This is terrifying...!

[PanicMode]

www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/7523175/Budget-2010-Labour-is-stealing-from-our-childrens-future-to-buy- votes.html

Thanks. We have had similar things said to us too so going with eyes open and without the rose tinted specs on but you are right the relative decline of the UK has tipped the balance somewhat.

TBH we wouldn't mind going back to the 1980s but with good broadband and the internet the world is a lot smaller now so we hope we will feel a lot less cut off than it might have been 30 years ago.

I'll still be on MN.

I'll look out for you when I'm having one of my insomniac moments.

Talking of HMRC - I've just seen this.. My time living in Russia is starting to seem like a picnic.....

www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/henryporter/2010/mar/27/intercepting-mail-stasi-tax-inspectors

ABetaDad, good luck with your move.
DP and I would leave for NZ in the morning save for the fact that DP has a daughter from a previous relationship and has shared residence for her. But for that we would off like a shot.

Would the last person to leave the country please turn out the lights.

Sorry I should have said will he last net contributors to leave the country please turn out the lights.

It is all so sad - feels very much like our country has has slipped away from us....

sorry Elenor, thought you were talking about my post

bunny, it is so hard at the moment. I feel for you and dh. I hope you manage to pull through. Just wait till next year (tax year 2011/12) when we (employers) will all be paying an extra 1% in employer's NI and the employee's will be paying an extra 1% too .

yes abetadad, I know what you mean. And 2 years is a pretty average time at the moment to get some sort of finality in a claim. Is totally ridiculous.

PanicMode - that is just shocking and combined with the new HMRC powers that foxisocks highlighted it is arguable whether it now verges on a human rights abuse. Tax has become nakedly politically motivated to the point of arbitrary expropriation of assets.

purits - thanks for your good wishes. Do you live in the UK? Would you still leave? Immigration into NZ is fairly easy if you have the rights sklls.

ElenorRigby - I find myself always agreeing with your posts so can see why NZ would be atractive. TBH we have ties back here with elderly relatives so can understand how torn you and your DP would feel about a child.

Had a chat with DW about this thread and the newspaper headlines today and we just feel we have weighed it up long enough and its now or never.

Alouiseg/Tashtodd - agreeing with you too.

This all happened in the 1970s. DW knows an old man who lives in the USA. He still fervently regards himself as British, holds a British passport but emigrated at about the same age as me now with his family when it became impossible to run his business here.

It seems like no one actually cares this is happening.

To answer the question on Premium Bonds. We are a way from actual default at the moment and I think the Govt would politically do all it could to avoid defaulting on Premium Bonds that are generally held by UK voters.

It is debt in the form of Gilts (Govt Bonds)that will be defaulted on first.

If Labour gets in again some analysts are predicting that Britain will lose it's AAA status - Govt Bonds will remain unsold and then it will be all down hill until the International Monetary Fund steps in to sort out the mess (again).

While the UK remains addicted to spending more than it should we are heading down a very slipery slope indeed.

I only hope that if Labour do get back in they start to take this issue seriously instead of continually burying their heads in the sand. Of course if the Tories get in they will be in the unenviable position of being blamined for the tough measures that will need to be taken.

No winners there then.