flashman

I know what you mean. The 2 up 2 down terraced house that I grew up in takes up less land than my present front yard but sells nowadays for about 40,000 pounds ($CAN90,000). I would have a hard time even finding a similar house in Canada but could find something much better for a little more in the country.

Pulaski

When we were looking to buy we saw houses that had a larger family room than the footprint of the whole two bed terraced house that I had owned in London! .... And the whole of the house in America cost rather less than what I sold the house in London for!

daisymoll

Having lived in a bigger house now we have realised that material goods really aren't everything and it takes a damn sight longer to clean!!!!

joebloggs

There are certainly some expats out there who despite not having lived in Britain for years still bang on and on about moving away from there. You'd meet them in Perth all the time. In many ways they were quite tragic figures, still whining on about the UK and its problems (and desperately trying to find evidence of them) and ignoring anything bad that happens where they live. As you say many of them are still incredibly insecure and whiny, still going on about percieved or real problems they experienced all those years ago.

flashman

Thanks for the analysis and also for reminding me about the sanctimonious, self righteous, opinionated autocrats that I left behind.

AndrewR

Thats the flashman I know and love! Making friends and spreading joy wherever you go....

flashman

Well what do you expect from an insecure, naive, tragic whiner with tongue firmly in cheek?

joebloggs

Well...only if you say so....

flashman

Yes I did --- again with tongue in cheek!

dugongs

I'd have a hard time finding a 2 bed house for GBP 40k in england - where did you grow up the scottish highlands ? If not it has to be one of the worst or most disadvantaged parts of UK.

Given your very humble origins is it really fair to post your opinions on here as typical representation of what UK is really like. By all means share your views but at least qualify them with the extra info that you came from a very poor area so people reading can understand where your coming from. I think if more people did this when posting it is easier to understand their views.

There certainly seems to be a correlation between those posting poor experiences of UK and their experiences growing up and the strength of the desire to escape difficult situations.

RoB1833

If you look hard enough and find an area that is up and coming you can still find reasonably priced housing in the UK. I bought a place just over 2 years ago for 40k, mind you I sold it just over a year later for almost 60k. It was on the outskirts of Manchester.... a lot of people here seem to have the southern mindset about living in the UK.

flashman

Fair enough that's logical. After all why emigrate if you have it good where you are. There's no doubt that Canada offered me more opportunities with fewer barriers based on origin, class etc.

On the other hand it would also explain the disappointment of those with priveledged up scale backgrounds who didn't receive the expected degree of deference.

AndrewR

I reckon that if you had got on with things in the UK you could have done whatever you wanted to do, and would have had the opportunity's to do what you wanted. Reading some of the stuff you posted reminds me of my dad...brought up in a two up two down in Shelf, W. Yorkshire. He got on with it and now has a great lifestyle in the UK, which offered him the opportunities he wanted and took.
Incidentally, its kind of ironic, but this is something that not once have I ever felt the need to bring up when living in the UK...there was no need too, no one gived a crap. Its only once I moved to canada and ran up against people's fixed idea's here (about the UK) that I have ever raised the subject. As I said, one of life's ironies.

mutznuts1

Hi all after reading what has been posted here i just have to have my 2 pennies worth,I am still in the uk I live in a city with almost 1 million people my reasons for wanting out of this hell hole are as follows,after owning my own company here and working in excess of 80 hrs a week for a princely sum of £200 a week and paying double that in taxes I feel that i have tried to put into the uk and had nothing but the p**s taken out of me by some snotty nosed little oik saying that i have been creaming off the business and that i should have more of a turnover than i was actually claiming(vat man:when i asked him where he got the notion from he just said "oh i dont know that you are but i think you do".I took this up with my solicitor but was told the vat man can do and say what he likes with no evidence needed )having all the little incremental tax hikes that as an employee you dont tend to notice but as an employer is crippling i decided to give up with the business.
I have a 12 yr old son that does very well academically (top 5% in hampshire )but only found out recently that he is severely bullied and has been most of his school life(yes we should have seen the signs but we didnt hindesight is wonderful)when i bought up the fact with the school and asked them waht they are going to do about it they said they will deal with the bullies.ok great yes? No 2 weeks after this i had a call from the school saying my son had been caught fighting he is totally non violent so this confused me.I got to the school about 40 minutes later to find him sat in reception area crying his heart out,as i walked upto my son to find out what was going on I got steamrollered by 3 teachers who "had seen everything"I politely told them to fu**off before i lose my temper(can u do that politely )transpires he was defending himself against 3 lads who were hitting and one got hit round the head with my sons lunch box,the teacher then told him to goto the heads office which he replied no i havent done anything wrong and walked into the playground ,with that the deputy head chased him around the playground grabbed hold of him by the wrist and dragged him back into the school by the wrist!!!After hearing this the teachers looked very guilty did not try to explain otherwise.I then took my son out of that school there and then.The head mistress did not bother getting in touch with me until i had cc'd a letter to the local newspaper.
Racism.now here is a subject that i can go on for hrs telling you my whole life upto last weekend when i was involved in a fight where for no reason whatsoever someone came over to me in a pub and called me a thick fu**ing paki never met him b4 doubt if i will again but this isnt out of the norm contrary to popular belief.(Me i am halfcast olive skinned not that asian looking but obviously enough)
big brother.uk now has more cctv's per capita than any other country in the world.and probably speed traps aswell.6 million people caught in speed traps this yr.ok i hear people when they say that they cut deaths on the road fair enough but surely they should put them in accident blackspots?!!only one here in southampton is on a accident blackspot the rest are on dual carriageways where i have never seen an accident.
pedophiles.southampton and portsmouth have the highest number of pedophiles(known) walking the streets than any other cities in the uk due to our councils having lots of single bedroom apartments and them having some sort of deal with gov to house them.
corruption.For me to gain 2 fairly large contracts one from local goverment one from university i had to give the buyers a kick back.corruption is writh but because its secret handshakes nudges and winks apparantly its ok and doesnt exsist.
I think I had better stop now but I could carry on all day.
to sum uk up for me there is too many people here too many illegals that the goverment are not doing anything about(1million brits leave per yr appantly uk citezens are not having enough kids to repopulate sufficiently yet at each census the population rises??????)and not enough room to cope with 60 million peeps.
sorry finished now
:lecture: :lecture:

flashman

Actually I was doing fine in the UK minus adventure and stuck in a nice secure well paying rut at the age of 28.

I am sure that your perspective of unlimited opportunities in the UK is debatable and would be of interest to other ex-pats like Tom Jones, Julie Andrews, Rod Stewart etc.