Bye Bye Britain (hopefully soon)
mr_eddy
Posts: 830
Ok so being born and raised in the UK I will always have a soft spot for this place but sadly that is not enough anymore to keep me here. For a few years now the misses and I have really have been considering going somewhere else. Given the latest budget announcements that maybe sooner than originally planned.
We already have a plan in place and if all goes to plan we will be living in Malta within the next couple of years possibly as soon as 2016 (assuming all our paperwork gets sorted)
Anyone else feel that the UK is a sinking ship ? I appreciate that the long term UK debt plan is working but I am not prepared to spend the next ten years rubbing pennies together for a problem that was caused by an inept government and bunch of scroungers so with that in mind these are some simple reasons/facts that have made me realise what needs to be done - LEAVE:
1. Weather - Ok so the UK weather has never been brilliant and I accept that its a given that a small island in the middle of the ocean will get rain and wind etc but over the last 10 years I have noted that its defo getting worse, 'Summer' is now a handful of days each year. By summer I mean days when you can wear shorts and t-shirt comfortably. It seems to be constantly raining, I would rather be poor but have nice food and nice weather than rain and Sky Plus.
2. Cost of Living - This is the biggie for me, I don't earn a huge amount and in my field there is not much scope to earn anymore, I don't want to change because I don't want move away from my particular field. When I moved into my chosen career path (and after spending a lot on qualifications) all was well but since then wages have dropped / competition is high & I am now in real terms earning what someone doing the same job would earn in 1991 !
Everything is take the p*5s expensive, After I have paid my mortgage and bills I am left with basically pocket change - £20 a week. £500 extra tax allowance is a good gesture but the fact remains everything else has gone up to the point where you are still worse off than last year (Gas/Electricity/Food/Petrol). I wanted to get a cake and a pie for lunch the other day but I looked in my wallet and 'only' had a £5 note so I said to myself don't waste the effort walking to the shop as its not enough - How bad is it that a simple take out deli lunch cost over £5.
It would be nice to be in a country where I could buy some lunch without having to use folding money and eat outside without the need for a artic expedition clothing. Even what I would consider a very simple extravagance such as the cinema is now over £15-£20 a pop after you buy a ticket and popcorn, yes you can sneak your own treats in but the point is I should not have too.
The same job in Malta (where there is a strong demand for my profession) whilst its slightly less paid there rate of tax is much lower and food is FAR cheaper plus its not chucking it down all the time.
3. Scum Bags /Chavs - They are no longer just the scourge of town centres and housing estates but they appear to have infiltrated every part of the city I live in and by all accounts its the same across the UK, even my parents who live in the sticks on the outskirts have scum bags hanging around outside now being a nuisance and throwing bottles around. Thanks to a broken system and a benefits culture over the last ten years (thanks Labour) its all these people know and so when they inevitably have kids that is all they will know too. The cycle (no pun intended) will not be broken for many years / if at all and I am unwilling to wait.
4. Poor infrastructure - I am often forced to go around the country for my job which often involves train / Car travel. The state of the traffic now in pretty much every town I have visited is a JOKE, 5 hours to drive from Nottingham to London - No accidents just traffic ! Even on the bike into work I have had to pot hole proof my bike because there are so many of them - I should not have to protect my bike from poor roads that I am paying to be maintained.
Bottom line is this is a small country and there is only so much space so adding more people and more cars means more traffic and worse living conditions.
5. Stupid people / Red Tape - Getting anything sorted in this country is a monumental nightmare and its getting worse, Changing my council tax direct debit to a different account required me to take half a day off work to sign a form in person because they would not accept a scanned version but would accept fax - Are you friggin kidding me, its 2014 not 1987 ! Also I seem to be meeting ever more stupid people on a day to day basis and the constant barrage of idiots is grinding me down. If I buy some milk for £1.05 and I give the cashier a £2 plus 5p you don't need a supervisor and a calculator to work out how much change I need !!! It goes further than this though , my company paid £300 service charge for a printer engineer to come and swap the toner because the guy who normally does it is on holiday, WTF
I have not had a pay rise in 3 years and yet this is acceptable ? £300 for a 5 min job that I could do - This is the thing I am talking about ARRGGHHH
As much as I will always have a place in my heart for the UK its not enough to keep me here.
Please don't moan that I have it lucky compared to Ethiopia etc, I am talking here about comparisons from one developed nation to another, Any developed nation will offer a better living experience than a 3rd world nation.
We already have a plan in place and if all goes to plan we will be living in Malta within the next couple of years possibly as soon as 2016 (assuming all our paperwork gets sorted)
Anyone else feel that the UK is a sinking ship ? I appreciate that the long term UK debt plan is working but I am not prepared to spend the next ten years rubbing pennies together for a problem that was caused by an inept government and bunch of scroungers so with that in mind these are some simple reasons/facts that have made me realise what needs to be done - LEAVE:
1. Weather - Ok so the UK weather has never been brilliant and I accept that its a given that a small island in the middle of the ocean will get rain and wind etc but over the last 10 years I have noted that its defo getting worse, 'Summer' is now a handful of days each year. By summer I mean days when you can wear shorts and t-shirt comfortably. It seems to be constantly raining, I would rather be poor but have nice food and nice weather than rain and Sky Plus.
2. Cost of Living - This is the biggie for me, I don't earn a huge amount and in my field there is not much scope to earn anymore, I don't want to change because I don't want move away from my particular field. When I moved into my chosen career path (and after spending a lot on qualifications) all was well but since then wages have dropped / competition is high & I am now in real terms earning what someone doing the same job would earn in 1991 !
Everything is take the p*5s expensive, After I have paid my mortgage and bills I am left with basically pocket change - £20 a week. £500 extra tax allowance is a good gesture but the fact remains everything else has gone up to the point where you are still worse off than last year (Gas/Electricity/Food/Petrol). I wanted to get a cake and a pie for lunch the other day but I looked in my wallet and 'only' had a £5 note so I said to myself don't waste the effort walking to the shop as its not enough - How bad is it that a simple take out deli lunch cost over £5.
It would be nice to be in a country where I could buy some lunch without having to use folding money and eat outside without the need for a artic expedition clothing. Even what I would consider a very simple extravagance such as the cinema is now over £15-£20 a pop after you buy a ticket and popcorn, yes you can sneak your own treats in but the point is I should not have too.
The same job in Malta (where there is a strong demand for my profession) whilst its slightly less paid there rate of tax is much lower and food is FAR cheaper plus its not chucking it down all the time.
3. Scum Bags /Chavs - They are no longer just the scourge of town centres and housing estates but they appear to have infiltrated every part of the city I live in and by all accounts its the same across the UK, even my parents who live in the sticks on the outskirts have scum bags hanging around outside now being a nuisance and throwing bottles around. Thanks to a broken system and a benefits culture over the last ten years (thanks Labour) its all these people know and so when they inevitably have kids that is all they will know too. The cycle (no pun intended) will not be broken for many years / if at all and I am unwilling to wait.
4. Poor infrastructure - I am often forced to go around the country for my job which often involves train / Car travel. The state of the traffic now in pretty much every town I have visited is a JOKE, 5 hours to drive from Nottingham to London - No accidents just traffic ! Even on the bike into work I have had to pot hole proof my bike because there are so many of them - I should not have to protect my bike from poor roads that I am paying to be maintained.
Bottom line is this is a small country and there is only so much space so adding more people and more cars means more traffic and worse living conditions.
5. Stupid people / Red Tape - Getting anything sorted in this country is a monumental nightmare and its getting worse, Changing my council tax direct debit to a different account required me to take half a day off work to sign a form in person because they would not accept a scanned version but would accept fax - Are you friggin kidding me, its 2014 not 1987 ! Also I seem to be meeting ever more stupid people on a day to day basis and the constant barrage of idiots is grinding me down. If I buy some milk for £1.05 and I give the cashier a £2 plus 5p you don't need a supervisor and a calculator to work out how much change I need !!! It goes further than this though , my company paid £300 service charge for a printer engineer to come and swap the toner because the guy who normally does it is on holiday, WTF
I have not had a pay rise in 3 years and yet this is acceptable ? £300 for a 5 min job that I could do - This is the thing I am talking about ARRGGHHHAs much as I will always have a place in my heart for the UK its not enough to keep me here.
Please don't moan that I have it lucky compared to Ethiopia etc, I am talking here about comparisons from one developed nation to another, Any developed nation will offer a better living experience than a 3rd world nation.
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Comments
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I thought this was going to be a thread about Scotland.0
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Malta is a hell of a lot smaller and more densely populated than Britain!0
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The bacon's good.0
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I have lived abroad for the last ten years. On the whole its good but they say the grass is always greener, but when you get over the fence you often find its just as hard to cut.
Cut a long story short i uave had ten great years in menorc and mallorca but life abroad especially in spain has been made tougher and tougher and tougher. You do have a good quality of life in some respect but financially over time it will ruin you. Im doing my last year and we are moving back to the uk this winter. I will be renting my house out in mallorca for cyclists to you on a easy weekly basis. Just turn up theres a house to use for a price cheap enough to be good value. I have bought a house in the uk and will be going back niv, dec time. I will miss the place greatly and im sure i wont be as happy about a lot of things back in the uk but at least i can say i did it, where as so many wonder what its like to live abroad but never do it.
For me its been great and a combina tion of financial matters and work in spain, and ill parents in the uk make it time for me to go back. I will keep a place in mallorca as long as i can afford to as the cycling is just amazing, but to live here year round now the winters for me are too long and summer too short work wise.
All i would say is do your homework, intergrwte locally dont be an expat abroad, and dont burn your bridges in the uk. Good luck0 -
Apologies for typing my ipad and fat thumbs are a bad combo :-(0
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I was lucky enough to live and work in 4 countries from 23 to 38 years old. I found that I missed many of the issues these countries faced because I was foreign and didn't follow their news particularly closely.
When I returned to the UK I hated it for similar reasons that you mention. But I've settled in now - found 2 new hobbies that keep me busy and finally got my finances in order. Hopefully you'll find what you're looking for abroad. Just don't expect the red tape to be easier - the public sector thrives on it wherever you are!0 -
After having lived in 6 countries throughout my life so far I can say every place on earth is equally crap for different reasons. My favourite place to live would be Austria, but finding a job as a foreigner there is nigh on impossible.
Just remember, no matter where you go, there will be problems.0 -
try to move to a part of Malta that has only a few English people, as the English abroad are in some ways worse than those in the UK
my isetta is a 300cc bike0 -
Point 3 is a major concern for me and something I agree with. However with a huge amount of family leaving this land is not an option for me sadly.0
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team47b wrote:try to move to a part of Malta that has only a few English people, as the English abroad are in some ways worse than those in the UK
This is very true, one of the best reasons to have your holidays in the UK is to get away from British holidaymakersSpecialized Roubaix Elite 2015
XM-057 rigid 29er0 -
Just for interest Mr Eddy, what is it that you do?
With you on the chavs. They are on the increase I'm afraid, but it's only to be expected when the 'good guys' are having 2.4 children or less in their 30s, and the Chavs are welping them at a higher rate when they are 16.
If you've seen the film "Idiocracy, you begin to wonder if it's a comedy or a warning.
The older I get, the better I was.0 -
Our neighbours sold up and moved last year - gave loads of stuff to family or charity, we ended up with a lawnmower. Went the full hog, no backup plan, no options to return, just in case. "We'll not be back here."
Three months later they emailed to say they were coming back. Difficult to buy back into the same area as well.
Consider well how you go about moving....0 -
I miss my lawn mower my isetta is a 300cc bike0
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In my experience, people who move abroad because they think the UK is failing to give them what they deserve tend to stay grumpy - because the real cause of their grumpiness moves with them...0
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bompington wrote:In my experience, people who move abroad because they think the UK is failing to give them what they deserve tend to stay grumpy - because the real cause of their grumpiness moves with them...
That's a good point. Get divorced before you go “Training is like fighting with a gorilla. You don’t stop when you’re tired. You stop when the gorilla is tired.”0 -
jordan_217 wrote:bompington wrote:In my experience, people who move abroad because they think the UK is failing to give them what they deserve tend to stay grumpy - because the real cause of their grumpiness moves with them...
That's a good point. Get divorced before you go 0 -
And ditch the childrenjordan_217 wrote:bompington wrote:In my experience, people who move abroad because they think the UK is failing to give them what they deserve tend to stay grumpy - because the real cause of their grumpiness moves with them...
That's a good point. Get divorced before you go 0 -
Can't disagree with some of the points you make, but no way is the weather "defo" getting worse. Last summer was the best I can remember for cycling: OK not hot enough to be on the beach, but warm, dry and mostly sunny for three months solid. We went years without any snow in my area, then had three or four winters in a row when the schools were closed and roads impassable at least once; and then this time we've barely even had a frost. The weather changes from season to season and year to year: it's called living in a temperate climate. I know nothing about Maltese weather but if it's anything like Cyprus (also a Med island on a similar latitude) you'll probably have eight months of drought and four months of relative cold for which the houses aren't designed.
A member of my ex's family retired to Spain for 20+ years and liked many aspects of living there. But he found red tape even worse than in Britain and no one in their right mind would want to bring up a family there now, because employment prospects are so bad.
If Malta (or anywhere else) was that great, everyone would live there.
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1. Weather - Weather is great. It rains enough to make the country beautiful and green but not enough to make for endless days stuck indoors. It's rarely too hot, rarely too cold. It could be a bit sunnier but I'm pretty happy with it as it is. Wouldn't swap for a Med climate anyway.
2. Cost of Living - don't find it very expensive really. Plenty of places to get lunch and for far less than a fiver.
3. Scum Bags /Chavs - even in Leeds I rarely have any bother with them. In the countryside I've never had any Chav related bother (except at Stainforth falls where they congregate in Summer for some reason but at least they seem to go nowhere else so can be avoided). I did have some slightly chavvy near neighbours but they are gone now - they moved to Malta
4. Poor infrastructure - yeah, train travel is silly expensive but really, if all I can complain about is that it takes 2 hrs 20 mins to get to London from Leeds whereas it usually only takes two hours from York then I must be pretty lucky.
As for driving long distance- I just don't bother much and when I do, I make sure I do it when the roads are quiet.
5. Stupid people / Red Tape - We don't have a monopoly on the stupid gene. I suspect you'll find many other European countried far worse for getting things sorted than here. I wouldn't swap our beaurocracy for that of France, Spain or Italy from what I understand of them.
I do hope you are happy in Malta - but I suspect you won't be. Not in the long run. You'll just get as unhappy about it as you are unhappy about UK - just for different reasons. Being content with where you are is really not about where you are but about yourself.Faster than a tent.......0 -
The moaning and complaining can get you down in the UK, especially if you join in.0
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I understand your point about the cost of living - I have to drive about three miles to work each day and not only do I spend fifteen to 40 minutes stuck in traffic, but I also spend upwards of £15+ a week on petrol... I would just cycle it but sadly I have to drop off children at school and nursery so not an option.
Have you been persuaded to stay at all by the budget announcements made this week? Beer will be 1p cheaper if nothing else!
Thought the petrol duty freezing would mean prices would be going down, then I read this: http://www.showplatesdirect.com/uk/blog/the-2014-budget-tax-on-petrol-prices-uk-frozen-tax-increases-for-motorists/ and now I'm not so convinced.
If you find somewhere cheap to move to with warm weather and tiny mortgages, please let me know. I'd happily move there in a heartbeat!0 -
Stop reading the Daily Mail and most of your reasons will disappear instantly.0
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Might be being a bit harsh on the OP. I would say that if you have the yearning to try it, then you have to do it. Don't burn bridges, though.
I got being abroad out of my system whilst in the forces, appreciate it's not quite the same as moving and establishing your own networks etc.
I really quite like living in the UK, if you believed what was written in the Daily Mail you'd expect crowds of hoodies at each street corner, gangs of 'muslims' stealing our jobs, epic 'day after tomorrow' storms (that barely ever happen).
One thing I will agree with is the weather, we did have a great summer last year (really, we did!), but winter has been an awful succession of wind and gales (from here anyway). But it's not exactly extreme weather.
Give it a try.0 -
I've been fortunate to have visited over 75 countries during my maritime career and I can say that I have not been anywhere that I would sell up and move too. Some great places for sure, some places I'd like to stay for a few years maybe, but overall I find it's always great to get back home.
Malta is pretty bloody small, crowded and falling to pieces. But enjoy it and pray you don't have to use the local health care. It'll be fun for a few years I'm sure.
The only place I could see myself going would be West Coast Canada, but quite frankly with ageing relatives, that's just not going to work.Big Red, Blue, Pete, Bill & Doug0 -
On the topic of weather, I've been to Malta several times and although the sun often shines it is always very windy.0
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The grass is always greener......
Almost all the main European countries are in recession or struggling to get out of it. Unemployment is very high too.
The only countries doing OK are Germany, and the UK.
I've done 6 years in Madrid, 4 years in Switzerland, 10 in France.
Pick your spot very carefully, as there are crap bits of France, etc. just as there are in the UK.
French/Spanish/Italian red tape is a nightmare. French infrastructure generally pretty good. French crime endemic in places like Marseille, almost non-existent here in Finistere.
Watch out for the heat in Malta; I've spent some time there, and it's lovely for a week on the beach, less fun if you have to work, commute, do the shopping, etc. when it's 40'C.0 -
I've got 5 years to do and then I'm taking my pension and moving to Germany, specifically the village my wife is from. I can buy a much larger house for less money than the "two-up, two-down" we currently live in, virtually no council tax to pay, great cycling and a couple of nice deep lakes nearby I can go diving in.
Nothing against the UK but I don't want to grow old in a big city and I can't afford to move to the countryside here. Wifey will be happier too, which is just as well as she'll have another 14 years till she retires 0 -
That's a really important point. It's great to imagine how wonderful a place can be when all is going well but there needs to be consideration of the health, social and public infrastructures for when things may go wrong.VmanF3 wrote:Malta is pretty bloody small, crowded and falling to pieces. But enjoy it and pray you don't have to use the local health care. It'll be fun for a few years I'm sure.0
