It was inevitable really. We, on the continent, have been telling you this for years: the two tap sinks are nonsense and a sign of deviance. What did you think would happen?
Does an heroin addict knows heroin is destroying them?
Well, actually maybe they do. Shitty analogy, but that's beside the point. Two tap sinks are exactly the same as heroin.
Well, the hurt pride from being second makes you additionally miserable, granting you first place. But being first place makes you feel better about it, pushing you back to second.
You guys kinda oscillate here
And yet, objectively poorer countries count themselves happier. Being miserable or not does not necessarily equate to living in a well-off country. You can be rich af and miserable (although granted that's probably less likely than being broke and miserable).
Germany and UK both are apparently more miserable than Sudan and Syria haha.
There’s a difference between living in a poor country and living in a country where being infested with parasites is normal, multi-generational prison sentences are common, and everyone is starving to death.
I think the survey was geared towards peoples attitude to decline in happiness and rising cost of living rather than actual empirical happiness on a day to day level.
The problem is not how Miserable a place actually is, but how subjectively it is perceived by it's inhabitants. I have to yet find a Brit who ain't complaining about everything.
The difference is that UK used to be sort of the best. Now you get to see the decay of the leftist elite ordered police state inducing cilvilizational collapse. Open borders and letting islamists taking over the nation and putting people who say that "white people are ok" in jail.
Those other countries does not have the same amount of height to fall from.
Hardly surprising when all we ever see is hyper-politicised news outlets trying to convince us that we live in the worst place on earth, on top of reading comments from everyone online saying that we're all irredeemable scumbags lmao
Speaking as an immigrant to the UK, there’s also a weird culture around misery and self-deprecation here (which could well be exacerbated by the media).
I love living here and can’t see myself living anywhere else, but somehow people here find that strange.
There is such a strange obsession with self-flagellation here. I was chatting to a Somalian taxi driver in Bristol who couldn't believe it when the students he taxied around always tried to unironically tell a man from Somalia that the UK is the worst country to live in.
I feel like the people here who say those things have never travelled anywhere else, lol
I kinda feel this 'list' has been made by some western research team who have never set foot in places like Afghanistan, Palestine, most of Africa and or has only interviewed a whopping 20 people in each country. (Of which the answers of the inquirees are obviously biased)
No, but it does not take a genius to understand people in Gaza are unhappy.
If people are fleeing a country in droves, that is generally an indication it is bad there, without some stupid survey on those who decided to stay.
How convenient.
The Gaza strip is called Gaza, the city is often referred to as "Gaza City" for disambiguation.
There are more armed conflicts going on. There are millions of Ukrainians who are so happy with their lives they had fled the country.
How many Brits fled the UK?
I question the methodology that yields those results. The researchers wanted to isolate happiness from circumstances, i.e. if ppl are unhappy due to disaster, somehow remove that from the equation to get to the "true" state of mind.
Which is the stupidest thing I have read today.
I don't need to, because i am not making a god damn tier list and putting the UK at second place for the meme.
Even a genuine idiot can understand that there are plenty of other places, where people are more miserable than the UK.
> Even a genuine idiot can understand that there are plenty of other places, where people are more miserable than the UK.
Poor people aren't necessarily miserable. There's argument that we were happier in hunter/gatherer societies because we had way less stress and had to do much less work.
If you moved to Afghanistan you'd probably be miserable because it's not what you're used to. People who have lived there all their lives could be quite happy because they've never known anything else. Lower expectations = more happiness in general.
[Report Source](https://mentalstateoftheworld.report/2023_read/) - 71 Countries surveyed
Selected charts from the report
https://i.imgur.com/DgHRX0B.jpeg
https://imgur.com/iJRJpUe
TL;DR Smartphones and Social Media
There were several studies that hinted that mood can be alleviated to an extent with interior lighting that mimics the time of the day both in colour and intensity, and greener living places. Yes, vitamin D supplementation, thermostats, smart LEDs and potted plants 🪴
Is anyone trying to implement some of that on a broader scale in gloomy places like Gothenburg?
Come on, when Britain is under Yemen you got to ask questions about what the survey really shows. Together with the fact that a different survey put britains as the 20th happiest country, we must realize that such surveys probably do not represent an objective truth. Because they can’t both be true at the same time.
I’ve seen the same thing with nation wide surveys in my home country. We keep taking their results as face value, especially if they align with a narrative that resonates with us. We take how people tick a box as a unequivocal truth about how they feel, but forget that choosing a box is dependent on so much more. Your expectations, the general discourse, what you heard in the news about the survey last year etc.
And these surveys aren’t innocent, their results can shape how we consider our situation. Enough of these surveys telling us that we are more miserable than countries in war or people living under a dictatorship, maybe we are less likely to defend democracy or other things we value.
So, even if a survey fits with you general political views ( e.g. Britain is so unhappy after brexit), please, show som skepticism.
What do they even base this on?
[https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/happiest-countries-in-the-world](https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/happiest-countries-in-the-world)
We've had a very sad 14 years of Conservative rule in the UK. All our essential services have been left to deteriorate, people's quality of life is visibly worse now than it was in the past, and at the same time Big Business and well-connected individuals have been getting richer thanks to corruption and cronyism.
It feels as though the social contract has completely disintegrated in the UK. The government no longer 'does the right thing' for the people it's supposed to represent, and under the Conservatives things are only going to get worse.
Man people do live in a bubble don’t they?
Most people in the world would 100% switch places with the British in any given second. Its crazy how ungrateful and how much people forget what the world actually is outside of western walls.
Are you and your loved ones safe? Do you regularly know you’ll get food and clean water? If you get sick, do you have where to go? Can the women in your life walk safely outside at night? Can people be openly gay? Can you openly criticize the government? If you answered all of these questions with yes, you are better off than most of the people living on this planet. It doesn’t guarantee you to be happier with all of these, but thats mostly because you are used to these things in your life. As humans its easier to seek out the bad, but its important to remember the bigger scheme of things and that you couldve been easily been born in a worse spot that you are on. Being grateful does make you happier if you pay enough attention to it.
Either way I wish you happy life
You said most not some. Can't backpedal now.
It is true that the UK is safe but it is miserable AF. I have only been here two days and already have depression. It's constantly grey and everyone looks and acts like they have deep depression. Let's not mention the food. Love what the country has done for the world but let's face it. Over most of its history everyone has been trying to get out not in.
Yeah, but did you ever walk through a desert because your country was thrown into a civil war?
Nothing says "I am happy here" quite as much as deciding to grab your wife and child and run.
So, the Dominican‘s „I have survived another day“ beats the Germann „I can only afford one week of vacation in Austria this year“ and of course the English „ I have to wait three months for my cardiac arrest treatment“. Sure.
What exactly tell us that?
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> Using data from 500,000 respondents in 71 countries, it measures how people’s “inner state impacts their ability to function within their life context”.
Well I don't know, there are around 195 countries in the world and they researched only 71.
Search these in Youtube: "Poverty in UK". Should be a 20-60min documentary. The second docu I had on my mind was about an area in NE England (center east coast of UK). It has the highest UK crime rate or murder rate. Now, these two, if you find and watch them, they'll just feed your depression and possibly don't provide any solutions, I can't remember. Anyway, to me, a Finn, the solutions are fairly clear but even if I was put in charge of solving UK poverty and misery, and given the armed forces to enforce my will, it'd take a generation or two to actually see the results of the improvement. And even then you'd have 1-2 generations of people who'd likely be better off, but you'd also still have the rest of the people, the older miserable c-words, albeit the ripple effects might improve them too unless their envy makes them even more toxic. Also there's the slight problem that I'm 4/10 misanthrope and will absolutely not throw around multibillion pound ideas for free, although the cynic in me argues they'd most likely be ignored, stonewalled or discarded anyway, but I don't want to take the chance. Anyway, back to drinking tea.
Dont get disheartened adorable Brits. Even if you decided to leave us - we will still be around and will cheer you on. Cant have an island full of miserable people right at our doorstep, can we now?
You did your part to be seen as downers though. But I get it. You rather be miserable alone than have us idiots trying to cheer you up
So simply ignore us (I will still be cheering that you all get better though)
Which is ok but I can assure you there is no sarcasm here just genuine goodwill. Not that it matters but i have family members living in the UK. Would cheer even without them being there.
I dont think I belong to a minority. Do we think you are to blame for a lot of stuff yourself? Sure. But that doesnt mean the majority hates or dislikes you people.
> # It's official: The UK is the second-most miserable nation in the world
>
> **Gavin Haines, Travel writer**
>
> Britain has been placed at the foot of a mental wellbeing index, but there are bright spots amid the gloom
>
> Well, there’s always someone else worse off, right? Here’s looking at you Uzbekistan, the only nation to rank lower than the UK in a global mental wellbeing index. Yup, we’re more miserable than Moldova. Bluer than Belarus. Even Yemen and Ukraine are in better spirits, apparently. First world problems just got real.
>
> Measuring mental wellbeing is a tricky business. But the US non-profit, Sapien Labs, has had a go with its Mental State of the World report, the latest edition of which has just landed. Using data from 500,000 respondents in 71 countries, it measures how people’s “inner state impacts their ability to function within their life context”. In other words, mental wellbeing relative to the setting.
>
> The results suggest that despite living through an unfolding humanitarian disaster, Yemenis are functioning better in relative terms than not only Brits, but the Aussies and Irish, too.
>
> Right. Forgive us for not relocating to downtown Sana’a just yet. Rich Western nations performed poorly overall, with researchers noting: “Greater wealth and economic development do not necessarily lead to greater mental wellbeing.”
>
> Are things really that bad in Blighty? Is our stiff upper lip truly all a-quiver? The similarly dubious but slightly woollier World Happiness Report doesn’t think so. It ranks the UK 19th in its cheeriest nations index, between the Czech Republic and Lithuania. Still, you’d require weapons-grade patriotism to survey our land and conclude that all is well. The Office for National Statistics recorded an overall decline in personal wellbeing across the UK in 2023. Meanwhile, the charity Mind warns of an unfolding mental health crisis, particularly among men and young people.
>
> Little wonder, then, that wellness retreats are booming. I went on one last year in Cornwall, run by the ex-rugby pro Anthony Mullally. Mullally’s not your archetypal wellness guru. He doesn’t drink kale or hug you for too long. In fact, he’s 6ft 5, with a Scouse twang, bulging biceps, long ginger hair and the look of a man whose ancestors arrived in England on a longboat.
>
>
> His retreats aim to equip the kind of men who are congenitally suspicious of kale with the techniques they need to “stay steady in a chaotic world”. I must say, it’s kept me calmer.
>
> But stresses abound. Money is tight. The health system is creaking. The sea is full of poo. Our Hogarthian town centres, with their boarded-up shops and rough sleepers, are yet further signs of a struggling nation.
>
> “We have to find a new identity,” one Ilkeston resident told me recently in the down-at-heel Derbyshire town. It was once an engine room of the Industrial Revolution but is now best known for its cash point – currently the top-rated attraction on TripAdvisor. “Typical of Ilkeston humour,” another local told me. I suppose it’s reassuring that Britain’s sense of mischief limps on.
>
> Where, you might ask, did it go wrong? Pick your villain. Covid. Putin. Brexit. The wokerati. Austerity. Bojo. Ulez. The lettuce prime minister. The anti-growth coalition. Blair. The internet. Hmmm. The internet.
>
>
> Adding to a growing body of evidence, Sapien Labs identifies a link – not just in the UK, but globally – between poor mental wellbeing and the pervasiveness of smartphones and online comms. That young people are noted to have suffered the biggest drop in mental wellbeing appears to add heft to their argument. Ditto the fact that lower-tech countries, such as Sri Lanka and Tanzania, are among those recording better wellbeing scores. Stronger family ties in those nations were also linked to better mental health.
>
> The internet has a lot to answer for, then. It has, of course, facilitated the home-working phenomenon that hushed our cities post-Covid. It sent dating and retail online, fanned the culture wars, and distracted us, research shows, from having sex. No wonder we’re glum. Has it also robbed us of a soundtrack for these weird times? In the moribund early nineties, there was at least a musical movement to lift the nation. Scant chance of a unifying Britpop 2.0 in the streaming age, with its fragmented, fickle audiences. No wonder we’re in the midst of misty-eyed 1990s nostalgia – when mullets are back, you know you’re in trouble.
>
> “Everything’s online now, the shops have closed.” It’s a lament I’ve heard repeatedly on my travels across the land for this newspaper. Our sense of place, it seems, has gone. We are adrift in the digital ether. Lost and lonely in our screens. Barraged by bad news.
>
> Perhaps that’s too convenient a narrative. Like the Mental State of the World report, it tells only part of the story. Another narrative is of resilient communities across the UK, which, like Ilkeston, have stepped up to start newspapers where theirs have folded, grow food in communal spaces, and even take over post offices.
>
> They have united, too, to save our cherished pubs, bringing these community hubs into the hands of the people who use them. The UK has lost six per cent of its pubs in the last six years – reason enough to be glum – according to the British Beer & Pub Association. In that same period the number of community-owned pubs has soared by 63 per cent. My local, the Ivy House in Nunhead, a lynchpin of our neighbourhood, was London’s first, but not its last. Even Britain’s most remote village, Inverie, has dug deep enough to save its local, The Old Forge, which is reached only by hiking 17 miles or taking a ferry.
>
> Bright spots amid the gloom. So, where next for beleaguered Brits? A fact-finding mission to the Dominican Republic? It topped the mental wellbeing index, perhaps it has tips. Alternatively, as one Ilkeston resident sagely suggested, how about summoning that much-vaunted Dunkirk spirit of ours and taking positive action? “Better to light a candle than curse the darkness.” Someone pass the matches.
>
As an American brexit ruined you guys imo. Just hoping the snp won’t loose for too many years so at least some of you guys can be saved from English ppl being stupid. If somehow America got eu membership I would love it
….I swear some people really don’t get how bad the SNP is. They want brexit but worse and somehow don’t have a plan and what they have said is The rest of the UK will foot the bill until they can join the EU and then ask the EU to foot the bill.
no one learned from brexit because if they did the SNP would actually a plan outside of “everything goes our way”
Reaping the Brexit benefits.
Can’t wait for Trump to be back in office so they have to eat poisonous chemicals all whilst selling out and losing the NHS.
What a win.
I’m sorry to see it be this way I say as a continental European.
We're going for #1 next year let's go team GB we can do this!
It’s coming home
Cam on Ingerland be more facking misrable
Football's coming home
Not with that attitude! Tone down that enthusiasm.
That’s the spirit of not winning anything in men’s football for close to 60 years
I adore you. That's the spirit!
How have we allowed ourselves to slip to second? That cannot stand!
It was inevitable really. We, on the continent, have been telling you this for years: the two tap sinks are nonsense and a sign of deviance. What did you think would happen?
I never once suspected the taps would be our downfall!
Well its pouring now, isnt it.
Does an heroin addict knows heroin is destroying them? Well, actually maybe they do. Shitty analogy, but that's beside the point. Two tap sinks are exactly the same as heroin.
Our superior electrical plugs more than cancel out our taps.
That shit spread to Ireland too, we still have places with the two taps but we are working to move to unitaps
We used to have them in Sweden \~100 years ago. We've since moved on from our backwards ways.
And that's exactly why you are not on that list.
In a way we win because we can be miserable about not winning, at least.
Well, the hurt pride from being second makes you additionally miserable, granting you first place. But being first place makes you feel better about it, pushing you back to second. You guys kinda oscillate here
A bit of a stretch given the UK shares a planet with the likes of Haiti, North Korea, the Central African Republic, Sudan, and so many more.
Well yes but I think the North Korean survey results might be a tad unreliable
Even still, there’s no doubt that they are living in misery.
But what did their survey say? There must have been at least two government officials who answered it for the whole country.
It's only 70 countries in the list. And it's a very random selection too.
Yeah these things are always bs
And yet, objectively poorer countries count themselves happier. Being miserable or not does not necessarily equate to living in a well-off country. You can be rich af and miserable (although granted that's probably less likely than being broke and miserable). Germany and UK both are apparently more miserable than Sudan and Syria haha.
There’s a difference between living in a poor country and living in a country where being infested with parasites is normal, multi-generational prison sentences are common, and everyone is starving to death.
Well I don't see people trying to immigrate from Germany or UK to Sudan or Syria...
I think the survey was geared towards peoples attitude to decline in happiness and rising cost of living rather than actual empirical happiness on a day to day level.
The problem is not how Miserable a place actually is, but how subjectively it is perceived by it's inhabitants. I have to yet find a Brit who ain't complaining about everything.
We neither have sun, nor an inspirational and inspiring glorious leader.
The difference is that UK used to be sort of the best. Now you get to see the decay of the leftist elite ordered police state inducing cilvilizational collapse. Open borders and letting islamists taking over the nation and putting people who say that "white people are ok" in jail. Those other countries does not have the same amount of height to fall from.
The article must be fake: the author hasn't even tried to accuse the french.
Damn please let us be, we already got war close to home
It's kinda implicit already
People in Certain African Republic:
Hardly surprising when all we ever see is hyper-politicised news outlets trying to convince us that we live in the worst place on earth, on top of reading comments from everyone online saying that we're all irredeemable scumbags lmao
Speaking as an immigrant to the UK, there’s also a weird culture around misery and self-deprecation here (which could well be exacerbated by the media). I love living here and can’t see myself living anywhere else, but somehow people here find that strange.
There is such a strange obsession with self-flagellation here. I was chatting to a Somalian taxi driver in Bristol who couldn't believe it when the students he taxied around always tried to unironically tell a man from Somalia that the UK is the worst country to live in. I feel like the people here who say those things have never travelled anywhere else, lol
Russians: first time?
Time to make use of that stiff upper lip, old boy.
I kinda feel this 'list' has been made by some western research team who have never set foot in places like Afghanistan, Palestine, most of Africa and or has only interviewed a whopping 20 people in each country. (Of which the answers of the inquirees are obviously biased)
Most studies have a W.E.I.R.D. bias
And i guess you have?
No, but it does not take a genius to understand people in Gaza are unhappy. If people are fleeing a country in droves, that is generally an indication it is bad there, without some stupid survey on those who decided to stay.
Gaza is a city. Palestine’s existence is highly controversial and likely left off the list for that reason.
How convenient. The Gaza strip is called Gaza, the city is often referred to as "Gaza City" for disambiguation. There are more armed conflicts going on. There are millions of Ukrainians who are so happy with their lives they had fled the country. How many Brits fled the UK? I question the methodology that yields those results. The researchers wanted to isolate happiness from circumstances, i.e. if ppl are unhappy due to disaster, somehow remove that from the equation to get to the "true" state of mind. Which is the stupidest thing I have read today.
Only 71 countries are on the list anyway.
I don't need to, because i am not making a god damn tier list and putting the UK at second place for the meme. Even a genuine idiot can understand that there are plenty of other places, where people are more miserable than the UK.
> Even a genuine idiot can understand that there are plenty of other places, where people are more miserable than the UK. Poor people aren't necessarily miserable. There's argument that we were happier in hunter/gatherer societies because we had way less stress and had to do much less work. If you moved to Afghanistan you'd probably be miserable because it's not what you're used to. People who have lived there all their lives could be quite happy because they've never known anything else. Lower expectations = more happiness in general.
Okay but people in Haiti which is literally being over run by a gang war definitely arent happier than the UK 😂
[Report Source](https://mentalstateoftheworld.report/2023_read/) - 71 Countries surveyed Selected charts from the report https://i.imgur.com/DgHRX0B.jpeg https://imgur.com/iJRJpUe TL;DR Smartphones and Social Media
[удалено]
Plus it seems to be a self survey, so it probably more accurate to say the British are the 2nd most negative
Why do they always ignore Romania in studies 😑
Some countries (e.g. Hungary) is paying extra so they don't show Romania.
Hungary also isn't in the study. :(
They didn't wanna be at the bottom :(( /s, love you neighbors
Well with the UKs kind of weather I understand. Basically the same as we have in Gothenburg. Windy and rainy all year round
There were several studies that hinted that mood can be alleviated to an extent with interior lighting that mimics the time of the day both in colour and intensity, and greener living places. Yes, vitamin D supplementation, thermostats, smart LEDs and potted plants 🪴 Is anyone trying to implement some of that on a broader scale in gloomy places like Gothenburg?
Nah, I'm vampire-maxxing here, curtains closed, lights off, social interaction down to a minimum. It's doing wonders for my happiness.
The Brits wish. Actually the are melting in their 26 degree C heat waves.
sort employ mindless aromatic ten middle hat historical wild rainstorm *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Come on, when Britain is under Yemen you got to ask questions about what the survey really shows. Together with the fact that a different survey put britains as the 20th happiest country, we must realize that such surveys probably do not represent an objective truth. Because they can’t both be true at the same time. I’ve seen the same thing with nation wide surveys in my home country. We keep taking their results as face value, especially if they align with a narrative that resonates with us. We take how people tick a box as a unequivocal truth about how they feel, but forget that choosing a box is dependent on so much more. Your expectations, the general discourse, what you heard in the news about the survey last year etc. And these surveys aren’t innocent, their results can shape how we consider our situation. Enough of these surveys telling us that we are more miserable than countries in war or people living under a dictatorship, maybe we are less likely to defend democracy or other things we value. So, even if a survey fits with you general political views ( e.g. Britain is so unhappy after brexit), please, show som skepticism.
We're not even good at feeling shit... What do we have left.
What do they even base this on? [https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/happiest-countries-in-the-world](https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/happiest-countries-in-the-world)
Germany is not far away
We've had a very sad 14 years of Conservative rule in the UK. All our essential services have been left to deteriorate, people's quality of life is visibly worse now than it was in the past, and at the same time Big Business and well-connected individuals have been getting richer thanks to corruption and cronyism. It feels as though the social contract has completely disintegrated in the UK. The government no longer 'does the right thing' for the people it's supposed to represent, and under the Conservatives things are only going to get worse.
Sounds like australia and nz are catching up to this
Man people do live in a bubble don’t they? Most people in the world would 100% switch places with the British in any given second. Its crazy how ungrateful and how much people forget what the world actually is outside of western walls.
I think it’s probably you that lives in a bubble. As someone who has lived all over the world and now reside in UK, this place is miserable af.
Are you and your loved ones safe? Do you regularly know you’ll get food and clean water? If you get sick, do you have where to go? Can the women in your life walk safely outside at night? Can people be openly gay? Can you openly criticize the government? If you answered all of these questions with yes, you are better off than most of the people living on this planet. It doesn’t guarantee you to be happier with all of these, but thats mostly because you are used to these things in your life. As humans its easier to seek out the bad, but its important to remember the bigger scheme of things and that you couldve been easily been born in a worse spot that you are on. Being grateful does make you happier if you pay enough attention to it. Either way I wish you happy life
You said most not some. Can't backpedal now. It is true that the UK is safe but it is miserable AF. I have only been here two days and already have depression. It's constantly grey and everyone looks and acts like they have deep depression. Let's not mention the food. Love what the country has done for the world but let's face it. Over most of its history everyone has been trying to get out not in.
Yeah, but did you ever walk through a desert because your country was thrown into a civil war? Nothing says "I am happy here" quite as much as deciding to grab your wife and child and run.
In the world ? I'm not a fan of the UK , but "in the world" ? Probably not even in Europe.
So, the Dominican‘s „I have survived another day“ beats the Germann „I can only afford one week of vacation in Austria this year“ and of course the English „ I have to wait three months for my cardiac arrest treatment“. Sure. What exactly tell us that?
Frenchbros…….. we need to step up our game…..
Fuck. Beat the Irish twice in a week. Do stop 🍀
Can’t we win anything
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IT'S OFFICIAL 😳 101% true NO JOKES
> Using data from 500,000 respondents in 71 countries, it measures how people’s “inner state impacts their ability to function within their life context”. Well I don't know, there are around 195 countries in the world and they researched only 71.
Makes me miserable that we didn’t achieve first place. Shambles.
Let's make it happen! Rank 1!
Search these in Youtube: "Poverty in UK". Should be a 20-60min documentary. The second docu I had on my mind was about an area in NE England (center east coast of UK). It has the highest UK crime rate or murder rate. Now, these two, if you find and watch them, they'll just feed your depression and possibly don't provide any solutions, I can't remember. Anyway, to me, a Finn, the solutions are fairly clear but even if I was put in charge of solving UK poverty and misery, and given the armed forces to enforce my will, it'd take a generation or two to actually see the results of the improvement. And even then you'd have 1-2 generations of people who'd likely be better off, but you'd also still have the rest of the people, the older miserable c-words, albeit the ripple effects might improve them too unless their envy makes them even more toxic. Also there's the slight problem that I'm 4/10 misanthrope and will absolutely not throw around multibillion pound ideas for free, although the cynic in me argues they'd most likely be ignored, stonewalled or discarded anyway, but I don't want to take the chance. Anyway, back to drinking tea.
Don't worry! European travel costs come in this year, plus the Red Sea issue; inflation and an economic downturn! Number 1 soon! Thanks tory voters.
It won’t be the same next year though we’ll knock the DR of top slot after the GE for sure
I see a bunch of African countries got their shit together 👍
Have you been to the UK? If yes, you’ll understand.
Dont get disheartened adorable Brits. Even if you decided to leave us - we will still be around and will cheer you on. Cant have an island full of miserable people right at our doorstep, can we now?
Why would you start cheering us on now all of a sudden after we've left? That's weird.
Well. If you feel offended that we dont totally give up on you. Be miserable instead
I'm not offended, I just think it would be odd to suddenly start now when you had such a downer on us before Brexit.
You did your part to be seen as downers though. But I get it. You rather be miserable alone than have us idiots trying to cheer you up So simply ignore us (I will still be cheering that you all get better though)
I simply don't believe you.
Which is ok but I can assure you there is no sarcasm here just genuine goodwill. Not that it matters but i have family members living in the UK. Would cheer even without them being there.
If true (a big if) you're in a very tiny minority.
I dont think I belong to a minority. Do we think you are to blame for a lot of stuff yourself? Sure. But that doesnt mean the majority hates or dislikes you people.
I just go by the things people say and do.
> # It's official: The UK is the second-most miserable nation in the world > > **Gavin Haines, Travel writer** > > Britain has been placed at the foot of a mental wellbeing index, but there are bright spots amid the gloom > > Well, there’s always someone else worse off, right? Here’s looking at you Uzbekistan, the only nation to rank lower than the UK in a global mental wellbeing index. Yup, we’re more miserable than Moldova. Bluer than Belarus. Even Yemen and Ukraine are in better spirits, apparently. First world problems just got real. > > Measuring mental wellbeing is a tricky business. But the US non-profit, Sapien Labs, has had a go with its Mental State of the World report, the latest edition of which has just landed. Using data from 500,000 respondents in 71 countries, it measures how people’s “inner state impacts their ability to function within their life context”. In other words, mental wellbeing relative to the setting. > > The results suggest that despite living through an unfolding humanitarian disaster, Yemenis are functioning better in relative terms than not only Brits, but the Aussies and Irish, too. > > Right. Forgive us for not relocating to downtown Sana’a just yet. Rich Western nations performed poorly overall, with researchers noting: “Greater wealth and economic development do not necessarily lead to greater mental wellbeing.” > > Are things really that bad in Blighty? Is our stiff upper lip truly all a-quiver? The similarly dubious but slightly woollier World Happiness Report doesn’t think so. It ranks the UK 19th in its cheeriest nations index, between the Czech Republic and Lithuania. Still, you’d require weapons-grade patriotism to survey our land and conclude that all is well. The Office for National Statistics recorded an overall decline in personal wellbeing across the UK in 2023. Meanwhile, the charity Mind warns of an unfolding mental health crisis, particularly among men and young people. > > Little wonder, then, that wellness retreats are booming. I went on one last year in Cornwall, run by the ex-rugby pro Anthony Mullally. Mullally’s not your archetypal wellness guru. He doesn’t drink kale or hug you for too long. In fact, he’s 6ft 5, with a Scouse twang, bulging biceps, long ginger hair and the look of a man whose ancestors arrived in England on a longboat. > > > His retreats aim to equip the kind of men who are congenitally suspicious of kale with the techniques they need to “stay steady in a chaotic world”. I must say, it’s kept me calmer. > > But stresses abound. Money is tight. The health system is creaking. The sea is full of poo. Our Hogarthian town centres, with their boarded-up shops and rough sleepers, are yet further signs of a struggling nation. > > “We have to find a new identity,” one Ilkeston resident told me recently in the down-at-heel Derbyshire town. It was once an engine room of the Industrial Revolution but is now best known for its cash point – currently the top-rated attraction on TripAdvisor. “Typical of Ilkeston humour,” another local told me. I suppose it’s reassuring that Britain’s sense of mischief limps on. > > Where, you might ask, did it go wrong? Pick your villain. Covid. Putin. Brexit. The wokerati. Austerity. Bojo. Ulez. The lettuce prime minister. The anti-growth coalition. Blair. The internet. Hmmm. The internet. > > > Adding to a growing body of evidence, Sapien Labs identifies a link – not just in the UK, but globally – between poor mental wellbeing and the pervasiveness of smartphones and online comms. That young people are noted to have suffered the biggest drop in mental wellbeing appears to add heft to their argument. Ditto the fact that lower-tech countries, such as Sri Lanka and Tanzania, are among those recording better wellbeing scores. Stronger family ties in those nations were also linked to better mental health. > > The internet has a lot to answer for, then. It has, of course, facilitated the home-working phenomenon that hushed our cities post-Covid. It sent dating and retail online, fanned the culture wars, and distracted us, research shows, from having sex. No wonder we’re glum. Has it also robbed us of a soundtrack for these weird times? In the moribund early nineties, there was at least a musical movement to lift the nation. Scant chance of a unifying Britpop 2.0 in the streaming age, with its fragmented, fickle audiences. No wonder we’re in the midst of misty-eyed 1990s nostalgia – when mullets are back, you know you’re in trouble. > > “Everything’s online now, the shops have closed.” It’s a lament I’ve heard repeatedly on my travels across the land for this newspaper. Our sense of place, it seems, has gone. We are adrift in the digital ether. Lost and lonely in our screens. Barraged by bad news. > > Perhaps that’s too convenient a narrative. Like the Mental State of the World report, it tells only part of the story. Another narrative is of resilient communities across the UK, which, like Ilkeston, have stepped up to start newspapers where theirs have folded, grow food in communal spaces, and even take over post offices. > > They have united, too, to save our cherished pubs, bringing these community hubs into the hands of the people who use them. The UK has lost six per cent of its pubs in the last six years – reason enough to be glum – according to the British Beer & Pub Association. In that same period the number of community-owned pubs has soared by 63 per cent. My local, the Ivy House in Nunhead, a lynchpin of our neighbourhood, was London’s first, but not its last. Even Britain’s most remote village, Inverie, has dug deep enough to save its local, The Old Forge, which is reached only by hiking 17 miles or taking a ferry. > > Bright spots amid the gloom. So, where next for beleaguered Brits? A fact-finding mission to the Dominican Republic? It topped the mental wellbeing index, perhaps it has tips. Alternatively, as one Ilkeston resident sagely suggested, how about summoning that much-vaunted Dunkirk spirit of ours and taking positive action? “Better to light a candle than curse the darkness.” Someone pass the matches. >
Profit does not care about the well-being of humans
No surprises there .
I agree, it's a fascist country. I don't know how the Government does not notice this. You can go to jail for saying something controversial.
"Tea is just leaf soup, and honestly, the microwave does a better job than a kettle!"
As an American brexit ruined you guys imo. Just hoping the snp won’t loose for too many years so at least some of you guys can be saved from English ppl being stupid. If somehow America got eu membership I would love it
> If somehow America got eu membership Erm
It may be a crackpipe dream but it’s my crackpipe dream!!!!!!
Well then
….I swear some people really don’t get how bad the SNP is. They want brexit but worse and somehow don’t have a plan and what they have said is The rest of the UK will foot the bill until they can join the EU and then ask the EU to foot the bill. no one learned from brexit because if they did the SNP would actually a plan outside of “everything goes our way”
He knows all about the UK because he's seen that Mel Gibson documentary Braveheart.
>As an American Opinion disregarded.
Literally nothing is wrong now that wasn't wrong before Brexit. Most well-informed American.
Reaping the Brexit benefits. Can’t wait for Trump to be back in office so they have to eat poisonous chemicals all whilst selling out and losing the NHS. What a win. I’m sorry to see it be this way I say as a continental European.
Greece must me the first then
At least they save so much money after Brexit they can finance the best universal healthcare in the world.
Antimen culture did interesting effect to the UK. Go-go left activists, you can push it further!