Metropol

Well spotted. Diolch yn fawr.

10m want to quit 'over-taxed' UK
David Cracknell, Political Editor

ONE in five Britons — nearly 10m adults — is considering leaving the country amid growing disillusionment over the failure of political parties to deliver tax cuts, according to a new poll.

...Today’s poll shows that many people are highly disillusioned with the British political system and nearly half the population do not associate themselves with the main parties. It suggests that a majority believe tax cuts would be affordable if public services were genuinely reformed, but they have little faith that any party could achieve this.

...It found that emigration is a possibility for more than one in five people. Asked if they had thought about moving abroad, 16% said they had given it
“serious thought” and a further 6% said they planned to do so.

Link
to Sunday Times story

This article expresses some of the extreme frustration I have with Britain at the moment.

I'm sick and tired of being overtaxed and paying far too much for my little shoebox of a house. I hate the constant carping about the "terror threats" and the demonisation of 2m in our society. Rant, rant, rant...

I could rant on for hours but I don't want to spoil your Sunday mornings. I am very surprised that, according to this poll, so many people seem to agree.

I think we've all considered leaving the country at some point. I don't listen to anyone that just whinges on about how they're GOING to leave the country, I only pay attention to the ones that actually DO it.

there are many things about this country which anger and frustrate me, but when i think about moving to another country, i just can't think of a country i'd actually want to live in - for a start i couldn't be bothered to learn another language and secondly i wouldn't want to leave my friends and family behind.

and in anycase, just about every other country in world has it's own problems much bigger than high taxation and political correctness. (you'd be lucky to even get a job in many parts of europe - the unemployment rate is over 10% in germany and at around 9% in france).

and who in their right mind would want to live in america? nearly everything i do carries a life sentence over there (with no trial).

Sput wrote:I think we've all considered leaving the country at some point. I don't listen to anyone that just whinges on about how they're GOING to leave the country, I only pay attention to the ones that actually DO it.

Good point. However, I do struggle to remember a time when, during such apparent "prosperity", the level of dissatisfaction with the state has been so pronounced.

Dr Lobster* wrote:there are many things about this country which anger and frustrate me, but when i think about moving to another country, i just can't think of a country i'd actually want to live in - for a start i couldn't be bothered to learn another language and secondly i wouldn't want to leave my friends and family behind.

and in anycase, just about every other country in world has it's own problems much bigger than high taxation and political correctness. (you'd be lucky to even get a job in many parts of europe - the unemployment rate is over 10% in germany and at around 9% in france).

and who in their right mind would want to live in america? nearly everything i do carries a life sentence over there (with no trial).

I could never live in America. Everything I've heard from people who have been over there is that it's OK for a visit (and I wouldn't mind seeing it for myself), but it is a bit bland, samey and anti-intellectual.

The only thing that really troubles me about moving abroad is leaving friends and family behind. If I were to emigrate, I would like that place to have a direct air-link back to Newcastle to make coming back to visit and returning easier.

Re getting a job - it's not really an issue for me as I could never work for someone else. I've been self-employed for 8 years now and couldn't face taking orders from someone else. I would simply transfer the bits of the current business I am responsible for over there.

johnnyboy wrote:Re getting a job - it's not really an issue for me as I could never work for someone else. I've been self-employed for 8 years now and couldn't face taking orders from someone else. I would simply transfer the bits of the current business I am responsible for over there.

i do think that it must be difficult to do business in these economies however, logic tells me that if there is a high level of unemployment that there must be a reason why companies are not investing in that specific economy. i do know that in countries like german and france that the cost of labour is very expensive compared even to the uk but there are probably many other restrictions which makes people think twice about starting business in these countries.

i guess the best place to do business would probably be in places like china and india where you pay people pennies a day to do 18 hours work .