Decent Living Wage

Special K

have you considered Norway?

According to the Economist little book of figures it came top (I think) in a list for best quality of life. Anecdotally, one of my cycling buddies posted there with an oil company found the lifestyle fantastic, as was the cycling.

yes the taxes are high, but as the showing for quality of life indicates, they are much better value than in the UK. In my opnion the same could be said of much of provicial France as well.

W5454

You can live in the UK free of charge.
Just turn up at Heathrow and pretend to be refugee scum.That way everything is provided,from a house to free healthcare.You even get spending money aka jobseekers allowance.Job done :twisted:

alfablue

W5454 wrote:

You can live in the UK free of charge.
Just turn up at Heathrow and pretend to be refugee scum.That way everything is provided,from a house to free healthcare.You even get spending money aka jobseekers allowance.Job done :twisted:

evil, bitter and twisted! :evil: I'd rather have 1000 refugees in this country than one bigot like you!

finchy

W5454 wrote:

You can live in the UK free of charge.
Just turn up at Heathrow and pretend to be refugee scum.That way everything is provided,from a house to free healthcare.You even get spending money aka jobseekers allowance.Job done :twisted:

Or you could get sent back to face certain death....

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho ... 46507.html

flattythehurdler

I would seriously consider Scotland. It is a fantastic place to live, and whilst the weather may not be great, a decent coat will get you a long way. it is friendly, safe and utterly beautiful. IMO one of the best countries in the world. Not too expensive to live there either. Not sure what teaching would be like though.

pottssteve

Thanks flatty,
I've been to Scotland a few times and it is lovely when the sun comes peeping out (about once a decade). I'm a big fan of Pitlochry fish ladder. The Scots have an odd education system (it hasn't been mucked about with like the English one) but there are a few places I'd consider. It also has it's fair share of ethnic minorities - I work with the first Chinese person born in Elgin! Might be a bit cold for the OH, but it's an outside bet.

W5454

alfablue wrote:

W5454 wrote:

You can live in the UK free of charge.
Just turn up at Heathrow and pretend to be refugee scum.That way everything is provided,from a house to free healthcare.You even get spending money aka jobseekers allowance.Job done :twisted:

evil, bitter and twisted! :evil: I'd rather have 1000 refugees in this country than one BIGOT like you!

Thanks for the compliment,you forgot RACIST as well.Traitor.

alfablue

W5454 wrote:

alfablue wrote:

W5454 wrote:

You can live in the UK free of charge.
Just turn up at Heathrow and pretend to be refugee scum.That way everything is provided,from a house to free healthcare.You even get spending money aka jobseekers allowance.Job done :twisted:

evil, bitter and twisted! :evil: I'd rather have 1000 refugees in this country than one BIGOT like you!

Thanks for the compliment,you forgot RACIST as well.Traitor.

Of course I was thinking that (and you wear the badge with pride) but decency made me hold back.

So I am the traitor? My grandparents fought in a world war to protect us from people with values such as yours! They were no more traitors than I am. It is you who is the enemy and traitor of the decent and civilised society most of us wish to inhabit. Whilst I realise there is a minority of people such as you that blacken our country, it is sickening to find someone of your ilk posting on an otherwise civilised cycling forum. Oh well, I guess that is one small downside of freedom of speech.

finchy

W5454 wrote:

Thanks for the compliment,you forgot RACIST as well.Traitor.

Who should be allowed into Britain, then?

nwallace

pottssteve wrote:

I've been to Scotland a few times and it is lovely when the sun comes peeping out

Really enjoying seeing daylight after work again, till bloody cold at night but the lack of clouds is persisting into the day time meaning a lovely warm sun with lots of eye hurtingly harsh light.

The Scots have an odd education system (it hasn't been mucked about with like the English one)

The only counter to that I have ever seen is that it allows Denominal Schools, the fact that the Maths and English results are going down hill seems to get ignored. (And that is English as set by the SQA expecting our version of the language rather than the RP one, so provens and outwiths all round.)

Don't see how it is odd

2 Types of School
1) Paid for by benefactors and parents, sets own curriculum, chooses what exams to set
- May have religion specific intake and assemblies
AKA Independent Schools

2) Paid for by state, sets own curriculum, chooses what exams to set.
- May have religion specific intake and assemblies
AKA Public Schools

1 Exam board (used to be 2)
1 set of curriculum guidelines from the government

Simples.
Ok overly simples.

pottssteve

I only asked if I could afford to live in the UK...

chuckcork

johnfinch wrote:

W5454 wrote:

Thanks for the compliment,you forgot RACIST as well.Traitor.

Who should be allowed into Britain, then?

Australians.... :P

finchy

chuckcork wrote:

Who should be allowed into Britain, then?

Australians.... :P[/quote]

Including aborigines?

Crooky

I read some magazine from the GMB union yesterday and apparently the avg London wage (male&female combined) is 46k. The country avg is 31k.

STEFANOS4784

Cyclists only 8)

Anyhoo i'm sure he's just trying to get a raise, ignore him he'll go away

hammerite

As a science teacher you'd be in more demand than most subjects. Given the teaching experience you seem to have you'd probably find it quite easy to find something, the OH is a chemistry teacher and she's noticed a lot of suitable teaching jobs she could move to recently.

Your experience would also mean that you would probably go straight in a bit higher up the pay scale, and could possibly get some TLRs to top up the earnings.

The south east coast seems reasonably expensive (although I know a couple, one is newly qualified, the other is a trainee teacher with 2 kids who manage ok and they live on the Sussex coast). We were looking at house prices in Devon and they weren't too bad compared to where we live already (East Anglia).

pottssteve

Thanks, Hammerite. I've been running some places past the wife. Sweden and Norway - too cold. Scotland a possibility. I think I'll be here for another year at least so I'm just getting an idea of different places at the moment.

It was interesting to see the topic veer off into a little name calling. In all the countries I've worked I've had to register and/or show evidence of how I will support myself and my family before I have been allowed a visa. Even Germany (an EU country) requires all non-Germans to register with an Auslanderamt in addition to the fact that everyone, German or not, must register with their local town hall when they move. I hope it wouldn't be construed as racist for me to suggest that people moving to live in the UK should also be required to show evidence of how they will support themselves before being granted entry (refugees excepted). I think that the UK has become too much of a soft touch - it's certainly an overcrowded and expensive little country...

chuckcork

johnfinch wrote:

chuckcork wrote:

Who should be allowed into Britain, then?

Australians.... :P

Including aborigines? [/quote]

I don't see why not?

alfablue

I think it has got progressively more difficult to come to work and live in this country for a non-EU person. I guess this is how it should be. Of course EU workers should have complete freedom of movement, it works both ways, we can enjoy this benefit as well.

There are now points schemes, similar to Australia, and you probably need to be a student, temporary worker, a "highly skilled worker" and/or be in one of the approved occupations that we are seeking migrant workers for.

My son's girlfriend is Brazillian, she entered first as a student, but when that ended she was allowed to stay for one year. She was questioned on return to the country and had to demonstrate a healthy bank account (I lent her £1500), the means to support herself, accommodation etc. She worked as a restaurant manager for one of Britain's (very) top chef's and is highly skilled at this work, however this was not one of the chosen occupations for migrant workers.

For her to remain as a worker, the employer would have had to demonstrate they had advertised for someone throughout the EU and had failed to find someone (this would have been very expensive, £1000's, and they would have found applicants anyway).

As this was not viable, she had to go back to Brazil and apply for entry as an "unmarried partner". This was quite an arduous application, and expensive, and could only be made from outside the UK. She and my son had to provide extensive multiple examples of documentary evidence of cohabitation, such as bank statements, shared bills, tenancy agreements, council tax, even many photographs showing them together, and dated over a period of years. Of course this was difficult as like many people they divided their bills rather than paying them jointly, and indeed many utility providers will only accept one named person on an account! And how many couples take dated photos of themselves?Because it was not so straightforward, we provided a mass of evidence with an extensive explanatory text linking them together as plausibly as we could, plus included many testimonials from respected people.

She was successful thankfully, had she not had a partner she had no other grounds for entry. After 2 years was granted indefinite leave to remain, after having to go through the same process again, and also passing the Life in the UK Citizen test (interestingly, this test includes some very obscure items that are unknown by the vast majority of British people, and also includes several factual errors - the applicant has to be aware of this and give the required answer rather than one that is factually correct!). She is now a key worker driving forward and expanding a successful new company in the hospitality industry, at a time when thousands are going in to liquidation.

Anyway, just to say, it isn't so easy these days, the doors are closing on our country to non EU nationals.

pottssteve

Alfablue,

That's interesting. I think it's a good idea that the UK now has a system in place which is similar to that of other countries. I do feel it's taken a while though...

Tralfamadore

I live in Bedford, which has several attributes which might be of interest to you.

1. There is a direct rail link from Bedford to Brighton. I think that trains run every 15 or 30 minutes. The trains also stop at directly at Gatwick Airport for a wide choice of flights. Luton Airport is very close of course, with rail/bus access. Stansted is an easy enough drive.

2. You want easy access to the continent. Both main line and thameslink trains go into St Pancras where you can change platform onto the Eurostar

3. There are a wide range of different types of school. For historical reasons there are a range of private schools (three boys and three girls schools) and some excellent state comprehensives. There are also a few of the more challenging types of school if you like that sort of thing.

4. There are plenty of good non-A road cycling routes. Excellent run east to Cambridge - dead flat most of the way. Much hillier north into Leicestershire and Rutland with some beautiful countryside. South into the greensand (Woburn, Wrest Park, Shuttleworth Trust etc).

5. House prices are generally pretty low in the Bedford town area. There are plenty of very nice and somewhat more expensive villages close by

I hope this helps..

pottssteve

Thanks, Tralfamadore,
I'd never really considered Bedfordshire, having mainly travelled through it to get to other places. I'll keep an eye out for job openings in the region and do a bit of Googling...
Best wishes,
Steve

Mike Healey

Off-topic(ish), but it would take someone on the minimum wage at 40hrs/week, 58yrs and 10 months to earn what the greaseball Goodwin trousers from his annual pensions

finchy

Mike Healey wrote:

Off-topic(ish), but it would take someone on the minimum wage at 40hrs/week, 58yrs and 10 months to earn what the greaseball Goodwin trousers from his annual pensions

:x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x

chuckcork

Mike Healey wrote:

Off-topic(ish), but it would take someone on the minimum wage at 40hrs/week, 58yrs and 10 months to earn what the greaseball Goodwin trousers from his annual pensions

I wonder how long it would take the average employee of the bank he helped run into the ground to earn the same?

passout

Kids are a massive variable.

I'd call £30k 'OK' for up North and maybe £40k or more in London.

I'm a Cumbrian really but I presently live in Lancashire and I can recommend it - especially the North of the County. Beautiful countryside around, Lakes and Dales very close and Liverpool/Manchester commutable. House prices are 'keen' too. There are plenty of jobs around here I seem to think. There are some 'troubled' areas too mind.