To be worried about emigration

I agree re in a state of a decline. I’d love to leave too if I didn’t have family ties here.

Yup. It come down to that

I believe the country is in managed terminal decline, as in deliberate. If I had no family here and I didn't care about my heritage, and I didn't care about where I lived, I'd have left years ago. I'd probably be living in Florida.

I came from South Africa, along with my husband 27 years ago. We have loved living in the Uk, and have built a wonderful and very comfortable life through hard work. We thought we would retire here, but are now making plans to head back to SA.

UK used to be welcoming, positive, people were different, it’s not a nice place to live anymore…I would rather take my chances in a country with huge crime levels than spend the rest of my life in a country with so much hatred for outsiders.

Great. So they do their training here and then bugger off.

Changing the visa requirements is good but until we go back to companies having to find staff here first I don’t see that much changing. Presently foreign companies can make money out of finding staff from abroad by putting the cost of sponsorship onto the worker using loans or agencies and even making money renting accommodation to staff. They also prefer sponsored staff for many other reasons.

My cousin emigrated to Canada about 15 years ago. He says there has been a marked increase in racist attitudes particularly towards Indians who've moved to Canada within the last 5-10 years.

This is a common pattern in a lot of industrialised countries. Even the likes of Japan and Korea with quite low levels of immigration are starting to see demonstrations against foreigners. Those countries are two of the most racially homogenous in the world.

Labour have made the requirements for the Skilled Worked Visa stricter. The minimum salary threshold is rising significantly for many occupational categories.

Reddit is full of Indians on such visas panicking that they will have to return home soon as UK companies are becoming much less likely to sponsor such visas.

I'll be encouraging mine to leave but mainly because this country has become a gerontocracy. We seem to deliberately make life difficult for the young. It's difficult for them to be able to afford homes, employers dont want to train them ( and would rather rely on immigration) The student loan system is a graduate tax but just for young graduates and has punishing rates of interest added on so that many people would have paid back what they borrowed but will still owe thousands because of the interest payments. It seems to be a system designed to devalue and demoralise graduates purely for the entertainment of people who want to bang on about graduates doing 'worthless' degrees and never paying back their student loans.

I think the people who are able to leave or have qualifications and a bit of money aren’t bothered that it is expensive to live in some of the countries mentioned. There is much more to this than the cost of living. People are prepared to pay tax and higher prices when they can see that society is functioning and it feels safe. It feels as though the UK is in a downward spiral unfortunately. I too am encouraging mine to leave if they want to.

You may have noticed that we had a dry spring, which warmed quickly, and then a long hot summer which has affected crops. I'm old enough to remember 1976 when we were moving thousands of gallons of water every few days for the cattle, and watering the veg with our washing up and bath water.

I mean…

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2n4877j7lo

I meant all of those things, but yes, haven't you seen how the weather changes are affecting crops? This years yields are 50% down. Do you not think that reduced supply pushes prices up?

This thread seems to involve a lot of doctors moving abroad.

Anyway, personally I don't know anyone emigrating. I did phone my friend in Dubai, he has lived three for decades now. He said cost of living is high there too especially rent. He is baffled that so many think the grass is greener there. It will be interesting to see how many people come back in the next day 5 to 10 years. Racism has always been a problem, I remember the BNP being given a lot of air time years ago. Overall crime is down. We need to take a step back and think about how quality of life has improved over the longer term albeit slowly with some ups and downs.

Climate change pushing prices up 😆😆 open your eyes Jesus Christ

Record number of major infrastructure projects approved

6bn investment and trade deal with India (who may well become a major global power in the next 2 decades)

150bn investment in uk tech

there are things happening but both progression (and regression) happen slowly

Agree re the unions and 70s

Well yes

And given the current nurses thread and the fact that there are no jobs for new nurses, what do you expect?

Yes they’ve created a bigger issue with huge amounts of borrowing and debt servicing and the NI has hit growth and jobs.

I agree that Thatcher had a lot to answer for and personally I thought she was a despicable woman, but go back to 1974, the labour government of the late 70s crippled industry. We had unions running the country, a 3 day week, constant power cuts (mum was always digging out the candles). Companies took their business elsewhere because they couldn't rely on the UK fulfilling orders as they were always out on strike. Sadly I am old enough to have lived through the winter of discontent. As for this shower of shit we have now, well I have no words I knew it would be bad but I wasn't prepared for this

If I had anywhere I could go I would be leaving given the option.

@ExtraOnions I don’t agree with you on the causes but do agree on the outcome, 2 of my 3 children have left the country and DH and I are planning on following imminently. Sick of being bled dry for taxes in a country where little functions.

This country has been on the slide since 1979. Thatcherism sold off anything of value, and we’ve been beholden to the ravages of Capitalism ever since.

Brexit made it worse, as we lost and guaranteed trading partner, and were left scrubbing about for deals.

I am actively encouraging my DD to get a profession that allows her to leave.

@CheeseyOnionPie nobody was expecting them to turn it around in a year but their decisions and policies have made pretty much every single economic metric worse. The borrowing levels are terrifying and spending continues to balloon while growth flat lines,

Yes - but what are they actually planning to do to get economic growth in the country. Gifting huge pay rises to striking government employees isn’t helping.