Life is getting tough in the UK

What immigration?! Are you suggesting that Brexit didn’t deliver on it’s main two promises (better services mainly nhs and less immigration)?

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While it may feel reassuring to attribute the issue solely to Brexit, immigration had been rapidly increasing for several decades before that.

Immigration is a two way street…

People emigrate to the UK to seek better lives… just as British emigrate from the UK to seek better lives.

Or are those “expatriates” and not immigrants?

Indeed, I’d say it’s just an online reality show consumed by people that never leave.

About, the bloomberg link, not exactly rich people, only workers with a higher salary. The curious paragraph is the one at the end where scarcity of workers due to Brexit is linked to inflation.

It is set to continue. Proposed tax changes on non-doms are virtually forcing the super-rich to leave.

For those left behind, even the middle-class are now being squeezed as they shoulder more and more of the tax burden.

I see the UK making the same mistake as Norway did: they tried to raise taxes a little bit by taxing the richest, but ended up losing taxes as enough of them left the country to make the tax policy a losing one.

Even if the UK government reversed course and backtracked on a few key items, a lot of damage has been done. Some taxpayers have already left, others are on the way out. Maybe more still will have lost confidence in the UK.

The writing is on the walls.
Go to places like, say: Blackburn and you see that British values (for what they are worth) are no longer part of the leading culture. That is now Islamic in its worse and most toxic and intolerant form.
In the Madrasses children are being taught Islamic values according to the Imam and not how to be part of the wider British society whereas the few jobs that are available go to members of the Ummah meaning that your white, standard issue British are being pushed to the edge of society.

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I know it’s you favourite topic but you really need to take your blinkers off and look at the bigger picture.

Yes immigration has probably had an impact but so have a multitude of other things and it’s stupid to just blame one thing.

There is some truth in that.

Parts of Pakistan have less Islamic fundamentalism than parts of the UK.

Something is wrong with the UK when people find more tolerance back in Pakistan.

Islamabad, Pakistan Shopping mall

London street

If you think this post is anti-Muslim then you are going to be disappointed.

It’s more a hatred of people forcing their religion on others whether it’s Muslim fundamentalists in the UK wanting women to cover up or Christian fundamentalists in the US making banning abortions.

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You could always set a good example and return to from whence you came.

I was thinking he rather might prefer moving to Russia where he could experience those “Traditional family values” that he loves to mention.

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Maybe a lot of people just don’t know how to eat or cook healthily as they didn’t see it happening at home when they were growing up. And if cooking lessons at school are still what they used to be like, they won’t be any help. There also used to be quite a lot of cookery programmes on UK TV with various cooks/chefs and things like The Food Programme, Ready Steady Cook and Can’t Cook Won’t Cook but a lot of them seem to have disappeared (though Rick Stein’s programmes are still being repeated) or been replaced by that baking contest thing.

Some streets in the UK literally have ten fried chicken take-aways.
It’s the reliance on takeaways and heavily processed, easy to eat and addictive food substitutes and sugary drinks (even the juices sold as healthy have got an obscene amount of sugar) fueling this obesity epidemic.

It’s just a mindset of modern society. If you are a normal, healthy weight, people call you thin.

It’s not education which is needed - people know what to eat.
Government controls are what are needed when the people can’t help themselves.
Sugary drinks are heavily taxed in the UK and this seems to be working in reduced sales - they are more expensive than Switzerland but then everywhere you see Buy 3 get 1 free offers which is absolutely ridiculous.

Hopefully, giving half the population anti-obesity drugs will sort things out but it’s a sad state of affairs when the only way people can live normal lives is to self-medicate with drugs.

It’s the elephant in the room because no one dare discuss it lest some fatty gets offended. (see what I did there).

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I don’t see that as a good solution at all personally. If they stop taking the drugs the weight will pile back on again unless they have substantially changed their eating habits so they are essentially going to be stuck in the drugs for life.

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Is that drug covered by the NHS?

The report I saw on the news said it would depend on your health authority - the so-called ‘postcode lottery’. Happens already with other drugs; e.g. some cancer treatments.

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Neither do I but it is a solution.

A lot of people seem to be on drugs for their whole life for conditions which are entirely preventable or where the drug does not improve the person’s health.

For shorter terms, half the adult UK population is on at least one prescription drug and a quarter on three.

According to Cochrane, prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death after cancer and heart disease. (BMJ)

People say the NHS needs more money - the greatest cost to the NHS is in managing almost entirely preventable chronic conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.
Guardian

These can be fixed by lifestyle and diet.

People are the problem - not the lack of funds for the NHS.

This is what is so tragic.

The NHS is spending so much of it’s budget on managing self-treatable conditions that there’s no money for diseases such as cancer which in many cases, have no connection with bad lifestyle choices.

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While I agree that most obesity cases stem from bad lifestyle choices, it’s worth noting that some cases are due to medical conditions beyond personal control. For example, many conditions such as hypothyroidism, metabolic disorders, and endocrine disorders can cause weight gain through mechanisms like hormonal imbalances, independent of lifestyle.

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I doubt that anyone brought up on a diet of ready meals, takeaways and junk food would know even how to begin making a healthy meal. Can you imagine them doing a Jamie Oliver if you even gave them all the ingredients for a healthy meal and asked them to magic it up? I can’t.

But I agree with the point about unhealthy food being addictive. There’s probably little motivation to start eating fruit and veg if your tastebuds prefer pizza.

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The guy from the video fantasizes about takeaway food and restaurants. In spite of all the daydreaming, there’s no yearning for free time to cook something delicious in peace. No, a cheap worker from South East Asia should be in charge of food :rofl:

I don’t have time to look the literature now but it seems so-called unhealthy food is not addictive, it’s just unfulfilling. What may happening within us is that appetite is not only driven by the energy demand (calories), but also by the need of micro-nutrients (minerals, vitamins and the like). So, chips are “addictive” because they don’t fulfill our nutritional needs. Not that different to drinking because anxiety. We keep eating or drinking because what we need is neither in the chips bag or at the glass bottom :wink: