Your opnion on living in Britain

Castiel said:
Britain is one of the safest, richest, and most free countries in the world. You have rights and privileges in the UK that you will rarely find in other countries and opportunities that many others simply have no access to.
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+1.

It works but it gets taken advantage of and it breeds the wrong kinds of people in different areas sometimes.
 
the thing most my of mates would do if they won the lottery is move to america, i just dont get why tbh. ive nothing against america but i love britain, the weather is okish but i feel free in this country and safe the majority of the time. yes tax is a bitch but thats what you pay for to live in a nice place, dont like it then move to iraq or the congo and pay no tax.

there are downsides but overall i think this is still a great country and one iam more than happy to live in till i pass
 
Britain is fantastic. Yes, there are problems....anti-social youth culture....crap weather....but it's still one of the best places in the world to live.

Having lived in the US for nearly 8 years now the thing I miss most about the UK is the history. I didn't appreciate it at all when I lived there and I really regret that now.

Just remember - no country is perfect. Britain is one of the best.
 
Monserrat said:
For those defending the UK's weather on page 1..... WHA....?!
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The UK does at least have weather, try living in somewhere like California and you'd discover that it's just slightly varying degrees of warm/hot with mostly sunshine and very occasional rain. Maybe it sounds great to some but a) I don't much like the heat and b) it's dull in that regard, I've been out a couple of times visiting friends and that level of predictability just isn't interesting. You'd also be living above a massive faultline but that's by the by. Don't get me wrong, I think you can have a great quality of life out there but the weather (or lack of it) is one of those things that doesn't appeal so much.

However the UK is generally quite fortunate in that while it may have a variety of weather it doesn't tend to have massive extremes in weather so it's rarely too far in any one direction for our weather.
 
I don't think many people can draw comparison as few have ever lived in multiple countries for extended amounts of time.

I can only compare SA and here, and as lovely as Cape Town was to grow up in and still is for holidays, I could never live there again.

My fav thing about this country is the general sense of humour, none of my European friends are really on the same wavelength in that respect.
 
semi-pro waster said:
The UK does at least have weather, try living in somewhere like California and you'd discover that it's just slightly varying degrees of warm/hot with mostly sunshine and very occasional rain. Maybe it sounds great to some but a) I don't much like the heat and b) it's dull in that regard, I've been out a couple of times visiting friends and that level of predictability just isn't interesting. You'd also be living above a massive faultline but that's by the by. Don't get me wrong, I think you can have a great quality of life out there but the weather (or lack of it) is one of those things that doesn't appeal so much.
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That's true.

I had to speak to some American colleagues last year in LA and they had a huge rain shower and suddenly everybody was struggling to get into work. I thought it odd that a bit of rain stopped them, but apparently its a real event, sounds a bit like when we have snow here!
 
EdGey said:
The weather is depressing sometimes...

Don't get me wrong I like the way we get a bit of everything throughout the year, and that we aren't prone to natural disasters in the same way others are...

But a bit more heat and sunshine wouldn't go a miss.
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Yeah. The thing with the weather is - and I don't know if anybody else gets this - I swear it used to be hotter, for longer. Especially as a kid, I grew up in the 80s and 90s, and summers used to actually have long periods of proper hot weather. I'm convinced this is not rose tinted specs and thinking only of the "good old days", and that it was actually hotter for longer. But then I looked back at temps on the met website or somewhere last year to see that the temps are not that much different than todays summers....so....dunno.

Sunshine does bring happiness though. It's a natural thing. More of it would be good.
 
I really do like the UK. Some areas more so than others, but we have it good here.

That's not to say I'd not like to visit other places! Never left the UK so far, but I would love to see Australia, Canada, parts of the US, Japan, Sweden, etc. :)
 
I like the weather, all the hot countries seem to be full of darkies!

Seriously tho, I'd hate it to always be hot, plus it's good for crops and trees and stuff, which is useful.
 
My subjective and by no means complete list (having lived in the UK, France and Germany) about good points/negative points..

Good (in no particular order):

  • Countryside
  • Tax system easy and fair for the average Jo (leaving some of the more complex loopholes for millionaires aside), low tax especially if you are not married
  • Low level of bureaucracy
  • Pubs
  • Flexible Bankingsystem (choice of Mortgages, basically "Free" banking if you are not using overdrafts)
  • BBC
  • "Casual"/Informal working style in company
  • Supermarkets and choice provided
  • relaxed driving on the motorway, polite drivers (well mostly)
  • Full English breakfast (not every day though)
  • the typical quirkiness in many aspects ("Yes it doesn't make sense, but it's a tradition")

Not so good (subtle approach to avoid bad)

  • Infrastructure (Trains, lack of public transport&public services)
  • NHS - shocking, truly shocking in comparison to France and Germany
  • in-between status in regards to Europe which is reflective in the media (I'm far more interested what goes on in Europe than in the US), but that's a more personal point
  • Houses basically build from "Plywood" and Plasterboards, no concrete internal walls and ceilings, no cellars in new build houses etc
  • Houses measured in bedrooms with some of the rooms more resembling a bigger wardrobe
  • which brings me to the next points...carpets they are everywhere where there shouldn't be...in the bathroom, in the kitchen, at the airport and in the trains...
  • Mixer taps or lack of (what is so attractive about having separate cold and hot water taps)
  • Health and Safety legislation is totally bonkers, but maybe linked to this financially uncapped personal injury claim nonsense
  • weird views about data protection and personal freedom, no compulsory ID cards but country is plastered with CCTV, number plate recognition devices
  • slightly unhealthy obsession with WWI and WWII topics; I think history is important but how many TV programmes you can make about famous tanks of WWII, famous weapons of WWII, famous battles of WWII...continue
  • motorway speed limit too low...should be 80mph
 
It just my feel as i dont see any difference in any countries anyway im stay in scotland as it my root all my life, never leave scotland for any country...
 
I'd wager one of the 'best' countries in the world to live in.

The ungrateful sods that we are, however, means we allegedly rank quite low on the happiness scale.
 
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