I'm not sure that something is "up" with the UK. If you're involved in a start-up company near the Old Street hub, or a doctor raking it in, I suspect you're doing rather well. Rents are still increasing in London to the relief of many a BTL landlord! What may have changed is the employment situation in the public sector - a lot of jobs are being cut. Maybe your family visitors are expecting to be made redundant soon (with big payouts) and thinking of selling up and moving to a cheaper sunnier country?

In truth all of Europe´s youth will follow the USA for whatever reason, this even applies to my generation and yes I know that this is a generalisation but to me it is true. Films, tv have all glamourised the USA and lets face it constant pounding from the media works otherwise no-one would waste their time advertising.

Graham

I don't know anyone who wants to leave the UK except those who have got good job prospects in New Zealand, USA etc. However, I don't know any losers (yet) who want to blow away their redundancy in a country that has 30% unemployment in coastal areas. I do know quite a few who want to leave Spain and have their houses on sale...I suppose you know that though with the thousands of properties on sale, unless they are all moving up the ladder

I think most British who are/were thinking of moving to Spain no longer see it as a place to open a business.

Those on fixed income are basing the calculations on a more realistic rate of exchange pound to euro, and a lot less pensioners are thinking of relocating than when the pound was high.

That is a big advantage, as they will not see their income fall dramatically the way others have.

Moving up the ladder........havin a larf aintcha?

I think things are so volatile in all countries that it is time to batten down the hatches and pull up the drawbridge until things are a little clearer. All countries are struggling.

It seems that Spain is still popular with the Brits:
Spain celebrates tourism boom as Britons flock back to its beaches

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/ar...k-beaches.html

Funnily enough London's been packed out with tourists this year, many of them Spanish. Seems that some folk (perhaps those in work but paying off a mortgage with low interest rates) aren't doing so badly. Let's hope the economies can improve for everyone soon

my flight from Stansted was more than half full of Spaniards, seemed nice people.

It could be an act of desperation, people wanting to leave the nothing they feel they have (or haven't) got at home.
There will always be those who want to "give it a go" especially if they fell in love with the place after coming here for holidays over the last couple of years. All that sun, all those tourists, should make a killing.

I could come up with at least 6 totally different business ideas for Spain, but have grown very sceptical and realistic having spent more time here and not in the touristy areas. All would need serious money to stay afloat for 6-12m before starting to make useful income, especially as discussed elsewhere Spain isnt renowned for its help to budding entrepreneurs, but they don't know that. That is where people will (and do) come unstuck, you cant take money out of the till and hope to stay afloat. But there's only one way people will find out - the hard way.
This is a time, as Jacky says, to batted down the hatches and ride out the storm. It would be better if we could stop all the speculators on the money markets etc from selling the crown jewels. Any actions taken by govts must be allowed time (a year or more) to bed in and start working, its no use some eejut running around shouting after a week or so.

sri rant over...
back to conjugating my verbals or something

In times of real crisis, the folk that have nothing move to countries that can offer them more in the way of prospecst and security.

So if we are talking about folk that might take a chance on moving to Spain because they feel they have nothing, well then really they are coming on a whim as far as I am concerned.

And if you keep practising conjiggerating ( or conjiguerando )your verbs, you will get there in the end. ja ja

My own conclusion about the ever-growing masses wanting to escape the UK for Spain is that they can see for themselves that a million expats already here are loving it. The ones it hasn't worked out for are back in the UK, but the ones still here after four years of recession are probably here to stay.

We are taking our current future-expat to Orihuela Costa this morning, a place already swarming with expats; they already have an expat councillor on the local council. We will show her the good and the bad, the bad consisting of unfinished urbanisations that are half empty.

And the good? From most of this sprawling coastline full of expats you can walk to the glistening Mediterranean sea in a few minutes, you will never miss anything from back home because you will be back home, but in perpetual sunshine.

It won't put her off, how can it?

(We're going to have coffee in a cliff-top restaurant with astounding views, she won't find that back home on the outskirts of rain-sodden Glasgow).

Well last time I was up that way,there were some lovely places reasonably close to the outskirts of Glasgow.
Loch Lomond just up the road, Lovely islands just of the coast and some pretty countryside both to the South and West. Nice coastal resorts, the Trossachs, etc,etc,etc.

I used to love it up there and probably I was just plain lucky, because of all the time I spent up there I can't off-hand recall a single rain-sodden day.

But to be fair, on my recent excursion to Scotland we passed by Glasgow over the Erskine Bridge, and it was very rain sodden ... as was the rest of Scotland

Personally, I dont think it would be "better abroad" for the majority of the UK population. People in the UK have a comfortable life, high employment, relatively high wages and generous benefits

However, it is incredible the amount of Brits who want to move abroad

When we moved to Barcelona suddenly all my friends who we thought were very happy in London wanted to move too. I received long emails and CVs asking what they needed to do to get a job in Spain. I had to send emails back saying "learn Spanish for a start"!

We loved our time in London but were put off by the high house prices - £1 million plus for a family house in the area we lived in - and the long working hours, meaning if we were going to start a family it would be very stressful. Food and weather were also a factor, but very much secondary.

I never rule out going back though. I think of London as a safety net in case work runs out.

I lived up there for quite a few years and can't recall one really sunny day, not one. I do agree on the beauty of the surrounding countryside, especially its greenery and many lochs.

The greenery and deep lochs are due to the incessant rain over the centuries.

There's a geographical reason for it. The prevailing winds from both the Irish sea on the doorstep and the North Sea a few miles away have carried clouds full of rain over giant oceans and as soon as they hear a Glasgow accent they drop the lot.

One of our neighbours is Scottish and has been in Spain for 8 years. they would love to go back to Scotland and take a croft again, but when they remember what the weather was like, they have second thoughts.

They love Scotland, they love the countryside, but they seldom got the chance to enjoy it because of contant rain, winds etc whick kept them insde the house