sdunx

doesn't it annoy you trying to be so level headed all the time? Don't you feel like joining in a bit of aggro? go on rip into it! or perhaps you're Ken Barlow in drag

Jerseygirl

I agree we do get our fair share of trolls on this forum...but sometimes it's 'cos they aren't quite with the program. They don't understand the grief and heartache that so many expats go through when they are desperate to return home. That the desperation is sometimes so great it breaks families and marriages up.

Fleaflyfloflum

Oh i think they do JG. Most of us tell them. The reality is they just dont care or give a damn.

Jerseygirl

No not all Flea.

Fleaflyfloflum

True i guess, not all, but a large percentage I would say.

If you spent just a few minutes reading some of the threads and posts from people experiencing terrible heartache, stress and upheaval in their lives, how could you not have some idea how offensive it would be to ridicule, dismiss, or disregard their experiences?

I have absolutely no issue with people sharing a different view about whatever country is the subject of discussion. If they love it and enjoy their new life bloody good luck to them and i am genuinely pleased for them. That is why I rarely if ever rain on the parade of someone in the barbie who posts on how happy they are. I do not have the right to argue with their stance as it is their life.
But somehow it seems acceptable in here to dispell or dismiss the genuine thoughts and feelings of people who are not enjoying their chosen country. Their experiences are all too often put down to some kind of void in their personality or question their intelligence. I, and many others, find that really offensive.

I know you have to be a fence sitter JG as that is your job being a mod and may i say you do it very well.

hudd

HI

I find it interesting too that those who say Britain is crap or hell hole, really do not realise what they have living here. It quite interesting reading posts of those who complain out the UK, how expensive it is, they can not sell their house or land a make a a huge wedge of money to "live the life" in a foreign country. Then you read some of their posts if they do move and they seem more toned down their postings. I believe they realised once they moved it not that great in the country they moved too and the UK was not that bad after all.

Having been an ex-pat that returned to the UK after living overseas for 8 years we appreciate a lot more what the UK has to offer than before we immigrated. My family like living back in the UK as it may be a small country but we believe it has so much to offer to my sons and us as a family.

I agree our country has issues, unfortunately this is the modern world we all live in and the similiar issues will be found in all other countries you move to.

We have come to the conclusion it was the right choice to return to the UK for our family. I ended up with a much better job, double the holiday allowance and work much less hours back in the UK. So its not that bad for some returning expats. Downside only is that taken 2 years to be able to get our own house and moving next month to a nice house in Kent.

hudd

Danny B

A labour government ruined it.

elfman

Elvira

Sorry - can you post that without the blackout?

Ta!

Nu-Shooz

newXgate

I am glad this thread was started, it is a question I have been wanting to ask for a while.

I grew up in the 1980's and even then I remember my parents going on about how much worse everything had got since the 50's/60's. Now the 1980's are held up as a 'golden age'!

I suspect the reality is that some things have changed for the better and some for worse. For example I am sure that real incomes have mostly risen versus the cost of living over the last 20 years, but perhaps the extreme rise in the housing market over the last 5 years has cancelled this out and people are feeling the pinch. Also the recent influx of EU immigrants, as with any influx of immigrants over a relatively short period of time, has lead to a backlash. The same is happening in the USA with respect to mostly Hispanic immigrants.

I am sure that the combination of the negativity of the media and the general British tendency to see the glass half empty also plays a part. Here in the USA the kinds of incidents that would end up as headlines in the Daily Mail barely make the local news. For example, I live in a relatively middle income suburb in Montgomery County, MD. A local high school was just involved in a incident where students tried to set up a gun running business in the school. When a student accidentally fired a gun in the school the scheme was discovered. The situation degenerated into a running battle between rival gangs (split along racial lines) as school finished. In the UK this would be headline news with editorials about how the country was going to the dogs etc etc. In the US it is reported in a much more neutral manner. BTW, this is the same MD surburb that had a sniper killing people for weeks a few years ago.

Viking Man

Not by me! Remember the miner's strike, yuppies, two recessions, 3 million unemployed, football hooligans, IRA bombings, waiting a week for a doctor's appointment, clapped-out buses in London... It was no picnic really.

ThomB

I moved from the UK to australia to find better life and now I see what I lost, I move back to the UK soon, Australia is expensive and crap, and can't find a job here, the UK has more to offer than pretty Oz;

LouiseD

Yes I remember the 80s as being horrible - riots, high interest rates that crippled us, poor blokes killing themselves because they couldn't support their families, communities and families ripped apart because of the closure of so many factories and mines. It was just awful. Give me UK 2008 any day.

Tootsie Frickensprinkles

I think this has to be the worst thing about the nation too ...

Some time ago I read an article illustrating the point statisically (as good as they ever do anyway). People leaving hospitals were interviewed on their experiences and the same questions were asked of people about what they thought there experience would be like if they were to go .. Some questions were general "what do you think of this" type questions as well.

I dont remember the exact numbers now, but the 'were you completely satisfied' was in the 60's and the 'do you think you would be' was in the 40's.

Just typical.