rebs

Interesting article about how wrong the public perception is on a few key things in the UK...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...s-8697821.html

I think the media have a lot to answer for in this mismatch...

Harvester523

Probably very true! I often watch from the sidelines in this forum, as I'm not looking to move back, now or possibly ever. But sometimes in the back of my mind is 'what if' (i.e. if I was left here on my own, would I go back?).
I used to live near Banbury, and looking at police.co.uk, the amount of crime is horrendous, but how much has it changed since I was there - not a lot I suspect, and apart from a few events that made the news, it was actually quite a peaceful place to live. Not somewhere I'd walk around after dark, but I liked it all the same. Where I live now is probably equivalent to the middle of the highlands as far as crime goes.
When I first started work in London, 40+ years ago, there was an unmarried mother in my office, and one of my friends in primary school went on to drugs, not to mention my best friend's boyfriend who was charged for carrying an offensive weapon and stealing 200 packs of playing cards (nice guy but very stupid) - shock!
IMO I don't think much has changed except the increasing number of people living in an ever decreasing space.

rebeccajo

LOL the comments are hilarious! People get angry with each and start calling each other "fat"!!!!

scot47

What do you expect when people rely on the Daily Mail and the Idiot Box for information ?

sallysimmons

Exactly my experience. I find this to be a lovely place to live with very few problems compared to the US. But most people who live here imagine the opposite to be true.

Sally Redux

I think some form of mass psychosis is gripping the country.

rebeccajo

We have that over here too. It's promoted by Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and the like. The "followers" call themselves the "Tea Party" but they are all Republicans.

They got their a$$e$ handed to them in the last election. And it was women and immigrants who helped make that happen.

Keep your fingers crossed for the same in your country in 2015.

chris955

The amount of misinformation and misconceptions about this country by both British people and Australians is staggering. The latter seem happy to come up with the most unbelievable and incredible 'facts' about the UK they heard from the brother of a girl a mate once met. The problem is Brits are only too happy to believe it. If I told someone that 50% of the population will be a victim of serious crime they will say oh yes its awful isnt it? Ask them if they know anyone at all who has been a victim of serious crime and most wouldnt but it is asier to just believe a statistic no matter how outrageous.
The difference I have found about Australia and the UK is that in UK people are only too happy to believe that everything is awful and getting worse whereas in Australia most will deny there is much wrong. Both are equally wrong.

TheEmperorIsNaked

I return after a lengthy break from BE,-but only because of the utter delight that 'Returning to' is now my category! Something that I thought was impossible, and then found out in February (through savvy expat posters) of this year, that return was possible.

I return to the UK in November after 36 years in Australia. I lost myself here, and for the last two years have medical confirmation that the place was slowly killing me. I already knew it was doing that emotionally. Hospitalized again two weeks ago, my fervent hope is that I can stay upright long enough to get on the damn plane!

I am battled scarred and cynical enough to have had this mantra long before I heard 'Dr Phil' say it on the odious OzTV;- "there is no reality, only perception".

If you and you and you are settled in Australia, then good for you; it is your choice, and I wish you well. I did not come here 'to see if....'; I couldn't afford that. I came here to make Aus 'my country'. For me it wasn't an effort that was needed,-it was settling to the philosophy that I was 'home'.

It just never happened. Not once in 36 years did I feel anything but an outsider in another's country. And NO it was NOT due to my attitude-or perhaps it was. Perhaps it was my attitude to what I saw and what I experienced in these years.
I have to say that the main culprits that influenced my negativity were the British; my countrymen. They have compounded and enhanced the contempt Aus' (I refuse to use Oz-it is too affectionate a phrase for me) have for the UK; particularly the English.

It is not good for the soul to hold fire for years on end, but I have held my tongue for over three decades because I felt as if I was in an 'occupied country'. It is not healthy to speak publicly of this distaste when we are supposed to be 'living the dream.....mate'. And yet? in that time I have endured incessant and repeated criticism of the UK; the English.
It's racism, and one side of my culture has already experienced this, I know it well; it IS racism.

What has brought this about? Well lying and plain marketing-for many decades. Perception.
The British Government needed to populate the new colony.........and we were the right colour after all? The Aus Government worked in conjunction with this and they have done so ever since.

Aus was/is promoted by Government's/media/and settlers as the 'dream'. That is still happening today with stupid programmes-particularly 'Fantasy Homes Downunder' (which was amusing when potential migrants realised they would need to be at least an hour from the city to get any bang for their buck! Not to worry, they are then shown a luxury home that is way out of their price range to further perpetuate the myth).

It is not acknowledged by either Government that increasing numbers of people are returning to the UK each year. That many of the '£10 Poms' returned because they complained that they were lied to. It has nothing to do with 'not wanting to work hard',-it had everything to do with being misled; and it still goes on today.

BUT: there is a Aus rationale for this; 'Whinging Poms'. Effectively if you don't like our dream, then it isn't so much that it isn't actually a dream;-it's you and your moaning.

I have to say that in general the Australian does not put his/her country down; to the contrary. Now look at the British?
Many are content; many are OK; but so many more do nothing but run down their country. It is undeniably a welcome mat for the British settler to Aus if they do the same. They know how to fit in. Miriam Margoyles did it when she became an Australian. How to win friends and influence people eh?

I am unaware of Aus' in the UK being ridiculed along their country, but the other way around?
Government's have promoted the myth; media from both countries the same, and settled British migrants are only too willing to turn on those who don't see 'The Dream'.

Whether that survey is accurate or not, it does show a general perception that the UK is some sort of cesspit, overrun with foreigners and terrorists.

For me Aus is vinyl. It is bright, it comes in vibrant colours,-you get plenty of it. The UK is leather. It is torn and scratched in places, it has some holes in it, and in places it is burnished and glowing.

I prefer leather.

No apologies for the length of this.

colchar

The comments sections often provide far more entertainment than the article itself!

quoll

Just want to say, Good Luck with your move Emperor!!!! I know just where you are coming from about Aus slowly killing you! I, for one, have had a new lease of life returning to UK - lost 25kg, increased my fitness levels 100% and off all the meds I had been taking for years! It can happen when you "belong" and stop living behind a mask every day. I despair of the Daily Fail and its "bad news sells" mantra - they don't realise how powerful they could be in changing sheeples perceptions about how great this place really is!

RedDragon2008

That's the crux of it

TheEmperorIsNaked

G'day (!!) Quoll!

I am making sure I keep a level head and don't get carried away with the perception that it 'will all be lovely from now on', but: it will be better. I know it will be better, because the things that could cause it to fail don't interest me.

I have no ties here that could have me pining to go back, rather to the contrary...
And I have the strongest perception of being on a path that ceases to exist behind me as I take each step forward. I could never, EVER return here.

I might struggle a bit, particularly at the beginning, but I have a fairly blinkered view of 'do what has to be done, then settle down'.

I only hope I can rediscover a wee bit of who I used to be. I liken the narrowing of my world to that fading out of a screen where it darkens around the edges and the centre light area fades to a dot.
I am perfectly sane!! and communicate when I have to but I don't even open the blinds now, they are kept permanently closed, because I cannot stand the 'planet of the apes' neighbourhood I live in....and believe it or not this is a high socio-economic area with Dr's and Lawyers in abundance!

I am sick of all night parties, barking dogs, cats fouling my garden, and arrogant selfish attitudes.
Does this occur in the UK-well of course! But where I'm going I will minimise the risk of it unless I end up amongst geriatric hoons!

Gawd knows, if all else fails I will walk in the countryside-and hopefully without slathering myself with SPF30, mozzie repellent and taking at least a litre of water!

127 days. And counting.

quoll

We were up in the Lakes a couple of weeks ago and my DH kept shaking his head and muttering about how many fit and healthy looking elderly folk there were - he was surprised that we were median age and they all were togged out in good walking gear! I think he was a bit envious that his Achilles was playing up so we weren't able to walk far! One of my friends here says that her mum who lives in the Lakes lives in a place with a couple of shops which have the largest selection of Happy 90/100 birthday cards - one at the top of the hill, the other at the bottom!

You're right, nowhere is perfect, some are just more perfect than others!

TheEmperorIsNaked

(Hmmm still struggling with fonts. I use Georgia everywhere, but got the sizing wrong)

Interesting observations Quoll,-there's hope for me yet! I think tourists in the Lake District in particular are eco-tourists, and not the candy floss and Blackpool Rock types (though I'm partial to both!).

I wish I had not given up my sheepskin boots,-they were more sturdy that the Ugg boots I have here-I mean for when it snows. I haven't seen snow in 36 years!...though there are the high country snowfield areas in Vic and NSW of course. (I telt a lie!! I saw snow on Mt Wellington in Hobart in 1997!)
I still have my sheepskin mitts though, they will be pressed back into service.

I can't come to grips with what to wear on the plane. I will leave in heat, and arrive in cold-layers perhaps ?

Only one thing worries me about returning. In SA we have allegedly the second highest power costs in the developed world so that has no fear for me!
It's the calls-timed phone calls by necessity there will be much phoning around to do, and being put on hold is a worry.....

(I am bringing my Goblin Teasmade back! That will be an early morning comfort! )