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!

Russia?

Immigration to the UK is falling. But Nigel and friends don’t want you to think that because it doesn’t fit their narrative.

@Chippednailtoepolish people have different opinions based on different circumstances and differences in what media, information, etc they have consumed and how they process and judge that information. Which is why you should aim to look for a range of sources of information and look for official statistics rather than judge these things based on individual opinions or news sources.

My children are at great schools, so are my siblings children and their cousins. We all live in a variety of places. The NHS has been fine for everyone I know who has used it recently. No issues with crime. We can all afford housing and food. Clearly there are people in the UK who are struggling to afford housing and food, but it is not the extreme situation that your DH and others seem to want to paint it as. Lots of work to do to improve the situation for everyone, sure, as with many other countries.

That's not true at all.

Ridiculous hyperbole

Well, like anywhere the UK has it's pros and cons. My main concerns right now are:
Lack of jobs
NHS not fit for purpose - two referrals made for my dd a year ago and have heard nothing back whatsoever. I go through Benenden Health now where I can for diagnostics.
Lack of water - I live in the Southeast where a lot of villages and towns have had periods without any mains water for weeks during the summer months. And we get a hosepipe ban every summer now.
Depletion of nature and habitat - wildlife decline.
New housing estates popping up absolutely everywhere.
Politics is a car crash - but find me a country where it isn't.
Polluted rivers.

HOWEVER - I could never live outside the UK. The history, culture, beautiful national parks and gardens, good food, best in the world for TV, lovely old pubs, four proper seasons, and the majority of people I know are absolutely lovely. Lovely neighbours who help each other out. DD is at a great school which is very good academically and also very nurturing. Where else can you go to see knitted hats with adorable decorations adorning the local village post box?? And one of the better countries in the world I would say for animal lovers (of course there will always be arseholes, but I would say there is a bigger percentage of people in the uk who care about what happens to animals). Best place in the world for gardens also. We are a working class family who live in a working class town and my dd has had a great education, eats well, has access to coast and countryside (National Trust), good dental care, a cosy home with a garden, and a well rounded childhood. When I see on the news about countries with hurricanes, landslides and so forth I'm glad we live where we do.

While that seems to be true, I'd read that many don't report as well as the police not recording quite a lot of crimes. Can't be bothered with paperwork?

I haven't made them out to be paradise!

It's the news, ffs. Those headlines, articles and programmes are designed to sell newspapers or generate clicks.
And people who have already emigrated believe the headlines and have made up their minds that the UK, or wherever, is going to the dogs, is generally shit etc etc.

Obviously that's not the full picture. I’d do some impartial research and make up your own minds.

I don't know about spain - though thought like Italy it struggles with youth unemployment - but in wider social circle know a few people in Portugal - they seem to think they are better off there than part of midlands most are from.

In 2 of the countries I lived in I paid 17% flat rate tax on my salary and no other taxes except sales tax of 5%. In another, l paid 15% flat rate. Accommodation was expensive, but we were still better off.

My DH has relatives who are from southern Europe. Every single one of his aunts and uncles own at least 2 apartments (city, beach) and they have average, non graduate jobs. Their quality of life is better than most I know in the UK.

In the UK you can’t fart without being taxed. Council tax, road tax, 20% VAT, NI, income tax. I just went on a wine tour on holiday and they told me that the UK gov mark their wine up (import duties, tax) by 40%. Why? Where the f*ck is all this money going to?????

Oh, and then there’s the things you need to pay for because the state is screwed;

GP hasn’t got a clue about the menopause so I have to pay myself

Can’t yet kids into a dentist so that’s £80 a pop

Local school didn’t have a place for my kid when I moved back (offered failing school, then offered 4th choice of secondary) so sent him to a private school.

Someone on drugs crashed into me, wrote my car off and broke my arm, ambulance came said they were too busy to take me and my DH had to come and take me. 8 hours later…….

Can’t get a GP appointment so we are all now signed up to Bupa online as it’s just too much hassle.

So, paying through the nose on taxes, get sweet f*ck all back in return.

Reasons why we’re f’ked:

Lack of growth due to ludicrous planning regulators and high energy prices. This mean the country will keep getting poorer.

Higher taxes to compensate the state. If we had growth we wouldn’t be taxing the public so heavily.

We need growth to boost taxes so we can afford adequate policing to get on top of crime too.

Will Burnham have the guts to address unaffordable net zero and planning and get growth going? We’ll see.

Until we address planning we won’t get housing built and until we get housing built housing remains too expensive and while it remains too expensive people will put off having kids, and the only people that will flourish are those who get an inheritance.

Things look quite gloomy. It all depends on whether Andy Burnham has the guts to do what’s required. I’m not sure he does.

London is awash with tourists being happy and taking endless photographs. All the museums and galleries are packed. The restaurants are buzzing and the bars full.

So yes stay where you were. Your husband sounds like a bit of a dim wit and we don’t need him here.

I find it interesting you don't put which country or countries you have been living in as immigrants. I don't want to know where you're living as im not curios - but its note worthy that you don't state the country that is better, less crime more politicly astute and less tax but with better services

Agree about dentists, the situation here is shocking and pisses me off because we know good oral health supports health elsewhere in the body, so why it ain’t taken seriously I don’t know.

However, an ambulance for a broken arm is ludicrous and I’m not surprised they didn’t take you. People are having serious life-threatening injuries, a broken arm is not ambulance suitable and a tow waste of resources. Then you moan they aren’t available.

That’s the news , they report on the most shocking things that are happening. My daily life is fine and safe. And I’m not in a leafy middle class area.

My local news is stuff like ‘Tim’s wheelbarrow got blown away’ etc

Look at this. Such a terrible, awful place to live where things like this happen. Stay away OP.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cx2zyxdy9mjo

It’s low level crime that’s soaring here. Idiots on dirt bikes ripping up the countryside. Illegal e-bikes used to ferry takeaway’s for the lazy (by presumably illegal workers - what’s with the balaclavas guys?). Bike thefts.

If i could afford to leave the UK and never have to come back, I'd be gone today, sorry but thats how i feel, yes its fucked up.

I live in the Uk and like it here. I have had professional opportunities to move abroad inc US and Middle East and have always chosen to stay here. Are there issues, sure, do I think I am heavily taxed yes, do I actively want to leave no.

Crime is significantly down but that doesn’t make news in way a horrible event does. Research the facts.

Bear in mind people you’re meeting are ones who have chosen to leave. Those you are not meeting are those who have left Spain/Portugal for Uk/Us etc who would probably say similar things about their origin country. I know various people from those countries in London who have no desire to return and particularly cite low wages/opportunties, high unemployment and high cost of living as key reasons not to return.

Can't go to Russia, people end up conscripted and sent to the war, even foreigners. It's also very corrupt and a lot tougher than here.

Broadly speaking, it’s a left/right divide plus a wealth divide and to a lesser extent, generational differences.

Disagree. I want to live in a country where an ambulance is sent for a broken arm. How on earth do you drive someone to hospital with a broken arm without risking making it far far worse? They could bleed to death if a broken bone nicks an artery FGS. It’s really not too much to ask of a modern country with huge taxes is it?

True. Hopefully OP is aware of all this. I am sure she is!

We earn well. We probably paid over £150,000 of tax last year. And yet if we break an arm no ambulance for us. It’s crazy.