Seriously thinking about leaving the UK - AIBU?

[HonoraBridge]

I love the UK in many ways but it has been going downhill for at least 20 years and it feels as if the speed of the decline is accelerating. I no longer see a happy, or particularly safe, future here. For the first time in my life, I am very seriously thinking about leaving the UK and that feeling gets stronger day by day. When I mention this to friends, many are feeling the same way. YANBU - you are right to think seriously about leaving the UK. YABU - the UK is a still a great country to live in and you are being unreasonable to want to leave.

Britain is quickly becoming less British and I can entirely see why you would think it's a good idea to leave.

Yea, because it’s so much more British elsewhere. 🤣

Snort. Bigots and reactionaries have such strange logic.

I understand the wish to leave- the UK has been going downhill for far longer than 20 years IMO.
This is the product of being at the stage we are, post industrial revolution- most wealth generation, which comes from making things has moved elsewhere, and no matter what stimulus, or government policies are employed, that is not going to change.
The problem with leaving is, where do you go? The same economic fate awaits pretty much all of the Western world.
Other problems are what financial backing do you have? What skills do you have? This strongly impacts where you can go.
I think you will find most of the problems the UK has are also elsewhere- eg. unaffordability of housing, lack of economic growth and worsening public services.
All of these things are born of rapidly increasing wealth inequality, which affects pretty much all of the places you could move to, or they already have massive gaps between rich and poor (eg. India, South Africa and most of South America).
I would therefore think very carefully , and do as much research as possible before you make any firm plans to move.

Because the 1000,s coming here get treated better than us British. I work for the NHS. A few week ago my GP sent through a referral to my hospital for me to see a specialist, I got told the wait is about 55-58 weeks. A few days later I booked in a man who had just been housed in a migrant hotel nearby 3 days before.

Where are you going to? Good luck 🤞

Moving back to uk for many reasons from AU. Economically au is far more expensive. NZ has similar issues if not more issues than Au economically. Travel anywhere is long haul and expensive. Not saying don’t do it, just do your research.

Also, abortion is now illegal except in exceptional circumstances in Poland. I wouldn't move to any country that restricts reproductive rights for women.

The irony of people who would leave the U.K. because they think there’s too much immigration, but they’re fine with becoming immigrants themselves. Usually they misname themselves expats.

I love the fact some people complain about immigration, saying how they'll leave the country and go somewhere else. To be.... well..... immigrants

I love reading the posts about this, what gets me are people blaming immigration for them wanting to leave this country, they are doing the same thing the immigrants wanting a better life, surreal...

This

I live in a lovely, safe, small rural town with a fantastic community spirit and excellent state schools. 10 minutes from the best beaches in the country and housing is far cheaper than down south. I'm not budging.

I've lived abroad and came home. The grass was not greener.

This is a classic example of so many AIBU posts these days: no information about which country, so no one can offer any relevant advice, then a drip feed of OP considering an investment visa, so all the posts about skills are pretty much irrelevant.

Definitely a divided country since Bre#hit.
I have applied for my Irish Citizenship and intend to downsize to France. Beautiful country and architecture. Plus I speak French.
The British are so moany and small minded. I intend to live in an international area where I can leave all that behind

Please do your research. I don't think it's any better anywhere else

We left ten years ago. When I go back to the UK to visit now I thank my lucky stars we got out.

It’s definitely a bit crap atm. But I wonder if those issues are also global. Everyone is stressed because of the insane amount of money you need to have a good quality of life. Everything feels like a slog. There are so many people here, services are a bit shit, house prices are stupid cos there are so many people. There’s no open discussion about anything, or our future, yeh it’s a bit shite. Not sure anywhere else will be any different though!?!

Depends where you are thinking of going to.

To go somewhere foreign?!?! The stupidity of racism never ceases to amaze me.

Personally I want to leave England & move to Scotland as feel the problem is England going downhill & Scotland is my place of birth.

Where do you live in the UK ?

Which U.K. cities are comparable to US for those issues in pp? eg tent cities, opioid etc

The problem with immigration is the way it’s handled in this country. Countries such as Switzerland and Australia also have high levels of immigration but they manage it in such a way that it benefits most people, even the low
skilled / low earners while also helping the economy.

So I don’t see anything hypocritical in complaining about
immigration in the UK and planning to move to another country, unless it’s somewhere like Germany or Ireland which has similar issues.

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One of my kids, if they can continue 'moving out' of their lazy late teen phase, will have a chance to study in Western France for a year which will bring a host of opportunities and access to stay in continental Europe. Just hope they grab the chance.

Lack of affordable housing is not as bad in other parts of Europe - I'd hazard a guess that away from major cities, you can find the equivalent UK housing cheaper in most European countries. We're in a relatively cheap part of France and our house would probably be 5 - 10 times more in the UK (the difference depending on where in the UK).

People aren't flogging themselves to earn enough to pay a massive mortgage and many good things flow from that - taking proper breaks, not working in the evenings so much, more time with family, better quality housing, more garden space etc.

A quick internet search - Bristol, Milton Keynes, Cardiff, Manchester, Oxford, Edinburgh, Sheffield, London, Northampton, Cambridge, Stoke-on-Trent, Leeds, Glasgow and Exeter.

It was something we saw in London on our recent visit back to the uk. There are articles about the growing problem as far back as 2019.