Serial commenter Verity wants to share her thoughts regarding why she has also done what Samizdatista Alice Bachini did (well, sort of)
I’ve legged it. ‘opped it.
There was no defining moment. No shock of recognition. No clap of thunder.
There was nothing, really. I had regarded Europe and Britain with lazy distaste for so long it had become woven into the woof and warp of my daily thoughts, barely surfacing.
The encroaching communism-lite of the EU, supinely submitted to by the 400m or so people who live there, most of whom have never experienced real democracy… that revulsion was always in the background…
…and the eagerness of the repellent Blair to give away our country, which he does not understand, or even know very much about, to ‘Europe’, an area of the world that sinks deeper into global irrelevance with every silly little ‘summit’ with red carpets and photo ops, every self-involved, fidgety little treaty between themselves that has no relevance to the rest of the world, every encroachment by anonymous apparatchiks into the lives of the citizenries. With their happy blindness to the fact that world has long moved on from regarding Europe as a beacon of intellectual and political sophistication, and the diminishment of the continent’s economic influence on international events, the EU has begun to take on the comedic, self-involved air of a light operetta.
At home, Blair is chasing indigenes out of the country at a rate of knots. People fear for their lives in the most lawless country in the advanced world. The overweening ego that oversaw the dissolution of the civil society, outlawed self-defence and nurtured a sense of grievance among the criminal classes, promoted thought fascism and other forms of bullying of the electorate, impudently routinely over-stepped his remit as PM, created ever more taxpayer-funded slots for the lumpen nomenklatura, awarded special privileges to selected segments of the public – not because they had earned them by making a contribution, but because their inexplicable privileges threw the people whose families have lived on this turf, and formed its civil society, for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, off their stride.
Who dared say him nay? No one. OK. Peter Hitchens has been a brave voice. And a few others. But by and large, the Brits don’t seem to mind. They get tax credits for the large wodge of their income taken from them by the state, some of which is returned to them as supplicants. Don’t worry. Be happy. Britain had not been conquered by a William of Normandy with dash, vision and intelligence. Self-congratulatory, faintly creepy Tony Blair and his court of tenth-raters got elected with the aid of smoke and mirrors and practice the cheap deceits of the Wizard of Oz before Toto pulled back the curtain.
I loathed it all. Like Alice, as quoted by Mick, I decided to change continents. To put as much space between lawless yet over-governed Britain, and the absurd, oppressive, irrelevant EU. I put my house on the market and started cruising the internet looking for alternatives. I chose a place…
I tried to make it as easy as possible on the cats by splitting the trip into three segments. I booked a first class ticket on the TGV to Charles de Gaulle. First class because the train that travels from the south of France 700 miles north to one of the largest airports in the world does not allow luggage in regular class any more. Such a daring concept!
I overnighted in Roissy and the next morning checked into the hellish CDG three hours early, as commanded, because of the cats. We finally boarded and I pissed the authoritarian French purser off by demanding to see the captain and tell him personally that there were live animals in the hold. The friendly American captain told me he knew there were live animals on board and he would heat and pressurise the hold.
After the stressful and willful chaos of Charles de Gaulle, stage to a shifting cast of thousands – empty-eyed trolley pushers lost in space as they seek a clue to the whereabouts of their check-in area in this signage Sahara – DFW is a haven of tranquility, intelligent organization and responsive employees. Signage is plentiful and is designed to serve the passenger, not some attention-seeking poncy board of directors. (“Did you notice we built an entire vast airport without signage? Are we cute enough to kiss?”)
The hotel shuttle in DFW, at a well-marked spot with a broad sidewalk for luggage (unlike shuttle hell at CDG), picked me up on the button, the driver cheerfully loading the cats with a mind to their greatest comfort.
It was great to be back on the well-landscaped freeways of Texas, so wide, fast and disorienting that agoraphobics stick to normal roads. The huge Texas sky. The dazzling sun. I felt an intense glow of homecoming. Jet-lagged, but happy, happy, happy. Then, just when I was thinking it could not get any better, as we exited for the hotel, I looked across the verges, bridges and traffic and there it was on the far side of the expressway, the shining citadel on the hill. Wal-mart…
I called down to the front desk half an hour later. “Wal-mart? Sure, no problem! The shuttle’ll run you over.” God, I love America! Within half an hour, I was stocking up on cosmetics whose prices were determined by the demands of the market, not the cost of transfers to social programmes. Everything looked dazzlingly cheap.
But there was one more segment to go, and the next morning, it was back to the airport for a flight to Houston and then a connection to our destination even further south, but still in North America.
And so, readers, I decamped to Mexico.
For a minute there, I thought you were going to say Verity wasn’t going to post here any more. That would have been a big loss.
Welcome to the New World, Verity. But why not stay in Texas where you lived for so long?
Verity,
I’m still angry you didn’t even drop us a line — we could have put you up overnight (cats and all), and taken to back to the airport too.
Congrats. Please write and tell us news & details.
I have a suspicion that Alice and Verity will not be the last.
Indeed, even in the U.S., people are leaving liberal strongholds for Red America (ie. where Bush is more popular than any Democrat). We ourselves did just that, two years ago.
And never regretted it, not for a single moment. Okay, we miss Chicago’s snow, and our old apartment, but that’s about it.
Good luck.
I still think you would’ve like Costa Rica, Verity. Anyway, welcome to the world of Blair’s exiles. Five and a half years after flitting the coop, do I have any regrets? Yep, I wish I’d done it ten years ago.
If you were sick of faux democracy, communism-lite, and rule by corrupt elites, why did you move to Mexico?
Join the club, we made the move twelve years ago, and have never regretted it.
What we do have misgivings about, is that we had to make the move in the first place. It was not out of any specific sense of adventure, but more out of feeling of nescesity, the writing on the wall being readable even thirty years ago.
When I see what England has become, and compare with what might have been, an all pervading sense of
sadness overcomes me. It is a crying shame…
If the visa situation gets any tougher, David’s suggestion re Costa Rica may well be an option. Only problem there is a lack of broadband…
Verity, your last line sounds like a joke.
Where do you think Mexican border-crossers are heading, South or North?
I hope you’ll reconsider after seeing first Rivera mural…
I’d love to move to America one day. It seems quite difficult for a Brit like me to get in, though. Companies willing to sponsor people are few and far between. I suppose I could always marry an American – what with my accent and all that shouldn’t be so difficult… 😉
Great story, sad story. I am a little surprised you kept going South, but wish you the best.
Lefty friends always threaten to move to Canada or Europe. A frustration of mine is that there’s no place for me to go — just try to keep collectivism staved off in teh USA as long as possible…
Nice story Verity, and best of luck. Always enjoyed your comments, with their fire, and welcome to the main bit of the blog!
I have been thinking along these lines for a while, but things will have to get a lot worse for me to turn tail and leave Britain. I love this damp little island too much and would miss my friends. But the lack of opportunities here is stifling and the cynicism and dopeyness of life here is getting me down.
No wonder so many Brits are living in places like Spain, one of the better bits of Europe.
It’s too bad Verity moved to Mexico, where crime is rampant, rule-of-law is the exception (not the rule) and property rights are subject to the whims of various government agents/agencies.
There’s a reason that Mexicans (rich and poor) come to the USA. Not just for our laws and opportunities, but basic stuff. I see lots of Mexican car tags in the mall parking lots on the weekend here. You can also forget getting a hotel shuttle in Mexico to take you anywhere, for example.
Texas is wonderful. For God’s sake, y’all come on down. (Or if you’re like me, not for God’s sake, but for your own.)
My dad airlifted out of Hungary in ’56. I read about what was going on that year over there. (“Brain drain” ring a bell with anybody?) If he hadn’t been able to leave, I’d never have been born. Years later our family helped a Hungarian lady (who worked in a hotel in Budapest and got a glimpse of how the freer half lives) immigrate with her son.
I’m one of many Americans who would love to help you guys come over. Personally I can’t do much right now (money is tight with an art student in the family) but you never know. That’s my real e-mail up there.
Glad you made it okay; hope you’re happy. If you decide to visit back here I’ll say Hi provided Big Blunkett hasn’t targetted me with his Orbital Surveillance Death Lasers or whatever it’s going to be next week.
A fascinating tale, Verity – and enthrallingly told.
For a myriad reasons, I’ve remained in England, but it isn’t hard to understand why those who can leave, do. Even though I could, and haven’t. Yet.
A Verity’s Adventures blog would be a good read.
Or will we have to wait for the hardback?
Fleeing Europe for a better life in Mexico???!!! Wow, it really MUST be bad over there! 🙁
Costa Rica wouldn’t suit some of the “libertarians” on this site. It has not had an army since 1949.
Rob,
I’ve done exactly that, and should be in the U.S. in the not-too-distant future. I guess American ladies aren’t too picky on looks! 🙂
Verity, you will still be popping in here, right?
Right???
Wouldn’t be the same without you.
PS – For anyone in the U.S. getting fed up of it all, what about the Free State Project?
I don’t know what the tax burden is like in Mexico, but if you can combine living there with non-domicile tax status in the UK you’d be on to a winner.
Harry, I don’t know what the tax burden is like in Mexico. All I know is that thousands cross the border (from Mexico) on a weekly basis. Maybe it is a nice place to live if you are well off and can afford a nice house on a private beach somewhere. I have never vacationed in Mexico but I have visited a few border towns. I don’t recommend that unless you are seeking a cheap prostitute. (AND,NO I WASN’T DOING THAT!)
I am not an expert on Mexico but I do know the dirty words as I grew up in Southern Colorado.
In cowboy movies, all the bad guys dream of fleeing to Mexico with their loot to live the remainder of their days in freedom and anonimity. So, maybe there is something to it.
James says: ” I guess American ladies aren’t too picky on looks!”
HEY!!!! Wait a minute there, Slappy!
James says: ” I guess American ladies aren’t too picky on looks!”
Ok, ok, perhaps you’re right. She probably chose me for my other…um….attributes…. 😉
Rob, I knew a girl who got all excited when she heard a Brit say “shedule.” Do you suppose I could take lessons?
James says: “Ok, ok, perhaps you’re right. She probably chose me for my other…um….attributes…. ”
Yeah, it must of been the bowler hat and the umbrella.
hehe
It’s quite true when they say, “the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence’.
All those Asians and Eastern Europeans see the grass as greener in UK, meanwhile a lot of English find it greener by ‘going West’, and without the added bonus of welfare handouts, or indeed any sort of State help whatsoever, the chance to just stand on their own two feet, being enticement enough.
Things must be quite bad, if English emigres find that even third world countries are preferable to the UK.
I think that Jonathan’s comment on the ‘cynicism and general dopeyness’ in UK life, may play a larger part in people’s dissatisfaction, than some of the more popular reasons, such as high taxation, even though that may be the root cause of the dissatisfaction.
Ah, but I’m Irish, not English. Double-desirability, you see :))
Sorry, meant that to be ‘the root cause of the cynicism’.
It was a big move and a massive effort of will.
Thank you for the positive comments – and Kim du Toit, once I’m settled, I’ll be visiting my friends in the great state of Texas, and I’ll count you and the missus among them. Susan, why didn’t I go back to Texas? Well, US Immigration has a tiny, tiny quota for nitwits who had a coveted Green Card for years, allowed it to lapse and then thought, “Ooops!” In fact, I didn’t even try.
Tatyana – depends on which North-South traffic excites your interest. Certainly, construction workers, gardeners and maids do seek, and find, a better life in the US. On the other hand, in the short time (one month) that I have been here, I have met a lot of expats who have come south (and no, I’m not in the ghastly San Miguel de Allende), many of them married to Mexicans, some retired and some in business or the professions. My doctor is a quadrilingual (Turkish, French, English and Spanish) Turkish woman. I was introduced to her through a physicist from India – although I guess, strictly speaking, he may not have travelled south to get to Mexico. In my little Spanish class, there is an American who is down here to build hotels, a youngish Hungarian couple, and me. In fact, most foreigners living here are fluent in Spanish, and I aim to become so myself.
Also, Tatyana, despite your dramatic, Joan Crawfordesque foreboding, I don’t have to “wait until I see my first Diego de Rivera mural”. I saw one in Mexico City 25 years ago and it looked comically dated, even then.
Andy says crime is rampant. Worse than in Britain, where they government simply lies about crime figures, or the south of France? You’re American, I think, and have no idea.
The current president is respected for tackling corruption, and I’d be a fool to argue that he has triumphed. But, corruption can happen anywhere, these days, can it not? As in selling British passports to Indian multimillionaires in return for large contributions to a political party; not declaring a loan on a mortgage application and getting it swept through; ordering one’s driver to drive on the freeway at over 100 mph because one is a government minister and traffic laws are for the little people; as in the prime minister’s wife involving herself in property speculation and using her name and a convicted Ozzie conman to do so … Oh, like that.
Re Yank Girl and her two or three visits to those well-known redoubts of national identity and preserved history, border towns, and her fantasies of cowboy movies depicting events from over a hundred years before .. a private beach? Are you mad? You are not allowed in Mexico to own property within 50 kilometers of the coast! Even if you could, I wouldn’t. I hate the beach. I’m buying a normal house in a normal neighbourhood. Yank Girl needs to get a little more current. I have a feeling her nomme de guerre should read Old Yank Girl.
I’ve only been here for a month. I’ll post more, through the good graces of the Samizdatas, if they so allow, later.
And I’ll be keeping a fierce eye on British and European politics.
Thank you to everyone, pro or con, who took the trouble to Read more …
Thank you for the positive comments – and Kim du Toit, once I’m settled, I’ll be visiting my friends in the great state of Texas, and I’ll count you and the missus among them. Susan, why didn’t I go back to Texas? Well, US Immigration has a tiny, tiny quota for nitwits who had a coveted Green Card for years, allowed it to lapse and then thought, “Ooops!” In fact, I didn’t even try.
Tatyana – depends on which North-South traffic excites your interest. Certainly, construction workers, gardeners and maids do seek, and find, a better life in the US. On the other hand, in the short time (one month) that I have been here, I have met a lot of expats who have come south (and no, I’m not in the ghastly San Miguel de Allende), many of them married to Mexicans, some retired and some in business. My doctor is a quadrilingual (Turkish, French, English and Spanish) Turkish woman. I was introduced to her through a physicist from India – although I guess, strictly speaking, he may not have travelled south to get to Mexico. In my little Spanish class, there is an American who is down here to build hotels, a youngish Hungarian couple, and me. In fact, most foreigners living here are fluent in Spanish, and I aim to become so myself.
My neighbours in the little fourplex I am renting while my house sale goes through are a Russian oboe player with the symphony, and a first violinist, also with the symphony, from Georgia (formerly USSR). The other flat is occupied by a man who fled Cuba 30 years ago and lived in the US for many years before heading back to Latin America.
There are a lot of Mexican professionals and business people who have good degrees from the US. The man who sold me his car (who was recommended to me by a bilingual garage owner who’s looked after a friend’s car for 18 years and is married to an Austrian woman) has an MBA from the University of Texas. And so on. I don’t mean to imply at all that Mexicans are only interesting when they’re married to expats. They are charming and intelligent and funny in their own right, which is why expats fall in love with them.
Also, Tatyana, despite your dramatic, Joan Crawfordesque foreboding, I don’t have to “wait until I see my first Diego de Rivera mural”. I saw one in Mexico City 25 years ago and it looked comically dated, even then.
Andy says crime is rampant. Worse than in Britain, where they government simply lies about crime figures, or the south of France? You’re American, I think, and have no idea.
The current president is respected for tackling corruption, and I’d be a fool to argue that he has triumphed. But, corruption can happen anywhere, these days, can it not? As in selling British passports to Indian multimillionaires in return for large contributions to a political party; not declaring a loan on a mortgage application and getting it swept through; ordering one’s driver to drive on the freeway at over 100 mph because one is a government minister and traffic laws are for the little people; as in the prime minister’s wife involving herself in property speculation and using her name and a convicted Ozzie conman to do so … Oh, like that.
Re Yank Girl and her two or three visits to those well-known redoubts of national identity and preserved history, border towns, and her fantasies of cowboy movies depicting events from over a hundred years before, I would eschew a private beach even if I had the money and it were the habit of the country. I hate the beach. I’m buying a normal house in a normal neighbourhood. Yank Girl needs to get a little more current. I have a feeling her nomme de guerre should read Old Yank Girl.
I’ve only been here for a month. I’ll post more, through the good graces of the Samizdatas, if they so choose, later.
And I’ll be keeping a fierce eye on British and European politics.
Thank you to everyone, pro or con, who took the trouble to Read more …
Sorry about confused post. New computer and a horrible, horrible mouse, which highlights on the screen, but not in reality and is going back to computer man tomorrow.
Awww shoot! And there I thought cowboy movies were real!
Thank you for destroying my fantasies about galloping over the border behind a studly desperado with saddle bags full of gold…. and a future of prancing about on a private beach being served tequila by scantily clad mexican guys…oh well 🙁
Seriously, I am happy for you but very sad one can’t buy beach property in Mexico.
What I said about the border towns is true though.
Good luck!
Sincerely,
Old Naive (living in a dream world) Yank Girl
“Costa Rica wouldn’t suit some of the “libertarians” on this site. It has not had an army since 1949.”
It does however have heavily-armed anti-terrorism police, and notably little terrorism for them to police. “No army” is a bit of a branding exercise. But certainly “small army” is a good idea, and Cost Rica (among others) demonstrates that if you are a small compact country you can manage perfectly well on that basis.
I’m still thinking Uruguay, possibly Chile, for myself. But the horrid truth is you need a combination of money and ability that I don’t have, in order to move from a country where you are moderately comfortable by default, to any other.
Best wishes Verity.
I am a native Texan and find that many of the migrant workers from Mexico to be quite helpful to the local economy. From what I hear in many cases much of their money earned here is sent back to families in Mexico.
Many of the border towns have high levels of crime and are relatively poor, however this becomes less of an issue the further into the heart of Mexico. In fact some areas of Mexico are practically Americanized such as Cancun and depend almost exclusively on foreign currency. Not suprisingly the economy in these regions is strong and government corruption low.
For an expatriate with American, or in this case British currency they find that their money goes a long way. You can live very well and generally avoid the nanny state. Theres a reason many Americans cross the border to obtain pharmeceuticals and travel to Cuba. The government simply does not regulate (to my knowledge) these things. Thus it is quite possible to live a much more free life south of the border than say Europe or even in some cases Texas.
I can understand her reasoning for these reasons. As for not being able to own ocean front property, nothing says you cant lease it. In fact there are companies that grant expats 99 year leases for this reason.
Ok, So I am the one who’s not keeping up with this “moving to 3rd world piss holes “. I am so uncool. Is it like the hip thing to do or so obviously moronic we are afraid to say anything as it might seem uncool.?
Mexico is a sh**hole…enjoy 🙂 and it smells like it too.
By the way, which country in the whole wide world offers the most liberty to its citizens? I have no clue, have you?
Guy – If you want to go, go. Don’t forget, you are living at present in an extremely overpriced area of the world. Your money will go further almost anywhere else – even the US.
Jonathan Wood – Yes, migrant Mexican workers help the American economy and they help the Mexican economy by repatriating such a vast amount of money. And yes, there are areas of Mexico which are beginning to prosper and it is a pleasure to see it. Where I am, the streets are immaculate and the police are non-obtrusive. And there is no nanny state. You can live your life here without obsessive government interference and nitpicking and control.
A large percentage of doctors, dentists and vets trained at good universities and hospitals in the US, and many are comfortably bilingual. (By the way, as a measurement of prosperity, I suggest the presence in a country, or city, of vets. Where I am has gone from no vets 10 or so years ago to around six or eight well equipped veterinary clinics. In other words, a large percentage of the local people now have enough money to feel comfortable spending a little of it on medical attention for their household pets. I find this immensely cheering from every point of view.)
And yes, you can lease beach property, but you can never own it. Or you can buy it in trust through a bank, but you never hold the title.
JohnJo – Thank you.
My money won’t go further in Tokyo or Manhattan than central London, but almost anywhere else…. True.
But that doesn’t mean I have enough to cope with clearing my UK debts and the cost of transfer, self-support , etc, while finding other things to do elsewhere. Nor do I have the surplus necessary to buy freedom in countries where it is differentially for sale.
Have often pondered Ole Birk Olesen’s question. (Hence my particular fantasy choices.) Those indices of freedom on general offer tend to be rather one-dimensional. There’s also a bias in them to the theoretical rather than the practical position. As Tuscan Tony used once to point out here often, Italy may be in some respects rather more free than Britain, once you take into account the less assiduous application of theoretically more numerous and overbearing rules.
It’s sad to see so many British people wanting to leave their homeland (or who in fact have already left.)
Is there nothing in Britain worth fighting for?
And if all the productive people leave, won’t it soon ibe nothing but Russian mafioso, Islamonutters and George Galloway clones? What a horrible end to a great nation.
Switzerland of course.
Don’t want to leave. I like living in Britain, don’t really know anything else, and pace Verity don’t fear for my life. There are lots of things worth fighting for–until recently Britain was one of the free-est of countries, after all–but I rather doubt my capacity to fight the grip of New Labour hyper-modern fascism. We’re all doing what we can.
But the government is remorseless, efficient and increasingly well-run (as a political machine, that is) in removing footholds for opposition. Change has been fast, and scarcely resisted so far. And the tempo is increasing.
Good luck in Mexico! Hope it pleases you better than the current state of Europe (pun half-intended).
… & Switzerland as a haven of freedom? Well… weirdly, yes in many ways, but it’s hardly a haven of government-regulation-free living; you always get the sense that whatever is not expressly permitted is verboten (try hanging your duvet out after 10AM in some cantons…). As a democratic nation though, can’t think of better, and despite the restrictive feeling of much of the country, it’s had some remarkable experiments in social liberalism.
Just to let those who don’t know, Mexicans sent home over $13 billion last year.
It’s their 2nd source of revenue.
Which fact (see Sandy’s comment above) doesn’t speak good about “pro-business”regime, so to speak, in Mexico – more like leech economy model.
Verity, I hope you’re right and my information is way outdated, but per my recent conversation Trotsky is still a cult figure in Mexico.
I heard it from Mexican national here in NY. He became very enthusiastic when learned I came to US from Russia and thought he’s complementing me mentioning the fact.
Congratulations on your move, Verity.
The commenters here are intelligent enough that I’m surprised how few of them *get it* in this kind of context.
Of course Mexico is objectively worse than the UK, in the sense that if you had the choice of being reincarnated as a random Mexican or a random Brit, then you’d be better off as the Brit. Similarly, Switzerland is better off than almost anywhere else, Somalia is worse off than almost anywhere else… you get the idea.
But being rich in a third world country – even a very poor, very dodgy one – is an extremely agreeable way to be. The people I know with the best lifestyles aren’t the ones who’ve emigrated to Oz or the USA, they’re the ones who are expatting in India and China (and also the ones who live near a wide circle of close friends and family, which is why I’m not joining the expats just yet…)
ernest young – lack of broadband? Huh? My home internet connection is better than my parents’ in England. 512K ADSL costs about $30 a month. I work as a software engineer for a Web services provider. OK, so it’s not as cheap as the States, but hardly backwards.
Verity’s mention of the presence of vets is an interesting point. One metric I semi-seriously use to gauge whether a country is ‘Third World’ or not is the presence of part-bake focaccia bread in the supermarket chill cabinet. I’m considerably more affluent than the average here (here – in the UK I’d be on my uppers), so I live in a nice neighbourhood. In my immediate vicinity are two vets, three doctors, a dentist, a plastic surgery clinic and three sushi bars. Hellhole it ain’t. If you can maintain your US/European income and move to a lesser-developed country then you would be amazed at the quality of life you can enjoy. UK median salary of £23,000 is an utter fortune where I live. You could live in quite some style on £10,000 a year. And beer is 60p in the pub, 35p in the supermarket!
My goodness, Guy – where on earth did I say I feared for my life? Feared for my sanity, maybe … If I feared for my life, I certainly wouldn’t have been as cutting as I routinely am about T Bliar.
Sandy P – Thanks for a very illuminating figure. Unlike Tatyana, I do not see this as ‘a leech economy’. That’s an awful lot of people who have left their families and their familiar surroundings and resolved themselves to doing whatever it takes to try to better themselves – and get themselves and their families up to the next step on the ladder. Tatyana – they worked for that money, sometimes eight hours in the blazing sun. It is their money to spend or send home to their families, as they choose. This is not leeching. This is contributing, and helping both economies grow. (‘When the water level rises, all our boats go up.’ – P J O’Rourke.) I sincerely doubt that 99.999% of Mexicans have the faintest idea of who Trotsky was. Or, to be candid, any other Russian.
The Mexicans here, incidentally, work just as hard. Hauling buckets of concrete, doing construction work, out in the blazing sun and 42 degrees – and throwing their backs into their work. In the city where I live, every single person who works out in the heat takes a fresh change of clothing to work with him. At the end of the day, they find a hosepipe or a working fawcet on the site and have a shower and don their clean clothing for going home. They have pride in themselves. You see them going home, and even after a day like that, they have a jaunty step.
There is also, in this country, a high level of personal courtesy.
I read an article recently which stated that Mexico is now the world’s 10th largest economy — mostly thanks to NAFTA. They have only one major customer of course, but they’re trying to change that. I do know that they are currently running a $28 to $30 billion annual trade deficit with the US (in Mexico’s favor), and that they recently signed some kind of trade agreement with Japan.
Let me Google around and see if I can find it
Verity, I’m happy for you, girl – you’re in a country with high level of “personal courtesy”, so may be you’ll have something to gain, after all.
As to the leech economy – what is good for Mexicans is not very good for us, beleive it or not. Those hard-working immigrants sending their money home use our taxpayer-subsidized public services while being exempt from paying taxes and cost on average about $89,000 over his/her lifetime per person to US public coffers.
See data here (Link) and here, in the comments(Link)
Let me put it this way, Verity.
We take their people because we were “told” that there would be civil unrest if we didn’t many years ago. We cannot have civil unrest on our borders.
Fox’s administration openly told them that he represents not only the 100 mil in Mexico, but the 20 million in the US AND he hopes they vote in a way which would help Mexico. I read that, not just heresay. The $13 billion figure also comes from the Mexican gov’t.
Our good friends and neighbors to the South certainly didn’t open the oil spigots. They don’t help in the UN and from what I understand as someone wrote in a chat room about 2 years ago, if Americans could read their papers with the virulent anti-americanism, Americans would build a wall so fast it would make their heads spin. And since they’re only 20% of the population, they don’t have the political power necessary to overcome the majority.
On top of all that, we have the “activists” here who continue to push, push, push along w/Fox for open borders.
I really don’t think anyone or any party has ever pointed out that, after the next attack, walls might be built.
And if said terrorists came illegally from either border….they’ve had almost 3 years to be seen as part of the solution, not the problem.
Until that wall is built, you will have Americans sitting w/weaponry on said border and will shoot anything that moves.
And the Mexicans here will have to choose. They are not my ancestors’ immigrants. Their “home” is a hop, skip and a jump away from where a lot of us came from.
Their economy and life is not my fault. It is not my country’s fault. Their colonial legacy is frogistan and Spain. They have massive theft and corruption. With their natural resources, they shouldn’t be in as bad an economic case as they are. They are hard-working people.
On the bright side, Mexicans who have been here awhile get it. They don’t want bi-lingual classes because English gets their children ahead.
We have the American dream. What is the Mexican dream?
Sandy P – I agree with everything you say. I’ll never forget when I lived in Texas, the illegals held a huge march to demand bilingual education for their children. I couldn’t believe it.
I do not believe in people being in other people’s countries without the express permission of the host government. That is wrong.
That being said, from a pragmatic point of view, their remittances have been responsible for raising Mexico’s water level. It is not good for the US to have a third world country on its doorstep and an increase in Mexico’s prosperity will take the pressure off. And their cheap labour has contributed to US growth. It has been a factor.
I am not defending Mexicans who are illegal immigrants, however. I am saying that I came to Mexico because I find the people congenial, the costs more reasonable than costs in socialist Europe and Britain, and – I didn’t mention this before – the climnate is to my liking.
After two miserable, bitter winters in the south of France, I vowed I would never be cold again, so I looked around for somewhere hot and reasonably priced to live. Mexico met my requirements, and it had the additional edge of being in N America, where I feel most comfortable. In addition, I had visited it perhaps a dozen times in the past and had always liked it. And as I said earlier, the country has come a long way since I first set foot in it 25 years ago.
‘Is there nothing in Britain worth fighting for?
Susan,
In short, very little, Guy seems to think that there is still something worth suffering for. Perhaps he will favour us with a reply…
He seems to think that England was “until recently Britain was one of the free-est of countries,”, not for the last thirty years it has not been, unless you compare it to China or some similar place. The adherence to EU regulations, down to nit-picky detail, and the efforts of the bureaucrats to make many small changes to all aspects of UK life, in the effort to ‘harmonize’ England with the EU, have destroyed freedoms, livelihoods, lifestyles and self-respect. All overseen by that ‘Doctor of Bovinity’, A.Blair.
It is all very well having a certain standard of living, but not worth paying the price that the English have paid by way of lost freedoms, and more importantly, by sacrificing their quality of life. You could say that battery hens have a good standard of living, but they certainly do not have a decent quality of life. Just like said hens, the population is being crowded ever more tightly, and quality of life is suffering.
Strange coincidence, battery hens get obese, and so are the metropolitan English.
The general ambience in UK seems to be very down-beat, if not outright pessimistic, one of the big plusses on this side of the Atlantic is the very overt air of optimism, strange but that does not seem to apply to Canada, but then I have not spent much time there. Could it all be something to do with the weather?
David,
I read in the CIA World Factbook –
link – that broadband was not available, could all be in the definition.
Verity
Be England what she will,
With all her faults she is my country still.
(The Farewell)Charles Churchill 1731 – 64
Disillusionment in the mother country is not new, Sir Robert Walpole, the first ever ‘Prime’ Minister was around when Churchill wrote that and he was more venal than Blair and Mandelson put together. Will ye no come back again?
Please don’t die in Mayhico
But if you do – well – way to go!
Frank Pulley 1934 – ?
No ernest — it’s due to socialism, political correctness, and suppression of free speech with virulent “hate speech” laws! Canada fancies itself “the Scandinavia of the New World.” They routinely invite shrieking Islamonutter terror apologists in while forbidding entrance to a famous Palestinian convert to Christianity who preaches against terrorism. Enough said.
Yank Girl and others;
I think you are being too hard on Verity for her choice of domicile. After all she has said she would prefer to live in the US if our immigration policies were more generous to productive, enthusiastic, English-speaking, well-educated Europeans such as herself. But as long as the US is in the grip of “identity politics” Europeans will be the last in line for immigration privileges — except for the Irish, guaranteed to have the first place at the table thanks to Tip O’Neill and the Kennedys.
Remember, for much of our history, we were also a “Third World” country, compared to the more developed Old World. But we worked our way out of it and built on the foundations and sacrifices of preceding generations.
Now that Communism is dead and the Soviets are no longer around to make mischeif, I have a feeling that Latin America has a chance to develop and succeed. The US would do well to take an intense interest in its success, because it looks like very shortly we’ll need a replacement for most of our traditional European “allies.”
ernest young says: It is all very well having a certain standard of living, but not worth paying the price that the English have paid by way of lost freedoms, and more importantly, by sacrificing their quality of life.
Though it is clear that individual wealth can facilitate individual freedom, I don’t believe they are freely exchangeable. And I can’t say I’ve ever accepted the view that you can collectively buy wealth by sacrificing freedom, even were collective wealth and freedom all that meaningful. The subtle distinction between standard of living and quality of life has me lost, I’m afraid.
And, Guy seems to think that there is still something worth suffering for.
No. I’m trying to decrease my suffering. I don’t on the whole think there’s much worth suffering for. I was under the impression that ernest young was more conservative than I and more likely therefore to think that British institutions were worth preserving. Plainly I was wrong.
Verity says: […] where on earth did I say I feared for my life?
You didn’t. What you said (as an erstwhile French resident en route to Mexico) was: At home, Blair is chasing indigenes out of the country at a rate of knots. People fear for their lives in the most lawless country in the advanced world.
I take it you meant Britain. I live in Britain and don’t fear for my life. Is there anybody reading this who does?
Guy – You are right. I did indeed write that.
I think future victims of drive-by shootings probably fear for their lives. Drive-by shootings didn’t exist in Britain before the Yardies got in from Jamaica and their activities were later facilitated by T Blair with the disarming of the law-abiding public. I am guessing that the two or three young girls who were with the teenager who was the victim of a drive-by shooting in Birmingham a couple of years back are not particularly sanguine about the notion of reaching the age of 21 unharmed.
Also, there are very few old people in Britain, I would wager, who do not fear for their lives. That is why they have double and triple locks on their doors and don’t go out after dark. Small shopkeepers, I’ll also wager, fear for their lives if they’re anywhere near a sink estate. Britain has the highest crime rate in the first world and people would be insane if they weren’t aware that a robbery or a burglarly (both of which are also illegal, although they have been downgraded by the Metropolitan Police to be somewhere round the level of littering) committed by someone in search of funds for drugs can easily escalate in murder or, at the least, grievous bodily harm.
That is what I meant. Not that Tone ‘n’ Pete’s jackbooted confreres would be round to see you.
Guy,
The subtle distinction between standard of living and quality of life has me lost, I’m afraid.
That there is a difference was the reason for the battery hen analogy…
I was under the impression that ernest young was more conservative than I and more likely therefore to think that British institutions were worth preserving.
‘Conservative’ now has such bad connotations, that I prefer to think of myself as a traditionalist. I did, and still would think that most of the British institutions were worth saving, but, just in case you have not noticed, there really are not too many of them left.
The insiduous creep of the nanny state has slowly been disassembling the structure that made Britain what it was, and once gone is hard to replace.
To really appreciate the the changes, (I was tempted to use ‘decline’), you need to spend some time out of the country, not just two or three weeks at some resort, but say, three months or more. Then you may well appreciate the difference between ‘standard of living’, (a bureaucratic parameter), and ‘quality of life’, (a personal parameter). Like so many people, the English seem to be very good at ‘knowing the price’ of everything, but have little idea of the value of anything, e.g. they know the price of a car, but fail to appreciate the value of freedom…
There is little reason that the two cannot be improved together, it is when the latter is sacrificed for the former that the dissatisfaction sets in.
Rather than generalisations, can all you people who claim we have no freedoms here in the UK please explain to me precisely what, in your daily life, made it so hellish?
I know there are plenty things wrong with this country, but I fail to see why it’s so much worse than anywhere else in the Western world.
The pessimism/downbeat nature of our people relative to Americans is normal; we’re just not peppy & bright-eyed. That’s the way it goes. Some of us like a bit of cynicism with our breakfast.
& ernest, “Strange coincidence, battery hens get obese, and so are the metropolitan English.”
does this mean Americans have been in the battery situation for decades already? or was it just a cheap, unrelated point.
& Verity, i think the fact you have to point to a drive-by shooting *two years ago* shows that the tidal wave of violence you’re predicting’s hardly on the way any time soon. I’d hazard a guess that most major cities of similar scale with widespread handgun ownership have experienced such an event rather more recently.
As to the whole Yardie thing, firstly the increase in violence has lots to do with the rise of crack cocaine and very little with disarming citizens, & secondly the *vast* majority of shootings within that trade are internal; if you’re not involved in the crack business yourself, you’re very, very unlikely to be shot. Much more likely to be killed by the unnecessary bull bars on the front of someone’s SUV. Fancy an outraged rant against them any time soon?
Verity,
Yer always welcome in our house. We do, however, require a week’s notice so that we can steam-clean the kids’ living area, wash the three-month accumulation of dishes / clothing, and bury all the dead hippies in the backyard.
Guy,
Having been in Chile myself just a little while ago, I’d hesitate to consider it. Nice place to visit, and all that… but when the armed police patrol downtown Santiago in pairs, and every store has a security guard stationed at the door — well, you get the idea.
If you’re retired, and living on a Western pension, however, Vina Del Mar is a wonderful town (as is its northern neighbor Renaca), and well worth looking at.
A-t,
You ‘re correct, it was a cheap point, that doesn’t make it invalid. It’s a similar problem, just a different cause.
If you are happy being where you are, and happy doing what you do, then good luck to you. Doesn’t mean that I have to like it, or that I should not bitch about it…
Freedom means so many different things to different people. To a socialist, it may mean a freedom from personal responsibility, and I can see the appeal in that, to others, it may mean that there is freedom of choice, and that too has it’s appeal.
Being from a different generation to yourself, I would be very surprised if you held a similar viewpoint to me. My generation has put a lot of effort into fashioning and maintaining the sort of society that we were bought up to consider as worthwhile. Other, younger people, see things very differently, and by the nature of things, my ideas become ‘old-fashioned’ and their ideas will prevail. So what? ‘that’s life’. It doesn’t mean that either of our ideas are more right or more wrong than the other.
One of my freedoms is that I can think differently to you, at least for a while longer.
Incidentally, cynicism is not something to be considered a virtue, nor to be proud of, it is the product of a sour disallusioned mind, something akin to sarcasm, another national trait…
A_t – I cited an event a couple of years ago because I don’t follow the minutia of the British news. But I get emails from people that validate what I said in my previous post. Old people fear being beaten to death for their pensions. Children fear being mugged for their mobile phones. What a society!
What freedoms have diminished? Well, try that precious freedom, freedom of speech. It is now against the law to speak your mind in Britain. Parents are no longer allowed to bring cameras to school events to take photos of their children participating in a sack race “in case paedophiles get hold of them”. This is so patently both absurd and horrific – disallowing parents the right to take pictures of the key events in the lives of their children – that we can deduce it was done for one reason only: control.
Registers. The sex offenders register, another patent bid for control over the citizenry. If a man makes a pass at a woman in an office and she complains to her supervisor, who reports it to “human resources” and human resources takes it into its vapid, 10th rate little head to call the police, this poor man will be placed on a register of sex offenders. This, like calling everything racism and everything else genocide, is an intentional diminution of our heritage, our English language, so that words lose their meaning and the meaning is dictated by the state. Appearance on a child abuse register for making a child sit down at his desk, or taping his mouth shut for constant disruption. “We’ve got a little list.”
I’m sure Kilroy is on a “racist register” for calling some Arab regimes antiwomen and amputators of limbs. In other words, he simply stated facts that incensed Race Kaiser Trevor Phillips.
I’m sure others can cite a longer list of freedoms that have been surgically excised from civil society in Britain.
Best of luck Verity.I have just come back from Northern Cyprus which is third world and poor but very livable in, especially if you have a bob or two.Brits are buying up property over there like it’s going out of style.Soon if the indiginous inhabitants dont look out the Brits will outnumber them.I was tempted to stick down a deposit myself(despite a massive legal minefield of property rights that the 74 partition effected). But I’m a Brit.A Welshman first but a true believer in our united kingdom.Mr Blair and his New Labour three card trick isnt forever and the United States of Europe isnt inevitable.We will see it off like we saw off phillip of spain and napoleon and lets not forget good ol adolf.I could live happilly in a foreign country with enough money to sustain me, but what do I see when I look around day to day in this foreign land.Always supposing I wasnt so self absorbed that I stopped thinking.I would see bribery and corruption and worse.Fine for me to glad hand my way to paradise, but what about the common folks?See I want everyone to have the freedoms I have, wherever they may live, and because I understand my own land better than I do anyone elses that I will stay and fight the idiocy I see and seeth at all round me!
Susan – I don’t begrudge Verity moving to Mexico. It’s a beautiful country and it’s very reasonable. And yes, America has benefited from Mexicans.
But they are not my immigrants. I have no problem with anyone who wants to improve his/her life IF they come legally. But their proximity to “home” makes it more difficult to assimilate quickly. And as to my ancestors, it’s not my problem one side had poor immigration policies against the other. (ahem)
However, this statement –Now that Communism is dead and the Soviets are no longer around to make mischeif — Castro and Hugo are, even tho Castro is dying, Hugo’s picking up the mantle. But they still have that colonial legacy. And yet it’s our fault they are how they are.
On the bright side, now Verity can give us insight into our Southern neighbor. And keep monitoring our green card lottery, Verity. You never know.
Bienvenidos!
Sandy P,
Re the Green Card lottery, the English are not eligible to participate. Don’t ask me why, every other country on earth can take a chance on winning, but not the Brits.
Likewise the financial requirements for immigrants from the UK are substantially more onerous than from any other country.
Could this be a mutual arrangement instigated by our ‘freedom’ loving Government? or just some sort of reprisal for some past colonial misdeeds.
Ok, so I asked what freedoms I was denied… From ernest, I got a bunch of non-specific generalisations & criticisms of the younger generation as usual (I want more than accusations about freedom from personal responsability; you should know as well as I do that that’s not the *intention* of many socialists, even if I agree that socialist policies can have that effect on people).
“One of my freedoms is that I can think differently to you, at least for a while longer.”
I’m sure you will be able to for a while longer; even if the most heinous thought crime legislation gets enacted, I strongly doubt it’ll legitimise *my* thinking in particular; for a start, a key component of my thinking is the freedom to disagree, to speak out. I think you have confused me with some kind of blairite socialist bogeyman again.
So yes, bitch away. I do enjoy reading your bitchings, even if i argue with many of them.
Oh, & point taken about cynicism. I suppose a the trait I actually like is skepticism, & I think it carries over into cynicism a lot of the time. The thing is, even cynicism, if done well, can be amusing or entertaining, but I agree that it’s an essentially negative pursuit.
Bringing up the generational thing seems a little unnecessary though; I know people of my generation who would agree with you on many things, & equally I’ve met folk of your generation who would tend to agree with me. I think age has little to do with it, & i’m not sure why you bring it up.
And Verity: “It is now against the law to speak your mind in Britain”. Priceless! Yes, the hate crime etc. laws are dodgy, but there’s a fair fight going on around them at the moment; it’s not as though the british people are utterly supine yet, and the implication that some police state apparatus is being set up to utterly control thought is paranoia. I can sit here & say whatever I fancy on the internet, in the street, or in a publication. A very few things might get me in some trouble, but more so than anywhere else? Not convinced.
I think some of what the govt is doing is certainly setting up a framework which could be exploited by some future government in order to set up a police state, but currently this is not the case. That’s not to say we shouldn’t fight these things, but that fight demands we be realistic; hysterically proclaiming that we live in a police state when we blatantly don’t is a sure-fire way to make sure no-one pays any attention to whatever serious things you do have to say.
& poof to the sex offenders’ register. That’s public-pressure driven; hysteria around paedophiles (a defining trait of British news reports for as long as I can remember) has led directly to that. Also, as far as I recall, it’s based on US schemes.
As to the fear thing, Kids being mugged for their mobiles is a genuine problem, but I think it’s much more to do with the fact that almost everyone is carrying a small, valuable piece of precision electronics on them now. If everyone had done that 20, 30 or 50 years ago, I think you would have seen similar problems. Carrying a mobile is equivalent to wearing a fancy wristwatch. I think that one would always have been cautious to conceal it in certain parts of London, no matter what the era.
Pensioners fearing being beaten to death for their pensions… well a) how realistic is this fear, & how much of it is based on suspicion of young people & a view of the world promoted by papers who know that bad news sells copy, and b) is this any worse than it was before, or worse than in any other ‘civilised’ country you can name?
Again, I ask you: What freedoms have we lost, relative to say, the USA (or other democracy of your choice)? How has it affected your life or that of anyone you know?
Except the Northern Irish. Yes, the Northern Irish are the only UK citizens who are currently eligible for the Green Card Lottery, and it seems to have been that way for a very long time. Why are some UK citizens more equal than others?
Again, thanks to the equality-loving Tip O’Neill and the Kennedys. Bizarre state of affairs, what?
A-t,
Re the loss of freedoms, I did not really feel the need to go into specifics, you have been around this blog for quite a while, and I didn’t think that you would want me to reiterate every instance. However, one that is in the news at the moment, the freedom to defend youself, with whatever instrument you may choose, let alone having a firearm around the place.
The freedom to criticise the European parliament, without fear of being raided, you did read about the reporter in Brussels being pilloried for publishing evidence of corruption, didn’t you?
The whole concept of biometric ID cards is another imposition on personal freedom, and for what future purpose?
The whole PC business I find to be extremely irritating, way beyond any direct personal effect. An example of change for changes sake, and you will do it, ‘because I say so’ attitude. A loss of a freedom to speak in the manner in which I was raised, and totally unnecessary.
The extraordinary ban on various public functions, such as the annual pancake race, for lack of supervision, the list goes on, few of earth shattering proportion, but nevertherless, a steady erosion of freedom. Yes, much of it is insignificant, and much goes unnoticed, but it is the insiduous creep of red tape, petty rule and regulation that is so dangerous.
The freedom to be responsible has been replaced with the freedom to be irresponsible, you may consider that to be a fair exchange…
With the mention of the generational thing, I was not aware that I wrote anything critical of the younger generation, I know I have been known to criticise them on rare occasions, but not this time. I was acknowledging that there is a different viewpont between young and old, and that this was not necesarily a bad thing, you know, ‘vive le difference’, ‘spice of life’, and all that good stuff…and opinions do not change on birthdays, but they do change over time.
I do hate any loud-mouthed yobbo who thinks his idea is the only one worth considering, and proceeds to present it in the most obnoxious way, but otherwise, I find young people who have something to say, and say it with a modicum of good manners, to be quite refreshing and stimulating. Incidentally, I do agree with some of your ideas, not all, but some…:-)
p.s. Just to avoid any misunderstanding, I was not alluding to you in the first sentence of the above paragraph.
A-t,
Pensioners fearing being beaten to death for their pensions… well a) how realistic is this fear
You may well ask the relatives of the Brittons, who were murdered for nothing at all….. There are just too many stories of this kind to be flippantly ignored.
Like I said, Verity, and fresh off of LGF:
A South African woman picked up in Texas almost 10 days ago may turn out to be a key, high-level al-Qaida operative. Her name is Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed. She was stopped at McAllen Miller International Airport on July 19 headed to New York.
…..
Ahmed produced a South African passport to the agents with four pages torn out, and with no U.S. entry stamps. Ahmed reportedly later confessed to investigators that she entered the country illegally by crossing the Rio Grande River. Ahmed was carrying travel itineraries showing a July 8 flight from Johannesburg, South Africa to London. Six days later, Ahmed traveled from London to Mexico City before attempting to travel from McAllen to New York.
Sandy P – That is a very frightening story. I am not in favour of any country failing to control its borders. Britain has hundreds of similar stories stacked up, and still the government prefers to dilute the indigenous British culture with trash that is hostile to our country.
Yes, there are too many instances of horrible violence in Britain – that would have made the headlines years ago when Britain was a stable, desirable society – to recount. The couple in their 80s murdered last week. The barbeque murder of a few weeks ago where the police wouldn’t even enter the scene of the multiple murder – nor allow ambulances in to save the wounded and bleeding – until they were sure the murderer had left.
Its mortifying to remember that Britain’s Robert Peel invented the police and the institution was instantly recognised as valuable and copied all over the world – name one country without a police force – and just look at them in Britain. They don’t even regard breaking and entering as a crime any more. Just come down to the police station and take a number, and when it’s your turn we hand you a receipt for your insurance company. And the British have become so inured to this maltreatment by their public servants that they don’t even remark on it any more. In fact, like you A_t, they are outraged enough to demand examples.
Verity, ” there are too many instances of horrible violence in Britain – that would have made the headlines years ago when Britain was a stable, desirable society”
Errr… so they *weren’t* headline news in which version of Britain, pray tell? Both the cases you mention were all over the media. Weird for a jaded country where this kind of stuff happens all the time, no? Britain for the most part *is* a stable, desirable society. I can go about my daily business in one of the world’s major cities with little fear of anything terrible happening, even if I stray into an unfamiliar neighbourhood. It’s hardly Bogota, or even LA.
Ernest, thanks for your response. I agree with you on many fronts; the proposed biometric ID scheme is clearly dodgy, as well as the proposed satellite tracking to charge for roads (I have no particular objection to road charging per se, but a satellite tracking box in every car sounds like a recipe for easy tyranny should anyone in power be so minded), and many other dodgy authoritarian policies this government wishes to introduce.
The pancake race thing is equally ridiculous, but as has been pointed out here before, this has nothing to do with the government & everything to do witha culture which is litigeous & risk-averse. As far as I understand it, these events are cancelled due to excessively high insurance costs; I don’t see how you can blame the government for that.
I think we agree on many things; probably far more than we disagree on; I certainly don’t like the current state of the country, & I like even less many of the directions the government looks as though it wishes to take us in. It’s mainly the exaggeration & hyperbole I find in some of these comment postings, suggesting we live in a police state comparable to China, or that shootings are commonplace, which i find annoying.
I am also very suspicious of taking action on the basis of people ‘not feeling safe’. It’s perfectly possible to feel unsafe where there’s no realistic threat at all. Admittedly these things are hard to assess; on the one hand, the government will almost certainly try to ensure that crime statistics are as low as possible, by whatever means they can get away with (unless they’re wanting to push through some dodgy ‘anti-crime’ legislation of course!). On the other hand, people’s perceptions of how safe they are often have little to do with how safe they really are, and a lot to do with external factors (eg. graffiti may make people feel less safe, which I can understand; it looks like a symbol of disorder & a lack of respect for social norms, but I’ve known a number of graffiti artists & none of them would have threatened anyone’s personal safety). The police increasingly see it as their role to decrease ‘fear of crime’ as well as crime, which I think is a load of rubbish. It’s up to individuals to pull themselves together & not get hysterical. It’s up to the police to catch criminals & foil crimes. Making the police address emotional issues takes them away from what they should be doing.
Quite, A-t. Not that there aren’t Mexicans who go in fear of their lives. I don’t think we have any provincial British city with hundreds of unsolved murders.
Guy,
Didn’t Shipman go undiscovered for a number of years? I know he didn’t achieve the numbers mentioned, but then he was working alone.
You can’t be sure that it hasn’t happened in the UK, and just hasn’t seen the light of day… yet. 🙂
Of course, that’s true, ernest. But I was addressing the fear of reported crime question. It seems likely that that some of the many people who disappear every year are murdered, and the murder remains undiscovered.
However, while irrational speculation often leads to popular fear, I don’t know that many people are afraid of unknowns they haven’t even speculated about. Even if there is too much crime (as I suppose there always will be) I really don’t believe Britain is a particularly crime-ridden country.
My own wish to escape has more to do with the way the government has become so lawless and the hope I might in practice be freer in a few other places in the world. (Metaphorically lawless that is: unknowable quantities of law and quasi-law have been the means to place arbitrary power in the hands of officials.) If I didn’t have a vote they at least couldn’t tell me it was all my fault.
Guy, this thread has been chewed to death, I think, but just in case you read this – I disagree with you. I think Britain is crime ridden – especially if you expand the definition of crime to include highly anti-social behaviour – and this all stems back to the controls a society (not a government) exercises by dint of approval or disapproval.
Being publicly drunk and disorderly is now a “social problem” – but a few years ago, it was an offence. So was having sex in public. Britain has descended lower and lower as the police have declined to get involved in upholding the law. There are bylaws against littering. When is the last time you saw a police officer make someone pick up a piece of litter he’d just thrown away? When was the last time you saw a police officer warn someone for spitting in the street (which spreads TB)? Actually, when was the last time you heard of a police officer arresting someone who was in our country illegally? And now the Metropolitan Police has effectively decriminalised (informally, of course, as they’re not MPs) burglary, having announced that they would no longer be investigating burglaries.
Of course, there are much more heinous crimes, but the slow drip, drip, drip of the degradation of the law to the point where the police no longer bother with it has contributed to the general sense of lawlessness in Britain.
On the other hand, due process is being bypassed so that punishment for actions which are not on the statute books as crime can be imposed.
Hence the frightening ‘sex offenders’ register. Someone who has made a clumsy pass or made an extremely inept and offensive sexual remark (except if it’s on a BBC ‘comedy’; then it’s excused) can end up, without due process, being punished for contravening a law that doesn’t exist and being found guilty by a bunch of sour faced authoritarians (a ‘re-education committee’) and his name placed on one of these sinister registers. Wife claims her husband bullies her? Get him on that domestic abuser register! Paedophiles, well I don’t know. We have a bunch of people other than elected officials determining what constitutes paedophilia for their own purposes. For example, because he was a member of the ‘disadvantaged’ class, Ian Huntley, in his late twenties, was given a pass to have sex with girls of 11 and 12. If a bank manager had done that, he’d have had his picture on the front page of The Sun and people would have been throwing bricks through his windows and putting excrement through his letter box.
In other words, I maintain that Britain is a lawless society.
“when was the last time you heard of a police officer arresting someone who was in our country illegally?”
Within my circle of acquaintances, quite recently actually; about a month ago someone I know was in a car accident with an uninsured illegal immigrant. He was duly arrested & deported.