I really cannot think of any reason why we would be better off living the UK. 10 years out here and still love it. I am writing this at our permanent sited caravan in Almeria where we are taking a 10 day semi working break from our home in Alicante. Its 8:20, the sun is shining, birds singing, 22 degrees and I am looking forward to the morning on the beach. Would I be doing the same in the UK, no I would probably be working my butt off to stay afloat......sorry folks, in my opinion it ain't got a lot going for it and it seems to be getting worse not better. If you want another example take a look at the 'health care in Spain' thread!

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This is my opinion but I'm flexible and have others

Too hard to stay their now , no works , no jobs .......

To those commenting on lifestyle all I can say it is what you make of it. Moving abroad certainly shakes things up, but maybe there was something you could have done to shake things up at home. Of course it is possible to have a good work/life balance... but not every job or every industry. Of course it is a good place to raise kids, but not every neighbourhood. The UK is a pretty big place and with that comes problems (Spain has plenty of problems too). The hard part is carving out a niche in it that works for you. Moving abroad worked for you and that's fantastic... but it doesn't mean there aren't lots of people who have good lives at home.

Except for Ireland.. this place is a dump!

Agreed, one mans meat another mans poison.....

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This is my opinion but I'm flexible and have others

..because the UK has gone quickly towards the downward spiral in every way possible and is ruled by yob / chav culture with silly rules and political correctness gone wrong..even the weather has gotten worse..my once sub-tropical garden no longer has it's acacia, eucalyptus phormium, or cordyline palm, 3 years of harsh winters and winter wet killed them off

Simply leave and turn off the lights and let the rats run wild..

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We only regret chances we didnt take, the relationships we were scared to have and the decisions we waited to long to make

Actually, when I think about it that is probably my main reason for leaving, freedom. The UK government has created a nanny state out of balance and with far too many rules. Many of the rules are of course EEC ones which the Europeans take or leave as they please. The UK not only accepts them but promotes and enforces them. Puts me right off!
Having said that many people in the UK obviously want and maybe need this sort of control / intervention in their lives otherwise, I guess, it wouldn't be happening. Good luck to them, as I said before horses for courses and those that don't like it vote with their feet as we did.

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This is my opinion but I'm flexible and have others

One of my discomforts with my native Belgium (and to extention the entire Western Europe although I must say Catalunya is far from the worst) is exactly the lack of "nanny state", and the intolerance towards other cultures' presence in our cities. I see Muslim women covered with headscarves all the time on the streets here, I only hope they can see that I stare out of happiness that they are there. I couldn't live in a monocultural state where immigrants cannot display their own native cultural elements. In my opinion we are not politically correct enough and the social services provided by the state are too limited despite some moves in the right directions.

I guess the "one man's meat is another man's poison" is very true, different people want different things. That said, overall we cannot complain about Europe as we still have it much much better than in other continents where a large portion of people live below the poverty line. Europe isn't perfect, and I do wish to leave Europe at some point to see some more of the rest of the world. But let's not lament as if we have it so bad neither in Europe ...

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If I show you the truth, will you show me the beauty? If I show you the pain, will you show me the purity? If I show you the scars, will you show me yours?
(The God Machine)

Have you looked at the Canada forum?, its full of people from the UK who are wanting to move, or have moved to Canada, perhaps you could ask this question on there, I started a similiar thread, titled, "Why move to Canada?", (because I can't wait to leave), its currently on page 3 of the Canada forum and has had 114 replies and 8351 views, and most of the replies came from UK expats. I guess the grass is always greener........

I guess that the people that you mentioned are British (?) and, like all of us, they tend to under-estimate their own country! When, for instance, you have experienced cloudy, depressing weather for the first 30 years of your life, of course you would want to move to Australia!
All the people that I know, who at some point moved to the UK, either loved it or hated it; I don't know why. I live in London and love it! The culture, the people, and...yes, even the food are great!

Well I left nearly 40 years ago..mainly for the same reasons most guys do...The weather and sick of paying out to go on Holiday to Spain, Italy. France ..Wherever.
Uk is great but you can not get a good holiday with nice weather..Only if you are lucky..Also thousands of others go on a day when there is a sniff off sun..Havent you noticed... There are nice beaches and countryside around the world and you can have some of it to yourself.... motoring is becomung a problem also in Uk last time I was there 2008...Traffic like you have never seen...Little pleasure in driving.. But maybe you are different....Lets face it 60 odd million people do live there Enjoy your life..We only have one chance,,,No action replays unfortunately..