To think that this country (UK) is going downhill?

[gem1981]

first please let me explain I think I am quite a normal (!) person and try to have a positve attitude towards life but recently well I am getting tired of constantly trying to find the positive in our country.

I don't know if my perspective has changed since I have become a parent or if things have actually got worse... but over the past couple of years I have noticed a significant shift in people's attitudes towards the country ...

Everyone complains about all sorts, petrol prices, food prices, taxes, council tax etc.

I go to my local high street and shops are closing left right and centre, there is litter everywhere, things look generally grey and most people look miserable.

It seems that no matter where you are in society you have some sort of struggle - paying for childcare, getting your kids into a decent school, even getting an appt with your GP.

I know I am moaning too ... but I just wanted to check with you lot ... do you feel the same or am I falling into a pessimistic hole?

I am not looking for a fight I just want your honest opinions - are you happy living in the UK or do you dream of emmigrating?

Thanks

Yes, forgot about the security, they have armed response guards as they EXPECT any robbers to have a gun.
Felt sorry for her as she does not live in a gated community and spends most of her time pretending she's not in the house as people come to the door asking for a job and if she says no they want some food instead!
So she does not answer the door if she sees someone she does not know, it's also white people who do this as well and this is in a quite upmarket part of the garden route.
Sorry, could not live like that.

I didn't realise it was still like that ripeberry. I went out there back in the 80s when apartheid was still in full swing. It was lovely in some many ways. My cousin lived in Sandton in Jo'burg and all the lovely houses had swimming pools, tennis courts, lovely gardens etc... also high walls all around, razor wire on top, security systems, and big scary black dogs because the 'blecks' were more scared of them. No-one walked anywhere and when I did and took the bus everyone told me I was taking stupid risks.

Sort of thought it would be better now.

gem1981, I don't see anything wrong in what you said in the op, of course everyone can want things to be better for them! I do think that are a lot of failings with the government in Britain at the moment, but, as many others have said, there's a lot of good stuff about the UK, and many systems/infrastructures that are far superior to other countries. Or at least, just as good(!) Hey, why do you think I am currently living in Holland? We wanted a better life for our children, and living on bugger all in South West London we just did not have the freedom to lead the life we wanted to.
But, there are definitely plenty of things I miss!

My last post was really just in reaction to Solo's comments that suggested (from my reading of it) that it is all the fault of immigrants that the country is the way it is... which I disagree with.
It is not the fault of people coming over looking for a decent living, happy to contribute, and just wanting a better life for themselves.

Ripeberry - so you are not keen on S.Africa then Whereabouts are your friends living in SA because the entire country is not all like that!

We got back 2 weeks ago from visiting family and we made the decision to finally move out there next year.

We have family there and it does offer a much better standard of living than here in the UK. Labour is cheap and thus most whites and an increasing emerging black middle class are able to afford a housekeeper, gardener and nanny. Cost of living is generally lower - housing, food, clothes etc. Oh and the sun shines

You don't have to lock your doors when driving but the cars do tend to have automatic locking as standard. I don't see it to be a problem if I was driving into a city in the UK I would lock my doors anyway.

I am not sure what the negative reference to SAHM is meant to mean - I am a SAHM in the UK and will continue to be so out in SA. It is a choice we all make.

Yes there are problems with Eskom - the electricity provider and there will continue to be so according to Government for the next 10 years. What it means is some power cuts during the day which you are generally given advanced notice of. It is such a small price to pay for living in one of the most amazing places on earth.

I was born in and am very proud of the UK however I know what opportunities exist in SA and want to explore them. I do think that a visit to a friend is a lot different from actually being there for an extended period of time or repeated visits. Give it another go you might surprise yourself

Look on the bright side. You could be in Iraq.

I'm afraid lots of people are saying it's getting worse and loads are moving BACK to the UK.
The only place i found that was RELAXING to be in was a little town in the Karoo called Prince Albert, it was like heaven in the desert.
No barbed wire, no signs warning of armed response units, people leaving their doors open and being able to walk outside at night.
Also came accross some strange little villages in the Karoo, like a small place with british flags on every building and a red London bus! and further down the road there was a village with lots of French flags.
But the difference was, that in the Karoo, the "blacks" have proper built houses and a nice community with electricity and running water.
Near the cities and bigger towns, they like in horrendous shacks that have been built out of anything they can find from the town dump and they even build on the side of steep slopes.
In Cape Town, the pedestrian overpases over the motorway are fully enclosed to stop things and people falling onto the carriageway.
Its still very bad, especially for the black people.
The worst thing i saw, was the entrance to a gatted community and people emerging onto the road in Bentleys and Porshes and the like, RIGHT next to barefoot children and men waiting by the side of the road for a job.
Talk about the clash of First world and 3rd world, its not good for your soul

or zimbabwe.

Apologies Expat - I read your post as if the Commonwealth citizens/those who had Ancestral visas would be able to claim immediately...

none of those categories i listed can claim immediately that i know of, except the spouses of UK nationals who've been married over 2 years but lived somewhere else.

they enter on ILR and can claim.

not entirely sure about spouses/dependents of EU/EEA nationals, though.

some have different rules applying to them - Irish as opposed to people from some other EU nations, for example.

additionally, some Commonwealth people come on Working Holidaymaker visas, others on ancestry and others on Right of Abode.

I like the weather to start with-I would hate the sun all the time-I love the seasons.
We also don't get venomous wildlife!
I like the history and the way our old buildings are looked after. I like fitting into the culture and knowing that I will meet people with similar experiences in life and shared histories. I like speaking the language and understanding how everything works. I like having a National Health system and good schools.I like to be able to see friends and family easily. I like the British sense of humour.I could go on and on ..... The grass is not always greener when you actually get there.

Lots of biting insects and snakes suck.

Suppose if we had stayed for 6 months or more we would have become more streetwise and just ignored the poverty, but it's always there, nibbling at you.
My friend actually said to me that she sometimes wondered what her cleaner thought about their "stuff" and the fact that they have a 7 bedroom house and at night she goes back to her little shack with her R20 once a week.
But she is a very thorough cleaner and actually cleaned my DH's comb, she must have thought it was vile! .

Ripeberry - I think your friend needs to pay her cleaner more!

At the risk of Rumsfelding things... at least in the UK it is a known known not an unknown unknown...

There is some accountability here and we can do something about it...

I do not feel the same as the op at all. A few of the things mentioned I would say are better now, not worse.

• people have always complained about prices, always. Current scare mongering by wussy bankers is making things a little more heightened just now.

• lots of shops closed in my town centre. Over the last two years or so I have seen an improvement.

• childcare overall presents the same money issues as always

• my GPs system has improved a lot in the last two years or so

Feature on PM on Radio 4 now on how much better it is to have a family in France than Britain for childcare, healthcare etc

I don't understand this mood of if my property isn't appreciating in value the rest of my life is shit. A house price correction is long overdue.

I am old enough to remember what life was like in the 70s - it was grim.

exactly swedes - and if you aren't planning on going anywhere, then less expensive house you own now, less expensive house you need to buy. Your house's value is relative to the market.
Early 90's recession, and subsequent house price drop, too, of course!

Never said anything about house prices ...

I am talking about the attitude of people and how the country is taking a downward turn socially and how the infrastructure cannot support the population.

I am happy that some towns are thriving but mine certianly isn't - it is in need a good kickstart. Major chains are moving away and we have had to fight to keep our local market.

Our GP surgery has got worse not better over the past 5 years - people now have to queue outside in the moring to get an appt - its is ludricous.

My council tax keeps going up and I am seeing nothing additional for it. (but we have just appointed a new CE in our council and she is the second highest paid in the UK!!)

I am expecting my second child and my first scan that should have been at 12 weeks is at 17 weeks because the hospital can't fit me in.

I used to LOVE England and I used to proud to say I was English and it upsets me that the way things are being handled in this country is forcing me to change my mind and making me consider moving away.

I know no country is perfect and I have moved about England and seen how the same probs still exist - so I am not naive enough to think that I can wave a magic wand get on a plane and suddenly have the life of riley.

Deep down I would love to stay here but I can't see things improving. Our society is getting things wrong at its very core and we are losing basic values.

I'm an immigrant to the Uk and feel "happy enough" here.
I could go back home where it's sunny 360 days a year, as long as I don't mind drive-by shootings and crystal meth labs on street corners.

One of the things I mind most about British culture is this constant running themselves down, though. You take any problem people discuss here with the "Woe is us", "Why is Britain so crap at X" -- and I can find equal if not worse problems where I came from.

I wondred if the seeming record immigration has more to do with cheap air travel and an echo of the baby boom (children of baby boomers being the ones now the 'right' sort of age to be likely to immigrate).

I just hate the argument 'things are so bad in the UK I am emigrating to xxx' or 'it wasn't so bad in my day..'

People get what they deserve!! The last general election only had a turnout of about a 1/3 of the voting population ....

Nagapie you are ABSOLULTELY right only 1/3 of that 1/3 voted for labour !!!

I did vote by the way

sorry about my spelling (and it was in caps!!)

i listened to this song (another version of it) and it sums it up for me!