‘What ‘improvements’ have actually made British life worse?’ – 23 frustratingly recognisable peeves

There’s a lot to moan about in the UK nowadays, from unreliable public transport to NHS waiting times to Liz Truss crashing the economy and putting all our mortgages up.

But what’s worse than the straightforwardly rubbish things are the things that are intended to make life better but actually make it even more unbearable. Over on Reddit sub r/AskUK, user Sweett_Stars posed the following question:

“What ‘improvements’ have actually made British life worse?”

And they had two suggestions to get everyone going …

1. The auto-flush toilet at most train stations and airports always flushes whilst I’m on it, meaning it splashes me with dirty water. Horrible. Maybe a touch button would be better but auto is terrible.

2. The button you press on most British trains to ‘lock’ the toilet, I’ve had at least two times where it’s inexplicably not worked and the person outside was able to open the door. Whenever I wee on a train now, I’m always super tense this digital button will just not work.

And the answers will make your British stiff upper lip wobble with rage.

1.

‘Club card for every supermarket. Making out that you get a special price but actually that’s the normal price and if you don’t join you get shafted.’
–angosturacampari

2.

‘Having to do almost everything through your phone or app or whatnot.

Want to buy a train ticket? Sorry, we’ve closed the ticket offices, the machine is always broken but we have put up loads of posters reminding you we’re fining you if your phone doesn’t work with our half baked app.

Can I speak to a person about this problem? Well, have you downloaded the app, read the entire website, and taken a day off to queue on the phone?’
–AerodynamicHandshake

3.

‘Well, I guess the Sugar Tax was supposed to improve life for folk. But for me, it just absolutely wrecked every single popular soft drink. With the exception of Coca-Cola, they all now have the bitter, paracetamol-like taste of aspartame/acesulfame K.’
–NorthernSoul1977

4.

‘Any appliance in the household, shower, fridge, dishwasher, door lock etc which requires an app and wifi to functon.’
–_Rookwood_

5.

‘Mechanical buttons and switches being replaced by touchscreens, especially in cars.’
–67cken

6.

‘Privatisation. It’s always said in justification that private sector-style modernisation, optimisation and management will improve services. It never does, but the grubbing mediocrities put in charge always make out like bandits.’
–RetractableHead

7.

‘QR codes for menus. I understand during covid, when no one wanted grubby hands all over their menus, but now that we’re back to somewhat normality, I wanna flick through a menu in my hands, rather than opening different sections on a website on my phone.’
–Cumulus-Crafts

8.

‘Customer feedback.

Used to be the only thing that ever got reviewed was restaurants and plays and all that. Now you’ve got Morrison’s and B&Q asking for your review of how their staff did today. Fuck that, I stand by the right of retail employees to sometimes be a bit shit at their jobs.’
–Harrry-Otter

9.

‘Smart Motorways are not very smart and cause more accidents than they prevent.’
–GamerGuyAlly

10.

‘Turning everything into a subscription. Fine for Sky TV or broadband but subscriptions for coffee? Food? Streaming without adverts then creating a second tier where ‘limited ‘ adverts are introduced.

‘Subscribe for medication, subscribe for a bike, subscribe for a diet plan, subscribe to read books, subscribe for a repair plan.

‘Why can’t we just own things outright? I swear if it were possible, someone would find a way to make you subscribe for the air you breathe in.’
–BoxWonderful5393

11.

‘Getting rid of humans in every customer facing area. Managers thinking that robots spewing the FAQ will save them 20k/yr per person without ever understanding what that person was doing.’
–aimsmeee

12.

‘Banking. The branches are closing down and now have reduced their opening hours. Branch experience has declined. They force people to use the machines and the vast majority of people haven’t the faintest idea of how to use them, resulting in slower moving queues. That’s if all the machines are working in the first place.’
–roxwe11

13.

‘The Dyson hand dryer in public toilets. If I wanted the noise of a sonic jet in a small room with bad acoustics, I’d have got a jet. When three people set them off at the same time…’
–Derries_bluestack