Your opnion on living in Britain

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.
 
For me the UK would be pretty much my perfect country if we actually had consistently hot summers, as then the sea side towns would actually be decent with nice resorts etc.
 
I think your version of Australia is relying somewhat on a "grass is greener" viewpoint rather than necessarily reality. A holiday in Sydney might well not show you what life is really like - there's a number of good things about Australia in general but it will equally have a number of downsides.

Britain is indeed great in many many ways but it's not perfect, nowhere is. I've done a limited amount of travelling and lived in a couple of places outside Britain for brief spells (Rovaniemi and Vancouver) and while they definitely had their plus points it wasn't that on balance they were all good and Britain was all bad. In limited circumstances you might find that another country has most of the upsides that you look for and few of the downsides that you might experience elsewhere so if that's the case then go there and good luck but Britain is a very good place to live for most people.

Let's look at it this way - it's a stable, long established democracy with a pretty decent record overall on human rights and a fair degree of freedom balanced with responsibilities, free education up to the age of 18, a support system for society and universal free healthcare at point of access. That's a pretty decent starting point and there's a lot of the World that would like the same level of standards as our insignificant little island has - it's not perfect by any means but I'd happily put it against most and say it's a pretty good standard in general.

//edit for what it is worth I'm still vaguely considering living elsewhere but I'm under no illusions that the UK is a good place to live, I'd just like to try somewhere else again while I'm young enough and have the opportunities to do so.
 
semi-pro waster said:
I think your version of Australia is relying somewhat on a "grass is greener" viewpoint rather than necessarily reality. A holiday in Sydney might well not show you what life is really like - there's a number of good things about Australia in general but it will equally have a number of downsides.

Britain is indeed great in many many ways but it's not perfect, nowhere is. I've done a limited amount of travelling and lived in a couple of places outside Britain for brief spells (Rovaniemi and Vancouver) and while they definitely had their plus points it wasn't that on balance they were all good and Britain was all bad. In limited circumstances you might find that another country has most of the upsides that you look for and few of the downsides that you might experience elsewhere so if that's the case then go there and good luck but Britain is a very good place to live for most people.

Let's look at it this way - it's a stable, long established democracy with a pretty decent record overall on human rights and a fair degree of freedom balanced with responsibilities, free education up to the age of 18, a support system for society and universal free healthcare at point of access. That's a pretty decent starting point and there's a lot of the World that would like the same level of standards as our insignificant little island has - it's not perfect by any means but I'd happily put it against most and say it's a pretty good standard in general.

//edit for what it is worth I'm still vaguely considering living elsewhere but I'm under no illusions that the UK is a good place to live, I'd just like to try somewhere else again while I'm young enough and have the opportunities to do so.
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Good post and I am not having a go, just looking for genuine responses from people who have lived elsewhere. Your right though, your not going to find the Garden of Eden(well in it's uncorrupted state) anywhere on earth i'm afraid.
 
I would like to live in many countries in my life and I hope to do so. At the moment I am doing the london thing and to be honest not realy my thing. I like working in the city at the top businesses and going to posh places, nice experience. But as i grew up in SA i am more suited to hot weather and beaches. But i could easily see me move somewhere like that and after a few years get fed up and want to move back to london. So you realy can't win in some ways. But one of these days i am just going to say f-it and move to central america with a few £1000s in my pocket and see what i can do. I would also like to move to aus for a few years and it is in a good position to travel to south east asia which i also want to do.
 
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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100% this, quite a few people in the UK don't know how good they've got it, IMHO.

Perfect example, weekend just gone I had to pay off an airport security official in Kazakhstan after he hauled us into his office. Coming back to the UK is always a joy.
 
groen said:
I would like to live in many countries in my life and I hope to do so. At the moment I am doing the london thing and to be honest not realy my thing. I like working in the city at the top businesses and going to posh places, nice experience. But as i grew up in SA i am more suited to hot weather and beaches. But i could easily see me move somewhere like that and after a few years get fed up and want to move back to london. So you realy can't win in some ways. But one of these days i am just going to say f-it and move to central america with a few £1000s in my pocket and see what i can do. I would also like to move to aus for a few years and it is in a good position to travel to south east asia which i also want to do.
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Interesting, so if you did move the South America with only a few k what exactly would your steps be, I like the idea.
 
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Surveillance Britain, we want to know where you are, we want to know what you're saying, what you're reading, who you associate with, what you're doing right now, what you like and don't like, we want your DNA and fingerprints, retina scans and even what's in your bins. If you're not a criminal, then we'll make a few thousand 'Acts' up so we can easily make you one.


Yeah, Britain's great...
 
So i'm pretty qualified to make the comparison between the USA, UK and Sydney. I have lived in the US (1 year back in 2001) and Sydney (2 years up till last May).

The best country depends what you're after, it's all personal preference. Personally I go Australia > UK > USA.

Australia is a great place. There is something for everyone like the OP said.

- The people are pleasant. I was expecting some anti-britishness but did not get any beyond the usual good humour between friends and work colleagues.
- The weather is great. Winter is Sydney is often better than the UK in summer.
- I found crime to be very low. I did not see ONE fight despite being out all the time. I still can't believe it!! In 2011 I came home to the UK for 2 weeks and saw about 5 fights just being out and about drinking with friends (Richmond, Bath, Twickenham, etc).
- Their economy is strong and the pay very good.
- More relaxed attitude towards work, generally much more social, outgoing, etc.
- The ceiling for importing goods from abroad is $1000 for items for personal use. This get's around a lot of the 'expensive' issues.

The bad:

- They have a lot of tension between certain groups. There's a lot of hate towards Arabs, especially Lebanese.
- It is expensive there and while the pay is good you realise you're being taken for a ride a lot. A £60k car in the UK is the equivalent of £92k in Australia. The Supermarkets sting you for food and have a monopoly as imports are heavily taxed.
 
groen said:
I would like to live in many countries in my life and I hope to do so. At the moment I am doing the london thing and to be honest not realy my thing. I like working in the city at the top businesses and going to posh places, nice experience. But as i grew up in SA i am more suited to hot weather and beaches. But i could easily see me move somewhere like that and after a few years get fed up and want to move back to london. So you realy can't win in some ways. But one of these days i am just going to say f-it and move to central america with a few £1000s in my pocket and see what i can do. I would also like to move to aus for a few years and it is in a good position to travel to south east asia which i also want to do.
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Australia is not really a good base for travel to South east asia. For example, Sydney is still an 8/9 hour flight to Bangkok - compared to 12 hours for the UK.

Additionally, plane travel from Australia is expensive.
 
Was a fine country growing up in 70's and 80's now days is pretty much getting worse all the time.

Overcrowded, expensive and above all people today are so unconnected and rude the community spirit has been eroded with immigration and the need for dual income family life ie expensive.
 
Vanilla said:
So i'm pretty qualified to make the comparison between the USA, UK and Sydney. I have lived in the US (1 year back in 2001) and Sydney (2 years up till last May).

The best country depends what you're after, it's all personal preference. Personally I go Australia > UK > USA.

Australia is a great place. There is something for everyone like the OP said.

- The people are pleasant. I was expecting some anti-britishness but did not get any beyond the usual good humour between friends and work colleagues.
- The weather is great. Winter is Sydney is often better than the UK in summer.
- I found crime to be very low. I did not see ONE fight despite being out all the time. I still can't believe it!! In 2011 I came home to the UK for 2 weeks and saw about 5 fights just being out and about drinking with friends (Richmond, Bath, Twickenham, etc).
- Their economy is strong and the pay very good.
- More relaxed attitude towards work, generally much more social, outgoing, etc.
- The ceiling for importing goods from abroad is $1000 for items for personal use. This get's around a lot of the 'expensive' issues.

The bad:

- They have a lot of tension between certain groups. There's a lot of hate towards Arabs, especially Lebanese.
- It is expensive there and while the pay is good you realise you're being taken for a ride a lot. A £60k car in the UK is the equivalent of £92k in Australia. The Supermarkets sting you for food and have a monopoly as imports are heavily taxed.
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Yes about the fights and how easily anger and violence can escalate so fast out of nothing over here, but usually after extreme drinking. I did stay in Sydney for quite a few months and never got any sense that it could be like it can be over here. And I also spoke to some Lebenese guys who told me that they are not liked over there and there are various other tensions betwen groups as you say over there, but I still think it's a better deal than we have over here in that regard.
 
I love living in this country. However, everything is getting expensive, jobs are scarce where I live. I've noticed that there is a major difference between north and south, and I would rather live down south, then up north.
 
jsmoke said:
Yes about the fights and how easily anger and violence can escalate so fast out of nothing over here, but usually after extreme drinking. I did stay in Sydney for quite a few months and never got any sense that it could be like it can be over here. And I also spoke to some Lebenese guys who told me that they are not liked over there and there are various other tensions betwen groups as you say over there, but I still think it's a better deal than we have over here in that regard.
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Yup, I did not feel unsafe at any time in Sydney - day or night, any part. London is always the opposite and there is just a fight first attitude.

Some other good points about Aus -

- Petrol is a lot cheaper
- Car insurance is a lot cheaper. It is costing me the same to insure a 1.6 2001 Astra in the UK as it did to insure a 2010 Nissan 370z Roadster in Australia.
- Lot and lots of tax breaks. I was getting back loads every year.
- The girls are drop dead gorgeous. I mean all of them, never seen anything like it (and i've just come back from Stockholm last weekend so that's saying something!!)
- No bass boys with their 100 gigawatt sound systems.

and other bad points -

- I think their police are pretty bad.
- A lot of the roads are in a bad state, lots of tolls.
 
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