I wish I could escape the UK...

[Itsokay2020]

Just that really! I used to love this country, but I feel really deflated today.

I read the headlines and it’s so depressing, I go for a walk and I just see overgrown hedgerows and weeds everywhere. Footpaths are becoming impossible to negotiate due to overgrowth. My energy supplier went bust, the new supplier are dragging their heals and have blocked our attempt to switch to a better rate with a new supplier. I can sense growing frustration amongst the ordinary folk in the street, it’s a melting pot. Shelves are more bare, made worse by panic headlines in the media. The cost of living is increasing, yet wages are stagnant. The government seems unable to get a grip on all that’s wrong - where is all the money going? Our local fields are being built upon - our beautiful village of 2,000 dwellings will soon increase to 3,000 plus. This is repeated across our part of East Anglia. Selfishly, I wonder where I’ll walk the dog, whilst also knowing that my DC won’t be able to live locally due to the cost of housing. Don’t get me started on GP’s and the lack of appointments.

For the first time, I feel fear about the future. Am considering escaping the South and moving North to reduce our cost of living and maybe enjoy a slower pace. Am I just having a down day or do you feel it too?

Will a new government make it better?

YANBU. How old are your children? Could you move abroad?

Moving to the north would solve none of those problems, except perhaps dog walking space. I doubt you’re that short of dog walking space even if your beautiful village goes from 2000 to 3000.

And none of those issues you’ve listed are about a “fast” pace of life. What does that even mean? You think that all of us in some homogeneous north have a lovely “slow” pace of life? You can reduce your cost of living by moving to a cheaper area in the north, but your arrival is going to push up our cost of living on housing and maybe push our kids out of local home ownership. Don’t get me wrong - it’s not a criticism as I’d do it too. But it would have an effect.

Some of your issues are short term, others are just life - the latter for example being the new homes being built. We have it in the north too. And my colleagues in other countries have that too. I wouldn’t be quitting the UK based on global rising energy prices and increasing housing need.

Yeah go abroad.

Everything's perfect there.

I don't understand your post, you complain about new homes being built in one sentence and then follow it up in another saying you wonder how your kids will be able to live locally. Surely increased supply should help balance out house prices to some extent.

Personally I haven't seen any "bare" shelves. I'm in the SE.

I agree that things are far from perfect, but I agree with someone else who says that "abroad" isn't "perfect" either. We just have to get through some harder times... perhaps we've all had it too easy for too long?

I came on to agree. But, just FYI councils make their way around hedgerows in Autumn, probably due to nesting birds. This can't be done overnight. Report to your council if you think it's been overlooked. Extra houses are also needed I'm afraid. And the north isn't all a slow pace of life!

What utopia are you planning on moving to?

Just go, we're not stopping you. Other countries will let you in if you can bring more than a negative attitude with you.

Let us know if you find somewhere without the same problems we have or different ones.

I've lived in a few places and everywhere has its issues. That's why there's not really a right answer (exactly as your green spaces vs affordable housing proves).

Of course Canada and Sweden have more wilderness and Singapore and Finland have more affordable housing. But emigration is very hard. Even moving north. You're always a foreigner, wherever you are.

Not suggesting that moving abroad, or north, is perfect (or a solution), but concentrated house building is having a huge impact in this area and whilst it might help those wishing to move out of London, our green space is being eaten up rapidly and the existing infrastructure can’t cope.

You are very lucky if you haven’t seen bare shelves, in recent weeks we’ve seen shortages of bread, milk, vegetables and lots more.

Perhaps at the heart of this, I have lost faith in our current government. They seem so very out of touch with reality. Their lack of effective action at the right time is staggering. There isn’t a cohesive response, one department doesn’t communicate with another. Today’s report relating to Covid confirms what I have long suspected.

As for the state of our highways, roads, hedgerows and paths, sadly this is ongoing and nothing to do with nesting birds. Local council budgets are being squeezed, priorities need to be made (of course social care is more important than hedgerow maintenance) but it’s disheartening nonetheless to see a general decline in the upkeep of our environment.

Tomorrow is a new day, but today I feel sad about living in the UK. My DC is 13, I wouldn’t move whilst they are still at secondary school. But I haven’t ruled it out for later in life!

If you want to leave why can't you? It is not a prison state, you have had access to free education to enable you to build skills that may be desirable to other countries. Nothing and no one is going to stop you, if you don't go that is entirely your own choice.

@MrsTerryPratchett very true!

The shelves are not bare, you may have to mix your meals up abit, but they are not bare in the slightest.

Your daughter may well be able to afford to live near you if more properties are built.

There are no cheap fuel deals at the moment.

Lebanon lost electricity for a full day because their power station ran out of fuel. Now that’s a bad doo.

Stop reading the headlines of the scare mongering media (non existent fuel crisis!) and exaggerating (no food??!! Bare shelves??!!) and you’ll feel better. Looking at our standard of living, I feel a damn site luckier than some other poor souls out there.

@HarrietsChariot I am normally very optimistic and rarely negative, but today is different. Tomorrow is a new day, and I have a lot to be grateful for, but it doesn’t mean I have to accept what’s happening around me

You are right that developments go up without consideration for infrastructure and I agree with a lot of your points in your update, but then I never had faith in the existing government or prior Tory ones. Local government cuts have been underway since 2010, and there aren't any more easy solutions.

If you’ve “lost faith” in the “current” government, that sounds like you had faith to begin with.
Did you vote them in?
Vote to keep them?

What's stopping you?

You know, if you move north, you'll still be in the UK.

@2bazookas ultimately, family is stopping me from moving

@FourTeaFallOut hahah, I most certainly do!

Ah is it time for the daily UK hate again. How time flies.

concentrated house building is having a huge impact in this area and whilst it might help those wishing to move out of London, our green space is being eaten up rapidly and the existing infrastructure can’t cope.

This is the consequences of few caring (not necessarily you, OP) whilst all this was done to London over the last couple of decades. The overbuilding of overpriced homes (therefore not relieving the housing crisis) and infrastructure unable to cope. That is the much resented 'investment' London has had (again, not accusing you OP, as I know it's not everyone).

The Londoners moving to your area. Many won't be doing it because they want to. Your worries for your dc is already reality for many Londoners. They don't choose to move out. They are priced out. By people coming from all over (including East Anglia and the North) to London. Remember many of the 'Londoners' moving to your area aee not Londoners but are actually returning locals or people from other parts of the UK who moved to London.

I feel for you with your concerns. It's devastated London. Two thirds of England's homeless families are in London and it has the highest rates of youth unemployment. But - I don't think you should panic. I don't think it will ever get as bad where you are. Outside of London, local authorities are setting up housing schemes for locals and similar projects. If anywhere will suffer a bit of the London woes it's going to be other big cities. Manchester is already begining to see it.

I also don't understand the negative comments about emigration. It's so churlish. Plenty of countries are really positive about people moving around. Including some in the UK, like the Scots. There's a massive diaspora.

But the English (possibly welsh, I do t know) seem to have a 'fuck off if you don't like it attitude'. Why is that?

Why would you think you would have a slower pace of life in the North?
We have towns and cities in the North too, we even have electricity and WiFi.

What bare shelves where? I live in East anglia no empty shelves In any supermarket I've been in.

Only shop that was empty of virtually everything was halfords. But all their stuff comes from China. Covid disrupted all that.

I completely get where you're coming from, we felt the same, pretty much since 2010 ( when sleaze ball Cameron got in), but we had a plan of action. Which we have been working on for 10 years to enable us to escape the UK, which we did 2 years ago. Brexit was obviously the nail in the coffin for the uk and that gave us they kick we needed, as we were now against the clock.

If you are not happy living in the UK or even in the SE, then you need a plan, no one else will help you, it may require retraining, a lot of hard work and a serious readjustment. Moaning about it on MN won't change anything.