I just say that China or India (to put two bulky examples) have terrible civil rights AND environmental protection history and yet they aren't featured under a negative light on a daily basis in media.
Russia is required to behave under first world standards when it comes to their commitments, but it's relegated to third world when it comes to participating in global leadership/trade.
On the internet, it always surfaces the negative aspects of the country, especially the stories of activists that continuously are a pain to deal with. Then you walk on the streets of the country, talk to people, even hire and do business, and you realize it's a pretty functional country with high standards of living (looks much better than UA, RO, RU..).
It's what people demanded. UK is still in semi-lockdown, with only 30% of office workers returning to the office. UK proposed a more relaxed approach at the start but backfired in the public opinion. Now, here's the arithmetic result of forcing people in their homes.
Also, UK relies heavily on services, international business, students, tourism, all heavily hit, so that increases the pain of a travel and mobility freeze.
I miss a mention to overpopulation. If you don't have a nice environment around you, any newborn is bound to live and grow up in poverty. At the end breeding is a private choice, so the cause of poverty ultimately is that parents choose to have children despite lacking a fertile environment.
This so many times. There's no accountability for government sponsored projects in France. They believe they are discovering the wheel and so they will pour a few million in a born-dead team. And so after a while, they call it done, and everyone is happy even if product has zero usage.