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Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

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Old Dec 17th 2010, 1:25 am
  #61  
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by Bob
Aye, the biggest bugger is getting sick and then getting sacked because you're sick and then losing that great healthcare. It can all change very quickly.
Where "quickly" is the operative word. I've seen this play out all too often and it's both scary and tragic.
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Old Dec 17th 2010, 1:27 am
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by Giantaxe
Where "quickly" is the operative word. I've seen this play out all too often and it's both scary and tragic.
Yeah try..October to December.....
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Old Dec 17th 2010, 4:22 am
  #63  
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by Hubcaps
I'm sure no-one has been bankrupted but many people have died through lack of care, treatment and drugs there (yes and here too).
I agree nowhere is perfect it's just the NHS is not a reason I feel I would return to the UK.
Maybe I have a rose-tinted pair of specs on when it comes to living in this tiny bit of the world I just hope nothing comes along to shatter that view
To be fair, you haven't been living here 6 months yet, the others posting vary from 5 to 34 years.
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Old Dec 17th 2010, 4:24 am
  #64  
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by Cape Blue
To be fair, you haven't been living here 6 months yet, the others posting vary from 5 to 34 years.
That does not mean I can't prefer living here to the UK. I've lived in the UK for over 40 years, I'm glad to see the back of the place.
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Old Dec 17th 2010, 4:30 am
  #65  
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by Hubcaps
That does not mean I can't prefer living here to the UK. I've lived in the UK for over 40 years, I'm glad to see the back of the place.
Yes, I gather you are glad to see the back of the UK, I was pointing out that, at less than 6 months, you may still be in the holiday period.
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Old Dec 17th 2010, 4:49 am
  #66  
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by Cape Blue
Yes, I gather you are glad to see the back of the UK, I was pointing out that, at less than 6 months, you may still be in the holiday period.
I doubt it. I'm amazed how quickly we have all settled here. Having daily routines of work and school, cooking, cleaning, shopping etc. I am fully aware we are living here and it not at all feeling like a holiday or in a honeymoon period, that wore off pretty much as soon as the kids started school and the bills started rolling in. I live here. It's my home.

From a different perspective, as someone who has recently left the UK I do think that a lot of people do look back at the place with rosy tinted specs. Someone who has been away from it for 35 years might not realise just what a dump the UK has become and no amount of country walks and sunday lunches in country pubs can alter that. The growing "underclass" and dawn and subsequent celebration of the chav culture are just some of the things ruining the UK.
If my opinion doesn't count about the US because I haven't been here long enough, does that mean my dislike of the UK is valid because I have just left it?
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Old Dec 17th 2010, 4:58 am
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by Hubcaps
I doubt it. I'm amazed how quickly we have all settled here. Having daily routines of work and school, cooking, cleaning, shopping etc. I am fully aware we are living here and it not at all feeling like a holiday or in a honeymoon period, that wore off pretty much as soon as the kids started school and the bills started rolling in. I live here. It's my home.

From a different perspective, as someone who has recently left the UK I do think that a lot of people do look back at the place with rosy tinted specs. Someone who has been away from it for 35 years might not realise just what a dump the UK has become and no amount of country walks and sunday lunches in country pubs can alter that. The growing "underclass" and dawn and subsequent celebration of the chav culture are just some of the things ruining the UK.
If my opinion doesn't count about the US because I haven't been here long enough, does that mean my dislike of the UK is valid because I have just left it?
I must say I think it's somewhat over the top to label the entire country a 'dump'. There are plenty of super-crap areas in the US if you take your own rosy specs off.
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Old Dec 17th 2010, 5:04 am
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by Sally Redux
I must say I think it's somewhat over the top to label the entire country a 'dump'. There are plenty of super-crap areas in the US if you take your own rosy specs off.
Which is why I am only talking about the one bit I live in here (as I've stated before) and many many places in the UK where I've lived.
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Old Dec 17th 2010, 5:24 am
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by Hubcaps
I doubt it. I'm amazed how quickly we have all settled here. Having daily routines of work and school, cooking, cleaning, shopping etc. I am fully aware we are living here and it not at all feeling like a holiday or in a honeymoon period, that wore off pretty much as soon as the kids started school and the bills started rolling in. I live here. It's my home.

From a different perspective, as someone who has recently left the UK I do think that a lot of people do look back at the place with rosy tinted specs. Someone who has been away from it for 35 years might not realise just what a dump the UK has become and no amount of country walks and sunday lunches in country pubs can alter that. The growing "underclass" and dawn and subsequent celebration of the chav culture are just some of the things ruining the UK.
If my opinion doesn't count about the US because I haven't been here long enough, does that mean my dislike of the UK is valid because I have just left it?
Of course you can have an opinion about the UK, I left in 2003 and was back in the UK for a couple of weeks in Oct - it didn't appear a great deal different to me. My mother gets good NHS care, my SIL has NHS/LA home-health visitors 4 times per day, my friends all seem to be doing pretty well financially and getting plenty of vacations in Europe etc.

My experience on this website is that many of those who leave the UK saying it had "gone to hell in a handbasket", "was a dump" and other sweeping generalizations, frequently seem to be the ones who end up heading back there in 1-3 years with their tails between their legs.
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Old Dec 17th 2010, 5:40 am
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by Cape Blue
Of course you can have an opinion about the UK, I left in 2003 and was back in the UK for a couple of weeks in Oct - it didn't appear a great deal different to me. My mother gets good NHS care, my SIL has NHS/LA home-health visitors 4 times per day, my friends all seem to be doing pretty well financially and getting plenty of vacations in Europe etc.

My experience on this website is that many of those who leave the UK saying it had "gone to hell in a handbasket", "was a dump" and other sweeping generalizations, frequently seem to be the ones who end up heading back there in 1-3 years with their tails between their legs.
Similar experience to yours, many members of my family have received amazing NHS care recently, 2 are getting the home visits 3 times a day, my friends are doing fine and most certainly do not live in dumps.
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Old Dec 17th 2010, 5:53 am
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by Cape Blue
Of course you can have an opinion about the UK, I left in 2003 and was back in the UK for a couple of weeks in Oct - it didn't appear a great deal different to me. My mother gets good NHS care, my SIL has NHS/LA home-health visitors 4 times per day, my friends all seem to be doing pretty well financially and getting plenty of vacations in Europe etc.

My experience on this website is that many of those who leave the UK saying it had "gone to hell in a handbasket", "was a dump" and other sweeping generalizations, frequently seem to be the ones who end up heading back there in 1-3 years with their tails between their legs.
But that's you and your friends and family, equally I could recite how the NHS has very badly let one of my immediate family members down, to the extent of them being put in a coma, how devastated many of my friends are that they were all given 90 days notice 2 weeks ago that their company was shutting down so no more vacations in Europe or anywhere else for them for a while. My views on the UK are from my own experience with friends and family which obviously hasn't been as wonderful and glowing as it has been for you and yours.
So yes I have a less than positive view of the UK.

And (at the risk of repeating myself again) I have said that if I were forced to leave here I wouldn't return to the UK if I could possibly avoid it. There's a great big wide world out there and I would just try somewhere else.
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Old Dec 17th 2010, 6:10 am
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by Hubcaps
From a different perspective, as someone who has recently left the UK I do think that a lot of people do look back at the place with rosy tinted specs. Someone who has been away from it for 35 years might not realise just what a dump the UK has become and no amount of country walks and sunday lunches in country pubs can alter that. The growing "underclass" and dawn and subsequent celebration of the chav culture are just some of the things ruining the UK.
I always felt I couldn't live and work in the UK until I went back and worked there for several months last year. I felt the country had improved immensely from when I left a quarter of a century ago. Do I prefer it to where I live in the US? Clearly not. But I'm very sceptical of those whose views of the two countries are as overwhelmingly black and white as yours. It'd be interesting to hear your views a few years down the road.
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Old Dec 17th 2010, 6:11 am
  #73  
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by Hubcaps
...how devastated many of my friends are that they were all given 90 days notice 2 weeks ago that their company was shutting down so no more vacations in Europe or anywhere else for them for a while.
You do realize that unemployment in the US is significantly higher than unemployment in the UK don't you?
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Old Dec 17th 2010, 6:17 am
  #74  
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by Giantaxe
You do realize that unemployment in the US is significantly higher than unemployment in the UK don't you?
Yes but that wasn't the point. Cape Blue was talking about people in the UK and so was I.
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Old Dec 17th 2010, 6:20 am
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by Giantaxe
I always felt I couldn't live and work in the UK until I went back and worked there for several months last year. I felt the country had improved immensely from when I left a quarter of a century ago. Do I prefer it to where I live in the US? Clearly not. But I'm very sceptical of those whose views of the two countries are as overwhelmingly black and white as yours. It'd be interesting to hear your views a few years down the road.
I do not have a black and white view of the US, only where I live in it.
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