You can assure your family that majority of Poles consider England as the worst place to live in Europe.
I can think of worse places to live
1. Germany
2. France
3. Albania
4. Ukraine
If they think it is so bad then (a) Why do so many live here (b) Why do so many make the decision to become a permenent fixture in the UK ie make it thier permenant country of residence. ( and I know quite a few who have done this).
Germany's a wonderful place to live. Stable, reliable, the only bad thing about Germany is the love of rules.
I've live there. Berlin for five years. The love of rules. This is the problem. Also do not mistaken helpfulness with friendlyness. I would say that Germany is for the Germans. If your from anywhere else it will not feel like home. You say stable,reliable. I would also say this about the UK, probably more so.
I aggree it's not the country it was, but if you want to look at unstability ( included in this is police abuse of powers etc) Then there are countries within Europe that are simply on another level ie czech rep, lithuania, albania, ukraine. As my country of residence I'm very happy here.
The countries you have listed. My order of preference if had to live permenantly in any of these places.
1 England 2 Spain 3 Sweden 4 Norway 5 Germany
I can not bring myself to list france but it would be below Germany. By the way I would put Poland in between Spain and Sweden. So Poland would be the new numbr three and the rest move down one place.