To be worried about emigration

Because for them (those that choose to cross), it’s a lot better quality of life than their country of origin! They know they will have better rights and benefits and quality of life in the UK compared to say Afghanistan or Somalia etc.

For your average Brit though - I wouldn’t say life has improved much. If anything it’s stagnated. Quality of life declined.

The UK is such a shit place, it's in 'terminal decline', people are moving to EU countries - and yet there are tens of thousands of people who risk their lives crossing the channel from the EU to the UK every year. Why's that if it's so awful here?

I moved from the UK to Canada last year and was worried i would be homesick but not at all since i read all the UK news. So much hate and racism now and anger which is being aimed at the wrong people

Virtually nothing more than will leave if he doesn’t. People like to claim they would but the reality ends up being very different.

We left the UK as a direct result of Brexit

A year is nothing. You can’t turn around a whole country within 1 year. It took the best part of 20 years to get here, it’s unrealistic to think there would be sweeping change in just 1 year. A year goes by like that!

I do wonder what level of exodus would ensue if Nigel Farage was to be in power…

I’m in agreement. We might be in a position where we can leave for a country in the EU. 30% less in cost of living. Quality of life seems better.

The UK is just not it.

To be honest we were googling houses yesterday. In a fortunate position that we can get an independent income type visa for many countries as have enough money in the bank for rest of our lives. Not doing anything yet as I do like where we live but if that Nigel chap gets in we will pack up and go

A number of friends have left already, and we have more friends planning to leave. Some have gone to tax havens, but most have gone to other countries where the wages are higher and the taxes not as punitive for higher earners. I am worried for the country because those that have left are mostly six figure earners, so that’s a lot less tax take. If that’s replicated across the U.K., that’s very worrying.

My partner wants to leave the U.K. also. He has lived here for most of his adult life, but feels like there isn’t much left for us here and quality of life has really deteriorated. Like PPs have said, cost of living is high, taxes are high for higher earners, childcare is very expensive, antisocial behaviour and crime is awful. I’m struggling to argue to stay here to be honest, and I do understand why others are leaving

Australia is shipping billions of tons a year of coal and iron ore to China so China can make things and be busy and rich, the fact it is destroying the planet is ignored, obviously means Australia and China have lots of wealth and jobs off the back of it. So by all means move to Aus.

We no longer dig for coal etc.

unfortunately we are not a wealthy country now.

edit - I just wanted to make the point that Australians are not some superior beings than us old Brits. They are lucky they have coal and ironore.

Agreed. We are talking ourselves into this situation - it seems to be part of the British national character to have this negativity.
If we all just sit back and complain we will get the kind of country we deserve. If you don't like it, get out there and be positive forces in your own workplaces and communities!

Our NHS/social care model also doesn't work with an ageing population

I almost moved abroad when I was younger and sometimes think I should have. I’d do it now if it was the right thing to do, DH doesn’t want to and that’s fine. I think my DC would probably thrive longer term is say Australia but one of them would find it very, very difficult in the short to medium term and I wouldn’t want to put them through that.

Companies should spend money on training staff rather than importing trained staff

There has been a real lack of investment since 08 by business into their staff and by the government in general

Yes it did. Between 2016 and 2021, 135 companies moved from the UK to Dublin as a direct consequence of Brexit. Bearing in mind that Dublin has a population of 1.5 million and the country as a whole has a tiny population of just over 5 million, that's a huge number.

Ireland had a budget surplus in 2024 of 21.9 billion euros.

No other country is utopia but the UK seems to be winning in the low wages, high taxes, high COL unfortunately.

As a Lexiteer I object to 'Brexshit'. However, if people are going to Australia, NZ or Canada they can expect much the same. Canada is so fully TWAW that a rape refuge was refused state funding as it won't allow a TiM to give victims counselling, and is the site of the trashing of a feminist library by TRAs - tip of iceberg btw and several threads on MN. Canada also has a problem with MAID - assisted dying - which is now offered to the depressed, the homeless, the lonely, not just the terminally ill. Australia is currently in the throes of Tickle v Giggle where a man is suing the CEO of a woman-only internet site which refused to allow him on it despite him being a TiM - it has got to the SC there and the CEO is likely to lose because Transwomen are women. NZ the same.
All also in economic decline esp because of hard-line climate emergency rules.
Both countries were the sites of violent attacks on Let Women Speak meetings too.
If to Europe or the EU then terminal decline awaits there, too, and that's nothing to do with Brexit, but the economic model followed (neo-liberal capitalism) and falling demographics. The EU is also fully TWAW and France and Germany have problems with immigration.
The US? Well, wage rises could be swallowed up by their infernal tax system and the need for private and not well-regulated health insurance. Also Trump - though at least he isn't TWAW and has removed men from women's sports - and places like California where girls have to say they are mentally ill or belong to a sex-segregating religion to have privacy from males in changing rooms and lavatories in schools: see MN thread on Single Sex Changing Rooms in Brighton School (they don't have them btw) - sorry, can't post link.
Might as well stay here and fight for the UK, I think. England has been a nation for 1,100 years (as of yesterday) and looks unlikely to fail in the long term.

Brexit really hit our financial service sector

I'm glad you're around touting this message because my home country, Ireland, is doing extremely (like eye-wateringly) well out of Britain's belief that the EU is bad. The current issue that Ireland has is that it has so much money it can't spend it. That's partly due to big companies suddenly having to pay tax but it's also due to the fact that so many companies that had headquarters in the UK have now moved to Ireland as it is a more attractive English-speaking gateway to Europe, despite its total lack of infrastructure.

Ireland has benefited so so much, which I feel is much belated payback. So thank you.

I am not worried, the churn of people coming and going has always been huge. I live in London and before we left the EU I would see work colleagues come and go within 6 months, the reason is mainly the cost of living. Unless people have strong family ties or partners here my thoughts have always been they will leave eventually. Also the UK is thought of as a stepping stone to immigration to other places like the USA. Anyone coming here is confronted with the same problems we have and has options.

Companies should spend money on training staff rather than importing trained staff. One of the things Boris Johnson did was change the law so companies could recruit staff directly from abroad and not try and find staff here first. I don’t think Labour have even changed it back. I think that has really distorted the Labour market making it very difficult for everyone to get a job hence the relatively high employment numbers as companies bring in people but also high economic inactivity as British people find it hard to find work especially as they get older or are just starting out.

No, they weren't. And then the decision was made to disadvantage literally every business, every student and every worker in the country (apart from those who took advantage of the situation and benefited massively through fraudulent dealings). If you whack the economy square in the knees, it's going to fall over. Businesses closed, people who were going to start businesses didn't, people who had dreams and plans saw them scuppered. The momentum and potential of everything was drained. Of course it's going to take years and years and years to recover from that, even in a country with a very robust economy. But given that the UK had recently kicked its own arse with Brexit, it was always going to be harder here. There's no great mystery too it - you fuck things up, things stay fucked for a while.

Post Brexit the U.K. economy was out performing both France and Germany, and it still is

What are the figures?

@TonTonMacoute so the financial crash & QE, austerity had no impact on what we are seeing now?

Sounds good, but it's completely wrong.

I don't blame you for believing this lie, as it's perpetuated everywhere including the BBC, that doesn't make it true..

Post Brexit the U.K. economy was out performing both France and Germany, and it still is. That's not much to boast about, but they are doing worse than us. In fact the whole world economy is on the brink of another collapse.

Under Sunak and Hunt the British economy was seeing a recovery, Reeves has put an end to that.

Covid and Ukraine made the big hits, and it's an interesting thought that Remainers are incapable to recognising this, and think that all our problems will be solved by letting Brussels tell us what to do.

I suppose it's the same sheep like thought process that makes so many apparently intelligent people think that the jihadi death cult Hamas are the good guys.

@IwasatClaines I think a lot of younger people feel the social contract is already ripped