Direct democracy anybody?

Or actually, in 80% of the world where there are zero democracies.

British people love to blame – and we do have bad politicians – but apart from your odd Obama (or not, depending on your political taste) most politicians anywhere and everywhere in the world are pretty bad.

I am a young person with a minor in Politics, so I can also agree that Brown is a completely unfit leader and many of our current politicians are terribly corrupt and feel the need for them to go. I feel passionately about this.

However, that is a separate issue. The government does not MAKE the feel of the country. Britain is a big country and Brown is not responsible for gun crime, poverty or the multititude of problems our society is facing.

WE ARE.

We, the British people, are why so many people move abroad and why I chose to study abroad.

*Take responsibility for your own lives* is what we, as British people, sorely need to do.

Britain is the only country where a mother blames the pregnancies of her 12 and 14 year old daughters on lack of sex education in schools.

We have good jobs, good money relative to most of the world and decent education – yet people STILL are unhappy. Perhaps more so than in many of the poorer countries.

Britain is experiencing what Manhattan had in the 1970’s. Public services like transportation, sanitation, and police got worse. Crime went up, the streets got dirtier, and the city was no longer safe. So people moved away.

I lived in the UK from 1988-1992. In that era you never heard of crimes involving guns (unless it was the IRA). Now, I see articles about shootings all over London, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Sheffield, Liverpool, etc. It’s like the kids are armed to the teeth bullets are flying all over England.

I have this to ask…..

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!?

Please don’t blame the victims, most people that bought houses bought them because it was the right time in their life to do so ( I know all about that, and felt all the huge pressures from family, friends, professional advisors, adverts, TV, and the press). The victims were and are victims because the banks willing lent them unsafe amounts of money. The leaches have been the Buy to Let market, whom use houses as an investment rather than some where to live, and they did Gordon Browns bidding to sustain the boom, and they felt safe to do so, as Nu Labour was doing the EU’s bidding, fulfilling its Nu Population policy.

Yes the people here are turning bad, but the people are the victims, being manipulated, and for the past 10+ years they have failed to see it. Clandestine organisations such as Common Purpose with their tentacles in Education, Health, Fire Service, Local Governemnt, Press, The Police, The Churches, and of course Central government have been very successful so far.

if there were less practical constraints on going, the numbers would double at least, if not more …

sadly some don’t do so well overseas, like the ‘por favors’ of Spain, the aging British population who fled to Spain in the ’70s but who now fall between jurastrictions when it comes to pensions etc … not an easy time for them …

but you’re dead right, if we’ve half a chance we’d go, nowhere in the civilised world could be worse than all this … roll on the Olympics!

We will be just fine at your departure.

God bless Texas!
Judy – The Woodlands, TX

My two sons were brought up here. They both are going through University with the intention of working abroad. Like so many young people of today they don’t want to live here.

I am 48. Thankfully in just a few years I will be in the fortunate position of being able to leave this depressing island forever. Luckily the place I will go is somewhere I have worked, mastered the language and found an alternative home.

Perhaps I can then live out the rest of my life in a more caring culture, better weather, more relaxed and easy going life-style and under a country that still has fair laws and respect for its citizens. I won’t return. I no longer feel anything for this place.

I have to agree with what some of what you have to say to a degree although unsuprisingly you gloss over the abject failure of our political system to deliver. I guess that would be because you are rather more part of the problem than the possible solution prehaps?

I am indeed intending to leave the uk as thanks to the policies implemented by your party when you were in power and further “enhanced” by the next arrogant “servants” that were elected I have come to realise that I am simply a walking wallet to be plundered by the state.

You told us to invest in our pensions then failed to legislate to protect them and then plundered them in an act of State larceny. And who is to say that a future chancellor won’t be tempted to do the same again.

Both main parties are so far in the pockets of the businessmen that bankroll them so whom do you all really serve ? Those that vote or those that fund?

Tax under all administrations of the last 20 years have gone ever upward and accountability for what happens to all this money has all but disappeared.

I now work to subsidise the life of my Ex Partner and her new boyfriend. I have been forced to sell my home in the teeth the global credit crunch made possible by the de-regulation and free markets your ideology swears is the only way even in the face of the stark evidence in the last few months that this system only works for the privileged few.

I will now be left homeless but for the charity of family or friends and the CSA or CMEC as it will be still don’t look like they will feel satisfied that they have done their job properly, which appears by the way to be to peddle the lie that they are looking out for the interests of my children whilst destroying utterly the life of their father and any inheritance that they might have been able to look forward too. Guess you MPs overlooked that outcome when you set all this up. Guess what I’m not a feckless father who wants nothing to do with his children and guess what that is exactly the likely end result of what you have legislated. Oh and even more gauling is that I know that there are fathers out there that do deserve to be hounded in this manner who pay nothing and eventually their debts are written off. How do you think that plays with me?

Oh and if you have 5 mins it’ll only take that long go look at what rights a father has when his partner takes his children from him. Actually I’ll save you the bother unless he can afford to gamble a huge amount of money on a lawyers services with no guarantee of any success try none whatsoever.

And you wonder why we are so angry when you only maybe get a chance of justice but only if you can afford it ? Is that the kind of world we work and pay our taxes for ?

I have heard it all from both sides for long enough to know that the rhetoric will not change what really happens and you politicians don’t appear to listen to or have much of a clue what goes on outside of that little bubble of Westminster and the media circus in which you operate.

When I leave it will be the only remaining act of protest left open to me that I believe actually counts. I withdraw my funding of UK plc via the Taxation system. I will take my skills to somewhere else around the globe and I’m fortunate that I have such skills and can do so. I shall rebuild my life wherever I end up and try and make sure that there will be something for my children to look forward too eventually.

Do I want to leave my home and children no.
Will I continue to live in perpetual misery and debt treated like a piece of scum only good for taxation no thanks I’ll pass. Especially when it is clear that that tax is going to be used to fund wars that slaughter innocent millions, and errode the liberties and freedoms of the very citizens that are being taxed.

Are you or any other politician going to change anything that really matters to the real people in the real world or are you going to continue to look after yourselves and your mates in big business telling us all its for our own good once again forgetting whom you really serve.

Are you really going to tell people the truth about what would really be required to change this country for the better.

I’m afraid based on the last twenty five years of observation no I don’t believe there is the will or the wit to actually achieve that anywhere in the ranks of parliment.

Don’t bother asking for my vote, your credibility and that of all your colleagues in Westminster whatever party they represent has no currency with me any more. Until you can change my mind and that of many like me then I believe that that errosion of trust between electorate and the elected is one of the biggest problems I think you face.

Will I miss my home country’s beauty and past culture and tolerance yes.

Reply: I agree with you that the connections between big business and politics can be unhealthy. In “I want to make a difference but I don’t like politics” I criticised the big money culture of national politics. David Cameron has rightly offered disarmament to Labour, so each main party is allowed to spend much less.
I also agree with you that the divorce system in this country can leave people very bruised and feeling there is no justice.

When a person gets put in handcuffs for looking suspicious just for driving in a store car park after closing hours to get a drink from the outside drink machine and throwing a piece of paper into the bins outside, something isn’t right. Especially if there were no “no trespassing” signs for afterhours anywherei n sight.

When government officials even think about setting up neighbourhood watchdogs to watch for suspicious behaviour in your own home, it may be time to get worried.

When a government passes rules to monitor what books you check out at the library, you know it is time to leave.

When football matters more than academics, something isn’t quite right about “family values”.

I could go on and on. I fear the US has beaten the UK to the police state. I wish all those the very bset who move over there but you may be making a quick trip back. I’m glad I got out when I did and have no intentions of moving back.