To ask why you live in the UK?

[Hungryhippo12]

I will start off by saying I love the English countryside, the beaches, most of the people but I’m having a hard time deciding if it’s worth living here anymore. We’ve got the opportunity now to move abroad and I know the grass is not greener and I’ll be incredibly sad to leave but….

We pay a huge amount of tax (top tax band) and it’s not spent on tangible things we benefit from- for example I have no problem if it goes into the NHS or to people who can’t work etc but it’s not; millions of pounds gets spent on things that do not improve the lives of people in our country and then they wonder why people become resentful of paying all the taxes we do.

My children can’t just go out and play as knife crime is rife where we are , as is bullying, fighting and uploading the video etc

Everything seems disproportionately expensive as compared to earnings- for example, rent, mortgage , bills etc out disposable income is a lot smaller than say ten years ago despite earning a lot more.

I love our community, I strangely love the English weather but I’m finding things hard. There were riots in the city near where we live last week. The country just seems abit broken and a lot of unrest.

I read posts on here - especially ones about private school VAT - and people seem angry, hateful of those with more and kindness
seems to have been lost.

Is this just what England is now?

i think you will find that its not just the UK.. there is bullying, knife crime, drugs, even gun crimes all over the world, you make it sound like its happening on every street corner in every county in the country and its just not.

where there is lack of money, through lack of jobs then you will find all these things, and very occasionally you will find them in the parts of the country that are better off.

its just how it now is.. we are no better or worse than others

Well, I would say the obvious answer is that for the vast majority of people it's not easy to move. Family, friends, and not earning huge salaries, not being skilled in something that enables you to move easily etc etc.
It's a pretty stupid question to be honest.

then do it! its one thing moaning about it... but if you do nothing about it, then why bother..

move

I wouldn't want to live where you are either with knife crime and riots, sounds a bit rough. Since you earn so much I'm surprised you haven't moved somewhere nicer.

I don't have a right to live anywhere else. I can't afford to move easily.
I love our countryside and coast.
I love our changeable weather and seasons. When I travelled in the tropics, knowing it was going to be hot every day got boring- you never know here.

We have some if the best museums and galleries in the world.
People can be shit everywhere.

lol, Agree, OP you need to move to a nicer area.

What country are you thinking of moving too?

I am really wondering about all these things too @Hungryhippo12 No country is perfect but absolutely nothing works in the UK.

Three things:

1. if you can go abroad for a few years and come back then that’s perfect, gives you a break and absence makes the heart grow fonder. I lived in Asia for 6 years, loved it but now feel better about the UK for having done so.
2. Don’t take a Mumsnet threads as a reliable indicator of how most people actually feel about the UK, the world and each other. This site is more and more an echo chamber of anger, rudeness and gratuitous nastiness towards other people. It’s not representative.
3. We just got a new government! I feel more optimistic that the UK can improve than I have done for a decade! (And if it’s the US you have the chance to move to, you’d be crazy…)

Because:
I was born here
My ds was born here
We have a lovely home
It's green and temperate
No lethal wildlife
Very few natural disasters in Hampshire
DS is at a great school
Most of our family are here
My brilliant and ever-attentive oncologist is here (and she's free)
I only speak two languages and one of them is English
If I'm going to pay tax, I'd rather pay in to the NHS than anything else

I've just come back from Portugal and it reminded me how much I miss fresh fruit & veg and fresh fish. The food industry in the UK really could do much better. And how other places are much more relaxed. We could do with reducing stress levels significantly.

Because on the whole, I'm happy.

YABU to put UK in your title when you mean England...

I live in the UK because I was born here, I'm registered in a profession that I'd need to re-qualify for abroad, and I have zero language skills. I am also wondering if I should upskill with a view to emigrating, but DH wouldn't want to leave his family.

O currently live in Sweden but would gnaw my arm off to move back to London but have been out priced since moving away.

Are you asking about the UK or about England?

The temperate climate. The tolerant, friendly people. The access to free healthcare. Affordable education. Economic opportunity. How green everything is, everywhere. The quirky buildings. The history. Having five or more airports within an hour or two of home. The wildlife. The varied terrain. The coastline. Music. Theatre. Markets. Fashion. Safer drinking water and unrestricted access to it. The diversity of the human population. Dogs everywhere. The endless anxieties around social class. It’s a fascinating part of the world.

Yes, yes, the UK is dreadful, everywhere else is paradise.
I lived in Australia for a couple of years, and you know what?
Exactly the same issues.

We live North of Leeds, we both work in the hospitals but have the opportunity now to move to New Zealand as they are recruiting doctors.

Yes we could move within the UK but we need to be near a hospital for our work. Maybe that’s what we do.

This is why I asked- I wanted people opinions who have done it and moved as that helps.

I just love it, it’s home. No matter where we go on holiday I end up homesick and there’s no feeling better than coming home and walking in the door.

Uprooting and leaving will only change the scenery. The ills of society here will eventually reach your new residence and you'll want to leave again. It's a vicious cycle I'm afraid. Look at Texas with all the Californians now living there, for example. Texas is now California 2.0. Because a lot of those Californians voted for the same rubbish that made their home state unbearable, in their new home in their new state.

OP, maybe you need to move area, rather than country.

There are plenty of lovely places in the UK where knife crime is not endemic. Where there are no riots. Find a school where bullying is not tolerated.

Round here, DS can go wherever he wants without issue and the local police deal with hare coursers, logging theft and the scallies who pinched some manhole covers overnight. If anything you might find it a bit quiet, but it is perfectly safe.

I was born here and most of my family are here.

Thank you for your reply. Yes I think I might have posted on the wrong site for advice I realise that after some of the responses! And I’m also hoping the new government turn things around - hope we now have!