How do you rate the standard of living in the UK?

[Socci]

Today my mum said that she would consider migration to another country if she was younger because she feels that the standard of living in this country is not good enough and is getting worse.

What is your view on this? What do you think is good compared with other places in the world? What would you change?

My uncle emigrated to Australia about 30 years ago and he and his wife have never been completely happy.

So is it a case of the grass is always greener?

Agree with all your criticisms, Stripey! :) (just trying to prove I'm not a total chauvinist...)

Don't apologise, it's interesting. I love talking about Ireland, even though we moved to England when I was 9 3/4!

Hmmm. Good question.

I've lived in UK, Holland, Italy, Thailand, Germany, Australia and spend months at a time in the US and Scandinavia.

Right now I'm in Australia. It's pretty good, better than London (and I was also lucky enough to 'afford' London). I'm in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, which is pretty London-like though.

I miss European culture - I resent paying $250 (about £130) for a £40 elc toy and expensive French imports. I'm sad that DD can't get on a plane and be in France/Italy/Germany any more - if we stay here it will be her gap year mega-trip.

I love the sun, friendly people (have had to learn how to smile at strangers). I could spend years travelling around Australia and the fabulous islands and still never see it all. Australia is huge, much bigger than people generally realise and has many climates. I can ski here and sunbathe in the tropics! DD can go to the beach, see dolphins, koalas, kangaroos - all sorts (not squirrels though!). Its a fantastic outdoor lifestyle. Its easy to eat healthily - no convenience foods in the supermarket (no M&S sob).

Internet is rubbish, crappy online shopping, can't find anything out online - horrors have to phone people. I've left behind my tv on demand, 2Gb internet link, Sky plus.

On the other hand I could sell my London house and buy a 4/5 bed house with pool mortgage-free. MORTGAGE FREE!!! At 35. It's the holy grail.

Out of all the places I've lived so far Australia is best. Loved Holland too.

The shopping is crap though. Fashion is terrible.

Not keen on the US any more - I don't like the fact that there's a lot of religion and holier than thou attitudes but so much hatred, racism, nepotism and that porn DVDs are the most commonly rented out of all genres. Don't like the guns or the fact that plough is spelled plow. Shudder.

Loved Italy, hated Germany, Scandinavia ok. Adored Thailand. Could definitely settle there permanently.

. I meant to say, in answer to the question, I think that the standard of living in Australia is higher than the UK. Thank you.

socci,
I am not at all close to my family. I haven't spoken to my mum for 12yrs, my sisters/brothers never make any effort to reply to my emails/phone calls/offers for visits. (2 of them have not even met DD & she is 2.6)

My dad is 1 person that I will miss, as are my close friends and godchildren.

I am under no illusion that settling will be easy, but my dh made a 17yr sacrifice to be here with me, I just think it mite be nice to give him the chance to watch his child grow up in a loving family environment & let him spend time with his family afet such a long time.

I have lived in India, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan and London, and I absolutely love love love London. I don't believe there is any other city which is so amazingly vibrant, multicultural and has so much to offer ( and a great deal for free too). That said, I am lucky to live on an expat package and don't have to worry about the high rents, cost of education and other legitimate worries. I don't feel foreign here at all though; I feel completely at home.

"AND THE MEN!!! Who on earth would find some neanderthal, throwback to cavemen attractive?? Aussie men are the most sexist, laziest bums on earth. You won't find an Aussie man to share the housework or look after the kids. They are beer drinking pigs"

My dh does most of the housework even tho I am a SAHM, he isn't remotley sexist or lazy! & he isn't a caveman!

I grew up in Canada,parents moved out there in the 60's for better standard of living.

I moved back and have lived here as an adult since 1983.I prefer living here,obviously or I'd have returned.The weather here is a big bonus in my opinion.Too bloody extreme in Canada.

Whnever I go home (i call it that as all my family are still there) I find it strangely in a time warp.Probably not like that in the cities but where my family live it seems to be.

As for standard of living ,yes houses are bigger there for your money,cars cheaper.But I have noticed on recent visits that things are evening out in prices.I would say that salaries are lower and holidays few and far between.Most people only get two weeks a year.

Education I would say is pretty similar although we start earlier here so it looks impressive if you compare two 6 yr olds.

I also love britain because the countryside is so easily accessible.You can drive for 5 minutes and be in beautiful stunning countryside.In canada everything is so bloody far away.

BTW I live in the country here so may have slightly differing views.

arfissmo, how do you find Australia to be now in terms of tolerence of different cultures, etc? I spent a year there in the 80s and was appalled at the open racist attitudes of so many, particularly outside the big cities of Sydney & Melbourne. I loved the countryside, wildlife, etc (but not the zillions of bugs I have to say!) but didn't feel I could settle there as it seemed so far away from the rest of the world. I was wondering if this aspect has changed too with the internet, satelite tv, etc?

About living far away from friends and family.
It hasn't been taht hard really. I've always said that I get along better with my family from far away. BUT since we've had DS it's been A LOT harder. I feel really guilty being so far away.
Of course not so guilty that I would move back to the same CITY they live in, but maybe the same country...

LOL at "BUT WHAT ABOUT THE SPIDERS!!!" - always what I think of whenever I think about what life in Australia would be like!

Yeah, the idea of spiders and snakes bugs me.

But the hot weather and sunburnt white people everywhere would bug me more, I think.

Lived in Bermuda for a couple of years,bugs made it really hard.COckroaches and toad( I know not bugs)as big as a house!! YEUCH!!!!!!!

Oh, god, I don't miss cockroaches. The ones in Canada aren't that big, but they are everywhere. One of my friends had them coming up through the drains!

I don't know why they aren't endemic in London, but they clearly aren't, despite there being so many people living so close together.

I thought u.k taxes were less than in Europe, and possibly the U.S?

I feel very rooted in this country - for all it's faults and glories. MY standard of living, not luxurious by any means, is nevertheless one that anyone should feel grateful for, and whereas there may well be places that could offer more rooms in my house, or cleaner air or more glamourous fire engines (a much over-looked feature of Toronto, IMO) or more sunshine for my money, those things wouldn't necessarily comepnsate for the quality of life I feel I get just from being part of it, iyswim.

I think UK taxes are lower than much of Europe, and certainly lower than Canada.

As soon as we finish our re-training, we plan to look at emigrating elsewhere in the EU.

Katyp. I'm not sure if racism is worse here tbh.

We recently had the Cronulla riots in Sydney which was muslim vs white (the muslims were Australian but disaffected).

At the time Australia was shocked because there had never been race riots before.

I'm in East Sydney. At work there is a huge mix of white/vietnamese/chinese/thai/japanese/british and just a team atmosphere, no racism at all. I've learnt a lot about different asian cultures and like all the people I worked with (actually except some of the white males!).

Talking to cab drivers (often immigrants) they say they feel unwelcome. There is a huge Jewish community here and I get the impression that although wealthy they feel threatened - security guards at Jewish schools, houses with entry cameras and high walls.

I think there is a lot of racism in the UK though, just not vocalised (not PC).

Who can tell tbh. Maybe I'd have a better idea if I was a minority. I've been called a whingeing pom, but that's because I was. It rained all November so I of course I sulked. I was supposed to be on the beach.

I expect a lot of small towns would be racist, just like small clicquey village in the UK and country towns in the US.

Socci - we have spiders as big as your hand in the back garden. Shudder. They live in huge three tiered webs (about 1m by 1m) and line up fly carcasses in a little pantry.

DP has christened them Derek, Eric and Cedric.

oh my goodness - I couldn't handle that!

Nice to hear from the canadians on this thread. Been back 2 years and miss UK terribly. I just felt comfortable there. We plan to come back in sept for a 2 year stint and I said to dh I would consider moving permanently but will have to see how the kids are about a move so far from family and their roots. Maybe we need a separate thread titled " calling all canadians" but I am sure it would bore everyone else to death. I was struck by the history of the UK and the closeness to the europe and the culture we just don't have here. Our medical system is in crisis so the NHS didn't bother me, found the hospitals in london really old and dirty though. Dh got a great degree from LSE that impresses the hell out of people back here in canada so it's true a UK education is seen as something really special by us. Wages are good, cost of living high but maybe a bit less than UK, but dam it's cold! (Minus 30 2 days ago with the wind chill... bring back memories anyone?

Actually, what's more scary is not being able to identify the deadly ones. The big ones are obvious! I keep going to the zoo to see the spiders so I can learn what they look like but they are always hiding (behind labels that say "The most venomous spider/snake in the world"). Apparently the bird-eating spider doesn't

It's also a bit of a mind shift - I have no idea how to teach DD to be deadly things aware. I don't know which sap is dangerous on which plants and so on, or if local parks might have snakes.

On the plus side, we see wild parrots and cockatoos everywhere, there are dolphins down at the beach and koalas and kangaroos eat out of your hand (DD has now seen more kangaroos than cats fgs).

Aussies laugh at us for being wusses. Apparently it's instinctive to recoil at creepy-crawlies but Aussies score the lowest on the recoil-ometer.

So, Canadians - sell us your country. The only reason I've never been is probably because I've heard more about other places and gone there first.

What's great there? What's bad there?

I think it is the case of 'the grass is always greener'
I am from Australia, I grew up near beaches and lakes. It was very pretty but I dont see how that adds up to particulary better quality of life.
The main issue for living in England is the cost of housing. But i think this is a problem for all major cities in the world. The average price of house in London is £295000, the average price in Sydney is $595000 or there abouts. (£250,000)so not much difference and wages are lower there.

All the issues Mosschops raises about living here exist in Australia too.

The problems Mosschops states about living in England exist in Australia too. Some

OK, I know this comment is going to be unpopular, hence the name change, and I know about the poverty that does exist in the uk, resulting in prostitution and people trafficing even here. But I honestly dont think anyone here is in that situation.

Yes petrol prices are high, as are house prices, and I too feel my kids will grow up too fast in many ways because of media pressure etc. but doesnt something like \link[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3551538.stm\THIS] put it all in perspective? I mean, our standards of living are not so bad here that we have to go to these lengths to escape them.

I do seriously think that many of us in the UK (MYSELF INCLUDED) are to a certain extent the rich wingers of this worlld. Maybe we need to be counting our blessings rather than trying to escape them?

Runs away....fast