Why Did You Leave The Uk?

[Miserere]

Why did I leave the UK?...becaus I'm a cockney gangster init?...Ive done a few bank jobs and done a bit of bird, I've tats on me arms and a bloody great fat belly on me and all my crew who settled on the old Costas have been nicked, you dont wanna mess with me fella because I've one mental temper when things get me wound up init and Ive done a few lines of charley farley....watch out hells bells!...me and Dave Courtney and Ronnie Biggs and Mad Fwankie oh were all having a laugh init?...me and the adams family we love it ere..

Now Im duh guvnor of Pattas and have me old fingers in more than a few pies init eh?!...building this old house with some dodgy builders, grabbing the deposists off stupid falangs and doing a runner with their dosh hehe!..I run a few clubs for like minded and keep the local police chief sweet init!...

Oh doing the camden walk!!..oi! oi!...

[Bananaman]

The grass is always greener....after 7 years living in Thailand I'd had enough of the pollution (air and noise related), the corruption, the shoddy public and private services, zero consumer rights and the whole intensely irritating bullsh*t of gaining and saving face. After six months of being back in the UK, I'm once again painfully aware of all its shortcomings but I appreciate many of its good points that I'd previously overlooked.

You may be able to make a life for yourself in Thailand and ignore all those issues I mentioned but if you're the kind of person who's easily wound up then those things will just wear you extremely thin eventually.

[MJP]

My main reason was the respect people have for one another here, something that is clearly lacking in the modern day uk.

Tax, national insurance, council tax, TV license, road tax and insurance, petrol prices, extortionate train fares, speed bumps and cameras everywhere, expensive food, having to wait 6-12 months to see a specialist for a non life threatening injury in the 'free' health service then having to pay for vaccinations and prescriptions regardless, wheelie bin fines, hoodies and thugs outside of shops shouting abuse at people that you cannot touch because they are 15 yrs old, useless police force.

Apart from that I just felt frustrated with my life in the UK. I came out of University in a large amount of debt, despite earning reasonable money could only afford to rent some shared terraced sh!thole on a road full of chavs, thieves and druggies. Frustrated at people that get pregnant purposefully in order to get accommodation from the council while I pay and get nothing for being responsible and working for what I have. Fed up with people too lazy to get a job and claim benefits, again paid for by the taxpayer. Like an earlier poster said its the best country to be in if you having nothing - or dont want to work for anything. For those who are honest and want to get ahead in life you have to pay for the deadweights (and I am not talking about people who genuinely cant do anything). Going out for a beer and being punched for no reason by some thug(s). Life can be good in the UK but you do need to earn an enormous amount of money.

I was also fed up with the amount of immigrants taking up large estates of the UK with no interest in integrating or learning English or respecting British values. It just doesnt feel like the same England i grew up in and I am not even 30 yet.

Here I earn a modest wage and have a good quality of lifee, eat well and can walk around or go out at night and not have to worry about being punched for fun.

I really do miss my family and friends so much.

RIP UK

I'm only a few years older than you and yes, for all the same reasons. I sometimes feel I'm a coward, I've let my country down, I'm a hypocrite . . . but to be honest, we all drop dead one day, that's right DEAD.

I had not a moments joy in that country, even though, that said, I was able to make sufficient to move abroad, to have a passport etc.

No I don't miss a moment of it, not for materialist reasons, just because it knocked the stuffing out of me.

I know, it's pathetic.

[MJP]

The grass is always greener....after 7 years living in Thailand I'd had enough of the pollution (air and noise related), the corruption, the shoddy public and private services, zero consumer rights and the whole intensely irritating bullsh*t of gaining and saving face. After six months of being back in the UK, I'm once again painfully aware of all its shortcomings but I appreciate many of its good points that I'd previously overlooked.

You may be able to make a life for yourself in Thailand and ignore all those issues I mentioned but if you're the kind of person who's easily wound up then those things will just wear you extremely thin eventually.

I do appreciate what you say, but I think it depends where you live here and what you do. I also think it depends on your circumstances in Britain too.

I live way out in the sticks in a simple yet decent little village in Issan. I still do a little international work (not UK).

Don't think I could live in BKK and certainly not the dreaded Chon Buri area. But up here, it's just fine.

[G54]

but don;t burn your bridges behind you.

Financially speaking im sure many havent, but if youre away for many years the bridges will crumble themselves i.e if people move on in life when they dont see one and other, and most people dont make the effort anymore its just how it seems to be.

That is a huge amount of security and offers real freedom of choice.

I used to be a decorator many moons ago, if i was to work on day rate doing 8-5 i'd be on 400GBP a week which just isnt enough to have a wife and kids, despite working hard i'd need governemt assistance to get a council house and raise a family, for me an honest hardworking guy should be able to do it on there own (in a self proclaimed civilised society). Before you say work harder i did and you can only work on price for so many years before it makes you ill. So there is absolutely no security or freedom there ..... i did get out of it but someone has got to do this job and similar back breaking manual jobs, if i had a wife and kids i wouldnt have been able to change career. (the first change took a huge gamble and for the 2nd one cost a lot of money)

And of course free education/ healthcare, worldclass but expensive transport infrastructure is good but i just cant see what the free choices are you speak of are anymore ... its turned into a country were people hide behind laws and bureaucracy and the government are at every corner ... stifling business with never ending laws.

But anyway after 3 years i'll probably go back as if ive a Mrs and Kids to enable them to get a UK passport that offers them the security you speak of, besides the food too fcuken good.

400 brick a week isn't enough to live on? Since when? I know many back in the UK who live on a lot less and they buy houses, have a car, wife and kids.

[sanmiguel]

400 brick a week isn't enough to live on? Since when? I know many back in the UK who live on a lot less and they buy houses, have a car, wife and kids.

Ok after tax and NI its 300GBP a week.

Now please explain to me how someone can service a 150,000GBP mortgage, pay council tax, pay for a car to get to work, car insurance, electric, water, food for 4 people, clothing and sundry items with 1200GBP a month.

Maybe if they bought a house 11 years ago for 50K theyd have a chance, or if they had a council house, but this wage is too much to get a council house.

If you live in the South of England its still difficult to get a run of the mill 3 bed terrace for less then 200k, even ex council houses, and for a honest family to ge a council house theyve got to be dishonest, quit work go on the sick, get put in homeless accommodation, then get put in temporary accommodation, then after 3 years theyll get a council house .... the reason i know exactly how this works is my best mate had to do this .... he left school at 16 on the Friday and started work on the Monday ... your old skool kind of worker.

Edited May 10, 2009 by sanmiguel

[longstebe]

I'm also in my early 30's. I left thu U.K when I was 26.I'm a miller/turner by trade.The reason for leaving was down to money and a new challenge in life. Lived in Holland for 3yrs then moved to the states were I have been for the last 4.5 yrs. I've worked just as hard as the next guy since moving away.I now have a house and car in Issan paid for.Though I'm unable to retire yet I can take a job somewhere closer to my new home. I would have had to work a lot longer if I had stayed in the UK to buy the things I have.The town where I'm from became a goldfish bowl.I say go and see whats out there.

[Nignoy]

Be interesting to hear from Brits that have spent a significant amount of time in many different Countries/culures, as well was their/my homeland...

During my time in the army I was lucky enough to live in and serve inthailand for nearly 4 years!I left the army in 1969, settled in germany and switzerland, through my job I travelled and worked overseas in africa, and asia , south america even Tallin which was still russia, in 86 through illness in the family had to return to UK and look after the family business, just couldnt settle in Warrington again, so we took the work down south , but the gap between the haves and havenots was being exploited so much we started to get itchy feet again, but this time for sunnier climates,but where too in 92 as a partially disabled 49 year old couple, first we worked our little socks off in 3 jobs regular for 6 days aweek to get a bit of cash together we decided on Queensland because we liked the look of it when we holidayed there and were offered jobs where ever we went, so we ground the immigration officials in australia house down(a bit like frank spencer)and in february 96 we were on our way new country new job, the language barrier was not to bad the natives were friendly and generous, not easy to train , really difficult when long weekend from friday lunch actually meant finish wednesday evening and start again tuesday morning but we persevered and retired in 2001, and settled down to living the life of Andy capp and Flo complete with whippets! 6 months ayear in thailand, the other 6 travelling around to where our fancy takes us, a houseswap in switzerland, a housesit in Goa or rent a cheap flat in Penang for a couple of months and just go fishing, just got back from hols in Hongkong, got 3 months in thailand and Bali and thailand booked from september, just got to save our pennies till then, already got ahouseswap lined up in Berlin for next april and may, our little house here on the sunshine coast is quite popular with houseswappers too , so until they screw the lid down on the coffin we will be travelling much to the disgust of Centrelink

[Tom Kagai]

To me the answer is simple. I could not enjoy the life I have in Thailand in the U.K. for 50K Thai Baht per month.

So, quality of life in Thailand is much improved:

Restaurants, transportation, beer, no council tax, no TV licence, no insurance, cheap gasoline, house maintenance, fair utility bills, less VAT, cheap clothes, entertainment and nightlife, hot weather, lots of sunshine, cheap DVD's, cheap computer repairs, sport available on TV, most western food available, cheap healthcare and pharmacy etc etc.

In Britain, struggling with constant bills, ripped off left right and centre and fined for putting my wheely-bin out on the wrong day, jailed for swearing at vandals and gypsies, paying 4 quid for a single tube journey, Council tax 200 quid a month on top of 40% tax and 11% National Insurance.

This post is well worth a shunt back up to the front. This illustrates the UK that I left, and the reasons I left it. I miss just two things, the family and Cheddar. I can say more on Skype than I used to say on my mobile, and visiting them cost me almost the airfare when I was in country anyway.

As for the Cheddar, I may as well pay the inflated price here, and feel good because I don't pay for parking permits, council tax, dog license and all the other British red tape any longer.

As an aside, don't get me going about the weather there......

[GuestHouse]

Regardless of what you reasons for leaving the UK it might be a good to get your head around the idea that you might one day need to return.

Putting aside the benefits of welfare and health care that non of us can be sure we will not some day need, there are one or two unresolved problems here in Thailand that might just force a return - or at least a move.

Thailand has put the lid on a simmering political problem - not resolved, simply covered up in the hope it will disappear.

The most significant player in these problems is a right wing nationalist who has been recently embarrassed before the world by the British Government (had his visa pulled and denied entry to the UK - much to the amusement of his political opponents, but I doubt something that made him too happy).

Added to which the British Authorities have, under the UK's Money Laundering laws, frozen Billions of this man's money (a huge amount by any measure).

While in the background to all this Thailand is facing other inevitable changes that might just require the return of this character as a foil to the other forces sitting in the background.

Now if you are pinning your hopes on the Thai legal system keeping him out of political power, or that the Thai people will not want him to return .. It might be time to re-think that before it's too late.

If you believe that he could return without taking some measure of vengeance on a nation (and it's citizens) who have a) embarrassed him so, and taken so much of 'his' money, then..well best of luck, you are going to need it.

I think it would be a very good idea for British Citizens living in Thailand to be extremely flexible about their future plans.

[Tom Kagai]

^ Some good points there Guesthouse, and well worth creating an awareness of them.

I would not like to be here without having an exit plan in place.

We all have to take chances in life.

[Pdaz]

Sad to say there is really nothing I miss about England any more, though I do visit at least once a year to see my family. I am as patriotic as the next man, perhaps more so in many cases, but for me the England that I grew up in has gone, values have changed enormously, and I have no desire to move back whatsoever. I still believe Asia is a land of opportunity for those who are prepared to work hard and make short-term sacrifices for long-term gain.

This just about sums up my feelings too.. Especially the part about the England I knew and loved being gone.. I left the UK permenantly 23 yrs ago. I have visited my family more often in the last 5 yrs as they are getting very old now.. But everytime I return there I am saddened by the decline in 'Britishness' and the standards we once represented in the World.

Do I miss anything ? Maybe the Kent countryside in the summer and the architecture and culture of London. Everything else I can find here in Asia..

After so long as an expat I doubt I could return there and be happy..

[cymruambyth1]

I am not that young actualy !!!

I Love Thailand.

Don't be shy 'PG'. I'm 56 and have no regrets revealing it. If you indicate your age, it gives an idea as to the governments you've had to endure.

I remember Maggie Thatcher the Milk Snatcher, she took my milk from me when I was at School..

I am not telling my age though

Why were you worried about someone snatching your milk with those udders you got there???!!!

[chiang mai]

I've spent about forty of my sixty years outside the UK living as an expat in a whole host of countries from America to China and I've been in Thailand for the past seven years. Interestingly I have spent much of my time overseas looking forward to my next UK visit and/or preparing to move back "home" once again and I am in that same mode again currently! But the reality is that the UK I used to know and love doesn't exist any more, except in memories, because it has changed so much although I agree that much of that is "boiling frog" syndrome. Certainly, on a nice summer day, in the Lake District or The Cotswold's, it's hard to imagine a more beautiful place anywhere on the planet, but the remaining 364 days can be hard work. The country is plain broken right now and it's difficult to imagine what it will take to fix things and that's very sad - most disturbingly the nature of English people seems to have changed for the worse and that manifests itself through increased crime, benefit cheats and anti-social behavior to the point where we can no longer trust our Parliament to have integrity. Thailand may have its many flaws but, all things considered I reckon living here currently is probable a more attractive proposition than living in the UK.

[GuestHouse]

There is no security or freedom there, correcto! It's an illusion. I was self-employed, so no chance of ever claiming benefits if I was ill or had no work (which has happened). Only the responsibility of supporting a country to whom social justice is alien.

Strange that you compare the UK (which absolutely gives you the right to health care, the right to work and the right to own your own home in your own name) so unfavourably with Thailand where security and freedom are definitely an illusion, the right to health care limited by the money in your pocket, the right to work highly restricted and your rights to own your own home are dependent upon the condo management not selling too many units to too many foreigners – a house of land being placed beyond you by the laws here.

[Lancelot]

Regardless of what you reasons for leaving the UK it might be a good to get your head around the idea that you might one day need to return.

...I think it would be a very good idea for British Citizens living in Thailand to be extremely flexible about their future plans.

I'm always suprised at how negative some UK expats are about things back home. But the adventerous Brits have been emmigrating for centuries, so its nothing new I guess.

GH has some good observations and back up plans are always a good idea

[sanmiguel]

There is no security or freedom there, correcto! It's an illusion. I was self-employed, so no chance of ever claiming benefits if I was ill or had no work (which has happened). Only the responsibility of supporting a country to whom social justice is alien.

Strange that you compare the UK (which absolutely gives you the right to health care, the right to work and the right to own your own home in your own name) so unfavourably with Thailand where security and freedom are definitely an illusion, the right to health care limited by the money in your pocket, the right to work highly restricted and your rights to own your own home are dependent upon the condo management not selling too many units to too many foreigners – a house of land being placed beyond you by the laws here.

OK we have the right to buy a home in the UK but its not much use if its unaffordable you must agree this is the case for many people who didnt get on the ladder 10 years ago, ie many in their late 20s early 30s (i did then jumped off it)

I can more then match the 30% deposit needed to buy the average house in the UK, its just the mortgage that could potentially do me in if i were to buy at todays inflated prices. For the few years im looking to stay here i can rent at 1/4 of the price, but in a year or 2 when property is at a more reasonable level and if my savings arent wiped out by inflation i will be buying in the UK not in LOS. ( i would buy in the UK if i were to live in the USA/ OZ which are options)

Health care - It seems many of us on this thread discussing why we left are late 20s early 30s so fingers crossed dont have to worry too much about that just yet, ive insurance i cant speak for anyone else, and the medical treatment people of our age generally need is more then affordable here.

And as for working unrestricted fingers crossed i'll be getting a work visa similar to your own shortly, it'll be more a case of the work running out then the visa being cancelled, and this isnt supposed to happen for 3 years.

As for freedom in Thailand with the amount of police here that certainly isnt the case but i dont have that awful feeling the govt. wish to follow my every move like they do in the UK. (Big Brother Britain is a fact)

Granted your playing devils advocate, but the fact youve opted to work and live here shows there are certainly reasons why you prefer to be here then back in Blighty.

I dont know when the last time you lived there fulltime was and everyone sees it differently but the place is damaged and needs a total overhaul IMO.

Edited May 11, 2009 by sanmiguel

[bungy007]

I'm an expat to make money and to have a good time while doing so - Period!

If I was offered the same pay and T&Cs to be back in the UK, I'd be on the plane tomorrow.

The thing is guest house - your chances of that, if you are really making good money and having a good time doing it, would be slimmer than a sheet of paper. People tell me that the cost of living is four or five times that of over here - apart from heavily taxed items such as cars and electrical goods. For those of us on around 50,000bt per month (after tax)we would have to earn 4000 of your English Pounds after tax per month! We're talking 50,000 a year to spend after all taxation! To live the life we are living over here this is the earning reality! Unless your are already well and truly established and survive the cutbacks in employment going through both management and work force like a dose of the trots, your chances of doing so are probably the square root of jack all.

as for me, I abandoned the UK after serving my country for 9 years in the RN and put my life on the line in the Falkland Island War for what? When I left there was no helping hand to ease my passage, the government of the day rose mortgage rates to 16-17% - impossible for a working man to meet and those dammed banks people are bailing out today were quick of the mark to show no mercy and reposses leaving families out on the street! I saw the reality of life in Britian for the working man when the chips were down!

I've had 17 great years out here in Asia - 13 of them in Thailand and no regrets. Indeed, life is actually getting better as time goes by. Sure, I visited the UK twice during that period and the sanatised version of life left me cold. streets and streets of little boxes with no life to be seen was what the majority of people were aspiring to! The huge cost of eating out, watching a film, having a family day out, going on a weekend holiday, filing the fridge and freezer, the cost of a pint of beer, the huge cost of public transport where a 20 min journey cost 150bt on the same kind of buses found in Bangkok for 15 bt told me that there was something very seriously wrong with our island. The cost of every day necessities just beats people down. Glad I made the move and if give the same conditions as Guest House I most definitely will not be going back!

Edited May 11, 2009 by bungy007

[bungy007]

I remember Maggie Thatcher the Milk Snatcher, she took my milk from me when I was at School..

I am not telling my age though

30s i guess, she took mine aswell, i was chuffed to bits i used to like milk until the school thought it a good idea to give kids luke warm milk, i just couldnt drink the stuff .....

Me, too. It tasted disgusting after sitting on the step in the morning sun for an hour or two. Still, I'll never forget my first day at school which occured a few months after the rest of my class. When the time came to choose the morning's milk monitor, I stuck my hand up and got out of my chair. I was told in no uncertain terms to sit back down and wait my turn as I was the 'new boy'. I was not impressed. However, when the two little lads given the duty dropped the crate in the middle of the classroom creating a large white lake around clusters of glass, I just killed myself laughing. My punishment? To stand on my chair and chant ten times 'I must not laugh at others misfortunes!' That was pretty much the best thing I learned about humanity in all of my years of study in the UK!

[sassienie]

I left England for good in 2003, came to Chiang Mai and never looked back.

I am a true cockney Londoner, brought up in Whitechapel, East London and in Essex. Many years ago I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else on Earth.

Last place I lived in England was at Hayes, Middlesex that turned into a complete dump like the rest of the country.

Only 2 things I missed from England when I came here, a good English pint and a decent plate of fish and Chips. Well, Cheerful Charlie opened his fish and chip restaurant in Chiang Mai so now it’s only where to obtain a good English beer at a an affordable price.

Must admit there is nothing I truly miss about England, old blightly faded away long ago. Like to watch old classic Brit movies sometimes, reminds me of how England used to be and still patriotic in my own way but these days prefer to be a patriot from afar.

[bungy007]

My main reason was the respect people have for one another here, something that is clearly lacking in the modern day uk.

Tax, national insurance, council tax, TV license, road tax and insurance, petrol prices, extortionate train fares, speed bumps and cameras everywhere, expensive food, having to wait 6-12 months to see a specialist for a non life threatening injury in the 'free' health service then having to pay for vaccinations and prescriptions regardless, wheelie bin fines, hoodies and thugs outside of shops shouting abuse at people that you cannot touch because they are 15 yrs old, useless police force.

Apart from that I just felt frustrated with my life in the UK. I came out of University in a large amount of debt, despite earning reasonable money could only afford to rent some shared terraced sh!thole on a road full of chavs, thieves and druggies. Frustrated at people that get pregnant purposefully in order to get accommodation from the council while I pay and get nothing for being responsible and working for what I have. Fed up with people too lazy to get a job and claim benefits, again paid for by the taxpayer. Like an earlier poster said its the best country to be in if you having nothing - or dont want to work for anything. For those who are honest and want to get ahead in life you have to pay for the deadweights (and I am not talking about people who genuinely cant do anything). Going out for a beer and being punched for no reason by some thug(s). Life can be good in the UK but you do need to earn an enormous amount of money.

I was also fed up with the amount of immigrants taking up large estates of the UK with no interest in integrating or learning English or respecting British values. It just doesnt feel like the same England i grew up in and I am not even 30 yet.

Here I earn a modest wage and have a good quality of lifee, eat well and can walk around or go out at night and not have to worry about being punched for fun.

I really do miss my family and friends so much.

RIP UK

I'm only a few years older than you and yes, for all the same reasons. I sometimes feel I'm a coward, I've let my country down, I'm a hypocrite . . . but to be honest, we all drop dead one day, that's right DEAD.

I had not a moments joy in that country, even though, that said, I was able to make sufficient to move abroad, to have a passport etc.

No I don't miss a moment of it, not for materialist reasons, just because it knocked the stuffing out of me.

I know, it's pathetic.

No it's not pathetic. You have every right to feel let down and disappointed with the way the UK conducts its business within its borders. It's a disgrace! If any of those who gave their lives for a better Great Britian during the two world wars of the first part of the last century were given a flashed forward view of the UK of today, I strongly doubt that they would have joined up. The travesty is the waste of life and human suffering that went in to those periods for the successive governments to throw it all away! People should be getting angry about this.

Edited May 11, 2009 by bungy007

[bigtimeali]

quite simply i don't work or live in the u.k. because i don't want to have to pay TAX

[Bagwan]

After counting the shekels in my money box I decided that I had enough to see me into a wooden overcoat and so retired at the ripe age of 55 years. In the next ten years I lived variously on the Costa del Sol, Florida and finally Brittany but retained a base in the UK. On reaching State Pension age I sold up everything and followed the example of over 30% of UK pensioners and moved permanently abroad, taking up residence in Thailand. Although there are some things that I wish that I still had access to (a fully funded reference and lending library in every city for starters), I have never had cause to regret this move.

When peeps asked why I was so adamant that I would never be back, I offered that the UK wasn’t my country any more. Whole cities were being taken over by immigrants and Brits were being out bred. I forecast Sharia law within 50 years. People who had clamoured for the Brits to leave their country because they wanted to govern it themselves, (although there was a scarcity of evidence that they could do so effectively), having since screwed their mother/fatherlands into the ground, now wanted entry to my country to repeat the performance. I despaired of the educational standards of the young, the street violence and hooliganism, the decline in personal morality, the drug scene, the ineffectual police and prosecution services, and the contempt for the aged by so many. Cities became dirtier and dingier, and their denizens consumed with gloom. I no longer felt I had a reason to feel proud of my country even though through personal circumstance I was isolated from much of the reality of the daily struggle.

Since successive UK Governments have persuaded so many Brits to abandon their ‘sceptred isle’ for more amenable places thus giving up their entitlement to NHS facilities and services including free prescription medicines, their entitlements to local council welfare services and helped in freeing up the housing resources, how have these self serving fraudsters rewarded the ‘grey hairs’, many of whom have been in harm’s way in the service of their country? By removal from electoral rolls they have effectively disenfranchised them, they have frozen their State Pensions so that inflation beggars them – and yet they continue to levy taxes on hard earned pensions and annuities.

I now consider myself Stateless. I’ll leave nationalism to the moronic supporters of football teams and second rate boxers – and those wearing rose tinted spectacles attending the Last Night of the Proms.

[beano2274]

Left the UK in 1985 (posted to Germany by the Army), returned in 1995, married to a German, with 2 kids, eventually left the Army in 1997, stayed in Hereford for a while. Got a job in London, so moved to Essex, work was okay, moved onto another job, then the wife wanted to go home. Decided to pack up and go back to Germany, working in the Global communications world. Marriage broke down, met another German girl, lived with her, but by this time unemployed, attended SAP training in Mannheim, but no guarantee of a job.

Decided to pack it all in, and told my GF at the time that I could not stay and wanted to go away, she was very understandable, as money problems bring relationship problems.

Came to Thailand, loved every minute, now happily married and working harder than before on my marriage.

Good jobs around for me, but trying to get back into the Communications world is sooooo difficult.

So reason to come to Thailand, get away from it all, a bad divorce and no real job.

[sassienie]

After counting the shekels in my money box I decided that I had enough to see me into a wooden overcoat and so retired at the ripe age of 55 years. In the next ten years I lived variously on the Costa del Sol, Florida and finally Brittany but retained a base in the UK. On reaching State Pension age I sold up everything and followed the example of over 30% of UK pensioners and moved permanently abroad, taking up residence in Thailand. Although there are some things that I wish that I still had access to (a fully funded reference and lending library in every city for starters), I have never had cause to regret this move.

When peeps asked why I was so adamant that I would never be back, I offered that the UK wasn’t my country any more. Whole cities were being taken over by immigrants and Brits were being out bred. I forecast Sharia law within 50 years. People who had clamoured for the Brits to leave their country because they wanted to govern it themselves, (although there was a scarcity of evidence that they could do so effectively), having since screwed their mother/fatherlands into the ground, now wanted entry to my country to repeat the performance. I despaired of the educational standards of the young, the street violence and hooliganism, the decline in personal morality, the drug scene, the ineffectual police and prosecution services, and the contempt for the aged by so many. Cities became dirtier and dingier, and their denizens consumed with gloom. I no longer felt I had a reason to feel proud of my country even though through personal circumstance I was isolated from much of the reality of the daily struggle.

Since successive UK Governments have persuaded so many Brits to abandon their ‘sceptred isle’ for more amenable places thus giving up their entitlement to NHS facilities and services including free prescription medicines, their entitlements to local council welfare services and helped in freeing up the housing resources, how have these self serving fraudsters rewarded the ‘grey hairs’, many of whom have been in harm’s way in the service of their country? By removal from electoral rolls they have effectively disenfranchised them, they have frozen their State Pensions so that inflation beggars them – and yet they continue to levy taxes on hard earned pensions and annuities.

I now consider myself Stateless. I’ll leave nationalism to the moronic supporters of football teams and second rate boxers – and those wearing rose tinted spectacles attending the Last Night of the Proms.

What you are saying is exactly the same for me, only I could never have put it so well.

I am sure that what you have quoted here pertains on behalf of many of us.

My grandfather (photo below) fought in the First World War and my father was a bomber pilot during the Second World War.

I don`t wish to believe that all that sacrifice was in vain even if it`s just out of respect for the suffering our father’s endured.

But the truth is that because my daughter who is Thai and others here that have children who are Thai citizens may never consider themselves as British, another great loss for our native Island race. The real English are leaving in droves.

Most things that I considered exclusively as English have now gone, London Transport buses, red phone boxes and post boxes, fish and chip shops with real English proprietors and lots lots more, the list is endless.

There are certainly no incentives for me to ever want to return back to England.

[F1fanatic]

When peeps asked why I was so adamant that I would never be back, I offered that the UK wasn't my country any more. Whole cities were being taken over by immigrants and Brits were being out bred. I forecast Sharia law within 50 years.

What you are saying is exactly the same for me, only I could never have put it so well.

I am sure that what you have quoted here pertains on behalf of many of us.

My grandfather (photo below) fought in the First World War and my father was a bomber pilot during the Second World War.

I don`t wish to believe that all that sacrifice was in vain even if it`s just out of respect for the suffering our father's endured.

But the truth is that because my daughter who is Thai and others here that have children who are Thai citizens may never consider themselves as British, another great loss for our native Island race. The real English are leaving in droves.

Most things that I considered exclusively as English have now gone, London Transport buses, red phone boxes and post boxes, fish and chip shops with real English proprietors and lots lots more, the list is endless.

There are certainly no incentives for me to ever want to return back to England.

"I am sure that what you have quoted here pertains on behalf of many of us."

I sincerely bloody hope not!!!

How dare anyone who has emigrated to another country complain about the number of immigrants in our home country??! And then go on to complain that their own Thai (foreign) children cannot consider themselves as British??

I also disagree that the 'real English are leaving in droves'. The percentage who leave are miniscule.

The tiny percentage of us who do leave have our own reasons - weather, financial, lifestyle, failure, etc., but anyone who leaves because they're worried about immigration.........

Reason for edit - sorry, I got a bit annoyed there!

Edited May 11, 2009 by F1fanatic

[GuestHouse]

There is something of a pathetic irony in calling upon the example of our forefathers having fought and perhaps died for British Values only to then follow the example with a statement along the lines of 'Now Britain is not what it was so I left' - What so easily and without a struggle for those things you so valued?

And that is putting aside any arguments over the usurping of the many different motivations behind why exactly each of the millions of people who did fight and die for Britain chose to so.

----

Meanwhile back at the deep end.

I see the ..... erm, how shall we put it? .... The "Muslim, Sharia Law Bogie-Man" has been dragged up again.

You've gotta give it to Clarkson he's got us off to perfection!

Edited May 11, 2009 by GuestHouse

[farseer]

I left because the police were after me!

[sanmiguel]

How dare anyone who has emigrated to another country complain about the number of immigrants in our home country??! And then go on to complain that their own Thai (foreign) children cannot consider themselves as British??

Because by the sounds of it he has married a foreign national and moved to her country, there is a big difference between this kind of immigration where the person instantly intergrates in his/her new country and the violent ghettos that have been created in many UK towns and Cities by messy mass immigration of 3rd world unskilled workers from places most notably Pakistan, Nigeria, Jamaica and Somalia, that are unsafe for white skinned people to walk through.

The East and Central European folks that come to the UK work hard, make an effort to mix, and are nice honest people IMO but there has been too many allowed in at once and it has without doubt forced many Indigenous workers out of work as they are unable to compete with Poles etc... who are living 4 per room and working 12 hours a day 7 days a week for 50% less wages...... Im sure you'd agree English people shouldnt have to work this much to receive a liveable wage that is sufficient to raise a family .... I shared a house with a few Lithuanians who'd been in England for 12 years they dont like mass immigration from Poland as it lowers their wages... ironic im sure you'd agree

As for his kids not being English well if theyre raised in Thailand theyre Thais with a English father, theyre hardly going to be intune with the subtleties of English life whilst visiting a couple of times in their childhood.

Christ we wouldnt want parades of Leu Kreung English children parading through the streets of BKK or Nakon Nowhere celebrating their Englishness on St Georges Day in the same embarassing way Americans who think theyre Irish do.

Edited May 11, 2009 by sanmiguel

[mahtin]

Christ we wouldnt want parades of Leu Kreung English children parading through the streets of BKK or Nakon Nowhere celebrating their Englishness on St Georges Day in the same embarassing way Americans who think theyre Irish do.

My son's got Brit and Thai passports. He can choose when he's older.