Via The Englishman, I discovered this article in the Telegraph on British émigrés:
The Office of National Statistics is expected to release figures later today showing that more than Two million Britons emigrate in 10 years
I’m not sure that this is news, but they ask the question:
Why are so many Britons emigrating?
As I am in the process of leaving Blighty for a life elsewhere, I can answer their questions:
Is it the prospect of a better life elsewhere, or are British citizens repelled by life in their native land?
Yes and yes. In the past decade, I have watched our traditional freedoms being eroded by an increasingly obsessive state apparatus, the desire to track our moves, monitor our habits and behaviours, catalogue and tag us for the benefit of a control freakish civil service, seek to change our behaviours even. I am sick to death of people wanting to poke about in my private life or to tell me how to live it or to lock me up without charge without letting me know why; whether it is “for my own good”, to further the phoney “war on Terror” or simply some spiv wanting to rape my privacy to make a fast buck for marketing purposes. I’ve had it. Enough is enough.
Has globalisation made it easier to settle abroad?
Not in rural France, it hasn’t. If you don’t speak French – or at least have a rudimentary grasp of the language, you won’t find it easy to settle. Then there’s the differences. The French do things their way and quite right too. Fit in or fuck off; the choice is yours. Again, quite right, too.
Of course, the climate in the Hérault – supposedly the sunniest department in France (according to the agent who tried to sell us a house, and he couldn’t possibly be fibbing) has nothing whatsoever to do with the Longrider choice… Nothing at all.
“Build a bigger haystack” Brilliant!
Mark Wadsworths last blog post..1984 (10): The Surveillance State (2)
You do realise that the casual passer-by won’t have a clue what you are on about.
Frankly anyone who wishes to move abroad and has the gumption, ability and will to do so has my support. I am spending as much time as I possibly can at the moment travelling the world to find a country that suits me well. Denmark is really nice and welcoming. I could settle there easily I imagine. How upsetting that as a nation Britain has come to this.
I have friends who have a flat very near you in the area of France you plan to take up residence LR and I think she would call the way you refer to the French way of doing things ‘charming’.
Indeed so, indeed so… 😉
France eh?
Isn’t that Napoleonic centralised bureaucacy rather an odd choice for a libertarian?
There, they can lock you up indefinitely without charge and you already have to have an ID card. I bet they have annoying spivs and snoopers there too.
I have only just discovered your blog, so I hope you’re going to carry on writing from across the water.
Steves last blog post..Christianity and 21st century Britain
Steve, Welcome. Well, you would have thought France a poor choice on the face of it. However, the French tend to ignore what they don’t like and treat their politicians with healthy contempt. The reality is that they are more free than we are despite their legal system. The ID card is not compulsory and is nothing like the one proposed in the UK. Also, the localised communes are very democratic. You want something sorted, you see the mayor who will be living close by. It’s a system that works and works well. On balance, I’ll take my chances.
Yes, I will continue to blog from across the channel.
Can you speak French well? I suppose that would help in dealing with the authorities.
Personally, I’m looking at Denmark. I loved the country when I was there but I worry how their long noted reputation for tolerance can hold out. I was in their capital city and not once did I feel in the least threatened. They have their own problems with the Muslim population there and their government might be able to swing ID cards on the Danish population. Hopefully they’ll have more sense than to fall for it though. Support Denmark!