dunroving

Yes, watching the news on Syria puts life in perspective.

not2old

of course it takes a special person or one that is so ticked off they'll do anything to better themselves, make the lifestyle changes necessary to move away or return back home

Those lifetime welfare scroungers in the UK are unlikely to want to emigrate IMO

We don't know out of all the millions that emigrated in the past 50 years how many as a percentage went back to the UK & stayed

I stick by my 'I had nothing when I left the UK to come to Canada' - so for me it was up hill all the way & I don't know whether I would have achieved what I have done here or had a better life had I stayed in the UK.

Having a comfort zone can be a sense of security, even for those that have been away from the UK for a very long time

Its good to reflect to remember ones roots & where we came from, all that we had or did not have

TheEmperorIsNaked

That's identical to me. A situation at the time had me on the 'bones of...
It was ironically far simpler because of that. What I banked here at the time was $15!!
.........but one is young, fired with pioneering spirit! I hit the ground at warp speed! And without question the opportunities here were abundant-but I 'earned' them.

The return is vastly more complicato! Much the same has occurred, but the system is now beset with trip wires.

I'll be glad when it's over. One way or the other!

Seabird

Reassuring!!

The_Pom_From_Aus

The occasional riot: are you all there in the head or what, i wonder what your comments may have been if you was in London or other cities when all this rioting was going on.

TheEmperorIsNaked

This is the universal mystery isn't it? The capacity for people to make a judgement based on the level of their intellect.

I want to thank you, you demonstrate this so well.

scot47

Come to a place where we don't do riots - with the added advantage that there is a good chance that aftyer September 2014 we will no longer be part of the decaying remnants of the Empire !

Karrie72

While the UK is generally much safer than other parts of the world, I can't deny that there are no go areas. My parents live in an up and coming, trendy corner of Hackney. During the day it's buzzy with fancy deli's, coffee bars, organic butchers and the like. However after 5pm on a summer evening you wouldn't want to be out. The streets get taken over by loud, hostile youths and there is crime, some of it violent.

Lothianlad

Over recent years Hackney has changed out of all recognition from the way it once was.

It is indeed quite up market and trendy and home to a large number of wealthy people from all walks of life living in lovely homes in areas once made up almost entirely of run down two up and two down terraced houses in narrow streets, once very much associated with the East End of London, much of which were obliterated by WW2 bombing.

But it still contains large estates occupied mainly by socially deprived people, the majority of whom are from an ethnic background, making the area very multi cultural, which may go some way to explain the less savoury side to night time Hackney, E8 / E9.

TheEmperorIsNaked

Escape to the Country is doing Bute/Argyll tonight. I shall watch it with great interest.....

TheEmperorIsNaked

Interesting comment. It is not unheard of to have a 'less savoury' situation in a totally....'non-ethnic' area either.
I live in a top socio economic area. The brothel was 4 doors away. They kept a light on (not red!) at night. I have a sunset switch.
I got the 'john's' at all hours. I finally had to put a note by my bell " you want -----. She lives at number --."
Our 'Serve and Protect' were wonderful, they told me to turn my sunset switch off..

We still have two top end brothels on two very prominent high end real estate streets. Oh yes-and patrons enjoying a coffee in our restaurant belt street here, had to dodge bullets when caught in a range war between two dining bikers-and their sworn enemies (enema's); another biker group who simply fired through the glass frontage.
(Nice result; they fired back, one shooter was hit, he was later murdered).

I got shards of glass in my ice-cream. That really nissed me pof.

Just another day in the paradise of our modern day society.

Karrie72

Just wanted to say Emperor that I enjoy your 'turn of phrase' and your posts make me chuckle and think.

Karrie72

Very true, by day it's a trendy enclave of cyclists, yummy mummies and joggers, by night a no go area. Isn't London lovely? I mean that in the most sincere way.

robin1234

My point was that there has been rioting in England for many hundreds of years, not in epidemic proportions but certainly a feature of English life. Do you dispute this?

martinw01908

I just spent a day looking at many of the shoe boxes that pass for a 3 bedroom detached house these days (all built after the 1980's). I've come away thinking how on earth these tiny things with bedrooms barely large enough to swing a cat are 'worth' the asking prices of £220K. The gardens are also tiny. USA/Canada/Ireland/Spain are all much cheaper with a decent plot and house size although the standard of build you get in Ireland is not very good unless its new.