Dh says the U.K is f***** and he never wants to go back

This 100%

So unless you say to your kids… England is a pile of shite, they’ll grow up thinking “I’m all right jack” . Bloomin heck… who knew?!

Most people are able to process the concept of nuance, but I sense I'd be wasting my breath going there so I won't.

And seeing as you're so keen to know: My husband and myself live in a six-bedroom detached house in a rural village. You'd probably call it a shithole because it isn't in the Home Counties, but it's actually really pretty and I'd estimate that you'd only get a shoebox of a London flat for what we paid for this place. Healthy joint income which goes a damn sight further outside of the overly hyped south east (where I have also lived, btw, so I do know what I am talking about.)

I don't normally share these details because I think it's vulgar to discuss income and to boast generally. But you were so clearly trying to steer the narrative in the direction of 'thatsgotit is clearly penniless, lives in a slum and has a chip on her shoulder' that I felt a few facts were warranted.

Re children I don't personally have any, but my DH has brought up his daughter to be thankful for the life she has but also aware that a lot of others have it worse, and I have reinforced this. We are fortunate that our lives are pretty good on the whole, but we're both pretty dismayed by how increasing numbers of people in this country are having to live and (before you ask) we put our money/time/votes etc where our mouths are. It's sometimes described as having a social conscience, you might want to look it up sometime.

HTH.

I don't normally share these details because I think it's vulgar to discuss income and to boast generally

You haven’t boasted at all
you have stated your living circumstances
and I and others did

Let’s say their names.

Here is a list of the men convicted. The BBC had not previously fully named the defendants due to French law.

Dominique Pelicot: Guilty of aggravated rape on his ex-wife, Gisèle. Also guilty of the attempted aggravated rape of the wife of one of the co-accused, Jean-Pierre Marechal, Cillia, and taking indecent images of his daughter, Caroline, and his daughters-in-law, Aurore and Celine. Sentenced to 20 years. He is 72.

Jean-Pierre Marechal: Guilty of attempted rape and aggravated rape of his wife, as well as drugging her. Sentenced to 12 years. The only one of the 51 who was not accused of raping or attempting to rape Gisèle, the 63-year-old admitted to following Dominique Pelicot's lead, drugging his own wife for five years, raping her and inviting Dominique to rape her too.

Charly Arbo: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to 13 years. He is 30 years old.

Cyrille Delville: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years. He is a father-of-two.

Christian Lescole: Guilty of aggravated rape. Acquitted of having child abuse imagery. Sentenced to nine years. He is a volunteer firefighter and father of two daughters. He has been in jail since 2021.

Lionel Rodriguez: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years. The 44-year-old was an employee in the same supermarket where Dominique Pelicot got caught upskirting in 2020, leading to the rape investigation.

Nicolas Francois: Guilty of aggravated rape and having child abuse imagery. Sentenced to eight years and banned from working in jobs with children for several years. He is a 43-year-old freelance journalist.

Jacques Cubeau, 73, lorry driver: Guilty of aggravated rape.* *Sentenced to five years. He is a divorced father-of-two.

Patrice Nicolle: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years. The 55-year-old father-of-two is an electrician.

Thierry Parisis: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years. He is 54.

Simoné Mekenese: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to nine years. The 43-year-old construction worker and father-of-six lived next door to the Pelicots.

Nizar Hamida: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to 10 years. The 40-year-old had worked as a hairdresser, builder and delivery driver.

Boris Moulin: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years. He is a 37-year-old delivery driver.

Jerome Vilela: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to 13 years. The 46-year-old former firefighter and supermarket employee is divorced with two children. He has been in jail since 2021.

Didier Sambuchi: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to five years. The 68-year-old is a retired lorry driver and father-of-two.

Quentin Hennebert: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to seven years. The 34-year-old former prison guard now works as an ambulance driver.

Philippe Leleu: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to five years of which two are suspended. He is a 62-year-old gardener.

Jean-Luc LA: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to 10 years. The 46-year-old has four children. He has been in jail since 2023.

Fabien Sotton: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to 11 years. He has three children. His criminal record includes domestic violence and sexual assault of a minor. He has been in jail since 2021.

Karim Sebaoui: Guilty of aggravated rape and having child abuse imagery. Sentenced to 10 years. The 40-year-old is an unmarried IT specialist.

Joan Kawai: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to 10 years. He went to the Pelicots' the same night his daughter was born. He has been in jail since 2021.

Jean-Marc LeLoup: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to six years. The 74-year-old is a retired driver.

Andy Rodriguez: Guilty of attempted rape and aggravating factors. Sentenced to six years. The 37-year-old has already spent several months in jail on domestic violence charges.

Vincent Coullet: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to 10 years. He is 43 years old and already detained for domestic violence.

Adrien Longeron: Guilty of* *aggravated rape and child abuse imagery. Sentenced to six years. The 34-year-old was jailed in 2020 for raping and stalking three former girlfriends.

Hughes Malago: Guilty of* *attempted rape and two aggravating factors. Sentenced to five years. The 39-year-old is a tiler and biker.

Ahmed Tbarik: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years. The 54-year-old plumber who set up his own business, as well as a boxing club, had been married for 30 years when he went to the Pelicots' home.

Husamettin Dogan: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to nine years. The 43-year-old builder is married and has a child. He had precedents for drug trafficking.

Romain Vandevelde: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to 15 years. He is 63 and HIV-positive. He has been in jail since 2021.

Joseph Cocco: Guilty of aggravated sexual assault. Sentenced to three years. He is a 69-year-old divorced father of one.

Saifeddine Ghabi: Acquitted of rape and attempted rape. Guilty of sexual assault. Sentenced to three years. The 37-year-old lorry driver is a father-of-three.

Jean Tirano: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years. He is a 52-year-old roofer.

Mohamed Rafaa: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years. The 70-year-old worked as a DJ and club manager. He has been in jail since 2021.

Ludovick Blemeur: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to seven years. The 39-year-old former firefighter and warehouse worker had a three-month-old baby daughter when he visited the Pelicots.

Patrick Aron: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to six years, but walks free today as he has medical issues and will need to be placed in a special jail, according to the judge. The 60-year-old was married for 25 years with two kids.

Abdelali Dallal: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years, but walks free today due to medical issues and will need to be placed in a special jail, according to the judge. He is 47.

Grégory Serviol: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years. The 33-year-old is a painter and decorator.

Cedric Grassot: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to 12 years. The 50-year-old is a delivery driver.

Cendric Venzin: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to nine years. The 44-year-old worked a series of odd jobs and at the time he was arrested in 2022 was managing a hotel in Corsica.

Mahdi Daoudi: Guilty of mass rape and drugging. Sentenced to eight years. The 36-year-old is married.

Thierry Postat: Guilty of aggravated mass rape and drugging, and possession of child abuse imagery. Sentenced to 12 years, and banned from working with children for life. The 61-year-old refrigeration specialist is divorced with three grown children. He has been in jail since 2021.

Florian Rocca: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to seven years. The father of three daughters was already convicted of theft, driving without a license and drug-related offences.

Dominique Davies: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to 13 years. The 45-year-old is a lorry driver.

Cyprien Culieras: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to six years. He is 45 and has eight prior convictions.

Mathieu Dartus: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to seven years. The 53-year-old former baker raised two children after his wife died.

Cyril Beaubis: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to nine years. The 47-year-old is a lorry driver.

Paul-Koikoi Grovogui: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years. He is 31.

Omar Douiri: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years. The 36-year-old was married and employed by a cleaning company.

Redouane Azougagh: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to nine years. The 40-year-old father of four kids from two different wives has prior convictions for domestic violence.

Hassan Ouamou: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to 12 years. The 30-year-old is currently on the run in Morocco and has told investigators he has no intention of returning to France.

Redouane El Farihi: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years.

The news doesn't give a balanced picture. Media want us to be fearful.

Compared to many places:

We don't have guns

Crime rates are generally down

Even though I feel this is at threat we officially and legally have a tolerant attitude to those who are minorities including women

NHS - I can't personally complain about the service I've experienced, of course it's under pressure though. Ditto local councils and emergency services.

Yes wages generally are stagnating and cost of living increasing. But I think this may be a problem wider than the UK?

It wasn't your posts I was talking about. You'll find it easily enough if you look.

There are Afghan, Sudanese and Eritrean men who don't attack women, and who undoubtedly have a much nicer life living in the UK than they would in their own countries.

The government is prioritising those (admittedly innocent) men's wellbeing higher than they prioritise minimising harm to the British women and children who are raped by other Afghan, Sudanese and Eritrean men. Those who do commit attacks. At 20 times the rate of British men.

We don't need to let any of them in. They are not the UK's responsibility. UK citizens are the UK's responsibility, and should be the priority.

The government is utterly contemptible to see those women and children as collateral damage in their mission to seem woke and 'nice'.

House prices are falling here in Australia and set to fall much further, partly as a result of current govt policies. About time too!

The amount of mental gymnastics people must have to do (or ignore) to feel ok about living in the Middle East astounds me.

Sexism, homophobia, terrible human rights record, shutting down freedom of expression, wanton environmental destruction and modern slavery.... Yeah but 0% tax makes it all ok.

Keep telling yourself that.

@strawberrybubblegum sorry to let you know that Women in the UK face the overwhelming majority of male violence and femicide at the hands of men they already know—predominantly current or former intimate partners—rather than from strangers or specific nationality groups. The most dangerous place for a woman remains her own home. Overall immigration to the UK is roughly balanced between men and women, despite what you might think peer-reviewed academic studies and data analysed by groups like the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford consistently find that immigrants are, on average, less likely to commit crimes than native-born citizens. The UK has a problem with its own men which really needs to be looked at first. That’s where the real danger lies.

Which might even be bearable if you are that way inclined, and did not think of others, and were able to discount the low quality of life for the majority - there is really one dimensional with shopping, all day brunches and vulgarity everywhere. Living on a compound, with your children is not the carefree childhood most of us to aspire to, with the summer temperatures hitting 48c.

keep telling myself that you didn’t boast?

why… were you boasting? To me it just seemed you were telling us that you enjoyed where you live and loved your home. I thought nothing more and nothing less than… nice

Yes that was a truly astonishing post from @GrannyJegs

Lies, damned lies and statistics. The reason that "immigrants are, on average, less likely to commit crimes than native-born citizens" is because that study combines the crime rates for all immigrants - of every type and nationality.

Sure, my highly educated Singaporean biotech researcher friend is less likely to commit a crime than the 'average' Brit - averaged across the whole UK social spectrum.

But the Afghan asylum seeker is 20 times more likely to commit rape than that 'average' Brit.

Not all immigrants are the same, or behave the same.

So combining them makes the statistic deliberately meaningless.

We can choose which ones we let in, based on observed profile for that specific type and nationality of immigrant.

Oh, and combining Japanese and Korean (very low) conviction rates with Pakistani (high) conviction rates, into one single 'Asian' category is similar deliberate misinformation.

The vast majority of sexual offences and rapes in the UK are committed by British citizens. If a woman becomes a victim of a violent or sexual crime in the UK, the available evidence shows that the perpetrator is overwhelmingly likely to be a white British man known to her. I’ll just post that again. Because it’s a fact.

I've thought this for a while but thought I must be missing something- l guess that also includes Chinese and Hong Kong - seems crazy you would lump in same group for crime statistics- but cone to think of it with current government its not crazy at all is it.

But STATISTICALLY the immigrants commit more rapes, sexual assaults etc per capita.
As per STATISTICS pointed out previously, Afghans are 20 times more likely to be rapists than white British males.
That’s also a fact.

In absolute numbers yes, because 90% of the UK is British (and the police often don't collect ethnicity or origin data because it would be too incendiary).

But not as a proportion.

As a proportion of the population of that nationality, Afghans, Somalians and Eritreans commit 20 times more rapes and sexual attacks than British men.

I’ll just post that again. Because it’s a fact.

73% of individuals convicted of rape and sexual assault in recent Ministry of Justice data are recorded as United Kingdom nationals.

That doesn't actually mean they are British born.... but even if we ignore that...

91% of the UK hold British nationality.

And that 9% who don't hold British nationality are committing 27% of the rapes.

Just posting that again. Because it’s a pretty shocking fact.

Yep because the majority of men in country are British. You haven't responded to the information that statistically certain groups of men are more likely to offend. And British men are statistically under represented in sexual violent crime compared to their proportion of population.

And if you’d only told us once about your life, that’s how I would have contextualised it. It was the repetition, like you really wanted everyone on the thread to know how perfectly peachy your life was, coupled with the swipes at people you had assumed lived in ‘shitholes’, that came off as boasting.

Because I don’t believe that to be true. And have fact checked it and I believe we are ignoring what the real issue is.

I’d like to see where you got this information from.