To think the UK is just a bit crap?

[moussakka]

Right don't get me wrong - I love being British and am super proud of being British. But having moved back recently, I just can't escape the feeling that everything's a bit... I don't know, nothing TERRIBLE, just a bit... well, crap? I don't know what it is exactly, but there's just a certain grimmness that I just can't put my finger on. Am I imagining it? Is it just re-entry shock?

Do you realise that you have to pay a TV-licence if you watch live television over the internet from any country?

I'm in favour of the BBC being trimmed, but your argument screams of "I want the product and not pay for it"

Firstly the BBC displays adverts outside of the UK, and the BBC had the technology (coding ability) available at the time of releasing I player to restrict viewers.

If you want to enjoy the BBC you pay for it like everyone else.

On the question of reverse culture shock... As my namesake's DH says, you can never cross the same river twice.

Well since you can't legally watch any overseas TV channels live over the internet anyway, what does it matter if you've paid the TV licence or not?

I agree that you should pay the TV licence if you want to watch UK TV live whether online or via an aerial but that's not what the poster was saying.

I generally agree. In the UK people are fairly moany and miserable. The weather is mostly rainy. Lots of things are overpriced, especially housing. Many parts of the UK are run down and depressing to look at.

I've lived in other countries in the past and it always made to make me depressed to come back. I'm only here now because I can't afford to leave and my daughter is in the middle of her school life. The minute she turns 18 I'm off.

I'm well travelled and I've never visited anywhere that supersedes the UK. The climate suits me (I don't like anywhere too hot), you can get everywhere in the UK within a reasonable time, the infrastructure, the NHS, it's clean, it's safe, mixture of countryside and cities and of course has London, the greatest city in the world. I love it.

Sukey

There's no need to disagree. I am comparing the UK to NZ, which has a deeply ingrained suspicion of anything intellectual.

Oh, I forgot to add the BBC. The BBC! The BBC! Yes, I know it's an overwhelming behemoth but seriously there is no organisation in the English speaking world that has anything like the BBC's sophistication and variety.

Gosh limitedperiodonly your

Maybe you think the UK is a bit crap because you're superproud of being British. It's a common phenomenon.

really struck a chord with me. I left the UK with a low opinion of Britain and came back to see there was so much to cherish. But the bread, the bread makes me weep.

CBeebies and the relatively liberal and as honest as possible news without adverts here is worth the license fee alone!
Murdoch and the like are horrible.
I only have France and Greece as comparators for Tv and I alway missed the bbc while there.

The UK has become like it was in the 80s. It's the fact that we have an uncaring, self-obsessed Government, who frown on any kind of society. Hence the NHS being run into the ground, no facilities for disabled people, care homes closing, no bus services, strikes, riots etc etc. You're right OP. It could be so much better.

Toad I have to disagree with you about intellectualism. I've found Europeans and coastal Americans way more prepared to have actual conversations about Stuff than Brits.

Never had that problem myself.

I guess that says more about the people you know than a nationally reflective thing.

Oh and yes.

After months of foreign tv, seeing the bbc again is a revelation.

I've been back just over a year and am frankly counting the days until I can leave again. Everything I love about being British I can get delivered online 😂

The publishing industry, the theatres, the cathedrals, the stately homes, free museums, the television, the radio, the decency and manners, the changing seasons, the tolerance, the countryside, the seaside, London!

I don't recognise the picture painted by some posters, particularly about the economy. I think it's quite buoyant.

I wouldn't change much about the UK. Maybe faster trains, even less smoking and people moaning about nothing on local news websites. And, yes, sometimes the weather is just a bit meh. Winter drags on a little too long without ever actually getting properly cold and sometimes we don't get a "proper" summer. But it really isn't that wet; I repeat, in the eastern half of the country anyway!

Child actors. Again, compared to the US, we just don't have convincing ones.

Niche!

YABU.

YABU. Go and live in Russia for 2 years and you'll be begging to come home (or at least I was).

Living in England makes me depressed, not even joking. This country is just an awful place to live and as soon as I can I will hopefully move to another country to not hate my life

Ah OK, sorry Toad.

RedToothBrush, quite possibly

yanbu. We left the UK nearly 20 years ago and come back every so often. There is nothing at all that would tempt me back full time.

Massive culture shock on the way home after 5 years in ME. Takes a while to get used to it again...

It's a good idea for everyone to live in a different country for a while if they can. All the people desperate to leave the UK should try it!

To further that, the place could be great, but [] people are getting more and more on my nerves, with their horrible negativity, their willingness to knock people down and sneer at aspiration and achievement and ambition....this stuff is just so wearing.

Delete the word "British" and you describe AIBU perfectly

@rorty ok I'll rephrase it - the post wasn't intended to be critical or just gratuitously moany - I'm intetested in the experiences of other people moving back, as I have been genuinely surprised to find it a bit grim and am wondering why.