I live in the UK too, and sadly I must disagree that we have a fair and progressive society or a functional social safety net at the moment.

There are a great many people outside the system, for whom the system doesn't function.

Many different groups. Abandoned elderly. Abandoned young people leaving care. But I'll talk about just one of the groups for whom the safety net is failing - migrants.

There is a large cohort of people who are long-term denied access to NHS care ("right to healthcare" is a boolean flag in a database), denied lawful access to housing ("right to rent anywhere" is a boolean flag in a database), cannot claim any government benefits ("recourse to public funds" is a boolean flag in a database), and cannot work -- absurdly, not even volunteer work -- and so, perversely, cannot pay tax.

Try imagining how it feels to have an easily cured, but terminal if untreated disease in that scenario. And try to imagine what happens if you are pregnant or break a leg.

Yes, pregnant people avoid hospital in the UK for fear of discovery and forced break-up of their existing family.

Try imagining being dependent on friends to provide food and a place to sleep. Because no housing agency will rent to you, and you have no money, and no matter what your skills, you're not allowed to use them.

Try imagining getting your healthcare from secret places, run by doctors who do it on the side, and it has to stay out of your medical records,

Try imagining every business you start has to be an illegal business, no matter how innocent it is.

Try imagining everything you make, everything you build, everything you own, and everyone you know and care about including your own family, could be separated permanently from you in a midnight raid at any time. Yes, families are permanently broken up in midnight raids.

Try imagining your mental health, and try imagining that you daren't speak to any therapists about what's really happening in your life.

And try imagining, you have done everything by the book. You are innocent.

Every application, every fee, every bit of paperwork, every bit of evidence. You're married, you've been here for 30 years, you have a connection to the UK, you've paid £x0,000+ in fees, you've been bounced around the system for years or in some cases decades in this state. But the system rejects you, or keeps you in limbo, for reasons lawyers can't explain, civil servants don't explain, and judges overturn - if you're lucky enough to afford to get in front of one. You are innocent, but screwed.

I know people in that kind of situation. Because of those circumstances, they rely on friends to provide all their food and accommodation, they can't use basic services to look after themselves, they are permanently scared of losing everything, and they daren't speak to almost anyone about it.

Those are the lucky ones - they have friends who will do that, for years, at personal cost to themselves.

I have a lot of admiration for friends who will do that. And they do it secretly. You might know someone, without knowing.

It's a big strain on everyone, and it certainly isn't a functioning social safety net.

I don't regard it as a fair and progressive society if it's "more fair to some than others", to paraphrase Orwell.

The worst part, for me? That so many people of the UK seem to celebrate this. They want more of it. There is an unpleasant "I've got mine, and they deserve it" attitude all over the place. Certainly not everyone is like that. But too many are. Lead, perhaps, by the current PM, who was chief architect of much of the hostile environment (it hasn't always been like this in the UK, it got much worse), and continues to encourage it.