Always interested reading the posts here. You can't compare any country and if someone doesn't like it, there's a boat in the morning. We pay 23% VAT in Ireland, but I have no issues with that. Every country is different and while some taxes are lower in the US, you might need two jobs to survive etc. Benefits not always good, but then again if there are no benefits, crime just goes up. There are plenty of things to moan about anywhere really and many parts of the US remind you of a Third World Country too. I don't like the furniture available in the UK/Ireland or US because it looks old fashioned to me, but I order it from Germany. By the way, I do like my made in China American Style Fridge from a South Korean company:-)

Quayside has been done up, too.

My point was, I'm struggling to envisage somewhere quite as grim as the picture painted.

I do understand the feeling of being unhappy in a place all too well, so maybe I did sound like that about the US.

The OP has been rude and dismissive toward me in the past so I have no interest in any form of civil communication with them. If they arent happy here then quite frankly bug off back to the US of A. Its not as though I am the only one to have commented on what they post.

I'm not struggling, I can not for one second picture the place the OP is talking about.

Exactly my thought. Bill Bryson book. Which I LOVED and am enjoying reading all his books. My guess is the U.K.

Ha! Rent in Italy and you're lucky if you get a kitchen light bulb -hanging from a wire- never mind a kitchen, let alone white goods!

theOAP, judging by your post my guess is the US.

It sounds like your wife just struggles with life in the UK in general. Has she managed to make any friends? Two years is a long time to still not settle in anywhere.

Wouldn't it be better to forget about the UK and let her return to the US where she (and you?) might start to be happy?

Why is it laughable? It's essentially meaningless to pick a single tax and gripe about it. It would be like my complaining at the amount of property taxes I pay in the US (which I gladly pay, btw). Yes the tax burden is a few percentage points of GDP higher in the UK, but otoh I'm not going to be paying $$$ for access to healthcare in the UK. Really, things are a little bit more nuanced than you (or perhaps Mrs London1947 - not sure why she can't post here for herself if it's her views) think.

It seems you're doing the classic "sweating the small stuff" that many do when they are struggling to adopt to a different place. I sympathize. I'm considering living in the UK for a few months a year in retirement and it's definitely a big leap after all these years. For someone to move to another country in - presumably - later life is a huge adjustment to make. But I doubt that adjustment is going to be helped by the kind of mindset that the initial post indicates: "the weather isn't as extreme". Really, is that the only positive thing she can think of?

My experience of the UK is very different to the one Mr & Mrs London1947 describe, I love it there.

However, I can understand how when you are unhappy somewhere and feel you have made a big mistake by moving there and, if you feel you might not be able to afford to correct that mistake, it can be hard to see any of the good things and very easy to make sweeping statements. It is just so stressful to be unhappy in your location and to feel trapped there, I think that is something so many of us here can relate to? When we are stressed/unhappy we tend not to always be the most balanced in our view, so personally I always cut people in that situation a lot of slack.

I have followed London1947 posts over the last couple of years and I think he and his wife would probably agree that at least part of their unhappiness in the UK relates to it being much more expensive to live there (especially accommodation) than they had anticipated. No matter where you live it is very stressful when money is a constant worry.

It is easy to say "bog off home" how many of expats have heard that from citizens of our new country? The trouble is that these moves are not easy when funds are limited. How many of us who want to move back to the UK have had to delay or put away plans to move home simply because our finances make it extremely difficult/impossible?

Also the older we get the harder it is to cope with stress and the more isolated we can be (no work colleagues, no chatting with other parents at the school gates etc.).

Having been in a similar position my heart always goes out to anyone who feels "stuck" somewhere they don't want to be or homesick for where they do want to be. I know that, except for the very financially secure, it is rarely as easy as "if you don't like it go back to where you were".

Absolutely, I think many of the posts from London1947 are sweeping and at times rude (Brits are pigs) but I also can hear a lot of pain and unhappiness in those posts so choose not to get offended.

I have seen London1947 lash out at some other posters purely because they are sharing their own much happier experience of the UK and I'm not saying that is okay but I think what happens is that each one feels the other is saying they are somehow "lying" about the UK when actually each one is just living a different experience to the other - they are both true in that it is how it is for each of them. When we are happy we more easily overlook the less rosy aspects of a country and when we are unhappy we can not see the good aspects.

That said I think the Daily Fail should be banned! Just because it's in a newspaper does not make it true. Obviously some of the statements Mrs London1947 made are just not factually true but clearly her unhappiness and homesickness is very real and frames her view of the UK in general.

I am constantly hungry for posts about people's experiences of moving back to the UK and I am always so grateful when people take the time to post here to share their stories. Every single one of those posts is valuable and as I read them I try to frame them within the context of the individuals situation (as much of it as I know) and I bear that in mind with regard to how similar my own experience of moving back may or may not be.

I hope no-one on here stops sharing their experience of moving back to the UK just because someone else tells them they are too positive or too negative in their view and I hope it is okay for us to also reply with the opposite view when someones says the UK is a hell hole or alternatively heaven on earth.

I love checking BE to see if anyone has posted any little crumb of information about their experience, its all just so helpful for those of us looking to make the move too.

I really hope that either Mr & Mrs London1947 can find a way to access and enjoy some of the wonderful things the UK has to offer or are able to find a way to return to the US without putting themselves in great financial hardship. I wish them all the luck in the world.

But some of what she posted is completely untrue (kids kicked out of school at 15, properties unable to get a water meter etc). We're not 'burying our heads', simply correcting her wrong statements.

If you live in a crap area and really do have problems with all of the things that you've mentioned, then you do have my sympathies, but you can't assume that all of us have those things.

You've got to remember though that VAT isn't applicable on everything. So for somebody like me, with kids (no VAT on children's supplies), pets (no VAT on animal feed), living in a solely electric property (only 5% VAT on fuel) etc, VAT isn't as relevant as it would be in other countries where sales tax is charged on everything.

I'd suggest that before moving back to the US at vast expense, you simply move to a different area. I genuinely don't recognise the UK you've described, have never dialled 101 in my life (and only dialled 999 once for that matter, when a colleague had a fit at work) and don't know all these problem teenagers you mentioned. The teenagers I know are all hard working and polite.

So perhaps moving to different area might solve some of your wife's issues?

Don't worry, they have just brought a new law in that make it easy to get rid of people the UK doesn't like. It seems the only people who can never have UK citizenship removed are those who were born British and have no claim to any other citizenship whatsoever. The rest, behave!

It seems it's Devon

Amongst other things, s(he)'s alluding to the high rate of teenage pregnancy in the UK (and it is very high in comparison to other western European countries). The weird thing is that s(he) has moved from a country with a far higher rate of teenage pregnancy:

Just looked back on your posts London1947. After 30 years of you living and working in the US, what made you want to leave the US 3 years ago, when you were in your mid 60s and then sponsor your wife to the UK?

Perhaps your wife is too fixed in her ways to stay in the UK? Did she even take long holidays in the UK before she moved her life to the UK?

Can you get all your healthcare paid back in the US if you both return?