Don't Trash the UK!
#77
Account Closed
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 723
Re: Don't Trash the UK!
Maybe not a parallel universe, but Amersham is about as far as you can get from the social problems that beset many parts of England.
You are lucky to live in such a good place, but not many have that fortune. I am not for one moment saying that the idyllic life you describe is not real. I used to live over the hill in Berkhamsted so I know enough people in your position. However, the grim life of living amongst grinding poverty and social decay of some parts of the UK is equally real and it is understandable that many people who can escape that will want to do so.
My qualification for this comment is that I was born and brought up in a North Eastern pit village where the pit closed down. I've seen my fair share of social decay in the UK. Again, I am not saying that grinding poverty and social decay doesn't exist in Canada, because it does. But, the British immigrant is, almost by definition, going to be someone with readily employable skills so they are unlikely to see this side of Canada except through a car window.
dbd33 often says that one of the great advantages for Brits emigrating to Canada is the one off boost in wealth they get with the exchange rate. It means they can live in a much more prosperous area here than they would ever be able to afford back in the UK. There is a lot of truth in this.
You are lucky to live in such a good place, but not many have that fortune. I am not for one moment saying that the idyllic life you describe is not real. I used to live over the hill in Berkhamsted so I know enough people in your position. However, the grim life of living amongst grinding poverty and social decay of some parts of the UK is equally real and it is understandable that many people who can escape that will want to do so.
My qualification for this comment is that I was born and brought up in a North Eastern pit village where the pit closed down. I've seen my fair share of social decay in the UK. Again, I am not saying that grinding poverty and social decay doesn't exist in Canada, because it does. But, the British immigrant is, almost by definition, going to be someone with readily employable skills so they are unlikely to see this side of Canada except through a car window.
dbd33 often says that one of the great advantages for Brits emigrating to Canada is the one off boost in wealth they get with the exchange rate. It means they can live in a much more prosperous area here than they would ever be able to afford back in the UK. There is a lot of truth in this.
Hallelujah. Someone who says SOME PARTS of the UK are grim and SOME PARTS of Canada are grim instead of slagging off the whole of the UK and the whole of Canada.
I lived in a village close to Christmasoompa and I agree with everything in her posts about the idyllic lifestyle because it is actually like that. It doesn't mean I haven't been to crappy parts of the UK and seen how other people live and I can fully appreciate why they would want to leave the UK. I wouldn't go back to the UK if I lived in some of the places described on BE.
However these people assume that because they have lived in a sh*thole everybody else has and I struggle to understand how they can compare somewhere like the arse-end of Glasgow to Gerrards Cross in Bucks or Sandbanks in Dorset.
So far as being loaded because you live in Bucks as someone said There are actually council estates in most of the villages and my friends who live in said council houses most certainly aren't loaded. Neither were we and we still aren't especially having spent thousands moving to Oz and now moving back again.
We bought the worst house in one of the nicest roads and spent years doing it up every time we had some spare money usually from us doing overtime.
Sending you some k for a sensible post
#78
Re: Don't Trash the UK!
I think you will find that knife crime and major crimes are committed mainly in larger cities such as Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
Crime in our area is very low and we rarely lock our door. While we were out the delivery guy dropped off our central vacuum into the garage and then shut the door behind him.
Last edited by Dave+Jules; Nov 3rd 2008 at 12:57 am.
#80
Re: Don't Trash the UK!
I cannot for the life of me comprehend anyone immigrating to canada or even considering it
if they do not absolutley love canada and all that it is ,both good and perhaps a little behind the times in the nicest possible ways!
If you feel postive about the Uk and wish to defend it then why on earth are you consdiering becoming canadian????
do people not emigrate for a better life ( an I am certainly not talking financially)
if you are satisifed with your lot in that beautiful clean, low crime, fair, Uk society of giving rather than taking, where you can walk the streets in safety where being PC does not get in the way of living, where the state does not dictate your every move blah blah blah then why oh why are you leaving??
If you come to canada then your heart and sole should be canadian should it not?
Its a bit like a messy divorce and finding the love of your life at last
you look back on the first marriage as a trial run and wish it had never happened spending and investing perhaps years of your life on a lost cause....
and then suddenly you find your sole mate and you never look back and thought of your ex makes you want to puke
well thats how I feel about canada
I very much hope that I get the chance to spend the rest of my life in this wonderful society and also pay my taxes here and invest every penny I have to benefit my fellow canadians
I would not P**s on the UK if it was on fire
if they do not absolutley love canada and all that it is ,both good and perhaps a little behind the times in the nicest possible ways!
If you feel postive about the Uk and wish to defend it then why on earth are you consdiering becoming canadian????
do people not emigrate for a better life ( an I am certainly not talking financially)
if you are satisifed with your lot in that beautiful clean, low crime, fair, Uk society of giving rather than taking, where you can walk the streets in safety where being PC does not get in the way of living, where the state does not dictate your every move blah blah blah then why oh why are you leaving??
If you come to canada then your heart and sole should be canadian should it not?
Its a bit like a messy divorce and finding the love of your life at last
you look back on the first marriage as a trial run and wish it had never happened spending and investing perhaps years of your life on a lost cause....
and then suddenly you find your sole mate and you never look back and thought of your ex makes you want to puke
well thats how I feel about canada
I very much hope that I get the chance to spend the rest of my life in this wonderful society and also pay my taxes here and invest every penny I have to benefit my fellow canadians
I would not P**s on the UK if it was on fire
#82
Banned
Joined: Oct 2008
Location: the GTA
Posts: 3,824
Re: Don't Trash the UK!
It's different, there's less knife crime in Canada because everyone who wants one has a gun. If you want rough try Rexdale or any reservation; the third world right next door.
Anyone emigrating from the UK, to Canada or anywhere else, might want to be careful about burning bridges. It would only take a medical problem requiring heavy drug therapy to make living in Canada less sensible than going home. The same is true for the US. I expect luck is important in Australia too.
Anyone emigrating from the UK, to Canada or anywhere else, might want to be careful about burning bridges. It would only take a medical problem requiring heavy drug therapy to make living in Canada less sensible than going home. The same is true for the US. I expect luck is important in Australia too.
#83
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Feb 2006
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 980
Re: Don't Trash the UK!
sarah_matt;
you need to open your eyes love, i think you must have been on the piss when you wrote this post, you are looking at the UK through rose tinted glasses, its completely Knackered now the place its full of blasted migrants who want all for now't. like it or lump it & when you say you have no problems staying there, then you get what you deserve, do you have kids at all if so then open your eyes & think of there future. i rest my case, if you like it there your in a minority.????
you need to open your eyes love, i think you must have been on the piss when you wrote this post, you are looking at the UK through rose tinted glasses, its completely Knackered now the place its full of blasted migrants who want all for now't. like it or lump it & when you say you have no problems staying there, then you get what you deserve, do you have kids at all if so then open your eyes & think of there future. i rest my case, if you like it there your in a minority.????
#84
Re: Don't Trash the UK!
Potential immigrants and perhaps those already here should know that in Ontario, and I suspect other provinces also, there is a Provincial Government drug plan for those who require expensive drug therapy for which they have no resources or no private/employer coverage.
Our income in NS would mean we'd qualify to get 80% of the costs covered. In NB we have to pay the full costs.
NB is a bit backward in this respect. If they help with dental charges for low income adults, it will only pay for extractions, not fillings and anyone claiming social assistance but living with friends or relatives may find they don't qualify because NB wants to look at the income of the householder as well.
Last edited by BristolUK; Nov 3rd 2008 at 3:39 am.
#85
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Feb 2006
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 980
Re: Don't Trash the UK!
BristolUK;
hell whatever way people seem to try its like the are being pulled from pillar to post the poor buggers.
hell whatever way people seem to try its like the are being pulled from pillar to post the poor buggers.
#86
Re: Don't Trash the UK!
sarah_matt;
you need to open your eyes love, i think you must have been on the piss when you wrote this post, you are looking at the UK through rose tinted glasses, its completely Knackered now the place its full of blasted migrants who want all for now't. like it or lump it & when you say you have no problems staying there, then you get what you deserve, do you have kids at all if so then open your eyes & think of there future. i rest my case, if you like it there your in a minority.????
you need to open your eyes love, i think you must have been on the piss when you wrote this post, you are looking at the UK through rose tinted glasses, its completely Knackered now the place its full of blasted migrants who want all for now't. like it or lump it & when you say you have no problems staying there, then you get what you deserve, do you have kids at all if so then open your eyes & think of there future. i rest my case, if you like it there your in a minority.????
It's a well known fact that it's not the immigrants that are the benefits drain on the UK, but the lazy white trash that breed relentlessly from the ages of 14 onwards for the sake of getting a council house, free rent and fag money!!
By the way...I do not wear rose tinted specs but I would go back home in a heartbeat and I should know what I'm talking about cos I've ping-ponged my way back and forth twice now and 2nd time round I realise that the UK, despite it's faults, is my homeland and I personally prefer it to what I have here (or rather haven't got) in Canada.
#87
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Feb 2006
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 980
Re: Don't Trash the UK!
Ruby Murray;
then i would suggest you return to the UK, may i ask where & what did you do for a living also what type of house did you live in when in the UK
then i would suggest you return to the UK, may i ask where & what did you do for a living also what type of house did you live in when in the UK
#88
Just Joined
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 5
Re: Don't Trash the UK!
I think its quite ironic that some of the posts written on here slag off what is in there opinion is the rotten/bad culture of the UK now should prehaps read their post again...its that type of attitude that gives people the impression that UK as "gone to the dogs" or any other term someone might use.
Every country around the world has good & bad points. No one country is perfection. Surely after all no matter what country you live it you still have to do the same things, get up, go to work, come home cook dinner, housework, shopping etc....unless I'm missing something and in other countries you don't have to do these things.....
And no before anyone asks not I've never lived abroad or feel the need to, I'm happy in the UK...but what I have experienced is by best friends ups and downs when moving to Canada and going by her emails it would seem that she is still having to do the same things as she would have done in the UK and life doesnt seem to be that different.
Every country around the world has good & bad points. No one country is perfection. Surely after all no matter what country you live it you still have to do the same things, get up, go to work, come home cook dinner, housework, shopping etc....unless I'm missing something and in other countries you don't have to do these things.....
And no before anyone asks not I've never lived abroad or feel the need to, I'm happy in the UK...but what I have experienced is by best friends ups and downs when moving to Canada and going by her emails it would seem that she is still having to do the same things as she would have done in the UK and life doesnt seem to be that different.
#89
Re: Don't Trash the UK!
Maybe not a parallel universe, but Amersham is about as far as you can get from the social problems that beset many parts of England.
You are lucky to live in such a good place, but not many have that fortune. I am not for one moment saying that the idyllic life you describe is not real. I used to live over the hill in Berkhamsted so I know enough people in your position. However, the grim life of living amongst grinding poverty and social decay of some parts of the UK is equally real and it is understandable that many people who can escape that will want to do so.
You are lucky to live in such a good place, but not many have that fortune. I am not for one moment saying that the idyllic life you describe is not real. I used to live over the hill in Berkhamsted so I know enough people in your position. However, the grim life of living amongst grinding poverty and social decay of some parts of the UK is equally real and it is understandable that many people who can escape that will want to do so.
Perhaps because I've travelled extensively and seen 'proper' problems in countries such as Zimbabwe, Guatemala, Mozambique, various Eastern European countries, etc, I really don't think the UK is that bad. Frankly, I think those that think it's so horrendous really need to step back and realise how lucky they are to be living in a country that gives them freedom, democracy, free healthcare, good education, a good climate free of droughts, typhoons, hurricanes etc.
And I still think that anybody leaving the UK purely to escape perceived negatives is going to get a huge shock when they realise any other country in the Western world has exactly the same problems, and potentially others (i.e. healthcare costs as mentioned). If people really want to escape to a more simple, rural life then there are plenty of places in the UK that they could easily do that in. If they're leaving for a love of Canada, to be with family, or similar reasons then it's very different. But the MBTTUK forum is littered with people that left the UK for the very reasons given by many in this thread - and they've now realised that the UK is far better than they previously gave it credit for and are trying to move back!
Right, feeling all patriotic now, off to sing the National Anthem whilst drinking tea and eating marmalade...............
#90
Re: Don't Trash the UK!
So far as being loaded because you live in Bucks as someone said There are actually council estates in most of the villages and my friends who live in said council houses most certainly aren't loaded. Neither were we and we still aren't especially having spent thousands moving to Oz and now moving back again.