Elizabeth I

LOL....well, some people here like to work. Just not me.

BEVS

Sounds like a sensible plan to me.

plummyscum

Wow - there's some interesting views here!!

We want to have a better work/home balance - I think we can acheive that in NZ. We cannot do this in the UK - to buy a bigger house for example - I would have to mortgage myself to the hilt and borrow £300,000 - the thought of that makes me want to cry.

I'm sick of paying £1000 in income tax every month for nothing in return. Our boys are sent overseas to fight with crap equipment, our hospitals are full of infections, our streets are violent and society in some parts is breaking down - I can't even get my bins emptied. I have been attacked at work on a number of occasions, the dept can't even pay me properly and it's never anyone's fault, I'm £400 short this month because some cretin forgot to key in my weekend working. No-one bats an eyelid, you are just expected to cope.

That's what most of us have become - the coping class. Forgot working class, middle class et al. COPING CLASS.

Guys - the Home Secretary said last week she was afraid to go out at night in Kensington!! What hope in Lewisham or even Sheffield!! WWhere we live - there are now Polish food shops opening but the post office is being shut!!

I want to live somewhere where I don't feel 'crowded' - we want a healthier outdoor lifestyle too.

We are under no illusion that it is NOT the land of milk and honey - we may have to rent and we WILL have to work our socks off but the tangiable benefits of being somewhere by choice, doing something together as a family make the risks involved worthwhile. When civil servants and nurses have had enough - surely that says there must be some big problems with life in the UK?

I'd rather die on my feet than go on living on my knees.

s-jmelbournewannabe

Yep, we've been on Sunshine Coast in Oz for 2mths now & its amazing! Good luck

Nerine

Elizabeth I

Exactly! I can honestly say that with a positive "can-do" attitude like that, given time, you should see good rewards for your efforts here, that has been my experience anyway, fwiw. And if it's the "outdoors" you want, this is the place!

uk+kiwi

Fantastic advice.

uk+kiwi

Love the comment about 'coping class'. Although I suspect what you are really after is efficiency and great customer service.

I think overall NZ is better at this, in terms of the 'right' can-do attitude/ownership, BUT service is not quick because life is much more relaxed and casual. An example - the last time I was in Starbucks in Brown's Bay (I went often), there were two people ahead of me in the queue, yet I had to wait at least 10 minutes for my coffee - MUCH longer than I had ever waited in London! I found it incredibly frustrating (almost stopped going since I could feel my blood pressure rising - can you relate to this feeling?), although service was always with a smile and pleasant friendly greeting so as Elizabeth1 said (I think), this is something I could adapt to. But didn't during the holiday I'm speaking of. I really had to bite my tongue to ask why it was taking so long.

The USA is the land of efficiency and service though.

whitesand

I've just been reading this thread and must say the level of debate is excellent and gives us all much food for thought. There's some great points brought up and discussed and the analysis and comments are very informative.

plummyscum

It just makes me mad..!!

People like us on this forum are the bedrock on which British society is presumably built. Yet we are being driven to look for something better where we can have some degree of control over our lives.

Increasingly, we are being taken for granted. Take from us and give to every other bugger.

Did anyone notice (?) that report the other day in the Telegraph that was saying a married Polish person living in the UK can claim family allowance for his kids EVEN if his family stay in Poland!! This costs UK PLC £23,000,000 every year and is taken up by all those eligible for the payment.

And what's worse - CAN ANYONE BLAME THEM? No - I blame the stupid rules that we adhere to here.

Britannia might rule the waves but perhaps Britannia should waive the rules a bit more.

I grow more angry by the day. It's an utterly directionless anger and this is why we need to get away.

At least we control that little bit of our lives!!!

TeamEmbo

Someone else suggested not reading the paper for a while or watching the news etc and then see how you feel about where/how you live without listening to the things that wind you up that you have no control over, like Polish child benefit.

When we were in the UK I didn't read a daily, or any come to think of it, newspaper. I didn't watch the news on TV. And I certainly didn't read womens' magazines. Not because I'm an ostrich who likes to pretend these things just aren't going on but because I'm simply wasn't interested in getting into a state everytime I read that latest outrage, EC directive, crime, Government decision, etc etc.

It doesn't mean I didn't know what was going on, I heard plenty from wound-up work colleagues and family and friends who seemed like you completely stressed out by such articles and helpless to do anything. Everyone just felt like they were working so damn hard, but not enjoying a life and the taxes and restrictions were ever increasing, and yet daily there'd be reports of multi-million spending on ludicrous things that didn't even benefit back-bone of the community workers like us.

The level of stress and disillusion seems to hang over England like a smog. It doesn't matter if you try and ignore the newspapers or the tv, you'll soon get to hear, at length, from someone else seething with stress and hopelessness.

Lexylou

and then you can migrate to a country that can do all of that for you! It is all relative really. They leave poland to get a better life, you leave the UK to get a better life. UK lets them in. NZ lets you in. Is it really on the big scale of life any different? Are we not all doing what we can for our family? like I said earlier, I have no pride in being British. As a nation we have always gone overseas to make a new life, being Scottish I have more family out of Scotland than I do in, but getting wound up about things does not really help. The UK is bad, I agree, in many many ways, however a lot of the things you say are also relative to NZ. In more ways that you might imagine. All a case of robbing Peter to pay Tom.

I wish you good luck with your move. I hope it works out but I think being so bitter about where you are from wont actually help you. It will come back and bite you in the ass. The reason I know this is I was the same as you before leaving the UK. Had to eat a lot of humble pie when returning back to live in Scotland. The UK is not all bad you know. You never know when you are going to need it.

garryhg

i agree with all of the above....jacky

lardyl

amen
There are good reasons and bad reasons to emmigrate. Some of don't really know the reason when we go and only find out once we've arrived. Still not sure about our reasons as we are still in holiday mode.

luvwelly

So the Torygraph is on the doom and gloom as well. Actually I was amazed when I read this...then I thought about it...if it's true, for them to claim this, they would have to be declaring all their income to the authorities...this is a good thing as it means they are paying their way like the rest on PAYE. If they are paying their way then why shouldn't they get the same allowances on the amount of tax they pay...they won't be on the highest wages after all. Surely certain people prefer them not to bring the kids over..because then they would need bigger housing...you can't have it all ways.....

People working in the Black economy and avoiding tax is not such a good thing.....I resent members of the indigenous population who do that as well.