Emigration

[Edwards]

Now that we have this govt in power again I am considering leaving.

I would like to live in a country where the poor have a wage they can at least feed themselves on. The old will be able to afford to be looked after with dignity and respect when they need it.
The sick will have proper health care without private medical insurance.

I am getting to an age where I have to think about my future care and health. The only reasonable care system for somebody who is not rich now is prison.
So before I get I get ill where should I sail to?

[beardy]

Scotland?

Anywhere in Europe while you still dont need a visa.

All the places that you would really like such as Australia, NZ probably wouldnt take you unless you were healthy, skilled and young or rich enough not to want to leave here in the first place.

[Ben@Forest]

Now that we have this govt in power again I am considering leaving.

I would like to live in a country where the poor have a wage they can at least feed themselves on. The old will be able to afford to be looked after with dignity and respect when they need it.
The sick will have proper health care without private medical insurance.

Because of course nowhere else in the world has provision of medical services issues, unemployment, social care problems, homelessness etc..

There's a good paragraph written by Bill Bryson at the end of one of his books about the UK. It describes all the good things about the country and then asks why we always look on our country as a failure. Shame it takes an American to recognise it. By the way I lived in Germany and just thinking of headlines while I was there it had problems with social care, right-wing violence, trains running effectively (yes -really!), acceptance of immigrants and drugs. Why do people always think of everywhere else as a utopia?

[beardy]

The UK may well be quite good at the moment, almost a Utopia compared to what is coming.

Now IDS will be free to roll out his Universal Credits and then a lot of people (though not enough to impact on election results) are going to suffer badly. Enough to make many commit suicide.

[syklist]

In 2008 we met a Russian cyclist heading downhill towards Røldal as we were heading up the old road to Odda. As we have been thinking about moving to Norway for a while we tended to talk to people we met about their experiences of Norway. On hearing that he had been working in IT in Oslo for a couple of years I asked him for what Norway was like to live in.

He paused for a moment, breathed in and said, laconically, "It's not good, but where is better?".

[bikepacker]

I would like to live in a country where the poor have a wage they can at least feed themselves on. The old will be able to afford to be looked after with dignity and respect when they need it.
The sick will have proper health care without private medical insurance.

When you find your Eutopia let me know. I have travelled extensively and taking everything into consideration, I think we live in one of the best countries in the world.

[al_yrpal]

I would like to live in a country where the poor have a wage they can at least feed themselves on. The old will be able to afford to be looked after with dignity and respect when they need it.
The sick will have proper health care without private medical insurance.

When you find your Eutopia let me know. I have travelled extensively and taking everything into consideration, I think we live in one of the best countries in the world.

+1
… .and with the health issues I have recently had and the terrible story of the health issues of my tiny grandson over the last 5 years I often wonder where people get these myths about the NHS ?

[Edwards]

I have no doubt that at the moment this country is still a reasonable place to live with good health care.

It is my prediction for the future that it will not be so soon. Unless you are rich with a good pension.
Now that the pensioners have elected this lot I wonder how long before the next govt turn on them as well?

[syklist]

I have no doubt that at the moment this country is still a reasonable place to live with good health care.

I have to say that the childcare provision and parental leave here in Norway are better than both the UK and NL. If you are in the child rearing phase of life then Norway is a pretty good place to be.

[bovlomov]

When you find your Eutopia let me know. I have travelled extensively and taking everything into consideration, I think we live in one of the best countries in the world.

That's still true in many ways. But what of those international surveys? ...about quality of life, contentment, happiness, and that sort of thing, that paint a rather grim picture of life here, especially for children. Chronic stress, anxiety, inactivity, poor diet...

I think the tragedy is what has been squandered, and what could have been. The UK has an historic legacy that has given us influence, access to resources, academic standing and technological know-how disproportionate to our size. What is left of that legacy? Most of the oil resources wasted, international good will evaporated, academia in decline...

Yes, things could be a lot worse. But is that what we've come to? Gratitude that we have better lives than people, for instance, in war zones?

Our governments have repeatedly failed us. With our inheritance, we should be looking forward to something better than an obese population living in crap houses, eating crap food, and doing crap jobs for crap wages.

[Mick F]

Our governments have repeatedly failed us. With our inheritance, we should be looking forward to something better than an obese population living in crap houses, eating crap food, and doing crap jobs for crap wages.

+1

Even now, any hopes for the future are sinking away fast.
It's a sad sad day, and if anyone has the chance, he/she should get out of UK asap.

[Spinners]

I would like to live in a country where the poor have a wage they can at least feed themselves on. The old will be able to afford to be looked after with dignity and respect when they need it.
The sick will have proper health care without private medical insurance.

When you find your Eutopia let me know. I have travelled extensively and taking everything into consideration, I think we live in one of the best countries in the world.

Well said.

[pete75]

Well it is a bit worrying now this lot are in power. For example I've a chronic health condition and will be coming up towards retirement before too long. The Conservatives are clever enough, cynical enough and lacking in humanity enough to realise that if NHS treatment is cut back for people like me we'll die saving the NHS money for further treatment and also many thousands in pension payments. From a Tory point of view what's not to like?

[bikepacker]

Even now, any hopes for the future are sinking away fast.
It's a sad sad day, and if anyone has the chance, he/she should get out of UK asap.

Let me know where you go to live as I may come to visit.

[Tangled Metal]

I think the tragedy is what has been squandered, and what could have been. The UK has an historic legacy that has given us influence, access to resources, academic standing and technological know-how disproportionate to our size. What is left of that legacy? Most of the oil resources wasted, international good will evaporated, academia in decline...

Academia in decline? In the past year the latest ranking of academic institutions showed western countries dropping a little with south American and Asian universities rapidly improving. However our universities have remained in the upper levels with quite a few in the top 10, 20 or 50 places. We have better record in the top 10 than USA, France, Germany and many other countries you might think are good academically.

On top of that our universities are crammed full of overseas students purely down to the quality of their courses, departments, faculties and universities. If anything the latest international rankings show us as holding our own and some even going up. Now schooling is dropping fast but that's different.

Everyone seems to paint the last coalition government as some kind of disaster. It plainly isn't despite what socialist or Labour parties want to paint it as. If you really feel Britain is going to become unbearable to live in then please feel free to leave, you won't be missed. Indeed it'll probably be a better place for your departure. I'm British and still proud of what that means. I'm here, staying here and planning to do what I can to help make this a place people still appreciate as a great place to live.

P.S. I know people who were thinking of emigrating if Labour got in. One was joking but others were serious. I think that is daft because there isn't anywhere without there own problems. The grass is greener but it never is when you get there. However I may end up moving overseas, following my academic partner with a better career. Not through choice but because with everything considered it gives my family a more financially secure future purely because her career path goes that way and is the faster rising one.