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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to feel that Great Britain isn't 'Great' anymore? I think I want to move abroad!

299 replies

Whatawaytomakealiving · 06/05/2017 21:55

I don't want to live in a country that treats people as it does. I work damned hard to serve the public, but I am so disillusioned.

OP posts:
MichaelSheensNextDW · 07/05/2017 01:18

yy Lostsight, it's that political stability that allows noticeable forward progress to be made, rather than the sharp right and left turns we experience here.

Postagestamppat · 07/05/2017 01:45

I'm in the boat with others who say that they have left the UK expecting in to come back one day, but the way that things are that is not going to happen.

For me and my family it is basically financial. DH and I have jobs that didn't pay a lot in the UK and we had to work 50-60 hours a week. No chance of saving, getting on the property ladder or even being able to enjoy our little time off. But where we are living now (Australia), we get paid twice as much, live in a great area and have a better work-life balance. Judging by the number of british people also living here, we are not the only ones to feel this way. I love going home (to me the UK is home) and visiting family, but the growing right-wing movement, cutting of the welfare state in many directions and now leaving europe makes for uncomfortable viewing from abroad. It is not the same country that I left or would want to go back to.

As other people have said, no country is perfect and Australia certainly has its faults, but the UK feels as if it is falling down in the way that it treats the more vulnerable in society and taking away basic provisions for society as a whole and the less well paid (increasingly more and more people fall into that category - including us, if we stayed). Also, on a personal note, there is no way I would work in a school as a teacher in the UK now. I worked in a brilliant school in the UK that became an academy and now most of the teachers that I worked with have left.

waybalooo · 07/05/2017 02:23

Yanbu
It's a dump
I live in Co Armagh and am praying every day that brexit leads to a border poll here in Ireland. It could be the beginning of our long awaited freedom. Our day is near.

newbian · 07/05/2017 02:41

We moved abroad a few years ago and DH just said doesn't think we would go back. We became British citizens and bought a home so intended to stay but things have changed. Disappointing but oh well.

user1471451259 · 07/05/2017 06:38

I know quite a few people who have left the UK whilst complaining loudly about how shit it is, how it's gone to the dogs etc.

Funny how they always end up coming back for NHS hospital treatment and benefits or to get temporary work when funds run out. Or to get their kids into university.

isthisacceptable200 · 07/05/2017 06:50

without Europe I feel we are tiny and rather stupid

^ this

Though there are things I appreciate. Like the NHS, and how cosmopolitan London and other cities are, and the countryside. And the fact that you can basically be whoever you want to be and no one will bat at eyelid.

House prices / wage squeeze / food bank usage / ideologically driven austerity / Theresa May and her merry band of idiots.... are the things which make like hard.

Just don't want the Tories to be in charge for the next 20 years.

isthisacceptable200 · 07/05/2017 06:50

life not like

exLtEveDallas · 07/05/2017 06:54

I'd go to Canada in a heartbeat. Lived there for 2 years and was utterly distraught the day I left. Plus Justin Trudeau- 'nuff said Smile. Jobs, people, communities - I lived it all. Far far more than GB. However, I was lucky and looked after, it would be different as an 'individual' and unfortunately I don't have any of the quals they require to go it alone. Really wish I did.

Loved Cyprus too - but schooling wasn't great and the International Schools were out of our price bracket. Cost of living was higher as well. Plus I never get get on with a triangle being a sound... (apologies to those who can read the Cyrillic alphabet, hats off to you, I never managed it)

Almost certain we will retire to Spain/Spanish Islands but that will be all about the weather/lifestyle rather than the opportunities. I think the country is in turmoil right now and I hope it improves. If we go it will be till the end.

FrenchLavender · 07/05/2017 07:05

without Europe I feel we are tiny and rather stupid

Do you feel that Norway is tiny and stupid? Switzerland? Iceland?

Ktown · 07/05/2017 07:09

I don't know about great. But I wouldn't go to Australia nor some of the other countries listed.
Australia doesn't have a great rep for treating refugees nor the same social healthcare system either.
I think there are good and bad points to every country.
Look at France - a fantastic country and the far right will get a sizeable vote and have come 2nd.
It's all relative!

CPtart · 07/05/2017 07:14

I've known people emigrate to Florida for many years, then come home to England when their health is is failing for the NHS to sort out.
Saw a man last week who had emigrated to Turkey for a better lifestyle. Wife diagnosed soon after with terminal illness. Back here they come.
Interesting argument.

FrenchLavender · 07/05/2017 07:21

Lots of people do that CPtart

I think that is why so many people object to coming out of the EU. They like they idea that they can just swan off and start again somewhere 'better' in Europe without having to jump through any immigration hoops and actually apply for citizenship but equally they like they idea that if it goes tits up or they get bored/ill they can swan back in again and carry on like they never left, with access to schools, benefits, help with housing costs and the NHS. Because clearly all those things that form a very important safety net when you are down on your luck were not quite 'better' enough in the place they went to.

Donostia · 07/05/2017 07:22

Spain (wealthy Basque part), it's amazing. We moved for an adventure and always planned to
move back but now holding fire as not sure what there will be to move back to.

I'm currently pregnant and getting much better prenatal care than i did on the nhs, DH is looking forward to
double the state paternity leave and as the gov funds nurseries so well (free from age 2, €180 a month before) I can keep saving towards a house, hopefully.

There is plenty to miss about home but it's all cultural things and friends/family. Grass has definitely been greener for us.

FrenchLavender · 07/05/2017 07:23

I know a woman who has lived in the US for over thirty years, but she divorced then retired and was struggling financially so came home to live in a flat paid for with HB and to use the NHS in her old age.

Westfacing · 07/05/2017 07:31

For all its faults the UK is still a very civilised and easy country in which to live, but there is a lot of unfairness and inequality so can understand the OP's disillusionment.

I'm a grandmother and nearly retired but if I were younger with young children, struggling to find a decent school and a property to buy then I'd likely be thinking about moving abroad.

Westray · 07/05/2017 07:34

I love living here.

I have lived abroad- every country has its downside.

I live in a huge 5 bedroomed house surrounded by ancient woodland, 15 minutes from capital city- it cost me £210K just two years ago. Brilliant schools in easy reach, shops, supermarkets, free university education, free health care. Good drinking water, cheap food, low crime rates, no venemous insects, unemployment rates 4%.

I love it.

FrenchLavender · 07/05/2017 07:40

Where are you West Scotland, NI, Wales or Ireland?

Not England, obviously!

TheMonkeyandthePlywoodViolin · 07/05/2017 07:42

Obviously not edinburgh.

350 to 400k for a small 3 bed detached here

Abraiid2 · 07/05/2017 07:43

Great ' means 'large'.

It is a geographical term, either to note that Britain is the largest island in the British Isles or to differentiate it from Brittany.

Tamatoa · 07/05/2017 07:45

here is my advice op.

Shockers · 07/05/2017 07:54

We were recently looking to buy a flat in the French Alps, to use ourselves, and as a holiday let.

But France appears to be having similar turmoil to Britain with regards to the far right.

Looking at what's happening worldwide is scary.

SeaWitchly · 07/05/2017 08:18

The Tories are ruining this country but too many of the electorate are being brainwashed by their simplistic 'strong and stable' rhetoric.

I have an intelligent, well educated friend who told me she will be voting for Theresa May because she is strong... i said fine, what do you think of Conservative policy versus Lib Dem, Labour, etc... and she admitted she didn't really know what the policies were... she just knew that the narrative around Jeremy Corbyn is he is unelectable.

I despair, I really do. I know other countries have their issues, no where is perfect... but I find the political ignorance and general apathy in the UK at the moment completely demoralising.

Orlantina · 07/05/2017 08:22

What concerns me most about the UK at the moment is the disdain that seems to exist for people who have different views to others - and how the politicians and media perpetuate that.

Smash the saboteurs - talking about people who had concerns over Brexit

Enemies of the people - attacking the judges.

That's my biggest concern over the UK at the moment - people are always going to have different views but the UK seems to be having a real intolerance to those who go 'against the people'.

48% of the country voted Remain. 48%. I wonder how many of those people have concerns over the country and how it's going. But May will win her election - I wonder what percentage of the country will NOT vote for her but will vote for other parties - but because of our FPTP system, that vote doesn't matter.

It feels like half the country is being ignored at the moment. Being told we don't count, shut up and leave if you don't like it.

I would love to leave the UK and let it stay in the hands of people with the mindset of those who want to ignore others, not compromise etc - and then see how long it takes for them to beg others to come back .

Unfortunately, I can't leave due to family. So I have to live in a country where the attitude of many is leave if you don't like it and shut up complaining - sorry MOANING because look at what the people want.

derxa · 07/05/2017 08:24

OP this is another 'Tories are bastards' thread isn't it.

drspouse · 07/05/2017 08:25

Uppity with one DC who isn't white I'm interested to hear you confirm what I thought. My DC were adopted from another country and this DC is of an indigenous heritage in that country. If we moved there we'd get a rich culture for that DC- but they would be seen by many as a second class citizen. In other European countries they would be a bit isolated. I think we'll have to make the best of the UK.