My experience is mostly UK / USA and small parts of France and Denmark. It's funny you say the UK feels like a 3rd world country...I had that experience in the USA, whereby you see people who were visibly mentally ill just out of hospital (they would still be in hospital gowns) on street corners shouting at cars driving past. Walking around in Miami we were warned from a passer by (she obviously heard our accents and realised we were british) not to walk further down the street otherwise we'd be shot. Days later there was a mass shooting in that area. In other instances in the Miami I was offered drugs several times just walking around a tourist area.

I've never experienced anything on this level in the UK my whole life - and it's not like I've spent much time in the USA - just a few short weeks at a time.

Honestly I think the UK has a lot going for it - very low levels of corruption, good law and court systems, good education, low levels of crime outside of London stabbings, the NHS, excellent Civil Service, The National Trust, English/Scottish Heritage.

I think your comment about town centres going downhill is valid, but a symptom of more out-of-town shopping centres taking away the business. Horrible pubs have always existed, and pubs in general have been struggling for numerous reasons for decades.

The South West is where people go to retire - there are no jobs there as there's hardly any major cities, so not sure why you are surprised about the ages of the people there?

> People there are so angry - I'm constantly being sworn and shouted at by fat old (60+) guys because I have a European car.

Do you mean you had a European registration plate? I drove a BMW for years without many people shouting at me (when they did it was because I'd made a driving error).