Why do the British hate their country so much?!

England has changed vastly in the last 10 years and has more of the commercial products that Canada and the states have. But remember it is a socialist country not democratic. You do not have the same freedoms here as home.

while sympathising with ur being stuck in an unfriendly place (and a lot of people say this about a lot of southern england), i think u lose a lot of credibility by putting in those last two sentences. compared with canada, how is england socialist or undemocratic and what freedoms do u not have that canadian residents do?

ian.

Well, you are all starting to worry me but I will have to make my own determination in time.

I am newly arrived in the UK to settle here with my family. I am coming from Victoria BC and it is without question one of the nicest cities in Canada. However, British Columbia is an endless landscape of rocks and trees and after 40 years I've seen enough of that.

I've done my budget calculations and cost of living actually seems to be on par as long as you are not in London and accept that housing is different.

The big problem for me in Victoria is the limited job market for senior IT professionals, the outrageous house prices, and low wages. You need household income over 90K just to own a house and stay fed!

Our plan is to stay in the UK as long as we enjoy it and take advantage of the travel opportunities from being so close to Europe.

All I have to do now is find a job. Hopefully in Norfolk

Cheers everyone!

i am british, and i do not feel the warmth of being back home in the uk. I was an expat in germany for 10 years. i suppose this is why i find it easier relating to people outside of my country? i am in love with canada, and although i love toronto, i find the people there, too, a little snotty.

Toronto yes, at least in parts, out west though it's different.

I think that England used to be like this. From what my boyfriend (who is English) tells me, today's England is very different from that of 10 years ago.

People were nicer in the 1970s for sure, because there were less of them, but the economy was in the toilet.

The UK actually has pretty tough immigration laws, the snag is that if you are from the EU you can move in under the freedom of movement of labour, and if you're from a Commonwealth country there are ways of getting in temporarily. So either a lot of those stay illegally or get married in arranged marriages, etc. The Govt. is trying to crack down on arranged marriages to immigrants.

So it went from being crowded to being really crowded.

From a social standpoint the UK went downhill from about the mid-1980s, imo. You only have to look at all the stupid laws on the books, CCTV everywhere, you have to be 18 to buy a knife (which only sounds sensible to people who don't work in a trade and have apprentices), stop and search zones, bans on "realistic imitation firearms", they even banned "samurai" swords recently, removal of the right to remain silent, extended detention periods, speed cameras and so on.

All of those laws have come in since 1984. Every single one. And it's all because there are too many people living too close together so they get on each other's nerves.

Like I said somewhere else on here, the real problem to me has always been that there aren't enough controls on alcohol. A lot of people don't seem to realize that it's entirely lawful for minors to possess alcohol and consume it. They can't buy it, but they can possess it and consume it except in certain public places and on licensed premises.

It's entirely lawful to have an open container in a car as well.

Crackers. If everyone under the age of 18 was completely banned from possessing alcohol and consumption was banned in public places absolutely except a few designated areas a lot of the problems in towns would go away and all these other stupid laws like ASBOs would never have come about.

hey

in regards to moving to the uk i would do it in a flash and with saying that ive been called from crazy to neurotic to many other things.im real bored of canada. life there is much faster and livlier.ive been back and forth to the uk 5 times in the past 2 1/2 yrs and loved everyminute of it even with all the problems ive faced but hey the grass is always greener on the other side.

Wow! I've brought on an avalanche of things I don't really want to hear right now, because I'm still planning on moving to the UK in April:-)! I must really hate Canada though, especially when you take into account that I'll be leaving in these ridiculously bad economic times.

In response to the question about whether or not I've been on the London Tube...yep...waaaaaaaay cleaner than the TTC! The only TTC station that's even remotely up to the levels of the London Tube is Museum Station.

But, who knows? I could end up hating the UK. I'm prepared for more rain, more crowding, more crime, more expense, etc, but putting up with all that beats the intense, insane boredom I feel in Toronto. There's not one street I haven't been down a hundred times. For a city that's considered so large, it's downtown core is soooo small. I can hardly wait to get out.

Also, the thing that sucks about Canada is that if you need to be in a "big" city, Toronto's it. Vancouver's not really big enough for me and I don't speak French, so that rules out Montreal. Thank God I have an EU passport now. Even if I had to stick to the UK, there are so many more options...so many choices of city to live in...it's not like here...Toronto or nothing.

Has anyone lived in Bristol?

Well one thing that might surprise you in London is lack of rain. It actually doesn't rain that much - you can check the stats!

I've not lived in Bristol, but have visited on business a couple of times. It seemed quite pleasant, but if you find Toronto dull, you probably won't be impressed with Bristol!

I'd be using Bristol merely as a home base, because it's nowhere near as expensive as London. However, the thing I like about it is that it's only a two-hour train ride from there.

Or, do you think I should just try to move to London and put up with the expense? Lots of people seem to think that living in that city is intolerable and that the benefits aren't worth it. It's definitely very exciting looking, but I don't know if it's the best place to start getting used to life in England.

I wouldn't say living in London is intolerable - in fact a quiet life is quite achievable in London if you put your mind to it! For example, if you live in one of the outer boroughs and work locally, then you will not see or experience central London much, and you won't have the stresses of commuting.

Due to London's size and diversity, lots of different lifestyles are possible.

It's true that Bristol is 2 hours by train, but trains can be expensive, and you might end up not travelling between the two as much as you think. Bristol-London is also not really a practical daily commute due to the expense (unless you're earning a fortune), and also because it terminates at London Paddington which isn't very central, so you'd nearly always have to add on say a half hour bus or tube journey to your final destination.