Are British Expats Missing The Uk?

[Katy Lock]

Are you thinking about returning to the UK?

Every year more and more Brits are giving up their life in the sun to move back to the UK – last year almost 100,000 expats came home. ITV is keen to hear from Brits who have lived abroad for years without (or very rarely) visiting home, but who are now thinking about returning permanently to Britain.

Perhaps you miss your family and friends, maybe schooling is a problem for your kids, or could you be longing for the simple things? Warm beer, chocolate hobnobs or even the English weather! Are some family members longing for home while others are not so sure?

You will be flown back to Blighty and given the opportunity to test drive life in the UK. Finally the choice will be yours: to remain an expat for good or come back home.

If you are interested in taking part or if you know anyone who might be suitable, please contact Katy Lock as soon as possible by email:

<email removed- contact by pm>

Edited October 26, 2006 by Totster

[Rimmer]

Not lived in You Kay for 30 years and not even a free trip will tempt me to go back there.

Thank you, but no thank you.

[GuestHouse]

I can't see her getting any takers around here.

Not that British Expats in Thailand don't go home (any expats in Thailand for that matter). Rather they tend to be a bit more quiet about doing so than they are about arriving in Thailand.

Perhaps you miss your family and friends, maybe schooling is a problem for your kids, or could you be longing for the simple things? Warm beer, chocolate hobnobs or even the English weather! Are some family members longing for home while others are not so sure?

Perhaps she should add 'Pennyless' to the list, that might pull a few in.

[jezchesters]

Thanks, but no thanks!

Deja vu - I'm sure I've read this post somewhere before...

[britmaveric]

Bit silly - expect this will be a documentry of some sort making people look stupid.

[leftcross]

the only thing i miss about the uk is watching exploitative reality shows on the TV.

[britmaveric]

the only thing i miss about the uk is watching exploitative reality shows on the TV.

There is thai big brother.

[richard10365]

Maybe she should ask English teachers who are making monthly visa runs if they need a free trip to the UK. They could use this as an excuse to change their visa on arrival to a tourist visa at a Thai embassy in the UK.

I'm from the USA and not the UK but having my family on the other side of the world is one of the perks to living in Thailand. Chances are they will never visit and I'm very happy with that arrangement.

[Katy Lock]

Glad to hear you guys are all happy where you are living right now!

I can understand you being wary of any approach from TV companies but let me assure you that we are looking for people who are genuinely caught in the dilemma of whether to remain home or move back to the UK. Maybe you know someone who would benefit from the chance to compare the two options?

Thailand is a lovely country and I can quite understand preferring it to the UK (I'm currently typing in a freezing office and it's raining outside!) but out of curiosity isn't there anything about the UK that you miss?

[Sunderland]

The only thing I miss about the UK is the departure lounge at Heathrow Airport when I am stuck somewhere even more depressing in the UK.

[macb]

Glad to hear you guys are all happy where you are living right now!

I can understand you being wary of any approach from TV companies but let me assure you that we are looking for people who are genuinely caught in the dilemma of whether to remain home or move back to the UK. Maybe you know someone who would benefit from the chance to compare the two options?

Thailand is a lovely country and I can quite understand preferring it to the UK (I'm currently typing in a freezing office and it's raining outside!) but out of curiosity isn't there anything about the UK that you miss?

Katy Dear:

Tell they have added another letter to the UK its 'Y' and it goes in front of the UK result YUK.

Joking apart I lived in UK for 54yrs of my life, now I been in Thailand over 2years and never been back never going to go back never think about it. A few weeks ago I looked at the local newspaper online it was as if I had not left everything just the same hence YUK.

LOS is now my country I love it

macb

[Rinrada]

Glad to hear you guys are all happy where you are living right now!

I can understand you being wary of any approach from TV companies but let me assure you that we are looking for people who are genuinely caught in the dilemma of whether to remain home or move back to the UK. Maybe you know someone who would benefit from the chance to compare the two options?

Thailand is a lovely country and I can quite understand preferring it to the UK (I'm currently typing in a freezing office and it's raining outside!) but out of curiosity isn't there anything about the UK that you miss?

Ditto...but can get best of both worlds...

Last week I was sitting on my terrace on a mountainside in Chiang Mai and now doing the same thing as you are over "ere only I am now overlooking Highbury Fields (Islington)

Admit that the beer is a tad cheaper over in LOS,the suns shines a little more but the work is in the Smoke and Khun wifie prefers the weather...Mai Lawn (not 2 hot).......next trip next year.....not too long

[khunlungphudhu]

Katy Lock, luv, I think you may get more positive results if you did this the other way round, like in 'Why do so many brits want to be expats?' Espescially if you threw in a free trip to LOS so we could try it out!

[phazey]

I've been out for ten years, not one visit back. To be honest, the crime, disrespect of the younger generation, local councils bending over backwards to the wims of immigrants to name but some persuade me not to return every time i think about it.

That or i think my mug was caught on cctv during one of the bank jobs...

[britmaveric]

Katy Lock, luv, I think you may get more positive results if you did this the other way round, like in 'Why do so many brits want to be expats?' Espescially if you threw in a free trip to LOS so we could try it out!

You are on to smth there!!!!

[atlastaname]

Katy,

as you're not having a lot of luck here , why not change the subject of the programme to

"why so many people can't wait to leave this police-state called the UK where almost everything is illegal and that which isn't soon will be " ?

Just a thought .

The only things i would miss would be the occasional respite from Thailands incessant heat , and the chance to buy proper chocolate

And the tragedy is that the UK was such a great place to live before all this political correctness and obsession with sending everyone who breaks the law to jail came in .

Lots there for your programme !

[baboon]

Much as Thailand gets on my nerves sometimes, If I never see the UK again it will be too soon, as I have no need for a lesbian outreach officer, social inclusiveness checks, CCTVs on every corner instead of policing, feral children, random violence, suffocating income tax, the meaningless word "community" in every sentence, unaffordable housing, Gangtsta culture, happy slapping, David Blunkett, criminal sueing victim and winning etc. Need I go on?

[mrbojangles]

Just a thought. But is it not worth some of you pensioner's getting a free flight back to the UK. Wait until they give you your rightful increase in your pension (that you haven't been getting) and then fly back to LOS again

[marttaff]

Katy Lock, luv, I think you may get more positive results if you did this the other way round, like in 'Why do so many brits want to be expats?' Espescially if you threw in a free trip to LOS so we could try it out!

Im with you....been visiting LOS over a number of years have a Thai GF and will be retiring here in 18mths...but happy to take up a free trip and live the life and report back...there is a cheaper option though, just ask we why we all flee the UK and Im sure the answers will all be the same.

So if that trip to LOS is on count me in.

[Maizefarmer]

Katy

You are having us on aren't you - can you think of any reason why anyoe here in there right mind would want to go back to a wet, dark and damp island with 60 000 000 people living cooped up in terraced- sqauts - sorry, I mean houses ....... and paying tax through the nose for the priviledge.

Tell you what, in the unlikely event that you do get a few takers (what is it - a political 30 sec pro-mo ...), let us know wil you please my dear - and we'll get your self the crew up to the farm and I'll be more than happy to show and explain to you why it's a "no-brainer" to go back to the UK.

No , seriously - drop me a PM if you are interested - I'll line up half a dozen other ex-pats who farm here - we all would be pleased to share with you our reasons for staying.

Tim

[nostrel]

they wont get any takers as it would mean admitting they made a mistake and burnt their bridges and couldnt afford to move back. Besides after so many years of talking gibberish to thais they wouldnt be able to string a coherant sentance together !!

But some do go back home when their health fails for medical treatment ,heart bypass ops etc...alzheimers ......

[younghusband]

they wont get any takers as it would mean admitting they made a mistake and burnt their bridges and couldnt afford to move back. Besides after so many years of talking gibberish to thais they wouldnt be able to string a coherant sentance together !!

But some do go back home when their health fails for medical treatment ,heart bypass ops etc...alzheimers ......

It's a bit unkind but its clear that many have indeed burnt their boats particularly given the cost of UK housing and anyway would not be able to compete in UK's dog eat dog contemporary culture.Also to be frank it's a better life for the not particularly well off middle aged working class or lower middle class Brit in Thailand, particularly if he has the good sense to forswear the booze and base himself upcountry and finds a good woman, notwithstanding where he met her.These people, as is clear from their posts, don't really miss the culture they left behind because they were never really familiar with it.

Obviously the complaints about the UK, some of them anyway, do ring true.The real crime of this Blair government is to have ignored the fraying of the social fabric.Baboon makes some valid points, and all these "inconveniences" are much more apparent for those with relatively underprivileged backgrounds.The destruction of the grammar schools has largely deprived bright working class kids the opportunity to advance.Some do but it's much more difficult.

What's entirely missing from this thread is mention of the tranformation of the fortunes of the well educated, the middle and upper middle class especially in the South East.Much of this has been to do with the deregulation of the City.Bottom line is that there some millions of people who are now very rich and able to insulate themselves from most of the horrors of Blair's Britain.No way would these people wish to leave their comfortable (though hard working) lives and join the expat population of Thailand, which they would regard as largely riff raff anyway.

[sriracha john]

Are Americans eligible for the program?

I'd like to visit the UK as it's been awhile since I've been and I do have family there.

[Casanundra]

I will repeat this again here as well...

Sometimes I think I am mad to be living in Thailand after quitting a 55k a year job back in blighty to be here but then I think back to the cold dark mornings and the cold dark evenings and the police cameras everywhere and the biased immigration PC led world of Darth Blair and his storm troopers along with the George Orwell Bush administration pulling his strings and hey I just think that I must be mad to even consider going back to the Uk just so I can earn a good salary again.

I don't need it, I don't want it and when the first Moslem Prime Minister takes office in the year 2020 I most certainly don't want to be part of it either.

The wife (Thai) keeps asking me when I am going to take her to see England and my family. I keep offering to buy her a ticket so she can go there alone as I have no intentions of leaving Thailand for that place and can think of too many other places I would go to first before ever going back.

Never ever ever in a million, zillion, gazillion years will I be going back to England. Ra Ra for Thailand...

[bkkmadness]

Are Americans eligible for the program?

I'd like to visit the UK as it's been awhile since I've been and I do have family there.

I have family in the Maldives and Amsterdam, give me a shout when the tickets are ready.

[younghusband]

I will repeat this again here as well...

Sometimes I think I am mad to be living in Thailand after quitting a 55k a year job back in blighty to be here but then I think back to the cold dark mornings and the cold dark evenings and the police cameras everywhere and the biased immigration PC led world of Darth Blair and his storm troopers along with the George Orwell Bush administration pulling his strings and hey I just think that I must be mad to even consider going back to the Uk just so I can earn a good salary again.

I don't need it, I don't want it and when the first Moslem Prime Minister takes office in the year 2020 I most certainly don't want to be part of it either.

The wife (Thai) keeps asking me when I am going to take her to see England and my family. I keep offering to buy her a ticket so she can go there alone as I have no intentions of leaving Thailand for that place and can think of too many other places I would go to first before ever going back.

Never ever ever in a million, zillion, gazillion years will I be going back to England. Ra Ra for Thailand...

It's this kind of post with its surreal view of an oppressed England that makes my point rather well.The comment that 55k is a wonderful salary is revealing (because by the standards of the rich South East it's a pauper's wage).This is the kind of guy who's better off in Thailand with The Wife (Thai).

[bkkmadness]

I will repeat this again here as well...

Sometimes I think I am mad to be living in Thailand after quitting a 55k a year job back in blighty to be here but then I think back to the cold dark mornings and the cold dark evenings and the police cameras everywhere and the biased immigration PC led world of Darth Blair and his storm troopers along with the George Orwell Bush administration pulling his strings and hey I just think that I must be mad to even consider going back to the Uk just so I can earn a good salary again.

I don't need it, I don't want it and when the first Moslem Prime Minister takes office in the year 2020 I most certainly don't want to be part of it either.

The wife (Thai) keeps asking me when I am going to take her to see England and my family. I keep offering to buy her a ticket so she can go there alone as I have no intentions of leaving Thailand for that place and can think of too many other places I would go to first before ever going back.

Never ever ever in a million, zillion, gazillion years will I be going back to England. Ra Ra for Thailand...

It's this kind of post with its surreal view of an oppressed England that makes my point rather well.The comment that 55k is a wonderful salary is revealing (because by the standards of the rich South East it's a pauper's wage).This is the kind of guy who's better off in Thailand with The Wife (Thai).

The comment that 55k is a wonderful salary doesn't even exist.

[taxexile]

but out of curiosity isn't there anything about the UK that you miss?

rowntrees fruit pastilles...... or are they now nestles fruit pastilles or hersheys fruit candies.

no desire to return after saying goodbye to a six figure salary (but after expenses and taxes there was not so much left.......jobbing builders and plumbers seemed to be better off , and good luck to them )

the country , as it integrates further and further with left leaning europe and absorbs the thousands of immigrants who seek better opportunities there , will slowly lose all its competitive advantages for a generation or so until things swing around. the social changes that will occur as the number of muslims increases ( 4 children per family on average) and the tipping point is reached and the resistance to those changes from non muslims are quite frightening to think about. the rest of europe is in the same boat.

the increasing numbers of people who , as they rely on benefits , lose all incentives to advance themselves are a drain on resources . crime , implementation and the cost of compliance control of political correct policy ,poor health provision and poor education provision , all these things are making england a miserable place to live.

these problems are not peculiar to the uk , they are worldwide problems affecting many countries , its just that they started earlier in the uk. thailand will be the same within 25 years , at least in terms of crime and social discontent.

there are just too many people in the world chasing a finite amount of resources.

but the fruit pastilles there are world class !!

[kmart]

I just booked a flight back to the UK for Christmas. Quite looking forward to it.

After 15 years working in Asia, there are a lot of things I do miss about the UK; temperate climate; civilised driving; walking the dog; family and friends; etc. I'm glad I never burnt my bridges back home.

Its great to get that sense of perspective back again, on why I live out here. After about a week back in the UK, I am bored already and frustrated with being stuck in the house watching tv.

[rocky]

Hi Katy

I believe you are in the correct country to find expats in the need to return to the UK. In the last two years I personally know three people that have returned to the UK. The reason for return is similar, out of money or not enough to live the life style. When they arrive in the UK the next part has always been the same, trying to get there bar girl friend back to the UK.

I have thought for a while there are too many programs in the UK about the magic of leaving for a better life. At long last showing the other reality of what happens. If you are in Thailand there are always British expats locked up for over staying their visa, with no money for the air ticket, maybe these people could make good TV,

Arrived in the land of the smiles starry eyed

Sold every possession they every owned, sometimes leaving the wife and family behind.

Falling in love with a bar girl and quiet often younger than their own children

getting scammed of money by the day or lose the love of there life

Finally going broke and not being able to return, as there is no home and nothing to return to.

I applaud you efforts to show the other side of leaving the UK and wish you great success with this project. Don’t be put off by the many of the members on this site, you never know given enough time, they maybe glad of your offer.

If you would like stories of people that returned let me know.

Once again good luck with your project.

I can confirm that I was a UK resident and now reside in Pattaya Thailand.