Friday, May 14, 2010

The benifits and drawbacks of living in uk

The best way to appreciate Britain is from outside of the UK. The place has many things to recommend life there, and also some down sides too. In this blog I will put all the points.

Advantages of Living in the UK


1)Health Service.

Majority of Medical healthcare bills are paid by the state, But you need to fall into required criteria. You need to get registered in GP/NHS to avail these facilities. Let's not underestimate this, as most countries don't have this.

http://www.patient.co.uk/health/Free-or-Reduced-Cost-Prescriptions.htm


http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/AboutNHSservices/Pages/NHSServices.aspx

2)Starting new business.

It's a great place to start a business.. The UK is very proud of being "a nation of shopkeepers" and private enterprise is actively encouraged.

3)Culture.

The culture of the UK is diversity friendly in most places and there is a general sense of individuality being a good thing. Although this isn't 100% true everywhere in the UK, the cultural open-mindedness is good in most of the big cities, modern cosmopolitan areas and in remote wild areas (although it's not so good in a few of the small towns).

4)Government.

The government of the UK and its establishment is stable and it would be regarded as "unlikely" for it to be overthrown, for example by revolution or invasion.

5)Security

You CAN trust the police! With very few exceptions, the British police are honest, and they have to obey the law. This is in contrast to some countries where the police are feared by honest people. Even with the archaic legal system and absurd laws which various UK nanny state governments have imposed, the police have still managed to maintain reasonable order without becoming jobsworths.

6)Education.

The UK gives free school education to all children, (although not everyone gets on well with it. However, free education is something which many countries aspire to.

7)Currency.

The British currency is GB Pounds Sterling, which is one of the world's best currencies. The British pound is more stable than almost all other world currencies, including the US dollar. Plus, the currency is better made. Pounds are worth more than dollars or euros, but the general stability of the currency is largely because of long-term backing up of the value of the currency with real assets Unfortunately, with the credit crunch, the UK has started on the slippery slope towards losing the shine off its currency by printing more banknotes, and there is inflation in UK now, sadly.

8)Safety.

No country can provide you 100% safety but still Britain is a very safe place to live. There are few chances of getting hurt or stamped by strangers .You will be far away from any of the classic methods of death seen at the movies; murder, explosion, falling off something, high speed crash, or poisoning. Almost no-one is ever shot dead, as guns are banned in almost all circumstances.

9)Entertainment.

Britain has one of the best televisions in the world. The BBC, and parallel running independent broadcasters of a similar level of quality.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/

10)Infrastructure.

Britain has one of the finest Infrastructure in place .The quality of British roads is better than in most countries.

11)Information.

The mapping is some of the best in the world. The information is quite reachable without strain.

12)Religion.

Although the country has got an official state religion, which is pushed unfairly in various ways, you are not actually compelled to believe it. You're allowed to believe any old stuff, cilt or religion , you want. Diversity of belief is something Britain is justifiably proud of. Most people are agnostics, except at weddings and funerals.

13)Rights.

In the UK, an individual has the right to have their own name defined by themselves. It's an obvious human right that you can call yourself what you want

Disadvantages of Living in the UK

1)Climate.

The weather is terrible. Almost all of the time, in one way or another, the British weather is awful. If you have lived in the UK all of your life, you can't really appreciate just how bad the weather is in the UK until you visit somewhere that's got decent tropical weather.

2)Too many Rules.

There are far too many rules. The overbearing burden of bureaucracy and absurd laws makes the country almost impossible to live in. Speed Cameras, seatbelts, rules about secrecy, European manufacture laws, nanny state interventionism, customs rules, education rules, driving rules, sports rules, entertainment rules etc. You can't even truly "own" your own property, as government enforced rules prohibit you from building what you want on your own land without going cap in hand to ask permission from the local officialdom. It really is not a free country.

3)Tax.

The tax is far too high (40%* at the top end), which means in effect that if you make a lot of money you'll end up with quite a lot of it going to fund the UK government and allowing it to spend your money on what IT thinks is best. If you don't agree with the UK government about what's best (which most people don't) then you may find yourself funding things you may regard as unethical. Also, in addition to the high taxation of income tax, there are a number of other taxes of various levels on numerous things. There is a purchase tax (VAT) on goods, tax on employment (on people's wages, before they even get paid), tax on supposedly sinful items such as booze, cigarettes, and fuel, and if you die, the tax authority takes a further 40% of most of your estate even on money which you've already paid tax on. The desperate government that had already mismanaged the economy so badly that national bankruptcy loomed after the credit crunch, suicidal increased the tax to 50%, which means in effect that almost all rich people who can afford to leave, will leave.

Some of the tax money is spent on public services and some on various wars which the UK is waging for one reason or another or for no particular reason at all, and some of the money is squandered at around the end of the tax year on road adjustments!


To sum it up

The UK has both good and bad aspects. It's great if you like that sort of thing, but not so good if you don't. It's a matter of personal taste. You might think it's great and want to move there, or you might be stuck in the UK and think it's terrible and you'd like to escape from the UK! In bygone ages you might not have had much choice, but these days it's different. Freedom of information around the world makes it impossible for the country to keep it a secret that a wider world exists.

Never underestimate the UK because it's a small country. It's actually a superpower but working undercover.

*Please don't forget to leave a comment before leaving.

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