Re: Why do people continue to knock Britain on this forum ??
 

Property prices will alway's rocket when you live on a small island with and increasing population and a diminishing land bank, that is obvious :rofl:

I would not wish either to live with Russians in London, nor the French either who have a few hundred thousand living in London and which the President of France say's is one of his capital cities, and he has to count on it for a great majority of his votes :rofl:

If you care to live on the Island of Skye you will have a wonderful time without any crime whatsoever but you will depending where you live on the island have a long way to go for a pint:rofl: .......but you can guarantee she will miss her curries :eek:

But I for one would have no wish to live in London especially south london with it's growing problems :eek:

Re: Why do people continue to knock Britain on this forum ??
 

Very amusing - totally wrong, but amusing.

Re: Why do people continue to knock Britain on this forum ??
 

Agree with point about South London,it appears to be going further and further downhill,I was brought up there so wont go on about 'good old days',
its always been a dumpbut a dump with good people,not so nowadays.
Good point with the overcrowding,always feel hemmed in in the UK,with no real privacy!

Re: Why do people continue to knock Britain on this forum ??
 

Trouble is how one defines rich.....no matter how much you have , there is always someone with a lot more and someone else with a lot less. I don't decry ambition, a luxurious lifestyle, good food, champagne (well mostly Cava) but I couldn't give a hoot about peer pressure. If I cannot afford the pool and the villa, I would prefer to camp on the beach, as I once did for a whole week at Zahara de los Atunes in my youth. I think that is what is missing in Britain is that we threw out values from the 50's and 60's (thankfully) went through a perio0d in the 70s and 80s of thinking that peace and love could solve everything, a bit like born again Christians, but have, on the whole, never given the current generation of young people anything to replace it with. My mothers generation talk about how sexually restricted they were, compared with todays young people. And heaven forbid a return to Victorian hypocrisy...but we have never replaced it with anything halfway in between. As for most of the TV discussions they are abysmal. Only Tricia seems to get anywhere near.
We still have a nudge nudge seaside postcard attitude to sex, all page three but never any really open discussion..hence the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Europe. Similarly with material values. We are better off now than we ever were..even the humblest home will have a washing machine and a fridge..luxuries are now essentials, central heating is the norm, but we don't appreciate it. Interestingly my Spanish friends are now commenting on the Spanish 'Nouveau Riche' who are adopting different values.I hope we don't end up like Christian Fletcher and the mutineers in the south seas. They thought they had found paradise, but introduced veneral disease, jealousy and murder. I hope we don't taint the Spanish ideals in a similar way.

Re: Why do people continue to knock Britain on this forum ??
 

WE ALL GOING TO HAVE BIG LAUGH ON THIS FORUM NOW ! IMMATURE WITH SMALL MINDS COULDNT MAKE SUCCESS OF THERE LIFE IN UK WHAT A LOAD OFF SHIT SAYS MR TRUE BRIT WHO LIVES IN HOUSTON TEXAS !

Re: Why do people continue to knock Britain on this forum ??
 

Totally agree with 'depends on how one defines rich',virtually all of the people I mentioned who are attempting to get rich are constantly comparing themselves to others,sand dont seem to have any real friends!Not a good way to be in my book!
For me wealth is defined by a good family,good friends,and a comfortable life.
This was shown to me in very stark terms when we had a family bereavemnt in the Madrid train bombings,and all of a sudden all the things I had collected about me meant absoloutly nothing,not a thing!
Dont really know about older values as only born in 1988!,but yes there doesnt really seem to be a lot of 'core values' about anymore.

Re: Why do people continue to knock Britain on this forum ??
 

SPOT ON BIG PETE GREAT QUOTE

Re: Why do people continue to knock Britain on this forum ??
 

Why did you leave Scotland

Re: Why do people continue to knock Britain on this forum ??
 

Totally agree I try not to read the papers just depressing stuff, Spring in the UK is beautiful the smell of freshly cut grass. I will miss these things but life is an adventure.

Helen:)

Re: Why do people continue to knock Britain on this forum ??
 

I use the above as an example, it is not a specific reply to this post.


I am really struggling with all this. If you'd all have moved to some Utopian state with zero crime and love hanging from the trees I could accept some of your points. But you chose to move to one of the most corrupt countries in the developed world, with crime, immigration, prostitution etc at least on par with the UK.
If these are truly the reasons why you left the UK, why did you not research your destination?

Re: Why do people continue to knock Britain on this forum ??
 

Street gangs in every big town,crime in every big town,not just in South east London,corruption world wide,if you cant stand the heat get out of the kitchen,running away from the problem wont make it go away,it will eventually follow you till it consumes you,must stand up and fight the cancer that has attacked us,you seem to have escaped,I too some times escape,but allways return,Iam Scottish but live in South east London,its worth fighting for.

Re: Why do people continue to knock Britain on this forum ??
 

You have a very wise head for someone so young.. be interesting to hear where you got your values from. And you say there are core values missing. True. Universal truths. We can never have an equal society.. give everyone a million and in ten years time we will still have inequality. What we have to offer is equal opportunity. The die hards in South Africa always promoted apartheid as a separate development based on the Black African having a different way of life to the White African. However they never acknowledged the enormous disparity in terms of education and essential services between the two, and the fact that the luxurious lifestyles of the whites were acheived by the miserable existences of the blacks.
My great grand parents were working class squaddies who escaped their miserable working class poverty ridden uneducated lives by joining the army and going to India, where they were immediately elevated to a more comfortable life, although inherent with the risks of tropical disease, loneliness and isolation. I cannot help but see a parallell with the Brits who want to escape from their difficult lives to Spain in the hopes of achieving something similar. I don't place the retired folk in this category. My greatgrandparents did what they thought best, but one has to acknowledge that this was achieved only because they were removed from the bottom tier and placed on the one somewhere in the middle..ie at the expense of the native Indian. The way the expats are able to afford homes and pools beyond what they would be able to afford in Britain in many cases, and I INCLUDE MYSELF in this category. I never knew them, but I wonder if they spent time knocking the country they were forced to leave to better themselves ?? I know they were planning to return eventually in their seventies but died before they could make the jourmey.
To then spend time knocking this initial kick off that gave many of us the chance to live well is what instigated some of this thread. That's why it is so essential to ensure that we as incomers provide some benefits to the existing inhabitants. We use a caretaking service that employs Spanish people, use Spanish shops etc. I sometimes wonder if we need to stop thinking of borders and countries and think of sharing the planet as a whole. And take more responsibility for our lives and stop always blaming others for it's shortcomings.

Re: Why do people continue to knock Britain on this forum ??
 

I think you will find private schools have their fare share of boozing, drugs and shoplifting please do not get carried away with the idea they don't, you only have to look at Royalty and leading public figures to see that argument falls flat on it's face.

Re: Why do people continue to knock Britain on this forum ??
 

Spot on.

I see and hear of little crime in the UK as I live in a village. However, that's not to say that it doesn't exist. The same applies to the area of Spain that I visit frequently. I too fail to understand the mentality of the "knock Britain brigade" when they have chosen to live in Spain.

Re: Why do people continue to knock Britain on this forum ??
 

Good thread Poollounger,

Britain seems to me to be a better place than its been for 40 years - wealthy, cosmopolitan, confident. The Daily Mail doomsayers really are a strange bunch, who seem to discount problems of the past and over-state current ones. Rubbish piling up in the streets, electricity going off, 4 day weeks, no jobs, limited opportunities, terrible inflation or interest rates, the joys of the 70's & 80's.

The idea that south London is worse than it used to be I find laughable really, remember the Brixton riots? The closest thing to riot in Brixton now is outside an estate agents windows in protest at the huge prices.

Even things like peoples access to credit etc is seen negatively - it was only 35 years ago that many poorer people couldn't get a mortgage and help pull themselves upwards, you had to borrow from the Council or one of very few building societies where they had wait list of years. Now, those at the bottom of the pile have more chances to move upwards and yet the papers lament how the irresponsible banks lend multiples that are too high.

Whilst I prefer the low-key attitude of the Brits (I live in the US at the moment and everything is "like totally awesome" even if it is just a toothbrush) it also seem to produce a rampant negativity and a tendency to see the bad side rather than the good.

I would recommend the Nationmaster website to anyone who wants to compare UK issues with those of other countries.