Nov 16 2007
Why are so many people leaving the UK?
The papers today ask why 400,000 left the Uk last year to live and work somewhere else. I would have thought the answer was obvious.
They’ve had enough.
We live in a country where anyone who has gained some qualifications, who tries to pay their own way and to live a decent life feels targetted by this government. We have our identity assaulted, our democratic views ignored, our pockets and purses rifled by the state, our opinions criticised or banned and the public services we do wish to use run incompetently or rationed for us.
We, the English, are told our country is the one part of the Union that cannot have devolved power. Instead our country is to split into Euroregions, and we are to be told we must be loyal to the South-east, or go round telling people we are east Midlanders. The North East told the government in a referendum they wanted nothing to do with regional government, so the government told them they would have more of it.
We are told we have to love the EU and accept its constitution, after the promised of a referendum in order to win a General election. Many of us see the EU as a hostile bureaucracy, tying us up in ever more rules and regulations. We are not xenophobes - most of us like our continent and appreciate its range of cultures, languages and cuisines. We just do not want to be governed by a bunch of bureaucrats who think they have to regulate every aspect of our increasingly complex lives and who we cannot sack via an election.
We are told by the governement that our lifestyles are wrong. As the Health Service grapples with its inability to keep hospitals clean and infection free the government blames us for being ill in the first place. People are told they are too fat, they eat the wrong foods,and they drink too much. The government encourages a debate criticising "middle class" lifestyles. Maybe it’s a prelude to a crisps tax or a further increase in alcohol duty.
If we dare to drive our cars we are treated like criminals. The government has put through so many new laws and rules that most drivers I see on the roads daily are breaking one or other law. Motorists do not accept the government’s demonisation of speed in all circumstances and want to see instead proper policing operating against the minority who are driving stolen vehicles and uninsured cars, and those who are driving dangerously for the conditions. Motorists feel picked on when they are just trying to get to work or to the shops to buy the family food.
If we are foolish enough to make some honest money then the tax collectors descend. The government only wants to know us when they are out to take our cash. The Revenue and Customs have become much more aggressive and in some cases unfair, as this greedy government raids us time and again to pay for their army of helpers and advisers, to swell their drinks cabinets and pay their first class airline tickets as they fly round the world lecturing the rest of us on the need to travel less.
We are not allowed to make comments on immigration for fear of a false accusation of racism. We are discouraged from criticisng the EU for fear of being called xenophobes. We are told if we want fairer and lower taxes it means we are nasty people wishing to worsen the few health and social services we all do want to be better financed and conducted. Our government snarls about success and privilege, disliking good grammar and independent schools and the best universities. It tells us the two big issues of the day are obesity and climate change. That’s not whay they are saying in the Dog and Duck.
They use the "war on terror" as an excuse to whittle away our civil lliberties. I can scarcely believe that under a Labour government people can now be arrested and held without charge for a month, and the government wishes to be able to do this for two months.
The threaten us with useless and expensive ID cards, when they cannot control our borders or run a National Insurance numbering scheme which works. We are made to go through all sorts of difficult security checks at public buildings and airports, but not at tube stations and most train stations. Once again it is the law abiding who are made to suffer.
Should we want something back for the huge taxes we pay, we are often out of luck. There is insufficient road capacity for the needs of a mdoern economy, in a country with a third less good roadspace than our contiental rivals(relative to size and population). There are still queues to get access to healthcare despite all the extra money spent. Many people do not live near to a first class state school, so their children are out of luck.
If Ministers cannot understand why people are leaving, I have this advice for them. Leave the Ministerial car at home next week, and try getting yourself to the office for 9 am each day. Work out what it is like paying the mortage, buying the petrol, paying the Council Tax and the family food on average earnings in this country, and ask yourself if people really are paying too little tax when you’ve done those sums. Try and imagine what it is like to be English, when the government is directed from a Scottish perspective on so many things. Ask yourself if you think it’s fair that Scotland has a totally different deal in the Union to the majority.
If you still can’t figure out why so many people are leaving, then you are not cut out to be a politician. You are simply, hopelessly and comprehensively out of touch. If you can, then DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
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John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
A fine Post Mr Redwood.
JR:
It’s quite easy John, demand a vote by only English MP’s in Parliament on an English Parliament. let’s see how they all square up.
No, I’ve changed my mind, let all MP’s vote, but on the understanding that the Welsh assembly and scottish parliament will be abolished if an English Parliament is voted down.
Well done, John, you are expressing the sentiments of millions in this country! However, I am sure that Commissar Brown and his minions aren’t the least bit interested in the original question never mind your detailed answer.
Well said. Labour have brought in small changes, but when you add the small changes together they have turned the relationship between the State and the individual upside down. What’s worse is that they haven’t asked us or told us their plans, they have just got on with it.
John
Agree with every single word. Have you ever thought of entering politics?
My sister lives in Spain and I regularly send her the latest news from the BBC news website. You know the ones: somebody urinating on a dying person, youths kicking to death a man who tried to stop them vandalising cars, stories about certain peaceful religeons.
Each time she responds with “now you know why we moved”
2 other points; your thoughts on Gordons signing of the Scottish “claim of rights” where he agreed that the interest of Scotland “would be paramount”
And I think there is a typo of continent in para 3
Regards
Absolutely spot-on. I’m hoping to move my family out for all the reasons mentionedd above. I’ve never voted Tory, and probably won’t, but I just agree with everything you said. I hope it gets said in the Commons from time to time
Well written, just about sums up the situation, I have so many colleagues who feel the same.
All of the points outlined show why Labour will experience a landslide defeat whenever they have the courage to call the next election. Labour have abused the trust of the British people. I do not believe there is any great mandate for Labour to govern. At the 2005 election only 22% of those who could vote chose to vote for Labour, in other words 78% rejected a Labour government.
In my daily life I do not hear one person praising the Labour government, all I hear is criticism and disgust. My family who are all traditional Wilson-style Old Labour’ style supporters hold this current Labour government in total contempt and a word that I often hear banded about is that this is an ‘Animal Farm’ government, one that continually promised to help the poor when in opposition but one that has become corrupted by power and has actually increased poverty in our country with the poor denied access to basic health care like dentistry. A Labour government that lavishly spent 600 pound per roll on wallpaper for its offices, which has lived the extravagant lifestyle at the taxpayers expense. The Animal Farm Labour government which has been so brutal when it has had the whip hand.
The other day I heard Labour MP Clive Efford arrogantly stand up in the house of commons and accuse the unemployed of wanting a lifetime of idleness. This is the type of abuse that would have got a Labour MP the sack in the pre-Blair days. Unemployment today is higher than it was when Labour came to power and youth unemployment is up 20%. Labours only solution to unemployment is to exploit the jobless for free labour under the wasteful NewDeal programme, which incidently has cost the taxpayer 3.6 billion pounds. We have to ask why so many of the unemployed who are press-ganged into the free labour disguised as work experience are placed with companies that donate to the Labour party? This really isan Animal Farm government. They have abused the trust of the poor and have only extended poverty in our country.
And what does one do?
Join David Cameron’s Tories?
Join UKIP? (I know it would be improper for you to suggest this)
Shoot a planning inspector? (ditto I suppose)
Put up posters on lampposts around your home town denouncing our leaders?
Write letters to the papers?
Blog?
Go round to your local council building/enclosed railway station & have a cigarette?
I really would like to know - perhaps some other reader may have an idea.
Reply: We need to unite to get rid of this government, which lies behind so many of the problems.
400,000 + 1, 23 months and counting, for all the reasons you neatly summarise.
I’ll tell you what you can do:
1. Sign EDM 266.
2. Scrap your silly “Grand Committee”
3. Campaign for an English Parliament.
To get my vote all three of the above must be satisfied or I vote BNP.
Reply: The only way to get rid of this government is to vote Conservative.
I am amazed but very pleased about your comments regarding England.
I am sick of being told that an English Parliament would break up the Union. Why?
Anyway there is no point in maintaining a Union where the English are increasingly subjugated(no exaggeration).
It may have been alright to have a Scots dominated governmnt pre devolution but now it is deeply unjust to be ruled by ministers with no mandate.
Gordon Brown has signed the Scottish Claim of Right in which he has pledged to make Scottish interests paramount.
Please Mr Redwood use any influence you have to persuade Mr cameron that we must have an English Parliament.
Why are so many Brits leaving the UK?
In one word ‘government’.
In a few more words ‘this incompetent government and the damage it has inflicted over the last ten years’:-
We’re subjected to ever higher levels of taxation, only to see our hard-earned money wasted.
We’re governed by politicians with no idea of the old-fashioned values of honour and personal integrity.
Gross financial incompetence.
Political correctness gone mad to the point where it is limiting freedom of speech.
(edited policy towards immigration)
Health and safety obsession gone completely mad.
Meddling nanny state that thinks it should interfere in every aspect of our lives.
The ever-expanding tentacles of the EU and the passing of more and more power to Brussels.
An infrastructure that can no longer cope with the expanding population.
The ‘worst place to bring up children’ in the western world.
A seriously ‘broken’ society.
No-go areas in town centres due to widespread drunkenness and yob behaviour.
Vast numbers of people who appear to believe that the state owes them a living
Housing prices that are so high that they cripple the average family budget.
The long hours work culture.
A state education system that has completely abandoned discipline and fails enormous numbers of children.
Spin, spin, spin, more spin, obfuscation and lies every day.
A national broadcaster that appears more like an arm of the government every day.
An police force that is now so hog-tied by paperwork that catching criminals has been relegated to a secondary responsibility.
Sadly, there are many more reasons that could be added to this list.
There is an article in today’s Telegraph covering this issue:-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/16/nemi116.xml
The ‘your views’ section had 520 responses when I looked. They make very depressing reading. We can only hope that someone in government takes the trouble to read them. Almost ALL of them cited the same sort of reasons. Many contributors said that having tasted life elsewhere, they would never return to the UK.
Given a different set of personal circumstances I would join them tomorrow.
Superb. That’s why I left.
-Living in Chicago and loving it
The English are leaving because no longer do they see a future for themselves or their children in this country. They simply do not buy the propaganda of the government and it’s official spokesman, the BBC, about how more vibrant, more enriched, more educated, more law-abiding and more prosperous their country has become.
They do not believe because their own experiences tell them the exact opposite is the truth and what they are being fed are palpable lies.
For many, the damage to our country has passed a tipping point. With one small country how can overcrowding be fixed? How can social harmony be achieved with so many disparate groups united in their hatred of the English middle class.
John, of course it is not as simple as this a senior Conservative such as yourself coming out with statements like this smacks of the same disingenuity we receive daily from Labour.
It was the Tories that came up with the Regional Blueprint for England, it was Labour, granted, that made Tory plans a reality, but nevertheless Conservatives are up to their armpits in the whole ghastly concept. Regions were a Tory invention!
It was also the Conservatives under Heath that got us into Europe. It was also Major who signed up to Maastricht.
It was also the Conservatives who came back from each and every signing on matters EU pledging our sovereignty was protected and that we would always be free - the Conservatives lied, and we are now trying to sort out the mess lack of a back bone has brought to Britain.
You may say John that you didn’t agree with what the Conservatives were doing but as a part of the cabinent you had little choice but to go along with it. Or perhaps, with the wisdom of hindsight you realise what a monumental error it was to play into Europe’s hands in the way the Conservatives did. What I do know is that many leading Conservatives support the move to Unitary Councils, ostensibly on cost saving grounds, however, it is obvious to most people that Unitary authorities are the precursor to Regional government - it doesn’t take much of an imagination to see the next step as being the abolition of a few unitary councils in a region to have the regional nightmare so many of us have been fighting against.
Without an English Parliament to protect the nation - England is lost - the Conservatives have helped to achieve what Hitler failed to, nothing to be proud about.
I’m sorry John, but Tories haven’t junked regional bodies, they are still heavily involved, they are also fully involved in getting councils to do away with themselves which plays right into Europe’s hands. Why have the Conservatives been so quiet about their animosity towards regions? Why do Conservatives even bother to humour Labour and Lib Dems by referring to these artificial constructs as regions. We live in counties not regions and will always live in COunties no matter what politicians come up with.
When you have a quiet moment why not key into Google “former county of Essex” and see what comes up. Yep, something we have been doing for a long time, how many of the people who live in Essex will be impressed to know they now live in a County that has effectively ceased to exist from an administrative perspective. Labour have just retained the name to pacify the ignorant fools who have delegated the government of their country to people who have hoodwinked them.
No, John. Things are now serious. It is no longer good enough for politicians to come out with crocodile tears when they were the ones in power who let this mess happen.
The people are waking up and the Conservatives are just as much at risk politically for betraying England as Labour are.
For decades this British pretence has been used to blind the English to the fact that their country, democracy, heritage and national identity have been systematically stripped from them.
I remember well speaking to a senior Conservative who tried to tell me that the Tories were the party for England. I asked them to give me ONE example of what the Conservatives did to further English culture and national identity during their 18 year tenure - they couldn’t answer me.
The Conservatives have ignored England and have taken advantage of England’s apathy to politics. Now that time has passed. Everyday I receive more and more members of the public often distraught at what Tory and Labour have done to their country and for them being part of a new political force is their only hope to rectify things.
5 years ago when I came to see you you had no sympathy with an English Parliament, in fact at that time you were perfectly content to let the farce that is Westminster and our Parliamentary system continue on its bandwagon.
Now things are not so funny. English people ARE dying for want of drugs available to Scots. English students ARE leaving University with debts of
To the Right Honorable John Redwood, MP. Well said Sir.
>
The majority of English MP’s have not the slightest interest in righting the myriad of wrongs they have inflicted on England, might I therefore suggest that you disassociate yourself from them and join the English Democrats?
>
Faithfully yours
Terence Brown
London
Reply: Voting English Democrat lets Labour stay in charge!
John ,
I believe these are also the reasons why the right dominates blogging in the UK.
There is a ground swell of rage against the useless careerist socialists who make a living as parasites on the rest of us.
Great post - well done.
John, you are in a better position than most to something about it. Come out in favour of the inevitable (an autonomous English Parliament), kill Scots influence and authority in England, stop immigration, get rid of illegals, recognise that England is overcrowded and do something about it. Get our oil, fisheries, jobs, investment, and money back from Scotland, get out of the EU as quick as we can, scarp political correctness, sack inefficient workers and cut benefits. In other words go back to the England that they once knew and our people will come streaming back. Pre-requisite is that lots of people now in this country need to stream back also to make room, as our emigrants did for them.
John,
I’m an ex-pat who is coming home because I’m sick of the United States of Texas. Would you like to swap?
Great post, thanks. Now when my foreign friends ask me why I’m so eager to leave, I can just point them to this.
I suppose it would be unfair to completely blame this government for why I want to leave. Part of it is cultural: the fashion for heavy drinking, the sexualisation of everything, the pessimistic (almost despairing) feel of many people, and a number of other processes that are more cultural than political. But it’s certainly 80% the government, for precisely the reasons you’ve given.
Although everything you’ve mentioned is relevant and infuriating, the prime issue (IMO) is freedom. I can’t think of anywhere else in the rich world where civil liberties have seen the sustained, deliberate, purposeful attack that they’ve taken here. Of course, authoritarian laws have been passed in the US, Australia, several European countries, but not on the degree that we’ve experienced here. Their laws have been more sporadic and specific; by contrast our government seems to be out to quash freedom almost for its own sake.
As well as ‘big’ (for want of a better word) freedoms like habeas corpus and not having to carry your life with you on a card, there are plenty of ’small’ freedoms that this government has mauled. To take an example completly at random: you are now presumed guilty if you don’t re-register for car tax - ie you’re assumed to be a tax-dodger, and you have to tell DVLA otherwise. Previously, it was assumed that you were ok unless you were actually caught without a tax disc. A small example, but there are dozens of others, and it’s indicative of the control-freak mindset of this hateful government. Then there’s the surveillance state, which would require another post.
I recently graduated from a Russell Group university. I was so worried about the authoritarianism of the Blair/Brown regime that I was seriously considering emigration immediately after I graduated. As it is, I’m going to spend three years here getting my ACA qualification; after that, I certainly hope to have left. I only hope that the ‘e-borders’ programme hasn’t started requiring exit visas by then!
(To end on a slightly more positive note: ‘pull’ factors, like warm climate, good work, nice people (which is most important of all) etc should be more of a reason for migrating than ‘push’ factors. That’ll certainly be the case for me
.)
You make some very good points their.
One problem England has with this government is that to many of them have signed the Scottish Claim of Right.
Onee thing you can do about it though and that is to sign Early Day Motion 266
http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=34373
Regret to say, I’ve already left the UK. I still own my business which runs on over there without me, but my life has gone over to another part of the globe. As a boss of a business in the UK, you can take all those listed complaints and multiply by ten.
A creator or jobs in the EU is a risk taker, a social criminal. Not out here in Asia, an investor is a hero. People are well behaved, repectful and it’s a pleasure to build projects, have ideas and create the future - like it used to be in the UK pre-1997.
[...] Read it. A British MP tells it like it is. [...]
Very simple: because the British system has failed
1) Ask anyone in the world if they use anything Made in England.
2) When was the last time something useful came out of British universities. Past laurels (centuries ago) of oxford/cambridge cannot be used to perpetuate greatness when it is void in the present. I speak especially in the subject of technology. Open the proceedings of any premier conference in the area of computer science, you will hardly see a paper from British universities.
John
You’ve stated what should have been blindingly obvious to the whole of the MSM and the Government. A problem for you and your party is that all those leaving are your natural supporters.
I lived in the UK - in Reading - for a couple of years during the mid 1980s. I had a great time. Decent pay, weekends free, a company car. Good beer. All kinds of history, just waiting to be tripped over. It was an idyllic couple of years.
I get the impression things started going downhill as soon as Thatcher was ousted. John Major always struck me as both schlemiel and schlemazel, and Tony Blair seems to have spent most of his time criminalizing activities.
Still, I do enjoy my occasional visits to the UK.
I have only one word to say about this posting John…
Amen!
Mr. Redwood the Conservatives can do something about it by opposing much more vigorously than they do.
And please keep on about England,E.V.O.E.M will not do, we must have our own Parliament.
I can just see you as Englands First Minister.
Absolutely bang on the button. How they have ruined this country. What a pity Gordon backed away from an election.
Move to Seattle, Washington or Vancouver, British Columbia.
Join the people whose ancestor’s saw the writing on the wall back in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Better late than never.
Dead on target. Let me add two more items. The home of soldiers and sailors who built a world empire puts Alison Lapper in Trafalgar Square, and bans carrying of pocket knives.
This is a most unusual thread.
I have just read all through it.
There is not one person who does not wholeheartedly agree with the original article.
And I do too!
As an American, I have to say you’ve posted a harrowing description of life in England these days. Meanwhile, we’re trying our best to keep such tragedies from occurring here across the pond, because we can see the same potential end result for our Republic. Unfortunately, we have our own Blairs and Browns, but we also have a few more opportunities for proper recourse. We may avoid such a condition yet.
By the way, I have a house for sale in sunny Florida, and the dollar is awfully weak right now…
http://iggyshouse.com/PropertyWelcome.aspx?PropertyID=178783&v=0&m=5
John,
Interesting post. 400,000 have left the UK, what percentage emigrated from England?
Do these numbers show that it is those from England that are emigrating whilst the Scots and Welsh remain because they have a level of devolution?
How many are going to Europe remaining in the evil EU?
How many of these are immigrants that found that England is not the land of milk and honey they expected?
What is the balance of immigration vs emigration?
What is your breakdown of the figures?
Reply : the figures supplied do not have that interesting amount of detail. The responses to the blog show the overwhelming majority agree with the comments on why people are leaving.
Your reply to myself & others that we should rally round the Cameron Tories because it is the least worst option shows why this country desperately needs a genuinely democratic PR system to allow serious party political debate & shift the blockage (imagery deliberate) which is poisoning our political life.
How to get from here to there? Perhaps those of us who would prefer to support alternatives to the duopoly could promise to vote for ANY candidate who supports PR (from Respect through to the BNP) & individual Tory & Labour MPs could issue a personal statement that they will support any Bill, from any source introducing it or calling for a PR referendum, as many once issued anti-EU election addresses.
Reply: PR would not have created a Parliamentary majority against the EU constitution or in favour of a referendum if it had been in place for the last General Election. Nor could PR handle the current problem, that 2 parties the Lib Dems and Labour were elected on a platform of offering a referendum on the Constitution and now will not support one.
Mr. Redwood,
I could have sworn you were writing about Canada. I am a Canadian who moved to the United States for essentially the same reasons you have outlined above. Substitute “Quebec” for “Scotland” and you have distilled the problem in Canada as well.
It seemst that both in Canada and Britain, the political elites have the same myopia. Canada’s previous prime minister, Jean Chretien, dismissed the brian drain, implying that those that have left do not share “the Canadian Values” (i.e. Liberal Party Values) and that uncontrolled third world immigration will fix all.
My question is, why do the elites of Anglosphere have this self-loathing death wish whereby our culture and society is slowly being poisoned?
Stand up and fight, Britons, or shut the hell up. Same goes for all those in America, Canada, Australia, and any other nation where the elites whittle away your rights and flood your country with millions of immigrants.
Because let me tell you a little secret, that those 400,000 will soon learn: there is no place left to run - certainly not America. The elites are doing this to every country in the West. We have all been turned into little children, whose only business is to sit and watch “American Idol” or “Britain’s Got talent” or whatever. Some of the policies you decry are already happening here in the USA, and most of the rest aren’t that far behind.
Democracy is on the wane. (A politically incorrect thought has been removed - ed)
If Britain re-elects Labour to yet another term - and I strongly suspect you will - then I will know that you are not serious at all. The first rule of reacting to failure is to punish it. It doesn’t matter that you THINK the Tories won’t be better. All that should matter is that you KNOW that Labour will continue to fail.
If only the government of which you were a member had not been so destructive, spiteful, rotten and criminally dishonest, Mr Redwood, we might not be in the situation you describe now.
The country voted for Mr Blair’s dishonest project only because it was sick of Mr Major’s.
John your criticism that PR would not produce a pro-referendum Parliamentary majority is probably correct in the short term. However in Scotland the SNP, Tories & Greens, who make an effective majority, are all pro-referndum for the UK & are visibly nerving themselves up to have one in Scotland alone. While non-binding this would have wide repercussions.
My point is that in the medium term PR would open up British politics & while I am actively opposed to the Greens on almost everything I think we have healthier politics for them being able to stand or fall in their own name rather than Zac becoming a Tory advisor.
Reply: I wonder if Salmond has the courage to hold an EU Constitutional treaty referendum? - I fear he will “bottle it”. It would be great if he didn’t, as a strong “No” vote in Scotland - liekly to be more pro EU than England - would put more pressure on Brown and his poodle Foreign Secretary Miliband.
Those who want PR face the same problem as those of who want less EU and a referendum - we first need to build a majorirty in Parliament for it.
The things you describe are spot on, and are exactly why I am going back to Northern Ireland, after six and a half years living in England.
As one of the 400,000 I can inform you that you have hit the nail on the head.
I left Nov 5th 2005 and after 2 years in Canada I can tell you I will not bringing my high tax paying butt back to the UK in the longer term if at all.
I foresee dire consequences if this government isnt thrown out at the next election.
One point I have to make is that many living overseas do not vote simply because the overseas voting system rules. I have to reply by postal vote within 4 days. It takes 10 days to get to Canada …. times up before I even get the postal vote forms in my hand. Surely they can send out the forms from the Local embassy and receive them back or in this day and age use the internet, National Insurance Numbers, tax references, date of birth etc all could be used to validate you are who you say you are.
I hope you and the people in UK can sort out the mess that this government has forced onto the country.
David Whelbourn - you need to get a proxy vote. Disgracefully, nothing else works.
This will stand as the definitive statement on the issue, an issue that my colleagues and I are deeply involved now in fighting.
As an expat Briton having lived abroad for 20 years, I’d like to comment that:
The UK swings back to the right & the US swings to the left!!
The majority of what you have described is now common in BOTH countries. Left wing / right wing, it seems to make no difference. But at least in the UK, there is a way of life. To those who plan to leave; is the English way of life really worth cashing in for a higher standard of living? Its just stuff.
It’s really great to hear how patriotic all those people are who have left the UK over recent years. I suppose they can now all proclaim how much they love being British, whilst whooping it up in Spain, Cyprus or other countries that they have moved to. No doubt they are “surviving” on their vast unearned incomes or savings whilst simulaneously proclaiming how they were “robbed blind” by the Labour government and high taxation.
I suppose they also complain about all the foreigners who are “pouring” into Britain, taking “our” jobs, houses, women etc., etc., I wonder how they would feel if the Spanish (or nationals of the countries where they now live) took a similar point of view towards them?! Also interesting how they are able and willing to take advantage of the EU free movement provisions whilst at the same time slagging the EU off. Hypocracy or what?
However, I am encouraged that thousands of decent, hardworking, EU nationals have been pouring into Britain over recent years to replace all those Brits who left and to fill all the vacant jobs in our economy that desperately needed filling. Thank God they came - and what will we do when they leave? I am sure all those patriots who left will return in the country’s hour of need! I hope not. For me it was “good riddence” when they left in the first place (phrase left out - Ed)
Paul Croft comment is typical of someone who has no idea that the vast majority of those who emigrate are not going for the weather and are not living on vast unearned incomes.
They are mostly comprised of decent family groups who were probably paying high rate tax and not able to claim any benefits from the government. In short they were the cash machines that the Chancellor has been making his regular withdrawls from.
I am sure the vast majority of those hard working individuals who have rushed in to take our places will contribute hugely to the UK chancellory. Ha I think not. They will be sending their money home and spending the minimum amount.
I can tell you that my country of choice welcomed us with open arms, people say “We are glad you came and brought your family, we need more people”. As a patriot I served my country for 12 years and then went on to work hard and pay for my own studies with my hard earned cash. Through my skills and intelligence I progressed to paying high rate taxes and never claimed any benefits from the UK since I was 16 years old. If you are glad I am left then more fool you.
Mr Croft’s post
It’s really great to hear how patriotic all those people are who have left the UK over recent years. I suppose they can now all proclaim how much they love being British, whilst whooping it up in Spain, Cyprus or other countries that they have moved to
The huge question is this:
Why do we put up with 42% taxation?
Why do we put up with an EU that doesn’t manage to declare its accounts and then persecutes, through OLAF, people who blow the whistle?
I just wish someone would tell me.
I would be long gone but for my partner’s elderly mother whom we are not a position to leave! What a place this country has turned out to be. Once the ruler of the World, now just a (very unpleasant place -ed). Crime, immigration, rubbish government, high taxes - the list is endless. Well, we all know what we can do… leave! And thats just what I intend on doing as soon as possible!
Somebody Somewhere could clean up ast election time and go down in history with the likes of Queen Elizabeth Ist and Winston Churchill, you know what to do.
Succintly put from start to finish, but you left out a vital area. Our legal system is creaking to a standstill. Not only criminal law, prisons, police etc. but the Civil law system as well. It is overwhelmed with tens of thousands of debtor judgements which will never be executed because of the toothless system that was introduced to protect the vulnerable but which has been conveniently hijacked by every cowboy builder and dishonest trader in this country over the last 10 years. Anyone who is owed money because of shoddy work or broken contracts has to face a bitter choice: Spend more and more money pursuing the miscreant or accept their loss. It is a heartbreaking process for many to come face-to-face with the general helplessness of the legal system in this country.
My solution. I’m off mate.
I WONDER HOW MANY OF THE FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND THAT LEFT THE UK WILL RETURN FROM THEIR UPTOPIA WHEN THEY REALISE THE GRASS IS NOT ALWAYS GREENER ON THE OTHER SIDE .
KEEP SPREADING THE ENGLISH SEED
Interesting post. I would like to share my experiences with you.
I left the UK in 2006 to live in the US. I used to work in finance in london - I work in investment banking - and commute into Paddington. My door to door time in the UK was almost 2 hours each way morning and night so I was absent from my home in the UK from around 6:00 in the morning until at least 8:00 at night.
Over time I saw my standard of living declining in the UK - the trains were usually late and overcrowded, countless delays, and goods and houses are getting more and more expensive. By UK standards I’m paid pretty well but I always felt that things were too expensive and that really, I should be able to afford to live nearer work, in a nicer house with more space and as a family we had the right for my wife not to work to look after our baby.
I imagine that many people find themselves in the same position. The inland revenue do not allow the husband to use his wifes tax allowance if she doesn’t work… no ‘credits’ or other allowances were given to us because I basically earned too much and I basically knew that it would be financially tough for us as soon as my wife stopped work. This means that many many people apart from myself are forced by the government to have their wives return to work and place their kids in daycare - not something that we wanted and not something I was prepared to have mandated to me by an ineffectual rancid shower of con-artists in westminster.
I had been considering the issue for several years before this point, particularly under the current labour government, and I sadly came to the conclusion that there were not many good reasons to live in the UK any longer - and also - that my children and their children probably might enjoy a worse quality of life as the situation in the UK worsens over the next hundred years.
The reason I think this is that, as an island, the country only has so much space. Much of the space in the North is under-used, and in the south is over-used with the problems with transport, roads, crime,schools,space, hospitals that this overcrowding produces. Given the maths involved, sooner or later, there has to be a point where the population of england stops growing. What will be that point be? and what will the quality of life be like for those people at that time? My view is that as any area gets more crowded, things become more expensive. It becomes harder to get goods in and waste out. It costs more to light, to live in and takes more time to travel around which all impact the quality of life of people who live there. It seems to me that ‘quality of life’ requires space.
In addition the damage to the economy caused by the Thatcher years which decimated the manufacturing sector have resulted in the ridiculous service economy concept that happily ignores that really, countries need to make things in order to prosper and now of course, countries with large populations willing to work for low wages such as in india have made inroads into ’service based’ jobs such as call centers. I really see a grim future for the UK to be honest when people wonder what is going to put food on the table in the year 2050.
The England I would have loved to live in was about 60 years ago, with more fresh air, more uncluttered roads and a tidy absence of rubbish, crime and the rest of the commercial blight that seems to swamp the country now, as its inhabitants struggle to get to work under seemingly permanently grey skies.
Whilst living here in the US, I have come to realise that no country is perfect. There are certain things, mainly family, that I miss about the UK. I miss the cheese there for one thing. I miss the architecture and the dry wit of the people. I miss parts of the english countryside which truly are beautiful although I am sad that if John Prescott had his way, much of that will disappear under housing development. Such is progress.
However. The fact remains that here, I now have more time with my family, more money, a much larger house with almost 2 acres of garden for my kids to play in, a shorter commute, and a happy absence of John Prescott in my life. I have to balance that against the eye-wateringly bad television, the sometimes jaw-slackeningly bad driving on the roads, and the health system which works as long as you are rich, young and healthy. I’m not sure this is the place to be old and sick.
Since my commute now takes half the time and the trains are always reliable, I find myself in a better mood when I get home. In the UK, I was often ready to smash things up when I got home I was so annoyed that the trains had been delayed again… Do you know that my longest ever journey from Paddington to Reading took almost 5 hours… ?
I realise that brits often complain about the weather, but its true that the grey skies often get you down. The weather here is a lot better and make it easier to get up in the morning.
Also, UK readers might be surprised to hear, but crime is a lot lower than you would imagine. In the county where I live, in 2005 there were 10,000 reported crimes. In Berkshire where I used to live, there were more than 200,000 crimes in the same period. These areas are roughly similar in size. So - people living in a nice community here rarely experience any vandalism, violence or other crime. Many of our neighbours don’t even lock their doors and people routinely leave their cars unlocked. This is only 33 miles from New York City - and NYC is not the crime-ridden place that you imagine. Its a lot cleaner and I feel a lot safer than in london for example.
The year I left england my daughter had her pumpkin lantern smashed by vandals who dragged their knuckles up our drive especially to do it. Here, it simply wouldn’t happen. I don’t understand why the crime and vandalism in the UK seems to have increased.. perhaps its part of the drink culture… but its yet another straw too many as far as I’m concerned and I found myself increasingly uninterested in the place as I discovered that nothing I did could possibly make a difference. The things I disliked were just too big and too many.
So in summary - I think that everyone should make their own decision.. I personally used to moan to myself for years that I wished things were different. It was only when I realised that leaving the UK was a sensible option that it became clear.. There were just too many things wrong with the country to make it worth staying around any longer. So to anyone reading this and taking this seriously I would say.. Don’t just think about it.. don’t waste years of your life complaining about things. Do something about it and live abroad. At the very least, it will mean you have a more balanced view of things if you decide to return to the UK since everywhere has its own problems and advantages.
Despite it all, I still retain a soft spot for the place. Pulsing like a beacon through the days and nights, the place still sends out its invisible waves of recollection, calling back to us over the miles… until even the last of us come home.
Well said!!
I left the country in January - and blog about Escaping England. I am 36 years old and completely disillusioned by the lifestyle on offer in my home country.
For me the options are simple:
1. Leave the country and my family
to try to find a better quality of life somewhere else..
2. Live in England - and struggle against depression and financial security.. in order to be close to friends and family…
I hope to have a child one day - but can’t stand the thought of bringing a child up in England…
I feel that things have gone too far… radical changes are needed.. but I see no glimpse of anything that can offer hope!
Personally… I always thought it was due to the weather, but I could be wrong
Superb article. I am also making the move to Spain in May. I have plans for family now and NO WAY will I bring a child of mine into the world living in this disgusting country I totally agree with Tina’s comments.
I also feel that one of the main reasons this country is in a mess is beacause people are spending their time sitting here moaning about it on this wall! I can’t see a civil war happening but its only a matter of time before something goes off. As Powell once said ‘there’ll be blood on the streets’ and we are getting closer and closer to making his words come true.
I work two jobs and get hammered for tax…is it really worth it? Honesty is not the best policy anymore
Another UK citizen to add to your list Mr Redwood.
Having monitored the Labour tax machine at work, and the economy wrecking maching at full speed, I have decided to quit the UK before I go to the wall as a result of the financial mess created by Gordon Brown and Tony Bliar. Gordon Brown has lied and dithered, and the Labour party are exposed again. Maggie Thatcher was right; ‘Labour isn’t Working!’, and it never will.
Good riddance Britain, cannot wait to get out.
a fine post indeed….But we Brits need to stick by our country through thick and thin, we cannot just run away…Things will get better in time. But not if our countrymen are just jumping ship! Show a little nationalism, what would your ancestors think?, you know?
I agree Paul but I do not see anything changing in my lifetime and currently taking up arms to enforce my rights as an English wasnt an option. I do foresee a time when extremist’s will start a campaign just as right wing parties such as BNP are gaining a toehold in British Politics.
After 45 years, and 12 of those serving in the British Army, I decided enough was enough. It was more important for me to seek a better way of life for my family.
A most excellent post Mr. Redwood !
I myself left the UK in December 2007 to take up a new job in Australia. Do I want to go back to that (words left out)country ? no thanks.
I’ll leave them to fill the skills gap, assuming the labour goverment can find sufficient translators, interestingly enough in Australia you can’t get in unless you have a good standard of spoken and written English - is that racist ?
I’ll look forward to visiting on holiday to see friends and family then breathe a sigh of relief when I’m back on the plane to Melbourne - assuming that is Heathrow have managed to put my luggage on the plane !!
sincerely
L
Well You All Know What To Do …..Vote With Your Feet , The Turn Out At The Polls Is Always Abysmaly Low,You Can Bet Your Life ,That Most British Immigrants Use Their Votes.Make Sure The Candidate You Choose Is Their To Express Your Views… Not There Just To Line His/Her Pocket ,Look At All The Recent Controversy Surrounding Their Expenses,I Could Go On And On ,But I Would Not Be Telling You ,Something You Are Allready Aware Of.
I Am One Of Those Planning To Emigrate,Not Like This Government Who Plans To Fail.
You have hit the nail on the head there Mr Redwood.
When my friends and family ask why my wife and I are leaving and taking our skills to Australia, I shall direct them to the above artical.
P.S I think you way of reasoning might be quite well recieved down under, perhaps you should consider joining the exodus!
I would regard myself as the quiet general public which generally goes with the flow but, I feel totaly helpless. If I, without the experience and power of our current leadership can see where we are going wrong and what is needed to steer this country round ( as does 80% of the population) why cant the people in power. It is time to make your voice heard. Everybody who is unhappy with our leadership - dont just accept the status quo - do something and add your voice to the masses.
Tally Ho!. I have had enough and off to the USA. I am one of the 4 million Brits leaving every week . For good!!! You have hit it spot on with your review. Personally, I am fed up with not hearing anyone speak English on the streets anymore, to name but just one gripe. The English way of life, our culture and our freedoms have been completely crushed!. I can only compare England’s demise to the Fall of The Roman Empire. When one has had a useless leader like Tony Blair in power for too long, (more concerned with lining his own pockets than running the country), what do you expect. Mr Redwood for Prime Minister!!!!
Tally Ho!
M
I have read this with great interest. As with the 400,000 that have left and the 1000’s others, I also wish to leave this country. The reason being is that I see no future for my child. Jobs are being outsourced, those that aren’t you have to have degrees, slave labour in the form of migrant workers, cost of food and fuel and an ineffective and best described as corrupt government offering laughable leadership, this country has nothing to offer. My wife and I both work in order to keep a roof over our heads and so we can provide for ourselves and our child, my wife can only work part time because we cannot afford the cost of child care (thank the lord for grandparents) the government has increased the tax she pays and reduced our tax credits so we are no worse off, making it harder to live. The streets are no longer safe and the government don’t want to invest in prisons, police or get tough on crime, that want your burglar to become your window cleaner. I used to love my country, now even my grandparents are ashamed of what has become of this country and said I should take my family and leave. Am I rigth to want to leave for greener pastures? What reason is there to stay? Maybe I should start by moving to Scotland at least our prescriptions would be free!