**
- Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc.
- **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on.
- This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit!
Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[I posted this comment a few days ago.](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/s/yXNyKgOjVS) Rather than write something similar, I hope you dont mind me repeating it here.
>We're already doing very well with renewable energy.
>The UK has the [1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th largest offshore wind farms in the world. We also have the 7th, 8th and 9th largest. We also have the three largest under construction.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_offshore_wind_farms) Also four of the ten largest proposed wind farms.
>[Here's a map.](https://imgur.com/a/i6OqiYw)
>The newest offshore turbines are contributing a lot; a new modern wind turbine provides sufficient energy for one home for one day with just one rotation of its blades. And, there are even more powerful ones being built in the UK (and the US). [2021 article:](https://www.zmescience.com/science/wind-turbine-powerful-09122020/)
>"a single spin of the turbine could power a UK household for more than two days. In the US, it would be enough energy for the average home, since US households tend to use more energy."
>[We share renewable energy with Norway via the world's longest undersea power cable.](https://www.euronews.com/2021/10/01/north-sea-link-world-s-longest-undersea-power-cable-linking-norway-and-uk-is-now-operationhttps://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/pzj53s/worlds_longest_undersea_power_cable_linking/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
>There is a project to connect the UK National Grid to a 1,500km² wind and solar farm in Morocco, through four 3,800km long subsea cables - the longest such cables in the world. This will supply 8% of the UK's electricity demand. [Source.](https://www.power-technology.com/projects/morocco-uk-power-project-morocco/)
>We're [fast tracking nuclear power plants](https://www.ft.com/content/f97ffa0c-adce-4657-b37d-840b21f3b628) and there is a programme for [Rolls Royce's small modular reactors.](https://www.rolls-royce.com/innovation/small-modular-reactors.aspx#/)
Not sure if it’s still the case, but in 2022 82.2% of the UK’s wind farms were owned by foreign states and multinationals. So yes, we sold them off too, like the idiots we are.
We did not "sell them off". They never were state owned. They were built by companies (who owns them is mostly irrelevant) with money that did not come from your taxes either (which is good as the UK is under taxed as it is with debt needed to prop up the public purse). For most of these sites, they will not return a significant dividend to the owners for many years, and much of the investment and employment for the projects comes from the UK.
People really to have to get beyond "someone owns it, so it is bad" ideas. They also have to learn the differences between profits and dividends (i.e. what is taken out of a company).
It’s too annoying man. If someone foreign ooh spooky says I want to build a skyscraper in Leeds these man are gonna say ahh but do we own it. Government sold us out reh teh
Three words. Wind farm subsidies. Where do you think they (£billions in the last 5 years) come from?
https://ref.org.uk/ref-blog/370-offshore-wind-subsidies-per-mwh-generated-continue-to-rise
https://www.ft.com/content/cb351788-377b-4ea7-aa0a-9bcc28293e7d
Some UK offshore wind farms are owned/being developed by international companies (e.g. Orsted-Danish, Equinor-Norwegian) but a fair few of them are also British owned (SSE is a Scottish company). Whether international or British they all have bases in the UK to deliver the works so are providing jobs within the UK economy. ALL of the wind farms will also be connecting to the UK national grid (and our grid alone, they dont also have cables going to their 'owner' country) so all the electricity generated by them comes here.
>The newest offshore turbines are contributing a lot; a new modern wind turbine provides sufficient energy for one home for one day with just one rotation of its blades.
That's genuinely amazed me.
Homes average ~1KW constant demand. An 8MW wind turbine will average ~4MW output, so enough for ~4,000 homes. They spin at ~20rpm, ie ~4320 times per day = roughly once per home.
(in fact homes average less than 1KW, offshore turbines output a bit more than this, and the latest turbines are much bigger than 8MW - am just using round figures to illustrate. We're closer to half a revolution per home these days).
As a sailor, they are annoying, add many hours to a nice coastal sail and mean that you feel like you are wandering through an industrial landscape compared to a few yeas ago. However I’m still massively in favour of them, as the overall good is huge.
More fool you then.
There have been plenty of smart tariffs around for the last year or so that track the wholesale prices of energy.
I currently pay less for the same amount of energy than I did before Covid.
Octopus Energy - Agile Tariff. If you avoid using much energy between 4-7pm then it’s very reasonable but if you can’t do that they have a Tracker tariff that will do you
Ah yeh I did look at that myself! Most of our energy (get home start cooking etc) is 4-7! I’m on the Octopus Flexible at the moment but I think I can get it cheaper if I change, now that prices have dropped slightly
Yeah, this is an issue that many people don’t realise or purposefully don’t talk about when talking about rejoining the EU.
We were in an incredibly good position in the EU, we could opt out of whatever we wanted, and had done to multiple things (see Schengen area and the euro, plus more). Rejoining would not only mean having to accept many of those things, but also having to meet the conditions to rejoin.
Leaving has already proved to be a massive mistake, but rejoining isn’t a case of just resetting the damage. It should be looked at as its own choice and based on the merits of what would be required of us should be want to rejoin.
Technically, you don't have to. Even if we say we will pledge to join the Euro, we can never get borrowing levels right to actually adopt it without massive austerity which'll destroy our economy. So we can literally keep the pound indefinitely.
Sadly, there is no real prospect of this. The best we can hope for is a settlement of the process, which is still throwing up surprise costs. [Where is the bus full of money? Honestly we knew it was a lie at the time, these kind of people should have been thrown in jail for treason.]
Compared to 20 years ago the UK is a much safer place. Still not close to perfect but people forget how violent nights out were back then. Stabbing etc were far more frequent.
Were they? 20 years ago I used to walk around at 4am after boozing for a solid 6 hours without a care. I still live in the same city, and I wouldn't go out after 10pm now!
Yeah, as he said people generally forget how much more violence happened in Britain back then. Even if you didn’t happen to see it the stats speak for themselves.
In 2004 there were approx 24,200 knife crime incidents in the UK. In 2023 (since we're quite new into 2024, so not valid stats), there were 49,400.
So no, it has not decreased. It has horrifically increased.
(these are from official stats, also I'm a criminologist lol)
I was talking about violent crime in general not knife crime specifically. The homicide rate is noticeably lower than it was in 2004.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingjune2023
Although you are right, there are more knife crime incidents now, it’s worth noting a knife crime incident does include people being searched and a knife being found even if no violence has occurred.
The link shows a graph since the 90’s and crime in general is sharply decreasing. The overall crime rate was higher in 2004.
Right so an increase in the use of stop and search powers by police is likely to cause a corresponding increase in statistical knife crime, even though the effect is probably to _reduce_ the risk of knives actually being used in crime.
Homicides in London have halved in the last 20 years - https://x.com/LessCrime/status/1773438120781836465/photo/1
Doesn’t seems like it when you watch the news.
Curious how those numbers are computed. There's absolutely no spike for 7/7. I also just distrust the current gov so much that I wouldn't be surprised if they changed what is classed as homicide
I notice the ew brother meme used frequently by working class white people which shows how things have changed.
That meme originates from a religious Muslim scholar
I can see a lot of areas taking part in rewilding. A lot more verges and parks have wild flowers on and I have seen a lot more bugs, especially bees, this year.
Maybe it's just lazy councils but it's working :)
I work for a local council, it's a double-whammy cost saving/biodiversity measure to let council-owned land overgrow a bit. Honestly pretty smart!! If only I didn't have to hear so many pensioners whinge about it.
Many councils do it shit, though. A big park or ope space with long grass and wildflowers can look lovely, . Leaving a 1m littered verge between a road and a pavement on a residential street to grow wild and the pavement to grow choked with weeds just looks like an eyesore. No amount of 'think of the bees!' will convince me that bad councils are doing a good job when they deliberately allow our streets to get closer to the third world.
Lots of rarer and unusual species of plants grow on roadside verges (notably orchids), so I welcome the councils letting them go wild and actually giving things a chance
Air pollution
There has been a 99 per cent reduction in the number of hours when NO2 concentrations exceeded the UK's hourly limit since 2016 – dropping from 4,130 hours in 2016, to just 22 hours in 2023
Based on London but still good: https://www.london.gov.uk/new-report-reveals-dramatic-improvements-londons-air-quality-2016#:~:text=There%20has%20been%20a%2099,years%20earlier%20than%20previously%20projected.
i bought a pack of chopped mango for breakfast the other day. take my first bite and it’s fizzy. check the expiration date and it had gone off the previous day. thankfully the shop was just around the corner and they exchanged it for no fuss but it did put me out. it’s my firm belief that if you buy food, you have a reasonable expectation that it’s not rotten when you buy it!
Was about to say, it's easily doubled for me in Dundee since 2010. If there are two+ of you it's actually cheaper to take a taxi if it's one-way. Maybe TFL has gotten cheaper?
People are getting more creative with their gardens, turning them into mini paradises. And don't forget about the rise of quirky independent coffee shops—more places to grab a great cuppa! ☕🌿
I wish this was true.. and maybe it is… but it feels like there’s an ever greater number of gardens being lost to make spaces for parking or - worse - plastic lawns.
I know that’s a joke but honestly it is 😂 one of the most beautiful country I’ve ever visited, I got to see like 4 different types of ecosystems in one tiny country. I went around this time of year and the rainforest was absolutely stunning, the national parc is so huge you can drive in it for hours to get from one end to another. So it is indeed beautiful this time of the year, would definitely recommend the volcanoes as well if you get the chance although it’s a bit of a luxury tourism country so the price for a whole trip is pretty steep nowadays much more than when I first went
This is my favourite thing about the UK. I love a flight out of here. Last year went on 7 trips to into Europe.
Safety in the UK is also underrated.
The women are also nice to look at.
We haven’t had a live serial killer in a while, the kind where the murders are ongoing, the police are looking for the culprit and local people are scared that they’ll be the next victim.
Think the last one the police were trying to catch while the killer was still murdering people was Steve Wright (aka the Suffolk Strangler) in 2006.
I know it’s different to what you are describing but Lucy Letby is a recent serial killer. It’s pretty likely that there are serial killers in the UK, just none that are currently very noticeable.
Oh yeah, I know there’ve been recent serial killers obviously. But I mean the kind that whip the media and the public up into a frenzy of fear and panic, as they’re at large while we’re all aware of them.
When the Yorkshire Ripper was at large for example, people (especially women) were scared to walk the streets. Likewise with the Suffolk Strangler. It’s the faceless, insidious ‘they could be anyone’ type of fear that we haven’t had in a long time.
Thankfully, these types of criminals seem to get caught a lot earlier now. I’ve no doubt Wayne Couzens would have went on to murder more women, for example.
I think this country just lives in constant fear 24/7.
So you say women were scared to walk the streets for a period of time. Nowadays we all keep our front doors locked and we don't let our kids play outside or go out if sight at all.
And cameras at swimming pools are absolutely banned.
Go abroad and it's completely different.
Everyone's a potential rapist and paedo in this country based on our untrusting behaviours and rules.
Steve Wright has also now been recently charged with the unsolved murder of Victoria Hall in Felixstowe back in late 1999. Someone else was previously tried and acquitted.
Wright's involvement had been suspected anecdotally ever since he was picked up in 2006 and people shared stories of him owning that type of car, living round the corner from the murder site etc. but the evidence wasn't quite there.
Really scraping the barrel fo positives now. This is like when that guy said one of the best things about the UK was the range of sandwiches in the Tesco meal deal.
😂 just been the M6 toll at the weekend and I had a flashback to twenty years ago when I used to use the dartford tunnel everyday - and panic about change -everyday!! Now, I didn’t even have a purse and it was all good, phones make it so easy these days!!
People's health. Drinking and smoking are much less than they were 20 years ago and more people exercise regularly. We eat more processed shit though so not all good.
More people are university educated than ever before. Is it wholly necessary? Probably not. But I do think studying does benefit people beyond the purpose of getting a job at the end. It's a good thing, even if some people with a chip on their shoulder will say otherwise.
Not exclusively a UK thing, but we have access to more information and entertainment than ever before, instantly. We take it for granted.
Household disposable incomes are at their highest level ever in real terms (i.e. inflation adjusted), or are very close to it. I think the waters get muddied a lot on this topic. People insist that living standards have declined since the financial crisis but what they've done is basically stagnated, with some fluctuation in that period. That's not a good thing, but it does also mean that they are still at their highest level ever.
Workplaces and basically every method of transport are safer than ever. Dying or getting severely injured in a car crash at work is way less common than it used to be.
We're collectively getting much better at learning foreign languages.
Our consumer rights are stronger than ever.
Smoking rates are in long term decline.
Life expectancy has declined since Covid thanks in no small part to NHS and social care backlogs, but it's still very near to its record high. I think we've slipped back to 2012 level, and it's not like we were dropping like flies back in 2011.
Smoking cigarettes/cigars is on the decline yes. However we are heading for a rather large population addicted to nicotine due to vaping.
I see people walking rounds with vapes dangling from their neck, groups of primary kids with vapes and a lot of people can’t drive properly due to holding a large vape.
I’m an ex smoker, I quit using vapes but these disposable vapes are going to ruin the users and the environment.
This may just be a perspective thing….being a teacher now, teenagers I teach (A-Level) are much nicer, kinder—-less arseholes really than when I was a teenager (myself included)
The range and quality of cuisine and catering to different diets is unmatched in the UK's major cities.
All cultural flavours under one roof, many will be decent quality as well, cooked by the people from that culture, either little mom and pop cafes or family restaurants or takeaways. Plus lots of then mare innovative and creative with it. I often go abroad and find lots of basic stuff (vegan, gluten free etc) very difficult, especially in France, Germany etc.
I remember supermarkets in the mid-1990s. The products were basic, the packaging was bland, bread and rolls were questionable, barely any foreign or exotic produce. I also don't recall any serious fresh ready meals or microwaveables either.
The car park was also full of people poking around under the bonnet of their two year old car because it suddenly wasn't starting. I remember in those days it was perfectly common to see broken down cars everywhere and people being pushed by good samaritans.
\> Obligatory sentence because this text box can't be left blank
Even the low-effort hopium trolls can't be bothered anymore.
This is a distinct improvement.
There are soooo many more places that are literally just giving food away for free! People are also helping the environment more by not putting on the heating over winter and just getting through it. True hero’s! Our businesses like Tesco and BP are also boasting incredible profits which is always good I guess. I hear the banks and our leaders are doing exceedingly well financially so that’s ehh yeah good too
In general, this is a nonsense statement. You need a pair currency to make this statement.
If you're buying the pound in USD, then sure. It's pretty cheap (though note that it was much cheaper in the 80s).
If you're buying the pound in Turkish lira, then it has never been more expensive to buy.
I'm not sure I agree with that. Maybe we have more of our own TV & films these days but with the ever growing influence of social media it feels like cultural trends are adopted from America faster and harder than ever.
Im most concerned about the 'disruptive' American giants that have been allowed eviscerated our high streets whilst paying barely any tax - [Amazon in particular](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jun/01/amazon-uk-services-main-division-pay-no-corporation-tax-for-second-year-in-row-tax-credit-government-super-deduction-scheme#:~:text=11%20months%20old-,Amazon's%20main%20UK%20division%20pays%20no%20corporation,second%20year%20in%20a%20row&text=Amazon's%20main%20UK%20division%20has,robotic%20equipment%20at%20its%20warehouses.)
I am a Muslim and I have not experienced prejudice or discrimination against me at all. I have lived in a predominantly white neighbourhood for my whole life. My parents throughout the 1980s-90s however, had experienced a lot of discrimination.
**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!** - Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc. - **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on. - This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit! Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
More of our electricity is coming from renewables.
I like hearing about new wind farms. Another is being planned for the Irish sea
[I posted this comment a few days ago.](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/s/yXNyKgOjVS) Rather than write something similar, I hope you dont mind me repeating it here. >We're already doing very well with renewable energy. >The UK has the [1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th largest offshore wind farms in the world. We also have the 7th, 8th and 9th largest. We also have the three largest under construction.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_offshore_wind_farms) Also four of the ten largest proposed wind farms. >[Here's a map.](https://imgur.com/a/i6OqiYw) >The newest offshore turbines are contributing a lot; a new modern wind turbine provides sufficient energy for one home for one day with just one rotation of its blades. And, there are even more powerful ones being built in the UK (and the US). [2021 article:](https://www.zmescience.com/science/wind-turbine-powerful-09122020/) >"a single spin of the turbine could power a UK household for more than two days. In the US, it would be enough energy for the average home, since US households tend to use more energy." >[We share renewable energy with Norway via the world's longest undersea power cable.](https://www.euronews.com/2021/10/01/north-sea-link-world-s-longest-undersea-power-cable-linking-norway-and-uk-is-now-operationhttps://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/pzj53s/worlds_longest_undersea_power_cable_linking/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) >There is a project to connect the UK National Grid to a 1,500km² wind and solar farm in Morocco, through four 3,800km long subsea cables - the longest such cables in the world. This will supply 8% of the UK's electricity demand. [Source.](https://www.power-technology.com/projects/morocco-uk-power-project-morocco/) >We're [fast tracking nuclear power plants](https://www.ft.com/content/f97ffa0c-adce-4657-b37d-840b21f3b628) and there is a programme for [Rolls Royce's small modular reactors.](https://www.rolls-royce.com/innovation/small-modular-reactors.aspx#/)
Aren't these windfarms owned by foreign companies and of little benefit to the UK? They should be providing us with cheap power but they're not.
Not sure if it’s still the case, but in 2022 82.2% of the UK’s wind farms were owned by foreign states and multinationals. So yes, we sold them off too, like the idiots we are.
We did not "sell them off". They never were state owned. They were built by companies (who owns them is mostly irrelevant) with money that did not come from your taxes either (which is good as the UK is under taxed as it is with debt needed to prop up the public purse). For most of these sites, they will not return a significant dividend to the owners for many years, and much of the investment and employment for the projects comes from the UK. People really to have to get beyond "someone owns it, so it is bad" ideas. They also have to learn the differences between profits and dividends (i.e. what is taken out of a company).
It’s too annoying man. If someone foreign ooh spooky says I want to build a skyscraper in Leeds these man are gonna say ahh but do we own it. Government sold us out reh teh
Foreign nationals / states owning basic infrastructure (like our access to power) is insane from a security perspective. We are beholden to countries.
Three words. Wind farm subsidies. Where do you think they (£billions in the last 5 years) come from? https://ref.org.uk/ref-blog/370-offshore-wind-subsidies-per-mwh-generated-continue-to-rise https://www.ft.com/content/cb351788-377b-4ea7-aa0a-9bcc28293e7d
Never sold them off. Private companies literally offer to build them
I didn't sell anything off, did you? I must have slept through all those referendums.
I don't understand the downvotes.. can someone clarify who owns the wind farms? It's just, this govt would sell their own mother's for a dividend
Some UK offshore wind farms are owned/being developed by international companies (e.g. Orsted-Danish, Equinor-Norwegian) but a fair few of them are also British owned (SSE is a Scottish company). Whether international or British they all have bases in the UK to deliver the works so are providing jobs within the UK economy. ALL of the wind farms will also be connecting to the UK national grid (and our grid alone, they dont also have cables going to their 'owner' country) so all the electricity generated by them comes here.
This baffles me. When awarding the licences why can’t we say “you can only sell electricity generated back to the UK, not on the global market”?
>The newest offshore turbines are contributing a lot; a new modern wind turbine provides sufficient energy for one home for one day with just one rotation of its blades. That's genuinely amazed me.
I’m so amazed I need to check if it’s true …
Any news? It's been an hour and I've got to put the washing on.
Homes average ~1KW constant demand. An 8MW wind turbine will average ~4MW output, so enough for ~4,000 homes. They spin at ~20rpm, ie ~4320 times per day = roughly once per home. (in fact homes average less than 1KW, offshore turbines output a bit more than this, and the latest turbines are much bigger than 8MW - am just using round figures to illustrate. We're closer to half a revolution per home these days).
This is so interesting!!
Seems like such a waste of electricity purely to make more wind, we have enough wind as it is. Utterly ridiculous.
Wind shouldn't be held captive in farms. I always prefer free range wind
I like seeing wind turbine blades on barges when I go for a morning swim.
As a sailor, they are annoying, add many hours to a nice coastal sail and mean that you feel like you are wandering through an industrial landscape compared to a few yeas ago. However I’m still massively in favour of them, as the overall good is huge.
Yet my electricity bills keep increasing
More fool you then. There have been plenty of smart tariffs around for the last year or so that track the wholesale prices of energy. I currently pay less for the same amount of energy than I did before Covid.
Which tariff/company you with?
Octopus Energy - Agile Tariff. If you avoid using much energy between 4-7pm then it’s very reasonable but if you can’t do that they have a Tracker tariff that will do you
Ah yeh I did look at that myself! Most of our energy (get home start cooking etc) is 4-7! I’m on the Octopus Flexible at the moment but I think I can get it cheaper if I change, now that prices have dropped slightly
Because they're investing, in shareholders happiness
The Torries have almost left the building!!
Waiting for [#TacticalVote](https://tacticalvote.co.uk) to update the details of my area/constituency
Didn’t have to scroll down far did I?
We creep closer to Br-enter.
Bredemption?
Yes, we're putting Fonejacker's Brian Badonde in charge of the campaign.
B-re-enter
Crowd say bo
Bre-exit. Crowd say bo bre-enter.
A hard Brentering?
Brentry
I can't see it happening unless the EU states we keep our currency and central bank.
I think it’s too early for a re-entry conversation to be honest , maybe in 20 years about if all indicators are favourable for both sides
Yeah, this is an issue that many people don’t realise or purposefully don’t talk about when talking about rejoining the EU. We were in an incredibly good position in the EU, we could opt out of whatever we wanted, and had done to multiple things (see Schengen area and the euro, plus more). Rejoining would not only mean having to accept many of those things, but also having to meet the conditions to rejoin. Leaving has already proved to be a massive mistake, but rejoining isn’t a case of just resetting the damage. It should be looked at as its own choice and based on the merits of what would be required of us should be want to rejoin.
Technically, you don't have to. Even if we say we will pledge to join the Euro, we can never get borrowing levels right to actually adopt it without massive austerity which'll destroy our economy. So we can literally keep the pound indefinitely.
I wish, but we are in a much weaker state than we were when we left. Not sure we are such a great deal to rejoin.
Bre-turn
It's not gonna happen
I don't think we'll ever fully rejoin. What I think we'll get is "BRINO" done in gentle baby steps and end up with some kind of economic alignment.
Sadly, there is no real prospect of this. The best we can hope for is a settlement of the process, which is still throwing up surprise costs. [Where is the bus full of money? Honestly we knew it was a lie at the time, these kind of people should have been thrown in jail for treason.]
bReunion
Yayyy! Globalism.
Compared to 20 years ago the UK is a much safer place. Still not close to perfect but people forget how violent nights out were back then. Stabbing etc were far more frequent.
You hardly hear of a “glassing” these days
Glassing is the new white dog poo
True I was glassed 16 years ago needing 40 stitches and left with a horrid scar on my face, haven’t been glasses since!
Wonder if it correlates to the withdrawal of leaded petrol
i have definitely heard of glassing these days.
Were they? 20 years ago I used to walk around at 4am after boozing for a solid 6 hours without a care. I still live in the same city, and I wouldn't go out after 10pm now!
Yeah, as he said people generally forget how much more violence happened in Britain back then. Even if you didn’t happen to see it the stats speak for themselves.
In 2004 there were approx 24,200 knife crime incidents in the UK. In 2023 (since we're quite new into 2024, so not valid stats), there were 49,400. So no, it has not decreased. It has horrifically increased. (these are from official stats, also I'm a criminologist lol)
I was talking about violent crime in general not knife crime specifically. The homicide rate is noticeably lower than it was in 2004. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingjune2023 Although you are right, there are more knife crime incidents now, it’s worth noting a knife crime incident does include people being searched and a knife being found even if no violence has occurred. The link shows a graph since the 90’s and crime in general is sharply decreasing. The overall crime rate was higher in 2004.
Right so an increase in the use of stop and search powers by police is likely to cause a corresponding increase in statistical knife crime, even though the effect is probably to _reduce_ the risk of knives actually being used in crime.
TIL the only crime worth noting is knife crime
Where do you get these numbers from? Is it the office of national statistics or someplace else? (Just curious, id like to look)
I was saying this to my husband recently. When we were both at school (roughly 20 years ago) violence and “gang” wannabes seemed to be the in thing.
Seemed to be the thing? In what parallel universe are you living in? Gangs are not only thriving but growing day after day. Bigger than ever.
>Bigger than ever. Do you have any data to show this?
What statistics are you basing this on?
Homicides in London have halved in the last 20 years - https://x.com/LessCrime/status/1773438120781836465/photo/1 Doesn’t seems like it when you watch the news.
If it was actually common place it wouldn’t be shocking news when it did happen
Curious how those numbers are computed. There's absolutely no spike for 7/7. I also just distrust the current gov so much that I wouldn't be surprised if they changed what is classed as homicide
I'm mixed-race and I feel like society is much more accepting of this than it was when my parents were kids (60s and 70s).
My mother is same age as your parents. She told me that mixed raced kids (mostly girls) were given hell which is inconceivable to me.
Absolutely and quite rightly too 😊
I notice the ew brother meme used frequently by working class white people which shows how things have changed. That meme originates from a religious Muslim scholar
I can see a lot of areas taking part in rewilding. A lot more verges and parks have wild flowers on and I have seen a lot more bugs, especially bees, this year. Maybe it's just lazy councils but it's working :)
I work for a local council, it's a double-whammy cost saving/biodiversity measure to let council-owned land overgrow a bit. Honestly pretty smart!! If only I didn't have to hear so many pensioners whinge about it.
Many councils do it shit, though. A big park or ope space with long grass and wildflowers can look lovely, . Leaving a 1m littered verge between a road and a pavement on a residential street to grow wild and the pavement to grow choked with weeds just looks like an eyesore. No amount of 'think of the bees!' will convince me that bad councils are doing a good job when they deliberately allow our streets to get closer to the third world.
Lots of rarer and unusual species of plants grow on roadside verges (notably orchids), so I welcome the councils letting them go wild and actually giving things a chance
I've seen a lot more hedgehogs this year too
Yeah I feel like that's more lack of funding than anything lol
Air pollution There has been a 99 per cent reduction in the number of hours when NO2 concentrations exceeded the UK's hourly limit since 2016 – dropping from 4,130 hours in 2016, to just 22 hours in 2023
Would also appreciate a source to learn more!
Bloody hell, is that correct? Not disputing but have you got a source? I’d love to be able to read about it!
Based on London but still good: https://www.london.gov.uk/new-report-reveals-dramatic-improvements-londons-air-quality-2016#:~:text=There%20has%20been%20a%2099,years%20earlier%20than%20previously%20projected.
Thank you! Even more impressive considering it’s London!
Younger people drink less and eat healthier.
We try, although it's irritating how much expired fruit/veg I'm seeing being sold lately
i bought a pack of chopped mango for breakfast the other day. take my first bite and it’s fizzy. check the expiration date and it had gone off the previous day. thankfully the shop was just around the corner and they exchanged it for no fuss but it did put me out. it’s my firm belief that if you buy food, you have a reasonable expectation that it’s not rotten when you buy it!
Usually smells quite odd too..
I'm doing my best to make up for both of those shortcomings
We’re about to get a - marginally - better government.
Things can only get (marginally) better!
Let's hope so !
You can get much further on a bus for £2.00 than you used to.
I can travel from my home town to the local seaside (49 miles as the crow flies) In good traffic it takes 2 hours and it's £2? Bargain
They wouldn't let me on the bus here for £2, if it even shows up
Does only apply to England unfortunately
Was about to say, it's easily doubled for me in Dundee since 2010. If there are two+ of you it's actually cheaper to take a taxi if it's one-way. Maybe TFL has gotten cheaper?
I hear the banks are doing pretty well ..
My investments are not tho! 🤣
Thats why the banks are doing well XD
In my 89 years on earth, I don't think I've seen someone say that're.
One of the powers of English is its versatility
But you know what - I don't hate it. It makes perfect sense & I'm left wondering why I've not seen it in my many fewer years!
You mean why I'ven't seen it
dont push it
What the'll is wrong with'at, it makes perfect'ense
I used "oughtn't've" and was told off by a friend because it's "weird".
Yep, I'm pretty sure it's illegal.
I’m from Northern Ireland and the acceptance of each other here has definitely improved, still a long way to go though
Weathers alright today
I was thinking this.
People are getting more creative with their gardens, turning them into mini paradises. And don't forget about the rise of quirky independent coffee shops—more places to grab a great cuppa! ☕🌿
I wish this was true.. and maybe it is… but it feels like there’s an ever greater number of gardens being lost to make spaces for parking or - worse - plastic lawns.
I definitely think that if I was magically transported back to 1994, I'd really miss the quality of coffee that we have now.
You mean planting different flowers?
The younger generation are nicer and more open than the generations before (as an immigrant and now citizen of the UK)
Lots of food from all over the world can be now purchased without having to use a passport
Quality is down though.
Maybe but I like been able to get some nice meat and cheese
More cheap flights to new destinations via Ryanair/Easyjet out of the country
I hear Rwanda is lovely this time of year
I know that’s a joke but honestly it is 😂 one of the most beautiful country I’ve ever visited, I got to see like 4 different types of ecosystems in one tiny country. I went around this time of year and the rainforest was absolutely stunning, the national parc is so huge you can drive in it for hours to get from one end to another. So it is indeed beautiful this time of the year, would definitely recommend the volcanoes as well if you get the chance although it’s a bit of a luxury tourism country so the price for a whole trip is pretty steep nowadays much more than when I first went
I loved it too, one of the most memorable travels I’ve ever done!!
Those are anything but cheap, although they are free at the point of use.
And most destinations are having serious anti-tourist movements prop up because of it.
This is my favourite thing about the UK. I love a flight out of here. Last year went on 7 trips to into Europe. Safety in the UK is also underrated. The women are also nice to look at.
Why pay £40/£50 return to go Birmingham when I can be in venice or somewhere warm for a similar price if I book it early enough in advance
For real even £26 return flights to Denmark if you fly on the 15th of July with Ryanair.
Water quality. We have the 4th best water in the world. (Excluding recent events)
ive always loved when friends not familiar with the UK come around and get shocked i drink tap water
We will eventually become a part of Pangea Proxima and will be able to easily drive wherever we wish without needing to get a ferry.
oooh
I'm a teacher and homophobia is much rarer now than it was when I was at school.
Decarbonisation is going fairly well.
Shame, I like it fizzy.
Hip replacements. Much improved in terms of hardware and technique even in the last five years.
But the waiting lists for them is so long
That's just because the queue can't move forward at faster than a shuffle.
We haven’t had a live serial killer in a while, the kind where the murders are ongoing, the police are looking for the culprit and local people are scared that they’ll be the next victim. Think the last one the police were trying to catch while the killer was still murdering people was Steve Wright (aka the Suffolk Strangler) in 2006.
I know it’s different to what you are describing but Lucy Letby is a recent serial killer. It’s pretty likely that there are serial killers in the UK, just none that are currently very noticeable.
Oh yeah, I know there’ve been recent serial killers obviously. But I mean the kind that whip the media and the public up into a frenzy of fear and panic, as they’re at large while we’re all aware of them. When the Yorkshire Ripper was at large for example, people (especially women) were scared to walk the streets. Likewise with the Suffolk Strangler. It’s the faceless, insidious ‘they could be anyone’ type of fear that we haven’t had in a long time. Thankfully, these types of criminals seem to get caught a lot earlier now. I’ve no doubt Wayne Couzens would have went on to murder more women, for example.
I think this country just lives in constant fear 24/7. So you say women were scared to walk the streets for a period of time. Nowadays we all keep our front doors locked and we don't let our kids play outside or go out if sight at all. And cameras at swimming pools are absolutely banned. Go abroad and it's completely different. Everyone's a potential rapist and paedo in this country based on our untrusting behaviours and rules.
Steve Wright has also now been recently charged with the unsolved murder of Victoria Hall in Felixstowe back in late 1999. Someone else was previously tried and acquitted. Wright's involvement had been suspected anecdotally ever since he was picked up in 2006 and people shared stories of him owning that type of car, living round the corner from the murder site etc. but the evidence wasn't quite there.
Paying for toll bridges. You don’t need to have change any more.
Really scraping the barrel fo positives now. This is like when that guy said one of the best things about the UK was the range of sandwiches in the Tesco meal deal.
😂 just been the M6 toll at the weekend and I had a flashback to twenty years ago when I used to use the dartford tunnel everyday - and panic about change -everyday!! Now, I didn’t even have a purse and it was all good, phones make it so easy these days!!
People's health. Drinking and smoking are much less than they were 20 years ago and more people exercise regularly. We eat more processed shit though so not all good.
although the amount of microplastic in the environment and our bodies is constantly growing
More people are university educated than ever before. Is it wholly necessary? Probably not. But I do think studying does benefit people beyond the purpose of getting a job at the end. It's a good thing, even if some people with a chip on their shoulder will say otherwise. Not exclusively a UK thing, but we have access to more information and entertainment than ever before, instantly. We take it for granted. Household disposable incomes are at their highest level ever in real terms (i.e. inflation adjusted), or are very close to it. I think the waters get muddied a lot on this topic. People insist that living standards have declined since the financial crisis but what they've done is basically stagnated, with some fluctuation in that period. That's not a good thing, but it does also mean that they are still at their highest level ever. Workplaces and basically every method of transport are safer than ever. Dying or getting severely injured in a car crash at work is way less common than it used to be. We're collectively getting much better at learning foreign languages. Our consumer rights are stronger than ever. Smoking rates are in long term decline. Life expectancy has declined since Covid thanks in no small part to NHS and social care backlogs, but it's still very near to its record high. I think we've slipped back to 2012 level, and it's not like we were dropping like flies back in 2011.
Smoking cigarettes/cigars is on the decline yes. However we are heading for a rather large population addicted to nicotine due to vaping. I see people walking rounds with vapes dangling from their neck, groups of primary kids with vapes and a lot of people can’t drive properly due to holding a large vape. I’m an ex smoker, I quit using vapes but these disposable vapes are going to ruin the users and the environment.
This may just be a perspective thing….being a teacher now, teenagers I teach (A-Level) are much nicer, kinder—-less arseholes really than when I was a teenager (myself included)
Our drinking water is becoming more microbiologically diverse.
[удалено]
If it was I didn't see it \*shrugging emoji\*
Cycle lanes. Still a LONG way to go to get anywhere close to those in e.g. Germany, but there are now more/better ones than there were.
Cycling.
Bio diversity: the mini ponds on the roads. 😂
The range and quality of cuisine and catering to different diets is unmatched in the UK's major cities. All cultural flavours under one roof, many will be decent quality as well, cooked by the people from that culture, either little mom and pop cafes or family restaurants or takeaways. Plus lots of then mare innovative and creative with it. I often go abroad and find lots of basic stuff (vegan, gluten free etc) very difficult, especially in France, Germany etc.
I remember supermarkets in the mid-1990s. The products were basic, the packaging was bland, bread and rolls were questionable, barely any foreign or exotic produce. I also don't recall any serious fresh ready meals or microwaveables either. The car park was also full of people poking around under the bonnet of their two year old car because it suddenly wasn't starting. I remember in those days it was perfectly common to see broken down cars everywhere and people being pushed by good samaritans.
The lack of cigarette smell everywhere you go.
\> Obligatory sentence because this text box can't be left blank Even the low-effort hopium trolls can't be bothered anymore. This is a distinct improvement.
There are soooo many more places that are literally just giving food away for free! People are also helping the environment more by not putting on the heating over winter and just getting through it. True hero’s! Our businesses like Tesco and BP are also boasting incredible profits which is always good I guess. I hear the banks and our leaders are doing exceedingly well financially so that’s ehh yeah good too
Grammar
Whomst'd've ever thought it.
You mean it's gotten gooder?
We have some really good weed. Like top shelf stuff. We aren’t California but for a country where it’s illegal we are doing pretty good
We are testing the water. We aren't liking what we find though.
Blackpool. I really believe it’s on its way back up. The recent developments/investments are great to see.
Polls showing support rejoining the EU and leave voters regretting their decision.
It's certainly cheaper to buy pounds now
In general, this is a nonsense statement. You need a pair currency to make this statement. If you're buying the pound in USD, then sure. It's pretty cheap (though note that it was much cheaper in the 80s). If you're buying the pound in Turkish lira, then it has never been more expensive to buy.
If you've buying with your time, a pound doesn't cost more than 5 minutes 15 seconds (assuming over 21)
It is not, the pound is super strong against the yen.
The weather ..?
We’ve just had the wettest 18 months since records began. It’s been glum
No.
Definitely getting better at killing us off quicker!
It is starting to not feel like it is copying the USA lately, compared to the 1990s 2000s and 2010s where it seemed to be USA 2.0
I'm not sure I agree with that. Maybe we have more of our own TV & films these days but with the ever growing influence of social media it feels like cultural trends are adopted from America faster and harder than ever.
Im most concerned about the 'disruptive' American giants that have been allowed eviscerated our high streets whilst paying barely any tax - [Amazon in particular](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jun/01/amazon-uk-services-main-division-pay-no-corporation-tax-for-second-year-in-row-tax-credit-government-super-deduction-scheme#:~:text=11%20months%20old-,Amazon's%20main%20UK%20division%20pays%20no%20corporation,second%20year%20in%20a%20row&text=Amazon's%20main%20UK%20division%20has,robotic%20equipment%20at%20its%20warehouses.)
Alternative diets. Either by choice or medical needs, the options available for alternative diets are better than they ever were.
I am a Muslim and I have not experienced prejudice or discrimination against me at all. I have lived in a predominantly white neighbourhood for my whole life. My parents throughout the 1980s-90s however, had experienced a lot of discrimination.
The depths of poverty
Not the weather!