To think if you have enough money to travel frequently, the UK is the best place in the world to live

All good reasons, I agree.

Cost of housing
NHS waiting time - Dd has a chronic health condition
generally since we retuned to the uk I feel there is a lack of critical thinking, too much apathy, poor service and a lack of accountability.
i left the UK in 1995 and perhaps it was like that then and I didn’t really notice.

Why do you think that?

That your children’s future here might be bleak?

I’ve visited over 70 countries and lived in five including the UK.
I loved living in Germany - fabulous healthcare (my ds was born there), amazing scenery, great restaurants, beautiful architecture, decent road network and the ability to drive all over mainland Europe, Ds thrived at Kindergarten - equal or better than the UK in all aspects.
I lived oversees for 25 years and i do love the UK: the supermarkets, the humour, the tv and the history, but the future looks pretty bleak for my children imo.

Athens has long been the overlooked cousin in the EU.

It is a gastronomic meca now. Budgets for all and nobody is left out.

Glad you had a great experience!

I live in Belgium. I think the UK is great but every time we think about moving home I think about the NHS, which is beyond crap. Healthcare here is so much better. And that's what puts me off coming back. That, and the low salaries.

I agree with you OP. I grew up in a different country and came here when I was 27 and after working with people forms round the world I think the UK is hard to beat!

England is a shithole and getting worse. We won’t ever recover now.

I cannot wait to be able to afford to sell and move abroad. Hate the place. Especially with this lot in charge. Turning us in to a third world country

Hey @Snoken. We are just about in our early to mid60s to submit our visas for Sweden and hopefully move to Stockholm area and take our business with us and set up another - I’m effectively ‘transferring myself’plus husband some hoop jumping but not impossible - we did 20 months in Copenhagen 2020 to 2022 but had to come back for elderly parent reasons - I like the UK in many ways but we will still be here a lot for business , liked Sweden and Denmark more lifestyle wise - better housing for much less money, higher tax but far more for it and far more protections, I like snow too! And love the woods and lakes - we went to both Skane area and Stockholm lots and go every new year!! I like the order, the great air and water and the fact I think a lot of people have higher standards that aren’t particularly money related - I think unless you have been it’s hard to know what I mean - I also unlike what many say didn’t find it unfriendly, just far less sticking their nose into others business unless asked - !!

Very cool place - Canada I do like - great food too -

I went to an amazing restaurant in Athenssa few years ago in a very nice area- luckily we were taken by a business associate - can’t remember what it was called but huge round table, absolutely superb Mediterranean food - quite posh and about £250 for 8 of us feasting like kings with wine - some truly great food to be had if you are going up from the cheap and cheerful tourist end of the market - I really like Athens -

The UK is fantastic, we are far too mealy-mouthed about it.

@Diosmoneti do agree. Being poor in UK would be awful. Living in oz poor would be much much better. However I don’t think you need to be wealthy to live a lovely life in UK. Just not dirt poor. A decent wage, decent housing and enough to travel a bit. Don’t think you need heaps for that.

'Limited', have you been to Athens OP? I spend a lot of time in London for work. The food scene there, compared to Athens, falls short in recent years..

Having said that, your jolly hockey sticks, upbeat posts are fun to read. But come from a position of significant privilege, and I say this as someone who lives very well too.

I think living in abundance can somehow blunt our wider understanding of how things are for many others.

It is not bad. The summers aren't too hot, the winters aren't too cold, I like the variation between hunkering down during short dark days and being energised by the long days that barely get to nighttime . The joy of living on geologically boring land.

I like the humour, the landscape, access to swathes of land, proper pavements, and as the parent of a sen child - far more tolerance and acceptance here than across most of the eu and the rest of the world.

Actually, when you get away from the Internet moaners and bellyachers with their monologue of misery - it is a very cool place to live.

@Muffsies oh you sound like me! Full of wide eyed child like joy over the Uk. I grew up here but left at 30 - came back at 47 for good and just think it’s wonderful here. I went to the new forest recently and there are wild horses just romancing around everywhere- it’s awesome and magical. See foxes at dusk all the time - and a massive deer crossed my street last week which was so exciting to me. I just love that you can travel an hour in any direction and have a totally new exciting experience. Nothing ever looks the same. Amazing country.

No. I’ve left UK post Brexit after 19years, and moved my British husband and three small children to live in EU. V happy with the move.

If we had fewer people it would be perfect t

I love it, but I’m from here.

I’ve lived and worked in a number of countries and I liked all of them. Japan is fantastic, for example, and you can travel to all sorts of different places on holiday from there.

However I like it here because it’s home, I “get” everyone and they “get” me. Our men are really nice too compared to other places (or always used to be, seems to be changing with Andrew Tate.)

We left London a couple of years ago. Now in Montreal and loving it.

Yes, I'm the same. I spent a long time living in the UK and prior to that other EU countries. Now I am back in my native Sweden and the standard of living here is so much better than it was in the UK even if I on paper was richer in the UK. The money just didn't go very far at all there. We also have lovely nature, nice and varied food, safety, proper seasons with snowy winters and nice summers.

I would not choose to live in the UK again. I like visiting though and I don't think it's a horrible place at all, I just don't think it's great to live in. If I had my family there or if I had grown up there I would have felt differently, I think those are the things that makes a place the most appealing.

Thanks for your reply. I guess I’m not surprised you’re offended. ..
I really am simply curious . I know a Polish lady who goes there very often and she told me that.
Really, I don’t feel strongly about it, just thinking every country has it’s drawbacks .
I think we don’t appreciate in England how free we are.

Shall we talk about access to gynaecologists?
I never understood why women don't have gynecologist in UK automatically and have to "beg" GP to send them to one

And Brits in Poland are seen as disgusting drunks. Would you agree that it’s true?

Petty bribery isn’t common in Poland. There are different problems—some very similar to Britain’s, such as the issues with respirators during COVID—but good luck trying to bribe a police officer or civil servant. You’d be arrested on the spot.

Polish civil servants are much nicer than British ones, and the whole system is easier to navigate.(for starters you can just go to the office and speak with a real human being, with a face and name…)

A Polish tax return is something like two or three pages of simple questions, and the standard form can be done by the tax office for you (e-PIT), and you just sign it digitally. Ah, also, school exams are the same for everyone, designed and organised by the state. Everyone gets the same “award,” and you don’t pay for it. And you don’t need a special code for the exam. You use your security number (which is also a hospital/NHS number). it stays the same for your whole life. Schools are just state or public (called private in Polish ;) ). No academies in Poland.

Passports? A lovely woman explained every step of the process and didn’t get annoyed by the difficulty of British surnames. Try registering children with Polish names in the UK. Somehow, “Agata” is beyond comprehension—and it’s your fault if they didn’t listen when you explained that it’s the same name, just without an “h.”

Doctors inform you what is going on and give you any physical copies of your test result - it is about you. and they explain their reasoning. Oh, and every child in Poland has a screening ultrasound of their hips as an infant, so any problems can be identified and treated early. That’s why Polish children tend to have better posture etc. Shall we talk about access to gynaecologists?
fruit and veg selection at Polish Lidl looks like posh food chain in comparison to my Surrey „posh” one.

there are things that are better in Britain. However, the thing I hate the most about Britain are people who are ignorant and can’t accept that some things should be improved and that some countries do them better.
I am not saying that is typical British thing, only that some people are insufferable. Same as everywhere. However, some cultures tend to thing they are the worse in the whole world. Other otherwise. Look at you French ;).

I have enjoyed living in many countries and a few parts of the UK too. If you have enough money, travel is easy, living in other parts of the world is easy, the place you choose to live in the UK can be easy. You can buy good healthcare and good education, the thing we couldn’t buy was the cultural connection that comes from a shared feeling of social history. Feeling like you belong and which ever part of the UK we’ve lived in, we have still felt like we belong. So it’s UK for us, with a healthy dose of travel to escape Jan - Mar every year - it’s bloody hideous weather!