Remind me what's good about living in Scotland?

[CoralPaperweight]

I moved to Scotland 25 years ago (central belt) and I've had a great life here but over the last year or so I've got increasingly itchy feet. May be a post-Covid or age thing but I'm not sure I want to stay in Scotland forever - it just doesn't seem to be as appealing to me, and even the cities seem a bit flat at the moment. Realistically, I can't disrupt DS education at the moment, he's very settled and happy so please remind me of everything that is fantastic about life in Scotland. I'm forever reading threads about people who are desperate to move to Scotland and I'm not really seeing why at the moment.

Ah brexit - plenty of regions of ruk didnt vote for it either. 38 percent of Scottish people did vote for it so hardly no-one.

And ‘London’ (people who work hard and pay U.K. taxes at a lower rate than us lucky folk in Scotland, you know the extra tax which buys us all our ‘free stuff’🤣) didn’t vote for a Brexit either.
Millions across the U.K. didn’t.

Yet we're all landed with it.

Family & friends who live here
Better quality of life with regards to housing costs etc.
Lots of it is very pretty

But if independence happens then I will re-locate to Cumbria or Northumberland.

I'm glad you have events to look forward to OP and are feeling a bit more positive.
I'm counting down the days to the holidays and planning a road trip. I always think this last stretch before summer feels so long.

Thanks again everyone. I think I have been thinking too far ahead and need to concentrate on the here and now.

Higher stamp duty is an issue. Higher taxation and ridiculous house prices in Edinburgh!
Also dreadful roads.

Weather to one side. South coast of England wins at that
I love the more left wing socialism. I'm thinking the kenmure street people power.
I love the swearing & humour
I love the free galleries, I love the gritty splendour of glasgow & prettiness of Edinburgh
I love that 40 mins from glasgow west end youre on a beach or a Loch or a mountain.

I love the free education

I love the baby boxes. Giving every child the same start is such a fabulous thing to do.
Free public transport for young adults

I love the free prescriptions so that people can get their medicine.

I love the Scottish National theatre.
I love the range of comedy on offer 7 days a week (in central belt)

Shopping is fab in both glasgow & Edinburgh.
I love the east neuk of Fife for the seaside and the chip shops & the beauty.
I love the green buses.

Weather is diabolical - hate it with a passion. Would move somewhere with nicer weather tomorrow if dp would tolerate.

Sorry.. but it's all "free"?

‘Free’ 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I suppose it's free if you don't pay tax.

Aye one of the reasons I don't live in Edinburgh. House prices there comparable with south of England. But most of the rest of Scotland have more reasonable house prices than much of England.

And I agree on higher taxation 😥and the roads everywhere are diabolical 😡

Of course nothing is free completely.

Free at point of use. But then you knew that.

Oh and believe me I pay plenty tax. Happy to do so, it's called being a responsible member of society.

I love living in Scotland. I miss the weather in London 25 years after leaving but there are other things to compensate. I like the amazing access to wilderness, friendliness of the people, the long summer nights, progressive politics, better health services, better allocation of resources (free uni fees/prescriptions etc) to name just a few. Scotland isn’t perfect but my family are able to have an amazing quality of life here.

Progressive politics isn’t something I’ve noticed. Quite the opposite. Like the dark ages, especially for women.

Hardly @WouldBeGood

I reckon pollution and air quality has got to be a big thing. I live in a town in SE england but am from scotland originally.
The air quality ratings down here are abominable compared to where my dad is right in the west end of glasgow.

The weather down here is definitely warmer and less rainy though, but yknow, scotlands a big place and so is england.

Homelessness, filthy cities, huge education gap, women threatened and not allowed to speak out. Not allowed their own spaces even in shelters.

Government run by a cabal of husbands/wives/hangers on. All bound not to speak out by Party rules. All weirdly obsessed by gender and other peoples sex lives.

The elite charging about the world in fancy cars and planes, while the rest of us aren’t to be allowed to drive into Glasgow, cos climate.

Depressing and far from progressive.

Yes, exactly.

I dont recognise your description @WouldBeGood . I get a lift into Glasgow often. Nothing has changed apart from lots of shops closing and the place being more rundown. There's always been homelessness and pollution. The government, well you know how i feel about them. There's plenty the snp have made a balls up of but to me it doesn't come close to what the utter bastards in Westminster are doing.
Anyhow, hope you are doing well and enjoying getting out and about without your mask on 😁. Im so glad i dont need to wear it all day in the shop now.

Most people living in Scotland pay less tax than they would in rUK.
If, for example , one earns £40k, you're looking at an extra £10 a month in Scotland versus rUK. It's not a huge difference and means lower earners are paying less. I agree with it.

The word 'progressive' doesn't mean what it used to mean, in my experience. It actually chills me now when people use that word.

Originally it presumably meant 'earnestly trying to change things for the better'. Now just means 'ensuring rightthink'.

Dear God, the usual sneering replies. I wasn’t ’ensuring righthink’ whatever that means? Does it mean anything? I was thinking about some of the human rights enabled legislation that we’ve seen in Scotland in the last 20 years, the bedroom tax mitigation, baby boxes, burden of tax redistribution, lack of UG student fees, free prescriptions etc etc etc. All of these things improve the quality of life and well being of people living in Scotland.

Perthshire is one of my favourite parts of Scotland. I have lived in Inverclyde for most of my life.

Hi, @ssd! Yes, I’m feeling a weight off me now there are no masks. Going to everything 🤣 Hope you’re well?

the car thing takes effect next year- I won’t be able to drive mine into central Glasgow. I wouldn’t mind if there was good public transport, but not where I live. I’d have tacked public transport first if I were in charge.