To think England isn't such a great place to live

[Cloudminnow]

Not just the weather, but so much more ...

parking fees everywhere and having to have change at hand (or very expensive pay as you leave - £8.80 to park for an afternoon shopping today!!)

hopeless and expensive public transport system

traffic jams all over the place

terrible customer service

obsession with celebrity culture and all it stands for

union flag and all it stands for

embarrassing monarchy (even having to have one at all)

desperate government

Olympics sponsored by Coke

Education system overly concerned with literacy, numeracy and data at the expense of a love of learning and creativity...

Can anyone sell England to me?!

yellowraincoat
Sorry you got messed up by a UK dentist, but honestly not all of them are bad and you managed to find the crap ones. Dh SIL and I all had our teeth filled and treated by UK dentists till we moved here. Both sides of the family still use UK dentists, at least they are there when needed along with wisdom teeth removal and all the other Oral surgeon duties as needed.
You want a really messed up dentist try getting treatment from a Medicaid dentist here (medicaid is what all the very poor and kids in state care use) now there are some seriously nasty dentists from what I've seen and not a thought or care for the patient, (I'm sure there's a few good apples in there somewhere) just get them in and out and collect the money from the county. Chances of getting to an Oral surgeon here without spending many $$$ is slim to none.
I totally agree that the US has many problems and they are so brainwashed they don't see it, or don't want to see it. It's very frustrating. But it makes the UK look wonderful.

OP, if it's pure, unspoilt customer service you want, may I recommend Japan - second to none.

Not so great on the traffic jam front though, if you venture anywhere near a city.

And you'd have to learn Japanese, of course.

I don't think we as a Nation are obsessed with celebrity culture although that shitty rag that is 'The Sun' thinks we are the patronizing Feckers

50shades I moved because I love London and I met a very handsome Englishman who is now my husband :)

Please do not infer from my post above that Canada is a magical place to live. There is no cultural life to speak of, no public art collection worthy of that name, public transport is bad (but that's partly because it's a huge country with a tiny population) so you need to drive everywhere, winters are ferocious, tv is so bad it makes you want to cry (4 minute ad break every 10 fecking minutes!), newspapers are not worth the paper they're written on, most politicians are either mediocre, corrupt or both, the living conditions of first nations people are shocking, you can't fly anywhere except New York/Boston/Florida without shedding huge sums of money, there is a general lack of awareness to the rest of the world, you can't get a decent curry, and I could go on.

It's also got lots of good things - green spaces, a secular school system, you can buy a huge property at a fraction of UK prices, magnificent summers, and the stuff I mentioned above. Pedestrians always have priority - drivers won't try to run you over as they do here. I had to seriously change my jaywalking habit when I first came to the UK as a student (years before I settled here permanently). And it is a very safe place to live - until I was 16, there was NO LOCK on our house door and both my parents worked full time, so the house was empty and open everyday without anyone being concerned. Outside of big cities, it is quite common for children aged 5 or 6 to walk to school on their own. While there is more safety concern now, my nieces started babysitting at age 12 and no one batted an eyelid at kids that age looking after other kids. Teenagers also commonly get part time jobs (e.g. in supermarkets, shops, fastfoods and cinemas) which gives them independence and teaches them work ethics.

I am aware that there is no perfect place to live - if there was, it would soon get so crowded it wouldn't be perfect for long.

what do you think of the quality of education in Canada primafacie (we might be moving there so I am drinking in your words)

oops forgot the questionmark

Whenever i feel like moaning about England - i talk to the friends i have who are immigrants; & look at their Facebook photos.

Many have paid £100s or £1000s & worked extremely hard to become British: to travel here; get a work visa & work for the required time; to pay rent / mortgage; to learn to speak & write English; to study for & complete the citizenship tests; attend the citizenship ceremony; & get a British passport.

They love it here: the NHS, the freedom to vote without intimidation, the monarchy, the countryside & beaches, the music & nightlife; cultural & religious freedoms; the freedom that women have to wear what we like & do as we please; the freedom to moan about anything we dislike; the freedom to protest; the freedom for gay people to actually just be homosexual; the freedom for men & women to be friends; ... running tap water that is safe to drink & relatively cheap, Police who are not (usually) corrupt; free education up to age 18...

I even meet people who love the rain because they come from places that are arid, dry & thick with choking dust from the brown, barren land for 99% of the year.

I love England too & i would miss home so much if i had to move :)

ZZZen, I think Canada does well in reading, maths and sciences. It is significantly ahead of the UK in the most recent PISA league table, although that study is so complex it's hard (for me at least) to make sense of the figures. PISA rankings

I saw a post recently where a poster was listing some of the books that are on the reading list for GSCEs, which included To Kill a mockinbird. One of my nieces read TKAM in grade 7, and that was in her English as a second language class (she goes to a French school in Quebec).

Beyond that, I doubt Canada does better than the UK in soft sciences and skills (history, geography, arts).

One of the things that comes out of the PISA study is that countries where there is less of a socio-economic gap tend to offer overall better performance. Canada is among the top western countries in terms of social mobility, whereas the UK is the worse. This is why private schools in the UK produce amazing results (7% of all pupils making up 43% of Oxbridge intake), and I would venture a guess that if you are only comparing private schools, UK schools are far better. However, I think UK state schools underperform Canadian state schools.

There's a poster on here who has recently moved to Canada, she may be able to offer more insight. I will try and get her on this thread!

ZZZen, have a look at this thread here

that's very interesting, thank you. Dh is in Canada at the moment, investigating things so we will see what happens. Have always liked the sound of Canada.

*mockingbird and worst

I don't think it that bad a place to live really. In most countries, the poor and unemployed get no help or money.

It's home. I don't know what else to say about it. I know it isn't perfect but I love it enough to be happy here.

Latara, all this can be said about every Western European country and the US too (minus nhs I think), some have even more to offer - OP is about England in particular. It's not the point of the thread to compare it with third world countries.