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!

It’s all relative and depends where you live now

It depends on how much money you have. We have a fantastic quality of life in the UK - we've lived in multiple countries including the USA, Australia, New Zealand and in Europe and our quality of life here is vastly superior. We live in a very safe area, beautiful large house close to mountains and beach. Lots of free time to enjoy life. We couldn't be happier. However, the UK is an expensive country to live in.

People don't seem to realise that we don't actually pay that much tax. They want Scandinavian public services for American tax levels. The problem in this country is that many are greedy and selfish and have no sense of perspective.

Nothing works here any more, from potholes in roads to court backlogs to A&E waits, or even booking a driving test our services are sub par, particularly given the highest ever tax take. Rivers are full of sewage. Schools are literally falling to bits. If there’s any weather outside moderate then transport and other services simply stop working.

shoplifting and rape have been decriminalised. Violent criminals are being released early.

immigration feels out of control.

no politicians have any plans to tackle the big systemic problems.

if I had a good life elsewhere I wouldn’t be coming back.

We're on a one way journey to being run out? What does that mean? What is happening Europe, Canada, the US and Australia/NZ? Are you talking about the Great Replacement?

The UK is in a bad of a state in some areas (NHS, highish taxes ) due to 14 years of Tory economic destruction and the ongoing stupidity of trickle down economics.

Crime is down and the cost of living is a global problem with a number of global causes.

The worst aspect is the constant moaning about immigration by the stupid, the racist and the frightened people who have been weaponised by the corrupt far right trying to get into power to fill their boots like they do everywhere they get into power (USA, Hungary).

Then we have the MAGA loonies who have never set foot in the UK and don't know the first thing about it, telling us the country has fallen and no longer exists or is a warzone and all sorts of nonsense like that.

Despite all this the UK is a great place to live relatively speaking, so it depends how great the place you are in now is. I wouldn't be in a rush to get back here in your shoes because the endless moaning about immigration is everywhere and it is insufferably boring and stupid.

Well even Harry reckons it's safe enough for his wife and kids now, all of a sudden.

You poor thing!

You obviously don’t live in my lovely part of South East England!!

I tend to think that people who use crass words like “fucked” do so because they are unable to be more specific or use more nuanced language to express dissatisfaction.

My area isn't fucked. Its a temperate climate ( mostly), we can speak the language.

Or my lovely part of the North West.

Im alot happier than i was during my shitty childhood in the 80s its all relative I guess.

Deeeeep

Being 57 I feel safer now in the UK than I used to back in the 80s for several reasons. What I would say is that we used to be a very high trust society and there definitely has been exploitation of that and it is declining. Lower trust societies are not as nice to live in so I’m upset about that. The rise of media which pays individuals to produce content that will outrage or terrify people, with more money going to those who scare people more, is also a major downside. That’s not exclusive to the UK though. What media are you both consuming?

Fundamentally I’m happy here, the worst crime I have experienced is people nicking milk off my doorstep (VERY annoying) plus absolutely constant scam calls and emails, which is low level but again reduces mutual trust, also means people are less and less likely to answer their phones which makes things much harder, oddly, it used to be pretty straightforward to organise stuff quickly and you would have lots of small conversations with people day to day but now it takes ages to get hold of anyone and you can go days without speaking aloud unless you deliberately sign up to things that will connect you to others.

My son has had a good state funded education and is now working and having fun. He is very far from the only one. If you want a good life here, come back and make one!

Didn't she say she lived in Spain and Portugal? Unemployment is way higher there, and salaries much lower. Maybe not the perfect places she makes them out to be.

As for Australia, it's got a massive housing crisis and she won't get in unless she or her husband has skills which are in demand.

😂

Only 4% of the UK is built upon. We need to get a handle on developers sitting on land. They should be forced to develop it or forfeit it to the government.

My guess is that he's getting his news from dodgy right-wing, conspiracy sources

Which would be ironic, given he’s ‘migrated’ elsewhere.

There is a thread like this on a regular basis. I do wonder about the motivation behind them.

To leave the U.K. ? where will you go?

How is where you live any less fucked than the UK?

Yep, 100%.
Unrealistic expectations isn't it?

We do have a high population density in England in particular.

Oh an healthcare. We basically have nothing other than an emergency health service in this country. That is fucked.

Also UK can’t be that bad, we still seem to have a lot of migration.