Dh says the U.K is f***** and he never wants to go back

[Chippednailtoepolish]

These were his words this morning.

We live abroad in a place where a lot of people are coming to live, escaping the uk and America.
He says with everything on the news, the way it's going and what the people coming to where we are tell him, that we'd be mad to return.
Is he being realistic? I want to return to be with family desperately and have a strange feeling that I need to do it soon

Would we be mad to return at this time? If yes, then when!

You a big tax payer?

I’m sad to hear that, I have fond memories of my visit. But that was a long old time ago. I think a lot of seaside resort towns have fallen into disrepair which is a big shame.

@Chippednailtoepolish I believe Spain receives significantly more asylum seekers than the UK. In fact I think most Mediterranean bordering countries do. So there's that. Also, if you're going to live in a nice leafy suburb or village (as opposed to a severely deprived council estate or under privileged inner city area) then realistically you're highly unlikely to be the victim of violent crime, any more than you are in Spain. Likewise anti social behaviour. I can't speak on tax and the like as I'm not in that league so you might very well be financially better off where you are and of course the weather is considerably better. Although we are increasingly getting hotter summers. It's swings and roundabouts really. You say you have family in the UK so surely they're the best people to advise you on daily life here. Are they generally happy? Do they generally feel safe?

Maybe it depends where in the UK you are, but all seems fine in my corner of the south-east.

Unemployment is low, house prices are stable, schools are good and I've even managed to find an NHS dentist for the first time in several years. I've had no issues with getting a GP appointment and I had an incredibly speedy consultant appointment last year. I reported a pothole a few weeks ago and within 3 days the highways people had come along and resurfaced the whole stretch of road.

Overall, I'd say things were better than they were pre-Covid, tbh.

I went in the late 90s (as an adult) and I found it depressing. It doesn’t sound like it’s been given a glow up since then, so if it’s got an extra nearly 30 years of neglect added on I can imagine it must be even worse now.

Op my perspective is this is a nice and safe place to live, I don’t know anyone who has left the UK or who is planning to, we are all just pootling on with our quiet little lives and having quite a nice time. But I appreciate that this is not everyone’s perspective.

But we were always suspecting that this place was full of uber wealthy lefties who had absolytely no idea of anything outside of their bubble. This thread is an excellent example of this. Clueless.

No one finding it hard to get a job?

Are you both Spanish and Portuguese?

It really does depend where you are in the UK. If you live on a deprived and neglected estate in Slough you’re going to have a different view and experience of the country than if you were just a few miles away in a beautiful house in Windsor.

Unfortunately through direct Labour policies I was made redundant a few months ago. Never mind. Onward and upward. New job on the horizon. Don’t worry I won’t be claiming any benefits. We’ll still make sure we pay Andy a huge chunk of our outgoings.

People use words like "fucked", because it's a short cut rather than listing all the issues. The UK has a increasingly strong, deluded loony left, who seem to rule the country. Who are either deliberately or through stupidity screwing the country. In the past 30 years: -
Reduction in GDP per head of population.
Schools turning out under prepared and under educated kids, compared to global competition. Kids that think men can become women, that Jews only existed after 1945 and being kind is more important than being honest.
Allowed in 15 million immigrants and yet hardly built any extra schools, hospitals, or any social / civic infrastructure to support and help the influx.
Allowed large parts of UK cities to be fundamentally and irreparably changed from the indigenous culture.
We are told by the loony left that these 15 million are doctors and Engineers, but the truth is they are mainly, low paid workers.
Have become a population that seem proud to be on benefits. With Increasingly large numbers of people on benefits. This number will become unsustainable. Meaning fewer and fewer people to pay these benefits.
Are ignorant to cultures whose aim in to undermine western culture and replace it with religious based culture that supports, death to non believers, apostates, homosexuals, and rape victims. While supporting FGM, child marriage and the removal of women's rights.
Have major institutions pushing back on the EHRC clarification that mandates that women must have access to safe single spaces. Institutions that want to allow self ID and to put sex offenders in women's prisons. As well as allowing men in to women's sport. Even sports where men get to beat up women.
I could go on for another 2 pages, but it's easier to say that the UK is fucked.

I agree that people have different experiences and that some people are having it very tough at the moment (COL, housing etc), and those experiences and views are 100% valid. What I'm talking about is people just saying everything is 'fucked' which usually boils down to sensationalist talking points that have no real basis in reality (ie people saying crime is going up, which it objectively isn't). So real varied experiences - yes, but I will always challenge baseless populist rhetoric designed to stoke fear and division.

One person’s ’fucked’ is another one’s ‘fine’. It’s about what suits you and the life you want.

Which is why dispersing asylum seekers around the socio economic groups is an excellent idea.

Because different areas mean different experiences. What's true in a deprived rural area, an overcrowded and run down urban neighbourhood and a wealthy commuter town will be very different pictures.

Crime? No big deal. Honestly , it's nowhere near as bad as perceptions, and 24 hour news cycles are part of that

Despite tabloid narratives to the contrary, crime in England is a fraction of what it was in the mid 90s. (Check the Office For National Statistics if you don't believe me) Homicides have almost halved since 2005, for example. The only crime with a significant increase is shoplifting, and that did get massive after 2010. However, even that's not increased in the past few years.

Public services? Buggered, after nearly 20 years of being gutted, run down, under-investment, bankrupt city councils. But if you're paying for private healthcare and possibly education, you can skip much of that.

Youth employment? Pretty crap, but also pretty crap in Spain. Far, far more graduates each year and graduate level jobs available. Young people unemployment levels are high in both.

Effects of climate change will continue to affect food and other prices, but God knows Spain and Portugal have had that hit them as well, poor sods. The fires and failed crops have been brutal in recent years.

Is the UK buggered? A bit - as is much of the world.
The rise of populism and the far right, climate crisis, international instability, an erratic certifiable nutcase in charge of one superpower and a violent psychopath in charge of the other.

Is actually lower on most metrics than 20 years ago

I’m starting to see it as a rather glorious prospect 🤣

@Chippednailtoepolish It is fucked, but not for the silly and hackneyed reasons and GB news/right wing echo chamber talking points that your husband is ranting about.

The UK is at a point where the next generation are going to be poorer than the last, where education and university are no longer a social mobility engine, and where there is no longer a graduate premium.

It is a country where the master variable of house price inflation has made the average house price in the South East 11x average earnings, it's made independent living for young adults nigh on impossible, and it's driven university student loan debt covering fees and living costs up to £70k+ before interest, resulting in a 10% lifetime graduate tax to pay it off.

The number of NEETs stands at over a million, very many young adults and graduates are underemployed, and parents are routinely extending their houses, creating annexes, doing loft and garage conversions, and installing outbuildings to house adult children into their 30s as they can't afford to live independently.

Thousands of graduates compete in GMT programs for a handful of positions paying a starting salary of £35k, which is challenging to live on independently in London. As a result, young women are accelerating relationships to cohabitation with partners who in other circumstances they may have been more circumspect with, feeling that they have to stay and make it work when things are not right because leaving would make them homeless and disrupt their career.

The average age of first-time buyers is at an all-time high of 34, with the percentage of FTBs below 25 being only 5% when it was 25% in 1997. Rental rates are also extortionate.

All the while, those of us who went to independent schools with generational wealth are just cruising along with our kids totally insulated - many having flats bought outright in London upon graduation and being given a healthy allowance. The UK has taken a frighteningly massive step backwards with regards to wealth inequality.

The UK is simply not a good locale to raise a child through to adulthood at the moment - and these structural factors will not change for at least 30–50 years. Many of these factors are common to other parts of Western Europe and North America; however, they are particularly acute in the UK, and especially so in the South East.

Unfortunately, the rape has been happening since the beginning of time, not a sign of a countries demise

Shit. Really? You are this negative and bleak about the country your children are growing up in.

I can just imagine dinner table talk…. Everything’s shit.

I was asking as you said you pay for everything else, so I wonders if you were referring to being in a high tax bracket. I don’t care if you sign on, in my head that’s what benefits are there for, to get you through the difficult bit.

In the past 30 years, the 'loony left' have only been in charge for just over half the time. 14 years and 2 months of the last 30 years (if my maths is correct) have been Conservative or Con-led coalition in the UK.

Oh for goodness sake. Can we stop the Britain bashing and fearmongering please? I love living in the UK. For many many reasons.

We’d be lucky to have a dining table. We’re just sitting huddled around a gas heater with pot noodles on our laps. Saying Cunt on repeat.