‘What’s a modern UK problem that everyone just accepts but really shouldn’t?’ – 21 uniquely British issues we should stop ignoring

Are there more problems to deal with in the 21st century, or are we just more aware of all of the issues due to the hyper-connected nature of the world nowadays?

It’s hard to say, but it often does feel like life is series of catastrophes and bin fires, with little to no respite in between. Over on the AskUK subreddit, user Expert-Secret-5351 has highlighted this, by asking the following:

What’s a modern UK problem that everyone just accepts but really shouldn’t? It feels like the UK has developed all these weird new normal problems things we moan about for 30 seconds shrug and then carry on like it’s totally fine.

But let’s be honest some of these things should not be normal. So what’s one modern UK thing that we’ve collectively decided to tolerate, even though it’s absolutely ridiculous?

And lots of people had thoughts on the things we should not be accepting, like these…

1.

‘The near extinction of NHS dentists. 30-40 years ago anyone could get an NHS dentist, these days it nigh on impossible to get on the books of one.’
–No-Actuator-6245

2.

‘How much it costs to go anywhere on the train. I’m going from Leeds to Cardiff next week for work for two nights and I could genuinely go on holiday somewhere in Europe for a week for the same price.’
–TheDawiWhisperer

3.

‘Litter everywhere.’
–Spottyjamie

4.

‘The fact that working class jobs don’t pay enough to live, so the rich complain about ‘x million people being on benefits’ when in fact the majority of those on benefits are not people that don’t have a job, but people whose job does not give them the money needed to feed themselves, so they get top up benefits.’
–Fit_Section1002

5.

‘Water companies being privatised. We are the only country IN THE WORLD with privatised water. Edit: England not UK.’
–MyCatIsFluffyNotFat

6.

‘Also electricity. One of the ‘private’ companies providing our power is EDF, the French public provider. Our bills are higher than France’s because we’re literally paying to subsidise theirs.’
–MadeIndescribable

7.

‘Trains too. Our trains are literally owned by French, Dutch, German etc. train companies so we’re literally paying over the odds and subsidising their train travel for them.

This country is a joke. I swear they’d sell the air we breathe to foreign investors if they could.’
–Ratiocinor

8.

‘The sheer omnipresence of the gambling industry.’
–Afterlast1

9.

‘Having to wait 3 weeks/months for a GP appointment. Or having to have a telephone consultation first for something that needs to be seen only to be told you need to go in. Just how GP surgeries function in general.’
–WeenyGoose

10.

‘Being told that the source of all our problems is illegal immigration.’
–superwisk

11.

‘High street banks shutting down.’
–PsychologyValuable75