Get back to your country...

[Zeropointzero]

Do you think it is ok to critisize the current british state of affair,if you are not british?Since Brexit, I have been told a few times:why dont you go back to your country.I have lived here for 37 years.There are many things I like in Britain,but also things I really loathe.

@Rangoon

Brits online seem to be keen on putting the boot into NZ at the moment for our covid outbreak. We've lost 29 people since the beginning of covid so it's not as if it's been rampaging though the days of no community cases and us being unmasked and with large gatherings are probably over. Still we had a very good run and the government always knew the time would come when we would get community cases with Delta. They are criticising our PM - everything from her hair to her teeth. There is a vaccine program - everyone in my household is double vaxed. I guess I am being defensive as a previous poster says. I could say that at least we have plentiful supermarket supplies, plenty of lorries and no shortage of petrol, our taxes aren't rising and, hopefully, our electricity and gas bills are not set to surge. We are not pre-ordering turkeys at least though of course our Christmas is in the middle of summer.

Do you have a British accent Rangoon?

Being in NZ without a New Zealand accent is a whole different experience let me tell you. I have been told to "go home" by many passing strangers away from touristy areas while there. However, one young boy did get confused and instead told me to go back to Japan.

The only time I have ever been tempted to ask the question myself was to a Scottish work colleague who was absolutely up front about hating the English (as well as anyone who wasn't white) but lived and worked in London (his partner was South African). He was bloody miserable here and very vocal about it so I did wonder.

My dad was Irish. He came to the UK in the 50s, when the Celtic Tiger was years away. There was nothing in Ireland when he left.

Although he. Did return when he retired, for years the UK was his home, and he appreciated all it had to offer. He got employment, council housing (for a while) NHS, education for his kids. I don't ever remember him knocking the UK BUT he was still proud to describe himself as Irish, in the same way I'm proud of my background.

As an example during World Cup Games, he'd cheer ROI if they were playing but he'd cheer for England too!

What I'm trying to say is you can feel proud of where you were born, and feel a citizen of that country and still appreciate the UK. They're not mutually exclusive.

Apologies for typos, broken arm

DH is not from Britain but now has dual nationality. He is as entitled as me to complain about the bits of British life that impact on him. It's not saying Britain shouldn't exist to complain about NHS waiting lists (he is more scathing about the health service in his home country) when one of our DC needs an appointment. Hypocritical and ineffectual politicians are annoying if they make decisions that affect you whilst preserving benefits for themselves.
He knows his life is better here overall than it would be in his home country but that doesn't mean he has to pretend its perfect.

I think it depends on the context. I'll pick somewhere random, let's say you're Spanish.

If you were commenting in general on the poor state of things, I'd be annoyed at someone saying "get back to Spain then". As if you couldn't have an input.

However. If you were "Spain wouldn't be like this, the UK is terrible, Spain is so brilliant, if only the UK could be far more like fabulous Spain" then I wouldn't see someone as saying "go back to Spain then" as racist. They're just pointing out if Spain is so fantastic in comparison, why are you voluntarily somewhere you think is so awful. Why not leave instead of remain somewhere you can't say a good thing about?