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

Swapsies Shitemum?

I live in Scotland and would love to live in Spain.

I have two lovely daughters you can have for free as well.....

They have been trained well.

EricL - I'll be taking my own two lovely daughters with me...and DP if he behaves himself. Have you got a nice flat in central Edinburgh? Want to swap for a recently renovated house in central Granada with fantastic views? Am serious.

I was referring to the op which stated that our infrastructure cannot support the population...of course it can't, we have a lot of people from other countries moving onto our little island!
I'm not racist to the individual. I'm fed up with finding that every person shoving a copy of the Big Issue into my face is from the (new)EU...they aren't contributing to the UK.
My dad is an immigrant from the early 60's. When he came here, he was asked if he needed money. He said ' No, I have my own money'. He got work and worked hard until he retired. He then asked for a little help financially and was told he had 50p a week too much coming into his household to get any help. He worked from 1961 until he retired and is now 76 years old. He is loyal to the UK and I have no doubt he'll die here too.
That's just my imput and I'm sure there are more of these stories. I just feel that there are too many people living in a relatively small place and we as a country can't cope. The government aren't doing a good or even half reasonable job of running the place. I voted last time and I'll vote next time too...whether or not things will improve, well that's anyones guess, but I personally doubt it.
It may sound as though I have double standards being as I was born to an immigrant father and dislike the influx of immigrants now, but it's more a case of we are now 10lb of apples crammed into a 2lb bag.

After I saw 'stray children' begging and being literally shooed away in Eastern Europe I was very glad to come home.

Haven't read whole thread so I'm sorry if I repeat others .. I think having children makes a huge difference. When I was single I saw what single people need to see (the bars, shops & the fellas). When I had children, the world became a place that my children had to grow up in and my perception changed. But if the UK sustained us ok whilst we were growing up, it will probably do alright by our children too

Come and have a glass of wine by my pool when you arrive oliveoil

No, it's not paradise but for my family we have a much better quality of life than we had in the UK. Doesn't mean the UK is a bad place to be, and of course there is more to life than sunshine, but we prefer it here.

I'm currently temporarily living in Oz and every week I speak to my parents back home and every week, without fail, I get some variant on the "country is going to the dogs".
The longer I live away the less I believe it. Every country has it's pro's and con's but the more I hear people whinging about how terrible everything is the more I want to ask "WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT IT???"

It's too easy and lazy to blame the govenment. Too easy to sit back with a cup of tea and make vague complaints about immigrants. If people are ruder or there is no sense of community in your area then what can you do about it? If you're so pissed off about what your council does, then get involved and DO SOMETHING!

And what do I miss? The variations in the weather (hot boiling sun and a severe lack of water are not fun), the absolutely beautiful (and green) landscape, the eccentricties (sp?) of the British, farking castles fgs! Our proximity to Europe, the fact that our wildlife won't actually kill you, the NHS (it's not fun having to decide on food/visit to the doctors even if you can eventually claim some of the cost back).

Look at any point in history and someone was probably saying the golden days were over. Let's please stop whinging (although it is a national pastime )

Bamamama said: "And what do I miss? The variations in the weather (hot boiling sun and a severe lack of water are not fun), the absolutely beautiful (and green) landscape, the eccentricties (sp?) of the British, farking castles fgs! "

Exactly what I miss! (tho we do have the Alhambra here...)

No shitemum - don't like Edinburgh.

Like to visit it and have some good times out there, but wouldn't like to live there myself.

And if it didn't rain all the time it wouldnt be so green. I remember reading a Bill Bryson book about the UK - he was in Devon and said something about the fields looking as if they were farming clorophyll...or summat like that. And it's true. I can cope with rain in exchange for all the green stuff.

And the seasons are wonderful. I looked out of my window at work yesterday and we were in a sea of green, may blossom out, everything coming into leaf, range of hills hazy in the distance. Spring creeps up from the ground wihtout you really noticing and suddenly everything is soft and fresh looking and there are birds singing their little hearts out. Also like Autumn. Have to say that this winter was pretty evil though But I think that's partly because I'm getting old and cranky.

This winter was foul. We have also had a biting east wind for a lot of the last few weeks. With a bit of pong from the famous Dutch/Belian/German pigfarms/industrial works.

It's gone now, hurray!

missed this yesterday....bringmesunshine, I spent 3 years in SA and would never live there again (came back 4 years ago). You get a great standard of living, but it is nauseating to see others suffering, day in, day out. It really destroys your soul I think.

I have friends who moved from the UK around the same time we did and they now live on the garden route. They will never come back now because they have ended up adopting two orphans after their mum (who was my freinds' maid) died suddenly of AIDS. The children had no-one left to look after them (their one aunt was already trying to raise half a dozen children - none of them her own - all orphans - and the aunt had no income whatsoever). That it the side of SA that the privaleged few rarely see. My friends have been there nearly 8 years now and - like me - they struggle to deal with the racism and the 'pretend the poverty is not really there' attitude of many of the whites. If I could have had a dollar for every time a dinner party conversation began with the words "I'm not a racist, but....", and then they would go on to say the most outrageous stuff. This is a country with no social net, no welfare, no pensions... And I remember when our gardener had a major stroke and we tried to get him to hospital..... the ambulance drove away when they saw it was a coloured man (didn't want to risk not having their bill paid) so we had to take him ourselves, and there was an attitude of disbelief at the hospital that we were willing to pay for his treatment. If we hadn't been there he would have been transported by his relatives, by bus, to queue outside the 'poor' hospital where he may/may not have been admitted to a place where the visitors have to take in all the food and pay bribes to get their relatives looked after/put in a bed/given medicine. And we're not talking minor illness here; this was a major stroke (he died).

Forget the weather and the beaches, that's the real S.A.

I do not for a minute, by the way, think that all white SA people are like this - I found many delightful people - but the unfairness and the poverty and the racisim just comes at you again and again and again

There's a lot wrong with this country, but there's a hell of a lot that we do right as well.

sorry, when I say this country at the end of my rant, I mean of course the UK.

Squiffy, I'm glad your eyes are open as well.
I was just so angered by the way people just "ignored" the poverty.
At one car park, a young boy "looked" after our car when we spent the day at the beach, it was baking hot and 7 hours later he was still there.
We gave him R50 and you should have seen his expression, he almost wanted to kiss us, but in our money its about £6 or so.

Oh please, the UK is a wonderful country, believe me. I moved to Spain 2 years ago and its the worst thing I've ever done. Sadly its taken such a move to make me realise.

The grass is DEFINITELY not greener

Like others have already menioned the greenery and landscape is beautiful, the sense of humour is unique, TV is intelligent and varied, people have manners, customer service exists and the NHS - nobody should criticise it until they've had a baby in the Spanish public health system

Oh I could go on but it only serves to reinforce my sadness at not being there

you know, ripeberry, my landlord's daughter is married to an Afrikaans man from SA - she is Scottish.

they had the wedding in SA and my landlord was so struck by the poverty there that he immediately came home and applied to VSO.

as a former physics teacher and headmaster, he had skills to offer.

they are now 6 months into a 2 year stint in Uganda.

Why all the SA bashing?

It is a fantastic place - yes it has had major problems and there remains a huge disparity in wealth however it is a country that offers opportunity.

We are moving there for a number of reasons:

we have family there and in Zimbabwe

the schooling there is fantastic.

the climate gives sports mad children the chance to excel and not play on wii - whatever they are and I truely do not know .

in the uk we pay so much in income tax, capital gains tax, road tax, council tax, inheritance tax, national insurance etc etc

I love the UK for so many reasons but mainly for its ascerbic humour and sense of fair play, however I want my DC to have a wider view on the world.

i dunno, sunshine. i've not been myself and as i wrote farther down, my landlord's daughter is moving there with her spouse.

they liked it more there than the UK, i guess.

I think for a lot of people if you say you are leaving the UK it is akin to saying you don't like the UK!

I do but sometimes you have just got to follow your itchy toes

or maybe there's just someplace that suits you better.

some folks never truly adjust to the weather here.

our black SA friends are also moving back to SA - to Jo'burg.

for them, they just missed it too much - their way of life there, their family and friends.

they liked Scotland, but not as much as SA.

expat - maybe there is just a certain amount of wind and rain a person is meant to have in their lifetime !

So where are you from originally? And why choose the UK?

i'm originally from Houston, TX, which is a semi-tropical climate.

i didn't care for THAT much heat, but when we do talk to our SA friends, it does make me a bit homesick.

they can relate to a lot of things even DH can't, because the climate lends itself to some cultural similarites and just other things.

as one of our Jo'burg pals says, i feel so boxed in here sometimes, because in SA, outdoors is like an extension of your home, you just hang out a lot outdoors and do more things with others outside.

you're not confined to just the parameters of your house by poor weather so much.

and i think there are other things it lends itself to as well, like more opportunities to talk to neighbours, even the food.

i lived in Denver, Colorado for over 8 years.

i was made redundant during the 'dot.bomb' slowdown, so i thought i'd come here for a few months and do some hillwalking and backpacking.

but instead i met DH.

we're still not sure where we belong for good.

but we're glad we have some choices and the broad world view to entertain some options.

Apologies if I'm butting in. I lives in SA for a year and I have to say it was the best year of my life. The weather, culture and social life was tops. I know the country has its unique problems but I dream of going back there at the least for a visit.

UK is unique too but I do think that its can be a miserable life however the political climate can make it all worthwhile. I think we are in for an even more miserable time though.

I love a story with romance in it! How exciting to meet your DH when you were travelling too. I think I am one of the few people on the planet not to have been to the US yet

I can relate to the feeling of being boxed in and reliant on the good weather however know there will be huge things I miss about the UK...although it won't be friends as I think there will be a steady flow out to SA to visit us

it's a place we would consider visiting, SA!

the food alone would make it worth my while.

no place is all bad just as no place is all good.

you have to do what's best for you and your family in your heart and mind.