Is Britain really that bad?

An interesting Oxbridge question.

While the vast majority of political coverage in the media has been given over to the ballot on the competence (i.e. his ability to deliver electoral success for incumbent MPs) of the Prime Minister, I thought I'd draw the attention of readers to this opinion piece I came across in today's Guardian.

Simon Jenkins writes:

"Tried getting through to a GP’s surgery lately? Or a bank? Or the customer services of almost anything? Catching a flight? Good luck. Waiting for a train? Stay calm, fingers crossed. Patience is a virtue – and, right now, an absolute necessity.

The government is passing through a vale of tears, and for once it is not entirely the fault of the prime minister.

The jubilee holiday period saw Britain’s airports collapse into chaos. Thousands of flights cancelled and tens of thousands of holidays wrecked, with the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, at a loss as to what to do."

He goes on:

"A third of GPs say they plan to quit the NHS in the next four years, citing bureaucracy and demoralisation. On crime, police failure to investigate burglaries has doubled and prosecutions for rape have plummeted by 70%. In the final quarter of 2021, 96 criminal trials were aborted for want of a judge, against just four a year earlier. London education has reduced 41% of state school parents to feeling they must buy private tutoring for their children."

So this would be an interesting question for Oxbridge candidates. A sort of, what is the state Britain is in?

I just wonder if the picture that Jenkins paints is entirely justified, because Dublin and Amsterdam faced similar chaos at their main airports in recent weeks. I have some friends who teach in the New York public school system, and in terms of careers advice it's not a job they would recommend to anyone in their right mind. While trains between major cities at peak times throughout Europe are great, ever tried catching a train on a Sunday evening on the outskirts of, say, Barcelona? Or getting a bus from one part of Los Angeles to another? What about the US health care system? I could go on, but you get the idea.

The article is well worth a read, and very thought provoking. The link is here.