I think the defining factor which makes me want to leave my place of birth is the new breed of people which now live here. Quite what has changed to the British social structure I do not know but without wanting to generalise the majority seem to be evolving into disrespectful, self obsessed and egotistical individualists. Personally, I think it all started when credit was made freely available and every man on the street was offered (borrowed) money to spend. It created a breed of 'I can have what I want, when I want it' and in turn a social competition of keeping up with the Jones'. Food and shelter used to be the minimum requirements to keep us going, now if we haven't got the latest mobile, plasma TV and designer jeans then it's blatant injustice and the end of the world.

Closely following is the lack of policing and social justice which has eroded all respect for fellow man and authority. Deterrents are all but non-existent and those that do commit crime jump straight on the human rights band wagon prior to receiving a minimum sentence for fear of further aggravating the penal overcrowding. I know I won't forget the coffee I bought from McDonald's at 6.45am the other morning - I sat there in the car stirring in my milk only to watch 3 youths cross the car park and indiscriminately set about some poor bloke walking out the restaurant carrying his breakfast. I never want to see anyone get their head stamped on like that again in my lifetime.

Of course, you've got the satellite factors to add on top such as traffic. I live 5 miles from work and it takes over 40-minutes to drive there (yes that's just over 7 mph average). I've now resorted to riding a push bike which only takes 20 minutes. However, the government seem to have completely conflicting policies on this one. On one hand they keep piling the tax on fuel and the road fund license, in order to 'reduce the amount of traffic on the road.' In the next breath they're offering a £2,000 rebate on a new car purchase in order to save the ailing car manufacturers. One thing I do know is that my driving taxes don't get spent on the road though.

Then there's the social security bill. Apparently we need more children so we can have more tax payers to fund the crippling pension bill. That's great in theory but perhaps not in practice. My parents rent their house to the local Council who house a single unemployed mother and her child there. The irony is the single mother is the daughter of the next door neighbour. In the old days her parents would have looked after her, now she gets a house of her own paid for by the tax payer (£675 a month rent - not including the benefits she gets). I'm not a gambling man but is that young child going to grow up to be a hard working tax payer when he spends his life seeing his Mum living off state handouts in a rent free house? Perhaps the government see it as speculating to accumulate, I see it as financial suicide.

I could go on but I want this to be seen a constructive case rather than a whine. In short, I used to love this country and I was proud to call it my home. In the last 25 years it's become 'managed decline' - do I want to stay here and spend the rest of my life paying an over inflated mortgage on a house the size of a shoe box........I don't really think so.