On a huge downer about living in the UK at the moment

[Del Lardo]

I've been spending the evening seriously considering alternatives to living in the UK as despite all the positives I'm just not happy living here at the moment. I think the problem is compounded by the amount of time I spend in mainland Europe in nice hotels/areas that give me a skewed view of what nice places they are.

Anyways my main issues are (in no particular order)............

I feel like a cash cow for the government. I did some rough calculations in my head earlier and I recon that last year including VAT etc I paid over £20k in tax and I honestly can't think what I get for it. I recently had to wait 3 days for a GP appointment and our road network is a joke. oh! I get my bins collected every 2 weeks.

I pay this insane (IMO) amount of tax yet I can't (and will probably never) be able to afford a house in Cambridge. This really bothers me as I am a very object orientated person. Up until now I've been able to work hard, get promotions and buy the things I want but now it just seems that I work my arse off to maintain where I am now with no chance of buying somewhere (I would want to live) without financially crippling myself. I can't help but think that I am the first of several generations that will be screwed by the recent housing boom and I am at the pivot point (i.e. if I'd been in the position to buy 5 years ago I'd be sorted and would probably think it was the best thing ever )

The social care network. Before I start on this one recent posts by people like Malc have made me realise that being out of work and claiming benefits isn't the bed of roses I thought it was (and believe me mate if I could offer you a job I would just from the attitude you've shown) but for every Malc there is a lazy workshy barsteward whose Marlboro Lights and Sky TV are paid for by me! A prime example (and one that takes me back to the 2 bed central Cambridge flat comment earlier) comes from a few weeks back... I'm having my hair cut and there's a young woman next to me who spends 20 minutes describing how she got herself pregnant when her drug dealer boyfriend got sent down so she could "get one of them nice flats down York Street orf the council". Now having paid rather a lot of rent to get a room in a house close to one of them nice flats I know that they are generally filled by young women whose sense of entitlement far outways anything they will ever contribure to society.

Todays story about Firefighters getting attacked when fighting fires. Now I made a half serious half flippant post of SELOC earlier (Lotus forum) ....

I came up with a rather novel solution (though one I'm sure the majority of SELOC would approve of) while driving to Heathrow this afternoon.

Due to all the terrorism the government tells us we should be scared of there should be armed rapid responce units covering most areas. When the firecrews are attacked the rapid responce units are called in and anyone attacking a firefighter is shot on sight.

and it got a very positive response. Now I'm sure that most people who thought it was a good idea don't really like the idea of people getting shot by the Police but the government need to realise that the general public are so pissed off with the level of anti social behavior in this country that such blatantly daft ideas all of a sudden seem viable.


The strange thing is that despite all my misgivings and rants I really can't think of anywhere else in the world I want to live so we must be doing something right.



DISCLAIMER
The opinions above are what I currently believe. If they upset or offend you I ask that you try to resist the temptation to call me a rude name, count to 10 and in a polite manner tell me why you think I am wrong. Honestly I will listen and my opinions can be changed by well reasoned arguments.