St.Georges Girl

What a great post. Could not have put it better myself.

cricket1again

There is far too much of the old establishment and their money left in the UK for it to sink. The British public are being sold a line, 'it's OK, don't panic, we're here to rescue you now as long as you realise that you might have to pay later, but that's OK, we're doing it all for you'.
The real reason England won't sink is because while they're busy protecting the establishments old money, they are protecting you too.
This means you are safe in England because it has an established wealth and beurocracy. It rarely gets challenged successfully.
For example, we're supposed to live in an equal, multi cultural society and Britain is the epitome of being so PC.

Correct me if I'm wrong, I studied Law for a while and things may have changed but I doubt it, but to date there is not a single female or ethnic individual sitting in the House of Lords as a judge. They are all white, Oxford educated and ready to meet the grave.

While these archaic practises still govern England, do you seriously think, it faces financial ruin???? I doubt it.

ezzie

The whole point of this post is to provide a 'on the ground' view of someone coming back after 22 years. Yes, the news is depressing, but actually being sat in front of employment consultants and told 'there's nothing' or seeing empty job pages in the papers, or endless commission only sales jobs on careers websites is even more depressing.

I'm not going to bury my head in any Woman's Day type mag. I'm here to find out what the situation is really like, my family depends on this. I'm educated and sensible and believe I'm able to sort the hysteria from fact (plus I used to be a journalist which helps!). The UK has massive, and I mean, massive debts and is about to embark on a new frenzy of borrowing. This of course is more about saving Gordan Brown than Britain. It may well fail to stimulate spending; it'll be a very gloomy road for Britain if it does.

On travel - the only place we've found work (albeit contract work) is in the South East. But, we can't afford to live there, can't afford to travel there. Australia is economically far better placed to weather this storm, it has resources not widely available from other suppliers. OK, it's pretty screwed other than that, but it's mineral resources will see it through for the moment. This is part of our dilemma - return to a safer economic postion in Oz or risk it all in the UK. I'm sure we're not alone in this.

ezzie

They won't face ruin...they live in lovely parts of the country seperated from the dross of life. But the underclass, working class and lower middle classes will face massive hardships.

I'd love to say 'it's not as bad as they say' - God, I'd be writing 'made our decision, we're here to stay' in a blink of an eye. But the truth is, we're actually finding the reality is much worse than is being reported.

cricket1again

OK, but Australia's reserves and the dollar are based on what they have saved from their mineral exports. Once the demand for these drops, the dollar drops too and as their mining industry is their main trading commodity, they don't have much to fall back on.
The UK has reinvented itself many times over and come through times much worse. Good luck Ezzie, you know that doors open when you least expect it. You've only been back a short time and it sounds like it's been a trial.

lobby lou

Talking to friends and family ' i think this one will be up amongst the worst'
Look at the state of hospitals ,schools ,etc before the hit ...... i dont think reserve pots are full enough to cope..... i really dont thnk we could afford to live back there at the mo ,even having a home ,etc there already
I wish you all the best of luck , as i think its going to be a bumpy ride

Giantaxe

So the media is actually portaying the situation pretty accurately!

The UK actually has less debt as a percentage of GDP than many western countries.

Deficit spending during a recession, especially one that will be as deep and long as this one will almost certainly be, makes a lot of sense. What you can blame Brown for is the fact that the UK was running a deficit during the boom times as well, which makes the current borrowing situation all the more risky.

Depends on the demand for said resources. If China's growth slows or stalls, then Australia isn't well diversified to to deal with it.

ezzie

Damn....Tom Tom is officially stuffed. Has taken two days of downloads and phone calls to Tom Tom for this to be verified! Worse news is that they refuse to repair any without a receipt!!!!!!!!!!! It's just 2 weeks old and stuffed...buy a Navman everyone!

Picked girls up from school....not good, they're encountering hateful bitchyness from the girls at the school and rampant sexual come-ons from the boys. Apparently no one in their year can believe they haven't had sex yet....the news that they haven't even kissed a boy was greeted with disbelief!

Son has plans to start a business selling cigarettes with all the fags he's been offered today. Kids have semi-official 'fag break' in between double periods!!!!

Have just managed to bring horse in without having my feet stepped on or arm bit off - probably due to the fact that this time I went armed to the gunnells with apples.

Off into the dark to pick up friends kids from a school somewhere with no sat nav.....heeyeellppppp!

sans

So is all this happening in this top school you was refering to earlier on in your thread ????

ezzie

No, of course not. The school the TV mob suggested we could go to was a top performing grammar which we'd have little chance of going to.

sans

Was just asking

babycart

Great read, the programme you were involved in was a complete manipulation of trying to sell GB as the place to be. I think that it is frightening that the UK public will be feed a programme that is so contrived. That is no way a reality show; its just another director’s perspective on what s/he thinks will sell. Sorry to say but this kind of programming should be banned.

England is different things to different people, but the notion that everything in "white" rural England is great and "Scum” immigrants have destroyed everything that is great about Britain is a joke. As a previous post stated, Britain’s downfall is the establishment that only seeks to serve its self interest. It is very sad but NuLabor (Blair & Brown) have screwed up the UK for generations.

The world is going through a downturn; every country in the World is going to be impacted in some way or another, however most economists predict that the UK will come out of this a lot worse than other countries. The reason for this is that the UK has been sold the worst spin, smoke & mirrors polities certainly in my lifetime. Darling has the audacity to say this will be a shallow recession, and everything will be back to normal by 2010. Great I wish I had his crystal ball of lies to look into.

If you have a job & can pay your way then a recession is irrelevant for you but a fact of life for some other poor sod.

Nostalgia and sentiments are two strong emotions that will always make England a great place to be, but the unfortunately reality of what is happening to the UK is the reason why so many people leave or want to leave. You and your family have different reasons for wanting to stay or go back to Australia, and that is down to your personal choices. At least you have a choice to go to two developed countries in the world, certainly a choice a lot of immigrants don’t have.

cricket1again

It isn't the threat of losing jobs that's causing the doom factor, although it may be contributing. It's people's expectations of money. I watch people here, especially younger people. My neighbours son, aged 25, drives a brand new car on hire purchase, so does his girlfriend. Mobile phone bills each month around $1,000, credit card debt of $20,000, store card debt of $10,000socialising costs incomprehensible, all pretending to be someone because they're frightened of being nobody.

They were in my house recently begrudging the fact that I own my house while 'they can't afford one'. I didn't buy a car till I was 32, I owned 2 houses by the age of 25 but owning my own home was my top priority. I still don't have a brand new car and I've just bought a kitchen off Ebay for $662 while I'm renovating my current home.


Yep, this recession is going to hurt a lot of people mostly though it's because they are already far too much in debt. It's going to be a hard lesson in taking personal responsibility. It will hurt other people too but we're not back to the 3 day working week yet, or food rationing or anything like how it's been in previous years.

Ezzie, the way you describe schools, I don't think that's just the UK. It's pretty much everywhere.

Just one question, I have to ask because it baffles the life out of me. Do you think you might be trying to fit back into your old life and it's just not there anymore?
I read the threads and it seems a lot people leave the UK to escape what they think is an unhappy life, then they don't like it here and they want their old life back. So they return to the UK and of course they're unhappy because they've gone back to the situation they tried to escape in the first place.

If you're going to return to the UK, isn't it a better idea to create a new life in a new place and completely reinvent yourself?

Notts_bloke

Shock of the centuary! Teens smoke and have sex!

lucy71

Hi ezzie

I was very interested to read your observations on life back in the UK. I'm sorry to hear the tv programme wasn't what you might have expected. It sounds a bit one sided to me and not very realistic. We returned to the uk after nearly 4 years in oz and have had a lot of similar epiphanies about the uk to you. best of luck with whatever you decide to do!