I'm just that bit too young to remember!

This has to be the most overused statement on BE.

What exactly was the England you know and loved????

It hasn't all of a sudden become hell on earth overnight if at all.

I reckon its like a relationship thats going wrong - ie at the begining you always thought evrything was just great - then things get stale and you get bored and your life and you, change, mature. You get jaded and look for pastures new.

Any new place / partner will always seem more romantic than the current, but when you get there its still the same ol sit different bucket.

I had no dislike for the UK, so Canada didn't really have a lot to beat as there were no bars set. I feel an outsider when my Canadian hubby and his friends and family are reminiscing, but thats only natural - he does too if I get together with Brit friends and we talk about Brit stuff.

Don't sweat it, get on with your life and don't feel like you HAVE to fit in to get on.

Summer's getting worse, policemen getting shorter and younger, no more pipes and people wearing flat caps, the Hovis delivery boy no longer comes around on his bike, no more milkmen, pop music is noisier than when ol' king came t'throne....I could go on

What exactly was the England you know and loved????

I'll tell you. How about 3 playing fields/recreation/nature spots I'd played on as a child and adult given up to housing.

Factories and offices in my town closed – places friends and family worked that hosted Christmas parties and other local gatherings. No more. Many people I knew gone away due to lack of jobs in a once industrial small Midlands town.

Little new investment other than yet another unneeded supermarket bang in the middle of a traditional market town. Stalls gone, shops boarded up.

I'm not talking about an England I new and loved that exists in movie reels of the 1930s or rose tinted memories. I'm talking about very recent history in a forgotten community I did love that has disappeared leaving people no choice but to look elsewhere.

I do agree that we shouldn't necessarily feel the need to fit in and we should just get on with it and that's exactly what we're doing.

It's funny, my wifes uncle was complaining about the same thing in the area he lives in Canada the other week. "So much has changed, and not for the better" He worries for his kids.

People change, places change, some for the better, some not so much. It's not different in either country. My father-in-law hates the way Vancouver has changed so much and become more dense in population, road network, buildings, strip malls, etc. He used to love visiting Yorkshire. I couldn't move back to where i grew up mainly because we've both evolved and are completely out of synch.

Old people are old.