Seriously thinking about leaving the UK

Canada’s economy is dire. The Canadian dollar just gets weaker and weaker. Taxes are extremely high, some of which goes to support our “free” healthcare (brilliant if you’re seriously ill but waiting lists sometimes years long to see a specialist, have surgery or for things like scans, MRIs. No private healthcare. Impossible to buy a home, be it house or flat, unless you’re a multimillionaire (seriously!), lots of violent crime due to drugs and poverty, extreme lack of mental health care, COL and food prices have also gone stratospheric since Covid, minimum wage is too low to even begin to cover an adequate lifestyle. My DS (21) is currently working two jobs, seven days a week. Still, preferable to the US, which is (as everyone knows) a shitshow.

With you op

we have discussed this at length and it is something we really would consider.

we have quite a while to go yet as we are late 40s but this country is crippling in so many ways.

I have a business and this last year with government changes,cost of living and just general being robbed blind one way or another it’s been a year of stress to be honest and it shouldn’t be like that but if you aren’t a chain or big corporate you stand no chance here anymore.
they don’t want the small people to be successful all they are interested in is lining their own pockets.

our people in charge get away with every type of fraud possible on a daily basis they just don’t even bother to hide it anymore and we all just float along with it

the mood in this country is generally oppressive and people are pissed off and miserable which has a knock on effect.
and yes the entitlement is absolutely shocking here.

I dis agree with people saying the grass isn’t always greener.

we’ve travelled and were in a European country recently and within half an hour of being there we noticed what a difference in peoples attitudes it was crazy

the locals all worked together within their community to create clean safe areas,most of the businesses were independents,we saw one chain coffee shop on the whole island.

we didn’t see one homeless person or gangs in the streets and when speaking to locals were told how their system is very different to ours and it works.

they have a better work life balance so people feel less stressed.

that’s how it should be.

this country just wants to keep taking and providing fuck all for it.

we are meant to be a rich country but the poverty here is unreal and the sheer amount of food banks and children living in hell should not be happening.

people are dying because our nhs has collapsed

seeing elderly people on trollers in corridors for 12 plus hours waiting to be seen in a and e to me is the worst it can be and don’t even get me started on the lack of any mental health provision here.

im not surprised our suicide rate is so high as a country.

but still it carries on

i say go for it op

The UK. I live in East London. We have Sharia law in some parts round here already. The schools close for Eid etc.. there are literally no British shops on the high street...
Before you say "move" I was born here.

I can't understand this mindset - you've been incredibly fortunate to be living in a developed country - with all the benefits of the UK and appear to have done well. You could just as easily be born in a war torn country facing extreme poverty.
And now after all your advantages, things are a bit 'tough' (too many taxes?) so you figure you deserve even more. If the UK is going downhill so badly why don't you stay and fight for the country that's given you so much - become politically active say - rather than taking of to another country to sit around giving even less.

I’m not sure when the turning point was, but DH and I have hit a wall. The DC are both at university now, and for the first time in a long time, we’re thinking seriously about leaving the UK. The only thing stopping us is wanting to be close to potential future grandchildren.

It just doesn’t feel like the same country anymore. Everything seems to be falling apart — the NHS, education, transport, basic services — and yet at the same time, there’s this growing mindset that the government should step in and fix every personal problem. I’m all for supporting people who genuinely need help, but it’s frustrating seeing how much personal responsibility has gone out the window. It feels like no one’s expected to stand on their own two feet anymore.

We’ve worked hard our whole lives, paid our taxes, and honestly, it feels like we’re constantly penalised for it. Meanwhile, the cost of living is insane, our quality of life is slipping, and every time we turn on the news, it’s just more chaos or excuses.

We’ve started looking at options — maybe Canada, or somewhere in Europe (though Brexit makes that harder). We don’t expect a perfect life anywhere, but we want to live somewhere that still feels like it’s moving forward, not falling apart.

Has anyone else made the move once the kids were grown up? Did it help? Are we just burned out, or is this how others are feeling too?

Would really love to hear your honest experiences.

We are just back from 3 weeks in Australia, and all I can say, is that it was like Utopia compared to the UK

Apart from the massive housing crisis, soaring cost of living and the looming catastrophe of climate change?

Anywhere can 'seem like Utopia' on a brief visit.

I can’t tell you if you’re joking or not. I have worked with asylum seekers who stay in these kind of ‘hotels’ and luxury they are most definitely not. I could elaborate in detail but I expect you won’t change your view.

Leave and then come back on a boat and live the life of luxury in a hotel with free meals and be waited on hand and foot.

Costa Rica and Mexico above the United Kingdom?! 😂😂

And Israel is too?!!!

And also all those Eastern block countries, that people always seem keen to leave - to live in the UK! 😬 All above the UK, for the best places to live?!

Clearly a load of made up nonsense that 'poll!' 😆 Who writes this shit?!

I was going to ask where you plan ro go because I agree with everything you say but its not a UK issue, its a global one. Most countries assume its an internal frustration brought on by their own political party in charge.

It certainly is the case for the majority of European countries but I don't know about Canada. Any Canadians residents here?

I was also about to say, its a global problem, not a domestic one.

It's the same everywhere. ESPECIALLY Canada.

I’m not sure when the turning point was, but DH and I have hit a wall. The DC are both at university now, and for the first time in a long time, we’re thinking seriously about leaving the UK. The only thing stopping us is wanting to be close to potential future grandchildren.

It just doesn’t feel like the same country anymore. Everything seems to be falling apart — the NHS, education, transport, basic services — and yet at the same time, there’s this growing mindset that the government should step in and fix every personal problem. I’m all for supporting people who genuinely need help, but it’s frustrating seeing how much personal responsibility has gone out the window. It feels like no one’s expected to stand on their own two feet anymore.

We’ve worked hard our whole lives, paid our taxes, and honestly, it feels like we’re constantly penalised for it. Meanwhile, the cost of living is insane, our quality of life is slipping, and every time we turn on the news, it’s just more chaos or excuses.

We’ve started looking at options — maybe Canada, or somewhere in Europe (though Brexit makes that harder). We don’t expect a perfect life anywhere, but we want to live somewhere that still feels like it’s moving forward, not falling apart.

Has anyone else made the move once the kids were grown up? Did it help? Are we just burned out, or is this how others are feeling too?

Would really love to hear your honest experiences.

I’m genuinely curious about people, like @Applecrumble9 or many in the USA who have great healthcare packages but they are connected to their job/employer. What do people do in those places who don’t work, for whatever reason, or who are old or disabled etc or who lose that job or want to work elsewhere?

Costa Rica and Mexico above the United Kingdom?! 😂😂

And Israel is too?!!!

And also all those Eastern block countries, that people always seem keen to leave - to live in the UK! 😬 All above the UK, for the best places to live?!

Clearly a load of made up nonsense that 'poll!' 😆 Who writes this shit?!

Problem now is even the middle classes are struggling with cost of living, collapsing public services and unprecedented demographic change, as well as a bleak job market and dreadful housing market for their teenage children.

We'll see major white flight from the UK over the next decade and millions more unskilled migrants for Starmer and his globalist pals to allow in to replace them, while being able to say net migration isn't that high because all the natives are leaving.

Here’s the top countries in the 2025 World Happiness Report

Problem now is even the middle classes are struggling with cost of living, collapsing public services and unprecedented demographic change, as well as a bleak job market and dreadful housing market for their teenage children.

We'll see major white flight from the UK over the next decade and millions more unskilled migrants for Starmer and his globalist pals to allow in to replace them, while being able to say net migration isn't that high because all the natives are leaving.