Mini exodus

[gary]

Oct 20, 2010 15:41:32 GMT 1 january said:

So the much heralded UK spending review is announced, some 500,000 public sector jobs to go over next four years. Pensionable age to rise in 2016, cuts to public services, reduced benefits.
Will we see a percentage of those who lose jobs, (with lowered chance of finding another) take the redundancy cheque, unlock their savings and sit it out in countries with perceived lower living costs, Bulgaria, Croatia etc., and wait for the UK economy to get back in the black – or grey at least.

I think I know what you will see in the UK.....Civil disorder. People with nothing left to lose will take to the streets.

I've been predicting it for two years. There's many people without the capital, education, work experience or pension to unlock who can't exit to an easier life in a more libertarian/cheaper environment. Those who think that the new government are going to listen or be more honest are fooling themselves.

Thank god I left years ago.

There. I'm an anarchist.

A pox upon both houses of parliament.

[crojoe]

Yea, all this chit-chat from the UK gov. sound like Croatia. Same big wigs that run everything, and in the end it's the rich that get richer. I am all for cutting costs, but they also need to have the same policies in place for the rich with their off-shore accounting and ways to wiggle out of paying taxes. Plus all the banks who get free money. The welfare state does need to end, but then they need to slow the flow of immigrants so citizens can have a job. At Zagreb immigrations one employee said this is why they are making policies tougher, to stop foreigners coming and taking jobs from the locals. But, when I heard how many work permits they issued (5 to 6000) for the year, I had to laugh.
If they really plan to let 500,000 go in the UK, that would be like firing half of Zagreb. What then for those 500,000? -- Benefits!.
Better to put a fence at the cliff top then a hospital at the bottom.

[Carol]

I think of it as having got into a lot of debt. You either do nothing and eventually go bankrupt or you cut your expenses and try to pay off the debt.
What else can you do? What alternative plan do the rioters in France think can happen instead?

The favourite media response is "tax the banks more", but even if you were to levy 100% taxes on everything the bankers earn and 100% corporate taxes on any money the banks make, it would not be enough. And anyway, you'd do it for about 2 nano-seconds before the owners of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, UBS, BNP, Deutsche, Santander, (and even HSBC) would up sticks and depart the Uk forever. Then there would be no chance of getting out of this mess.

[Madgolfer]

I would be shocked if we see the same riots in UK streets as they have in France. Its not like the days of the poll tax riots.

I expect the majority in the UK to accept that the country/world is in a financial mess and some major decisions must be made if it is going to be sorted out.

Closing down petrol supplies, stopping trains, busses and planes from running........where will that get you?

In the UK, its time to get real and start paying for the last decade of over spending.

Do we have any French posters here prepared to comment?

As far as a mini - exodus is concerned, from our perspective it seems to have already started looking back over late 2009 or early 2010.

But the collapse/stagnation of the UK housing market is holding things up for many people, no house sale = no move abroad.

[ray51]

Oct 21, 2010 0:04:52 GMT 1 january said:

gary

those that are in the firing line and have the means to do so, will vote with their feet and seek new pastures where the perceived living costs will enable them to ride out the storm.

Any ideas , as to where such new pastures might be ?
( Believe me , I've tried and looked hard , in many a place...)

[crojoe]

I know it doesn’t sound good to people, but what needs to happen is the pound needs to be devalued a lot, call centres and similar business needs to be brought back to UK, heavy duty training in manufacturing needs to happen.

All benefits for "out-of-work" people needs to have local community job hours attached to it (like they do in Australia) or even get them back into part-time factory work making things, even broom handles. Immigration needs to be capped big time.

To many people to lazy to work, topped off with lavish benifits.

With so much of the UK economy based on or around banking (blue colour sector), with it faltering it just created a tidal wave on UK shores. All manufacturing was sent abroad and the flood of immigrants (with no major skills) took over the menial jobs.

It is probably that the UK would not have weathered the recession, but topped off with the system we had (have) in place its no wonder it failed.

The economies of the world that don't have major globalisation practices are doing the best. For example, both China and India love to make and export everything to the world, but their own import market is very restricted to outside imports.

I am a firm believer that "big business" broke the back of the UK for profits. I wouldn't doubt they will do it to the likes of China and India one day, that is, once they have made their profits and see it is no longer a viable business.

I'm pretty certain that most governments are in on it. It's either that or they are just plain stupid.
Sky news was just reporting that the largest 35 companies in UK had penned a memo to government and outlines what they had to do. The only thing those 35 are interested in is profit margins, not welfare, citizens or policy.

[gary]

I sense a change in attitudes in the UK.

People have seen the expenses scandal, the police preventing peaceful protest and even killing people with protection from prosecution. An increasingly belligerant agressive and military police force who have just been re-armed with an extra 10,000 tasers. Anti terrorism laws used in outrageous circumstances, ie dog-fouling and wheely bin offences. The erosion of personal freedoms and rights. ANPR and CCTV, monitoring of emails, phone calls and........I won't go on!

Apart from the fact that the most vulernable people in the UK are being punished with public spending cuts, by a government that contains 23 millionaires, for the banking system profligacy.

The poll tax riots show that there is a tipping point beyond which Brits will say enough is enough! And I think that day is coming, and I think the government know it too. They may even have been planning it....they used 9/11 as an excuse to erode civil liberties, so they can use civil disorder in the UK to impose a kind of martial law, for which the legislation is already in place.

I'm increasingly coming round to the idea of buying a smallholding somewhere remote, maybe here in Spain, or on Lastovo etc, and being as self sufficient as possible, keeping the state/EU and their demands for taxation and lack of privacy out of my life.

I used to be slightly uneasy with the fact that I've not paid income tax to anyone for 18 years. Not now. I'm quite proud of it.

I pity any free thinking person who is stuck in HMPUK. The future is bleak.

[Madgolfer]

Being completely self sufficient is almost impossible, all we can do is try and achieve close to it.

Many of our friends and clients run their own smallholdings in Croatia, it is a great way of life if you are up to the challenge and hard work.

Beats working in the office any day. (Or so Mrs MG tells me) ;D

There are still plenty of cheap places around here too.

[crojoe]

The reason they call them small holdings is because everything is on "hold".