The joys of living in England

[bigbadwolf]

Article in the Guardian:

Please don't come to Britain – it rains and the jobs are scarce and low-paid. Ministers are considering launching a negative advertising campaign in Bulgaria and Romania to persuade potential immigrants to stay away from the UK.

There was no word on how any advert might look or whether it would use the strategy of making Britain look as horrible as possible or try to encourage would-be migrants to wake up to the joys of their own countries whether Romania's Carpathian mountains or Bulgaria's Black Sea resorts.

The idea, however tentative, appears to clash with the billions of pounds Britain spent on the Olympics, partly to drive up the country's reputation. It also emerged as the Home Office launched a guide to Britishness for foreigners who would be citizens which opens with the words: "Britain is a fantastic place to live: a modern thriving society".

 

[quantstart]

I thought this was from the Daily Mash for a second...

 

[rockanalyst]

First, drive off International students and workers, then increase the Tuition Fees for British students and lastly, blame every single problem on "Immigrants." so why is there a need for negative campaign?

On a lighter note, whats next(after Monty Python)going to be in citizenship test? TOWIE/Coronation Street/X Factor/BB???

 

[Daniel Duffy]

On a lighter note, whats next(after Monty Python)going to be in citizenship test? TOWIE/Coronation Street/X Factor/BB???

Mrs. Murphys' Boys

 

[Yike Lu]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/shortcuts/2013/jan/28/negative-ads-about-britain

▶ England – Since the Drought, It Hasn't Stopped Raining.
▶ Come to the 2013 European Capital of Obesity. It's Contagious!
▶ The Streets Aren't Paved With Gold, Even Under All the Vomit.
▶ If You're Coming With an HMV Voucher, You're Too Late.
▶ Britain: We Just Made the Citizenship Test Really Hard.

... and more!

 

[bigbadwolf]

I'm a British citizen and have spent the single largest chunk of my life in Britain. My mother and two of my brothers live there. But I haven't the slightest desire to visit the place again. The infrastructure is crumbling, the prices sky-high, the wages kissing the ground, the people and the service surly, the weather gosh-awful. Hey -- I'm still talking like a Brit!

 

[Barny]

BBW - where do you live now? I detest the UK but seem to have acquired a girlfriend who won't consider living anywhere else.

 

[bigbadwolf]

BBW - where do you live now? I detest the UK but seem to have acquired a girlfriend who won't consider living anywhere else.

The US of A. But my wife and I are actively looking to get out (we've been to South America a few times and will be heading to Norway this summer). The advantage (the sole one these days?) of a British passport is the freedom to live and work in Europe (but will this remain if the Tory Eurosceptics succeed in pulling Britain out of the EU?).

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Sounds depressing.
Is it a good time to visit the good old Europe these days? Paris, London, Madrid, Rome? Would I have to sell my kidney for that?

 

[Barny]

What do you mean by good time? London, Paris et al. are as beautiful as ever, it's just living in their respective host countries that sucks.

 

[bigbadwolf]

Sounds depressing.
Is it a good time to visit the good old Europe these days? Paris, London, Madrid, Rome? Would I have to sell my kidney for that?

Barny's right: visiting as a tourist is one thing and living and working in a place something entirely different. Who would want to live in or around London, when the average speed on the M25 is 4mph, when there's always something wrong with the Tube, when the various privatised rail services keep increasing their fares, when the NHS is being killed by a thousand cuts?

 

[Felix Kotey]

I have being leaving in the UK for a while and I don't really like it here. Things are damn expensive. The weather is shit and you pay a lot on transport. I have being to the US a couple of time and always seems to like it there.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

What do you mean by good time? London, Paris et al. are as beautiful as ever, it's just living in their respective host countries that sucks.

By good time, I mean the current price for a Big Mac is not $17.19 in Zurich not that I would imagine myself eating that kind of food while local cuisine is more exciting to explore.
Speaking of food, England isn't probably known for theirs.

 

[bigbadwolf]

By good time, I mean the current price for a Big Mac is not $17.19 in Zurich not that I would imagine myself eating that kind of food while local cuisine is more exciting to explore.
Speaking of food, England isn't probably known for theirs.

The quality of the beef in European McDs is higher than in the US (McDs has to comply with European regulations). Don't know if this extends to Britain (Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda have been selling beef patties with 30% horse meat in them, it was recently found). Also, if a Big Mac is $17 in Zurich, imagine the price for real food (though what I've seen in South America is that McDs, BKs etc. are treated as posh dining establishments with US prices while real food in real restaurants is far cheaper).

 

[Shantanu Kumar]

I have leaving in the UK for a while and I don't really like it here. Things are damn expensive. The weather is shit and you pay a lot on transport. I have being to the US a couple of time and always seems to like it there.

Are you sure its UK not your English which is making your leaving not good over there?

 

[Felix Kotey]

Are you sure its UK not your English which is making your leaving not good over there?

Well the fact that I didn't proofread what I wrote initially is no indication of me having a bad English writing skills. I guess you are perfect and don't make mistakes.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

Are you sure its UK not your English which is making your leaving not good over there?

its should be it's

which replace by that

I would personally place a comma after UK.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

England is great; lots of things to do, great rock music, pubs and football.
And a good judo club in Chelsea.

In some countries everything shuts down at 17.00

 

[Barny]

By good time, I mean the current price for a Big Mac is not $17.19 in Zurich not that I would imagine myself eating that kind of food while local cuisine is more exciting to explore.
Speaking of food, England isn't probably known for theirs.

On the contrary, London and the South East has some of the most world renowned Michelin star restaurants and cuisine. London is second-to-none as a tourist destination, living here is a bloody nightmare.

 

[bigbadwolf]

On the contrary, London and the South East has some of the most world renowned Michelin star restaurants and cuisine. London is second-to-none as a tourist destination, living here is a bloody nightmare.

If we're talking about London specifically, it's become polarised in recent decades as on the one hand a place for the global rich (those with hot money or tax exiles) and on the other, as a place for the working (or unemployed) poor. As the FT notes in a recent article, "white flight" has been going on for some years -- so much so that British whites now constitute a minority of London's population. It's not a place where middle-class English people want to live. At the high end, the goods and services available are at least as good as anything available in any other global city (if not better); the proviso being, of course, that one must be able to afford them. Thus the penthouse at 1 Hyde Park Corner went for a whopping 140m pounds (~$210m) to some Middle Eastern buyer. And the former mansion of Lebanese PM Hariri is on the market for $484m. So if you have the odd $100m, want to live a quiet snug life, and not be bothered by the authorities, London is the place for you (in fact if you invest 10m pounds, the Cameron government will give you citizenship after one year).