Good things about the Uk ...

[Svalbaard]

No. What you mean is lots of anguish about snow in winter and then hose-pipe bans for the rest of the year.

No. I dont mean that at all. What I meant is that I like the variable weather that we have in the UK and the disctinctive changes that that brings as the seasons roll by.

I remember a monologue by Sir Bill of Hicks when he was alive that wen't something like this:

"I hate living in LA man. Every day hot and sunny. Hot... and.. sunny - every day. I have people come up to me and say - 'dont ya just love the weather Bill?' I say to these people 'what are you, a fu**king lizard!'"

[Cyberman]

The quality of our graduates in Maths and Science is lower than the rest of the world. I can see this with our newer grads (who are recruited mainly from redbricks with minimum 2:1). We also have the odd young Indian, German, French etc who seem better trained.

Just a personal, anecdotal observation.

I can remember having a discussion with my boss at lunch around 1992 when his son had just passed masses of GCSEs and so had virtually every other student. My view at the time was that exams were being made easier, but he was having none of it. I would imagine that his attitude would be slightly different today.

[DodgyAgent]

This is where Dodgy is uncharacteristically putting his head in the sand. His well-earned acerbic cynicism about the significance or otherwise of some of us here, is blinding him to the unfortunate and important fact that Britain's emigration is a brain drain. OK it's painful to speak of the worth of different people, but apart from stealing health workers and now programmers from India, and the famous Polish plumbers, the flow of the educated and the workers is one-way the wrong way. Unless we no longer need them, which I doubt.

I am not going to allow you lot to jump on the bandwagon and get away with trashing the UK just to justify your own decision to depart. If you want to have a sulk about it fine but in my view the grass is no greener anywhere else.

People who can up sticks and move off at the drop of a hat are few and far between. They have shallow roots, ie few friends and family and are probably loners who have difficulty making long term relationships with others, or simply have no need for such relationships. There is nothing wrong with this. But the point of view coming accross here is that of a sulky minority who's only perspective of life is trash everything else in order for them to feel good about themselves.

[expat]

I am not going to allow you lot to jump on the bandwagon and get away with trashing the UK just to justify your own decision to depart. If you want to have a sulk about it fine but in my view the grass is no greener anywhere else.

People who can up sticks and move off at the drop of a hat are few and far between. They have shallow roots, ie few friends and family and are probably loners who have difficulty making long term relationships with others, or simply have no need for such relationships. There is nothing wrong with this. But the point of view coming accross here is that of a sulky minority who's only perspective of life is trash everything else in order for them to feel good about themselves.

Yeah, that's all true, but it's nothing to do with the question of whether it's a great place to escape from. If it is, that is all the more worth commenting on for those who are staying.

Which BTW includes me. I've done my expat and it was great, but I did it to see the world, not to escape this bit.

[Mich the Tester]

where does one start with this motley lot of third world turd eating racist nobodies?



lets start with Italy.. more dog turds in one small town than the whole of the UK

Amsterdam

[DodgyAgent]

Yeah, that's all true, but it's nothing to do with the question of whether it's a great place to escape from. If it is, that is all the more worth commenting on for those who are staying.

Which BTW includes me. I've done my expat and it was great, but I did it to see the world, not to escape this bit.

I would have liked to have worked abroad at some stage but I have always been stuck here!

[sasguru]

I would have liked to have worked abroad at some stage but I have always been stuck here!

hence your ignorance of all things foreign and your inability to imagine anything better?

[DodgyAgent]

hence your ignorance of all things foreign and your inability to imagine anything better?

I bet I know my way round a curry menu better than you do shorty

[BlightyBoy]

hence your ignorance of all things foreign and your inability to imagine anything better?

I bet I know my way round a curry menu better than you do shorty

A curry menu constitutes "all things foreign" does it?

[sasguru]

I bet I know my way round a curry menu better than you do shorty

Ah the English national dish.

Seriously though, if you can't see that this recession/depression is going to permanently and strategically weaken the UK then you should think again.
There cannot be a sustained recovery without some leader who has a genuine vision on how to restore competitiveness, innovation and industry to this once great country.
And I don't see one coming forth.