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The ads were hugely dystopian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NmdUcmLFkw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NmdUcmLFkw I am an ex-pat and as an adult I am have

The ads were hugely dystopian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NmdUcmLFkw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NmdUcmLFkw I am an ex-pat and as an adult I am have become quite disillusioned with the UK and glad to have gotten out a decade ago. I miss nothing about England except my friends, and I'd feel sorry for them, but they all seem mostly happy with life. Paying a license to have a TV (and it's assumed you must watch TV), opt in porn on the internet, CCTV everywhere, braying in parliament, not to mention the whole Brexit shit-show, I find little to admire about the UK.

jrjarrett 7y ago
I don't know where you moved to, but is the US anything admirable lately? Guess I should cross the UK off the list of places to flee to.
- criddell 7y ago
  Don't flee, get involved and help fix things if you can!
  - notzuck 7y ago
    Yes, he should just dedicate his life to toiling away at a problem he can't make an impact on while telling his kids and wife that he's very sorry that he can't give them a significantly better standard of living because he needs to help fix England.
  - monkeynotes 7y ago
    No, I was miserable in the UK - I have better options elsewhere. I do not care enough about the UK to give it my life. The culture is locked in by hundreds of years of history, and a vast, vast majority of people like it the way it is. Staying in the UK for me is like staying in an abusive relationship or a job you hate. It made me deeply unhappy, so instead of complaining and bringing my friends down I found a life to love overseas.
    - criddell 7y ago
      Fair enough. All any of us wants is happiness.
- dylan604 7y ago
  I was just thinking about the grass isn't always greener kind of situation. Everyone hopes somewhere else is going to (have to?) be better than here. Where ever there/here actually are.
  - notzuck 7y ago
    Absolutely right but moving to Australia has genuinely massively improved our standard of living beyond what i thought was even possible. I can't believe how good we have it here.
    - dylan604 7y ago
      I almost didn't leave when I visited Australia and New Zealand. I telecommute, so it wouldn't matter if I was across the country or the planet. Plus, getting paid in US dollars living in NZ with the strong dollar would be like a pay raise. If only I had the 'get up and do it' enough to do it.
      - notzuck 7y ago
        I work from home 25 days per month - I moved well away from the city, bought a massive house next to a beautiful surf beach and my kids could not be having a better time if they tried. My partner did the same. We make over 400k joint, all from home and in a very cheap part of the country. I can't even get over how lucky I am.
- dzhiurgis 7y ago
  I moved to NZ. Glad to get out of UK's weather and rat race. Went to Hawaii for couple weeks one year ago. Experienced culture shock. NZ is probably best place in the world.
  - jmole 7y ago
    Care to elaborate on that? Culture shock from what? What makes NZ the best?
    - disordinary 7y ago
      If you're progressive then NZ is a good place with strong social support and networks. There's definitely plenty of faults but it's not nearly as bad as other countries in most cases. There's also not the extreme rifts that we see elsewhere. If you look at reform for instance then there was broad cross party support for firearm reform, abortion reform, and euthanasia reform all in the last few months with both left and right parties voting for all of the above, something which would be pretty inconceivable in a country like the US where people seem to take opposite views on things just because they refuse to agree with the other side. The population is largely free of extremists and have a culture of just getting on with things and working together, this comes from the extreme isolation which we've historically had. That leads to people being irreligious, educated, and practical. It's very democratic and has very low levels of corruption, politicians are accessible and mostly trusted. This is tempered by a high cost of living compared to wages. Unfortunately we have seen a rise of US style far-right opinions and extreme views fed from the internet (like antivax and also a rise of disinformation and fake news). Ironically this may mean that politicians will be forced to become less accessible and democracy and freedoms may take a back seat to security as we've seen in the US. I hope not.
      - dzhiurgis 7y ago
        > irreligious, educated, and practical. This is so true. People are just so multi-faceted here. I have a friend who's a developer, mechanic, investor, guitar player and a stripper.
    - 7y ago
- a1369209993 7y ago
  > is the US anything admirable lately? Nope, the US is firmly in the Wants a Prize for Basic Decency[0] category. Which is better than most other places, but that says more about other places than the US. 0: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WantsAPrizeForBasicDecency https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WantsAPrizeForBa...
noir_lord 7y ago
You don't have to pay for a license for a TV, you just tell them you don't watch live broadcast/streaming and they send a letter every free years.
- jacquesm 7y ago
  All years are free if you don't pay for a license for a TV ;)
celticninja 7y ago
Where did you move to?
- monkeynotes 7y ago
  Canada
  - noarchy 7y ago
    Here in Canada we all get taxed for CBC, including people with no TV or radio.
    - monkeynotes 7y ago
      This is true.
    - celticninja 7y ago
      What I have found with ex-pats is they left somewhere and feel free to criticise it and give these as reasons they are glad they left. They also ignore similar issues in their new nation or ignore other aspects of their new nation. Arguing that they are not responsible for that as an ex-pat. Not labelling all expats like this but the vocal ones tend to be like this.
soneil 7y ago
I don't begrudge the TV licence too much. I used to, and then I moved to Ireland - where I pay a roughly equivalent amount for a roughly equivalent licence, which funds RTÉ (and tg4? unclear) with nowhere near the same results. And still ads. It turns out the better half of Europe has TV licences in one form or another - but for some reason, we never hear about them. When the UK has to fund a state broadcaster, it's dystopian. When everyone else does it, it's business as usual. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence )
- raverbashing 7y ago
  The enforcement actions and publicizing of the license in the UK seem to be the most dystopian, in Ireland it's a bit over the top as well But you're right, it is present in multiple countries, I think Germany and France just turned it into a household fee
  - soneil 7y ago
    I think there’s talk of moving to a household fee here too. Oddly, making it universal seems to be more acceptable than a consumption tax. On one hand, I can see the plus sides - there’s a lot more ways to consume national broadcasters now, and it seems strange that I should pay to receive the national broadcaster on my TV, but if I scrapped the TV and watched it on my laptop, I wouldn’t (I know the UK complicates that further than we do). On the hand, it feels unintuitive that there’s now no way to opt out. But I’m not sure how we delineate universal taxes (eg, my taxes pay for schools but I don’t use them) vs consumption taxes (I don’t pay road tax because I don’t drive). We still ultimately need to pay for them somehow - I don’t drive, but I still depend on roads.
    - fengazer 7y ago
      IIRC (and this was dear to my heart in the UK as a non-motor-vehicle-driving taxpayer), road tax isn't a thing. There's vehicle excise duty, but that's not earmarked for roads (since 1937, according to https://ipayroadtax.com/no-such-thing-as-road-tax/bring-back-the-road-fund/ https://ipayroadtax.com/no-such-thing-as-road-tax/bring-back...). Also: "The maintenance and improvement of these roads are funded through local council taxes, fees, and central government grants." - https://www.loc.gov/law/help/infrastructure-funding/englandandwales.php https://www.loc.gov/law/help/infrastructure-funding/englanda... So rest assured that if you pay tax in the UK, you pay for roads along with other infrastructure and services. And now for something completely different... I recall being told, by a man who knocked on my door in a college residence, that the van had detected my television. I had no television set. He asked to come in and look. I declined and he went away. Either enforcement by deception, or a creep using a pretext to get into womens' college rooms. Either way, bad! I do miss the BBC website without ads and BBC iPlayer though. We had a television in later years (and a license).
chimprich 7y ago
I hardly ever watch broadcast TV, but I don't mind paying the licence fee for the BBC website and radio stations. There are plenty of things to dislike about the UK, but that seems like an odd list of things to highlight. The porn opt-in thing has been pushed back for a year or two and will be quietly shelved when it's realised it's unworkable. The supposedly omnipresent CCTV invariably seems to have been lost or turned off if you actually need to figure out e.g. who has nicked your bike. I will grant you the Brexit shit-show, however; that is genuinely horrific.
- NikkiA 7y ago
  > The porn opt-in thing has been pushed back for a year or two and will be quietly shelved when it's realised it's unworkable. Actually it's 'indefinitely postponed now, after it was realised about the end of June that it was a violation of EU law (also, it was May's baby, and she's gone, Boris is a pro-porn kinda guy).
toomanybeersies 7y ago
There's plenty to complain about re: the UK, but none of what you're complaining about is unique to the UK, or even uncommon (except for opt-in porn, that one's odd) Most other countries with public broadcasting just roll the "TV license" into your taxes. CCTV everywhere (that the government can afford to put it) is commonplace in most countries (the USA being something of an exception). Politicians acting like children is standard. In fact, I'd say that it's a desired feature of the Westminster System. Question Time/PMQs, although sometimes childish, serve an important role in the democratic process and open government. At least filibusters aren't commonplace, unlike in the USA.
- monkeynotes 7y ago
  I think this argument is a form of logical fallacy. I'd complain about any country that equated to the UK in some way. No country is perfect, some appeal to me more than others, countries like the UK do not and their implementation of governance conflicts with my principles.

jrjarrett 7y ago

I don't know where you moved to, but is the US anything admirable lately? Guess I should cross the UK off the list of places to flee to.

criddell 7y ago
Don't flee, get involved and help fix things if you can!
- notzuck 7y ago
  Yes, he should just dedicate his life to toiling away at a problem he can't make an impact on while telling his kids and wife that he's very sorry that he can't give them a significantly better standard of living because he needs to help fix England.
- monkeynotes 7y ago
  No, I was miserable in the UK - I have better options elsewhere. I do not care enough about the UK to give it my life. The culture is locked in by hundreds of years of history, and a vast, vast majority of people like it the way it is. Staying in the UK for me is like staying in an abusive relationship or a job you hate. It made me deeply unhappy, so instead of complaining and bringing my friends down I found a life to love overseas.
  - criddell 7y ago
    Fair enough. All any of us wants is happiness.
dylan604 7y ago
I was just thinking about the grass isn't always greener kind of situation. Everyone hopes somewhere else is going to (have to?) be better than here. Where ever there/here actually are.
- notzuck 7y ago
  Absolutely right but moving to Australia has genuinely massively improved our standard of living beyond what i thought was even possible. I can't believe how good we have it here.
  - dylan604 7y ago
    I almost didn't leave when I visited Australia and New Zealand. I telecommute, so it wouldn't matter if I was across the country or the planet. Plus, getting paid in US dollars living in NZ with the strong dollar would be like a pay raise. If only I had the 'get up and do it' enough to do it.
    - notzuck 7y ago
      I work from home 25 days per month - I moved well away from the city, bought a massive house next to a beautiful surf beach and my kids could not be having a better time if they tried. My partner did the same. We make over 400k joint, all from home and in a very cheap part of the country. I can't even get over how lucky I am.
dzhiurgis 7y ago
I moved to NZ. Glad to get out of UK's weather and rat race. Went to Hawaii for couple weeks one year ago. Experienced culture shock. NZ is probably best place in the world.
- jmole 7y ago
  Care to elaborate on that? Culture shock from what? What makes NZ the best?
  - disordinary 7y ago
    If you're progressive then NZ is a good place with strong social support and networks. There's definitely plenty of faults but it's not nearly as bad as other countries in most cases. There's also not the extreme rifts that we see elsewhere. If you look at reform for instance then there was broad cross party support for firearm reform, abortion reform, and euthanasia reform all in the last few months with both left and right parties voting for all of the above, something which would be pretty inconceivable in a country like the US where people seem to take opposite views on things just because they refuse to agree with the other side. The population is largely free of extremists and have a culture of just getting on with things and working together, this comes from the extreme isolation which we've historically had. That leads to people being irreligious, educated, and practical. It's very democratic and has very low levels of corruption, politicians are accessible and mostly trusted. This is tempered by a high cost of living compared to wages. Unfortunately we have seen a rise of US style far-right opinions and extreme views fed from the internet (like antivax and also a rise of disinformation and fake news). Ironically this may mean that politicians will be forced to become less accessible and democracy and freedoms may take a back seat to security as we've seen in the US. I hope not.
    - dzhiurgis 7y ago
      > irreligious, educated, and practical. This is so true. People are just so multi-faceted here. I have a friend who's a developer, mechanic, investor, guitar player and a stripper.
  - 7y ago
a1369209993 7y ago
> is the US anything admirable lately? Nope, the US is firmly in the Wants a Prize for Basic Decency[0] category. Which is better than most other places, but that says more about other places than the US. 0: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WantsAPrizeForBasicDecency https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WantsAPrizeForBa...

noir_lord 7y ago

You don't have to pay for a license for a TV, you just tell them you don't watch live broadcast/streaming and they send a letter every free years.

jacquesm 7y ago
All years are free if you don't pay for a license for a TV ;)

celticninja 7y ago

Where did you move to?

monkeynotes 7y ago
Canada
- noarchy 7y ago
  Here in Canada we all get taxed for CBC, including people with no TV or radio.
  - monkeynotes 7y ago
    This is true.
  - celticninja 7y ago
    What I have found with ex-pats is they left somewhere and feel free to criticise it and give these as reasons they are glad they left. They also ignore similar issues in their new nation or ignore other aspects of their new nation. Arguing that they are not responsible for that as an ex-pat. Not labelling all expats like this but the vocal ones tend to be like this.

soneil 7y ago

I don't begrudge the TV licence too much. I used to, and then I moved to Ireland - where I pay a roughly equivalent amount for a roughly equivalent licence, which funds RTÉ (and tg4? unclear) with nowhere near the same results. And still ads. It turns out the better half of Europe has TV licences in one form or another - but for some reason, we never hear about them. When the UK has to fund a state broadcaster, it's dystopian. When everyone else does it, it's business as usual. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence )

raverbashing 7y ago
The enforcement actions and publicizing of the license in the UK seem to be the most dystopian, in Ireland it's a bit over the top as well But you're right, it is present in multiple countries, I think Germany and France just turned it into a household fee
- soneil 7y ago
  I think there’s talk of moving to a household fee here too. Oddly, making it universal seems to be more acceptable than a consumption tax. On one hand, I can see the plus sides - there’s a lot more ways to consume national broadcasters now, and it seems strange that I should pay to receive the national broadcaster on my TV, but if I scrapped the TV and watched it on my laptop, I wouldn’t (I know the UK complicates that further than we do). On the hand, it feels unintuitive that there’s now no way to opt out. But I’m not sure how we delineate universal taxes (eg, my taxes pay for schools but I don’t use them) vs consumption taxes (I don’t pay road tax because I don’t drive). We still ultimately need to pay for them somehow - I don’t drive, but I still depend on roads.
  - fengazer 7y ago
    IIRC (and this was dear to my heart in the UK as a non-motor-vehicle-driving taxpayer), road tax isn't a thing. There's vehicle excise duty, but that's not earmarked for roads (since 1937, according to https://ipayroadtax.com/no-such-thing-as-road-tax/bring-back-the-road-fund/ https://ipayroadtax.com/no-such-thing-as-road-tax/bring-back...). Also: "The maintenance and improvement of these roads are funded through local council taxes, fees, and central government grants." - https://www.loc.gov/law/help/infrastructure-funding/englandandwales.php https://www.loc.gov/law/help/infrastructure-funding/englanda... So rest assured that if you pay tax in the UK, you pay for roads along with other infrastructure and services. And now for something completely different... I recall being told, by a man who knocked on my door in a college residence, that the van had detected my television. I had no television set. He asked to come in and look. I declined and he went away. Either enforcement by deception, or a creep using a pretext to get into womens' college rooms. Either way, bad! I do miss the BBC website without ads and BBC iPlayer though. We had a television in later years (and a license).

chimprich 7y ago

I hardly ever watch broadcast TV, but I don't mind paying the licence fee for the BBC website and radio stations. There are plenty of things to dislike about the UK, but that seems like an odd list of things to highlight. The porn opt-in thing has been pushed back for a year or two and will be quietly shelved when it's realised it's unworkable. The supposedly omnipresent CCTV invariably seems to have been lost or turned off if you actually need to figure out e.g. who has nicked your bike. I will grant you the Brexit shit-show, however; that is genuinely horrific.

NikkiA 7y ago
> The porn opt-in thing has been pushed back for a year or two and will be quietly shelved when it's realised it's unworkable. Actually it's 'indefinitely postponed now, after it was realised about the end of June that it was a violation of EU law (also, it was May's baby, and she's gone, Boris is a pro-porn kinda guy).

toomanybeersies 7y ago

There's plenty to complain about re: the UK, but none of what you're complaining about is unique to the UK, or even uncommon (except for opt-in porn, that one's odd) Most other countries with public broadcasting just roll the "TV license" into your taxes. CCTV everywhere (that the government can afford to put it) is commonplace in most countries (the USA being something of an exception). Politicians acting like children is standard. In fact, I'd say that it's a desired feature of the Westminster System. Question Time/PMQs, although sometimes childish, serve an important role in the democratic process and open government. At least filibusters aren't commonplace, unlike in the USA.

monkeynotes 7y ago
I think this argument is a form of logical fallacy. I'd complain about any country that equated to the UK in some way. No country is perfect, some appeal to me more than others, countries like the UK do not and their implementation of governance conflicts with my principles.