Dismal England reactions?

So another friend in the UK has just found out were moving back. Again the reaction has been "Are you sure?" Then a paragraph about dismal England- from weather to economy.... anyone else getting this reaction? Is it really so bad? We're moving back for family mostly so we're definitely going but does make me a bit nervous for my children....

It will be the same England you left I suspect.

I guess most people's idea of Aussie life is a dream...a paradise....idyllic weather, beaches, loads of money etc....a dream which is not always the reality for some. Unless you have tried it/lived it, you could never know. And even if it is all of those things, you might miss family more than you realised. But for people who haven't tried it, well they're bound to think " what on earth are you doing?!"

Walk a mile in my shoes as they say.....

TBH it will be what you make it. If you can find work, a home (or move back into one you had rented out) and build a life there again, it will probably be just fine. However, yes there are certain aspects that are looming (NHS pretty much on its knees in a big picture way, Brexit and more) and the latest figures re inflation and so on are not the best but it varies over time as do all the economical things. Being able to work through them, have enough to live on, you just adjust your spending accordingly and perhaps don't blow a bit budget the first couple of years till you are more certain of things in terms of the longer term plans.

I would think your friend, sitting in the UK on a late winter's day, having been through all the emotions of the last year or so with Brexit and other things is perhaps looking at your life in Aus and thinking you are a bit bonkers to be giving it up. However, unless they themselves have lived overseas anywhere I doubt they can really appreciate what it entails and the difficulties some face.

I have concerns looking at it from afar (and when we were still living there) for the future in the UK. Things I always appreciated have been ripped to pieces under the Tories and given there is no strong competition I fear they will be in power a fair while longer. By then the NHS will be dismantled and no longer the NHS as most people know it and Brexit will still be unfolding for a fair few years and no one can know how that will go.

Uncertain times but the world will still turn :smile:So long as you can afford to live, are happy with your choices, I think it will be fine for you. However, keep in mind that the draw of Aus may be there when you return and you may find you question why you moved back from time to time, you may not. Go with the flow and embrace it and hopefully it'll all be good for you.

People who have never been to Oz do not realize it is not what it is like on "wanted down under" they dont understand its same shitte different country, I bet most of them would not last 5 mins in Oz,

Thanks yes this comment was from a friend who's never been out of Europe let alone lived elsewhere- she lives 3 miles away from where we grew up! Yes bit worried about nhs. Hubbie has a job to go to so that helps & obviously family. Yes I agree it is what you make of it- just having a few worries.

There's plenty of doom and gloom in the UK, but you can find that wherever you live. Here it's all about the mining collapse and the UK Brexit. You are going back for specific reasons I guess you need to keep a focus on this. A Doctor friend is looking to emigrate and said that many of her friends are actively seeking. I don't know exactly what's gone on in the last 12 months except Junior Doctor strikes, but Doctor's a bit higher up seem to have had enough as well. NHS seems to be on it's knees, but I think I've heard this for at least 10 years. There's no doubting it isn't working correctly and the cuts in social care will have had an impact on this but how close is it to collapse?

Good luck with your move back, hopefully it's the right decision for you!

If you have citizenship you are leaving the door open to return.

I hope the family will appreciate that you are moving back for them. The risk is that you move back and family just carry on with their lives..

It's not their life....do what's best for you and your, based on what you want, not what somebody else wants or thinks you should be doing. All the best

When we were coming to Oz I was told by numerous people "Oh I would love to go there". When I said why don't you apply they replied "oh I couldn't leave (family, friends & other excuses)". These are the people who say there is nothing in the UK. As said before they haven't walked in your shoes.

So another friend in the UK has just found out were moving back. Again the reaction has been "Are you sure?" Then a paragraph about dismal England- from weather to economy.... anyone else getting this reaction? Is it really so bad? We're moving back for family mostly so we're definitely going but does make me a bit nervous for my children....

Dismal ? ....the weather is a bit grey at the moment but very mild ....work wise and life wise,couldn't be better ...you know about all the bad bits ...traffic,litter ( drives me mad ) .

Me personally , my life is about as good as it gets ....goid money ,but not working too hard ...but dint tell anyone .

No debt .....massive travel choice ...good group of mates ...hapoy with my lot ...for now...could change....thats life

It's in people's nature to have a good whinge. I was whinging today because it's super windy here at the moment and a bit chilly too. Never happy some of us eh? :cute:

So hot today, not moaning just wish we had some of last nights gusts to help out.

I really would not worry about the NHS.

I have just experienced it and went from calling my GP for an appointment to surgery in two weeks. That included two visits to hospital to see the consultant. The hospital was excellent, well staffed and modern. Could not fault a single aspect.

Oh, except my stitches are itching like mad, but there coming out on Monday.

I really would not worry about the NHS.

 

I have just experienced it and went from calling my GP for an appointment to surgery in two weeks. That included two visits to hospital to see the consultant. The hospital was excellent, well staffed and modern. Could not fault a single aspect.

I think it depends on the area you live in. All my friends have had very positive experiences with the NHS - that's mainly in Scotland. Same here - depends where you live. OH and I have had nothing but very good experiences with health care here where we live but it could be different somewhere else.

I think it depends on the area you live in. All my friends have had very positive experiences with the NHS - that's mainly in Scotland. Same here - depends where you live. OH and I have had nothing but very good experiences with health care here where we live but it could be different somewhere else.

Agree, though we also had excellent in Windsor.

We're about to move the opposite way again (probably not permanently), but not because the UK is dismal (depending on where you live obviously). There's an awful lot of uncertainty and the NHS is being deliberately brought to its knees, but mostly people are just getting on with their lives.

We live in the north of England and just had a really lovely winter and spring isn't far away. I love the English countryside and the accessibility to so many interesting places. We can get to anywhere in Europe cheaply and easily and there is so much to do.

When we left Australia the last time I had a few people (Australians) say how lucky we were to be going somewhere where our child would be exposed to so much culture (Europe).

You know your reasons for moving, so I wouldn't listen too closely to someone who hasn't been in your situation.

we've had no issues with NHS, 7 year old tonsils/adenoids, wife is seeing x2 specialists next week, daughter thrown off horse broken arm seen immediate.

But it does probably depend on where you live, we are rural but close enough to a fair few hospitals in both kent and east sussex.

as regards choice and variety for our activities, travel, education and experience, it really does put where we lived in Oz to shame, and as to work ? I'm freelance so I work from home 2 days a week and have broadband at 8-17mb per second which is more than enough, I was at my sisters in rural Ireland last year and they have broadband of 22mb a second !!!!! how do they do that????

This week is mid-term break the kids just wanted to lounge at home as last year we'd been to Ireland, France x2, Greece, Belgium and Egypt.

I still dragged them to Brighton which they find really interesting, weather was lovely and that old mechanical victorian penny arcade enthralled them!

As regards weather, we had some good snow a few weeks ago, kids built a snowman, no effect on us as I can WFM when i need to, the weather here in the SE can be quite mild, today we're mountain biking and dog walking with not a car in sight!

Last friday week Caught up with a super old friend I met in a US flight school 20 years ago, who is now a senior barrister and in between one hundred and one IPA's we plotted a re-creation of the glider flight from Shorham to Ranville, at Pegasus Bridge by the Ox and Bucks.

The only complaint I have is the train strikes, it's ok for me as I can work from home, but I do feel that it is probably unworkable for some folks who live here and *Have* to commit to work either by vocation or an inflexible boss.

From someone working within the NHS, believe me, it is bursting at the seams. The reason patients are still experiencing excellent care is due to the level of goodwill from most of its staff. Little by little, the "NHS" is being eroded. A lot of primary care catchment areas are now run by the likes of Virgin. Radiology reporting out out of hours is being done by the likes of Medica. InHealth has won a lot of radiology contracts. Most prison Healthcare is now Serco/Carillon or some other private company run rather than NHS. The NHS in house staff supply agency, NHS Professionals, is being privatised. It's all happening in small increments so that the general public has no idea their beloved NHS is being killed. Not to mention the fact that we are seriously underfunded, compared to our European counterparts, public sector payfreezes have been going on since 2006. The NHS pension scheme has been seriously whittled down. There is now talk of the state pension age being increased to 74. Also the whole social care agenda.

There is also a new hush hush efficiency masterplan that entails the closure of a significant number of regional/district hospitals and redirection of services to already pressured major trauma centres/specialist centres.

With Brexit negotiations starting in March and potentially at least 2 years, there's a hell of a lot of uncertainty atm. And the GBP has lost nearly 25%of its value compared to the AUD since Brexit.

It's still not a bad place to live when you can still buy 2 bed semi detached houses for much less than £100k, and provided that you shop around, get a lot for your money with regards to food/utilities/internet etc.

We see these films with London and how much it has developed with fantastic buildings like the shard- and also how they develop the train stations so well and so quickly and we can only gasp with envy because what takes a year in the UK would take 10 here with our bad governments and stupid decisions. So it doesn't look like the place is going down in any way, seen from afar. We can't even build a road without major upheaval here.

From someone working within the NHS, believe me, it is bursting at the seams. The reason patients are still experiencing excellent care is due to the level of goodwill from most of its staff. Little by little, the "NHS" is being eroded. A lot of primary care catchment areas are now run by the likes of Virgin. Radiology reporting out out of hours is being done by the likes of Medica. InHealth has won a lot of radiology contracts. Most prison Healthcare is now Serco/Carillon or some other private company run rather than NHS. The NHS in house staff supply agency, NHS Professionals, is being privatised. It's all happening in small increments so that the general public has no idea their beloved NHS is being killed. Not to mention the fact that we are seriously underfunded, compared to our European counterparts, public sector payfreezes have been going on since 2006. The NHS pension scheme has been seriously whittled down. There is now talk of the state pension age being increased to 74. Also the whole social care agenda.

 

There is also a new hush hush efficiency masterplan that entails the closure of a significant number of regional/district hospitals and redirection of services to already pressured major trauma centres/specialist centres.

 

With Brexit negotiations starting in March and potentially at least 2 years, there's a hell of a lot of uncertainty atm. And the GBP has lost nearly 25%of its value compared to the AUD since Brexit.

 

It's still not a bad place to live when you can still buy 2 bed semi detached houses for much less than £100k, and provided that you shop around, get a lot for your money with regards to food/utilities/internet etc.

Exactly.

From someone working within the NHS, believe me, it is bursting at the seams. The reason patients are still experiencing excellent care is due to the level of goodwill from most of its staff. Little by little, the "NHS" is being eroded. A lot of primary care catchment areas are now run by the likes of Virgin. Radiology reporting out out of hours is being done by the likes of Medica. InHealth has won a lot of radiology contracts. Most prison Healthcare is now Serco/Carillon or some other private company run rather than NHS. The NHS in house staff supply agency, NHS Professionals, is being privatised. It's all happening in small increments so that the general public has no idea their beloved NHS is being killed. Not to mention the fact that we are seriously underfunded, compared to our European counterparts, public sector payfreezes have been going on since 2006. The NHS pension scheme has been seriously whittled down. There is now talk of the state pension age being increased to 74. Also the whole social care agenda.

 

There is also a new hush hush efficiency masterplan that entails the closure of a significant number of regional/district hospitals and redirection of services to already pressured major trauma centres/specialist centres.

 

With Brexit negotiations starting in March and potentially at least 2 years, there's a hell of a lot of uncertainty atm. And the GBP has lost nearly 25%of its value compared to the AUD since Brexit.

 

It's still not a bad place to live when you can still buy 2 bed semi detached houses for much less than £100k, and provided that you shop around, get a lot for your money with regards to food/utilities/internet etc.

I do wish people would listen to those actually working in the NHS! There are always posters who pop up with " well I only waited 2.weeks" etc etc. Seriously stop being blind. Stop taking it for granted or you will lose it. Please listen up to people who know because they work in it every day!

I do wish people would listen to those actually working in the NHS! There are always posters who pop up with " well I only waited 2.weeks" etc etc. Seriously stop being blind. Stop taking it for granted or you will lose it. Please listen up to people who know because they work in it every day!

Well said. I have close family working in the NHS and believe them when they tell me it is being destroyed by a government which has always wanted to promote private medicine. I find it depressing in the extreme to think that the free care my parents were so proud of will be a thing of the past if they are not stopped.

I think it depends on the area you live in. All my friends have had very positive experiences with the NHS - that's mainly in Scotland. Same here - depends where you live. OH and I have had nothing but very good experiences with health care here where we live but it could be different somewhere else.

I think you're right, there are always going to be good and bad stories, my cousin was taken to A&E, he was seen by a consultant but not examined, he was told to go to his GP for antibiotics, which he duly did, the GP referred him right back to A&E as he was hypothermic and having an addisonian crisis