In all the anxiety about migration, which is an infuriating new euphemism for
immigration, little is said about emigration. Yet just as immigration has
hugely increased, so has emigration. In particular, large numbers of skilled
Britons are emigrating. Perhaps that doesn’t mean much and perhaps, in the
churning melting pot of 21st-century globalisation, it doesn’t matter much,
but it is striking.
According to new figures from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development, Britain is going through the biggest brain drain of any country
and its biggest exodus for more than 50 years; one in 10 of our most highly
skilled graduates has left and no other nation is losing so many qualified
people; overall, only Mexico has more emigrants.
There are now more than 3.2m British-born people living abroad; of them 1.1m
are highly skilled university graduates, according to the exhaustive OECD
report. Of these professionals, more than three-quarters have lived abroad
for more than 10 years.
Their most favoured destinations, rather unsurprisingly, are North America,
the Antipodes, Spain and France. Figures from the Office for National
Statistics for 2006 show that 207,000 Britons left that year - one every
three minutes.
Do we care? The British have had a long history of expatriate life, more so
than most countries, and in a time of easy travel and global opportunity one
might well expect it. It may not be permanent anyway and, besides, huge
numbers of highly skilled foreigners are arriving here to replace the highly
skilled natives who leave.
All these changes are happening so fast that it is only possible to guess at
what they mean. What we are seeing is clearly a brain drain but not, it
seems, a net brain drain. It appears to be a net drain of well educated
natives. If so, there will surely be profound consequences for British
culture. This clears the way, fortunately for the columnist, for anecdote
and prejudice.
It is difficult not to suspect, despite the lack of hard evidence, that so
many educated people, many of them still young and keen to work, are leaving
because they are giving up on this country. At least that is what many of
them say. Whether on blog sites, in letters to newspapers, in casual
conversation or in my own readers’ letters, I come across voices of anger
and grief, particularly among the middle-aged or elderly. This country isn’t
what it was, they say. What’s best about it is disappearing fast; it’s
becoming unrecognisable.
This country certainly has changed a great deal and fast. Nobody can deny that
in recent years society has become much less civil, much more fragmented and
newly divided into alarming ghettos; a large, disordered underclass is
growing of people who don’t know how to bring up their children, with
disastrous results; schools and hospitals in some places are not just bad
but dangerous; the streets in cities are so frightening for young people
that more carry knives and use them; the old are poor and neglected; we have
lost our trust in pensions and in banking.
More than anywhere else in the supposedly civilised world, we are spied on,
intruded on and cross-questioned by incompetent bureaucrats who then lose
our confidential details; in a country with a proud reputation for freedom,
our liberties are being eroded, either by new laws or by politically correct
conventions; our taxes are wasted on incompetent government and public
services; uncontrolled immigration has inflamed anxieties about
overcrowding, crime and public services as well as national identity;
Britannia is being struck off our coinage for the usual daft reasons. And so
on. At least it’s not Italy.
It is often merely part of growing older to think that things were better in
the past and to feel a sense of displacement. As L P Hartley famously wrote,
“the past is a foreign country; they do things differently there”. But
actually, what some people seem to feel more acutely is that it is the
present, not the past, that is a foreign country.
In reviewing Roger Scruton’s England: an Elegy a few years ago, the journalist
Christian Tyler described that feeling particularly well. “For people in
later middle age,” he wrote, “the present is a place of exile in which they
are condemned to live estranged from the country they knew and loved as
children. Brought up in the culture and mores of one place, they are
involuntary immigrants to another; there they can choose either to
acclimatise or to live locked up in a state of permanent regret.” Or they
can choose to become emigrants.
That might be why some people leave this country. But I think the most
important one must be economic; Britain is a wonderful place to live if you
are rich and can pay your way around any inconveniences. Britain is
relatively good if you are poor, particularly if your country of origin was
even poorer. But for the educated middle classes Britain is no longer a good
deal. The main reason for that is simple: it is the oppressive price of
property.
Property here isn’t merely where you live; it is your entire way of life. It
means how bad your local schools and hospitals are, how efficient your local
authority, how nice your neighbours, how safe your streets. Property prices
have become frightening.
As a result, professionals have to put up with a way of life that is much
worse than that of their counterparts in Australia or America, and the cost
of living elsewhere is lower as well. The same applies to retired Britons
who own a house; they can get a better house and plenty of change, in a more
civil society, if they abandon this country.
What’s remarkable, surely, is that still more people are not leaving. Perhaps
that is because it is hard to stop loving this country, for all its faults.
It is hard to abandon, as well as one’s family and friends, Britain’s
humour, its lack of conventionality and its quirks.
Besides, things may change again radically and not necessarily for the worse.
The cultural pendulum may be beginning to swing the other way in the
direction of common sense and a more civil society. And, for better and for
worse, property prices will probably go down.
minette.marrin@sunday-times.co.uk
I should dearly LOVE to return to England, after spending more than 20 years here in the U.S.A. - if only to be so much closer to my (co-)favourite journalist, my HEROINE Ms Minette Marrin: she is WONDERFUL!
Howard F., Bloomington, Ind., U.S.A.
P.S. In case you are wondering,... co-favourite is old war-horse, Sir Simon Jenkins. "Keep going, Sir,... you too, Ms Marrin,... how your country needs you!..."
Howard F., Bloomington, Ind., U.S.A.
When I told a former police officer that my family and I were troubled by antisocial behaviour and drug dealing by our former neighbour's friends, he told me to move. All I can say is those people who chose to leave the UK, the same problems could be waiting for them in the greener pastures. We did not move because we are not rich but the neighbour got evicted. It is sad to read that even the British Army has to teach morality and civility to its recruits. Perhaps the government should start emphasizing human rights need human responsibilities.
Carolyn, Surbiton,
Bill Shankley said "I never had much education so I have had to use my brains".
Instead of harping on about your qualifications and being middle class use your brains:
1. Accept the world for what it is - now
2. Make a plan that suits you best
3. Fall in love with the future.
By the way, I live in the US and the grass is the same colour here.
Royston Grove, Philadelphia, US
Maybe the trouble is too many people whining, not enough people willing to take action to change things. What happened to the stiff upper lip? Remember, the government is at the service of the people and is paid by the people. if you feel that they are failing in their duty then take charge and change them or organize the vote to get rid of them, run for office yourself if you think you can do better. Keep in mind, you have it better than a lot of people. And look on the bright side - a culture that produced Amy Winehouse can't be all bad.
buford twain, Indiana, USA
I have lived in Canada for forty years but I still miss the UK. I miss many little things - the humour, the eccentricities, the history, the smells, the woods and bluebells in the Spring. I miss the people that are part of the dream that I think probably does not exist anymore. When my family emigrated someone told us that you never belong anywhere after you leave your country of birth and I think that there is some truth to this. I think that Britain has changed so much since we left that it would be a foreign country to me and anyway I am afraid that I could not afford to live in the UK comfortably in my old age and yet.......I think that you have to be very careful about emigrating. There are subtle elements that affect the quality of our lives that are important factors and we may not be recognise them until too late.
Susan Whitfield, Stratford, Ontario, Canada
You can't live in this country any more - unless you're either rich or idle. The honest and hardworking are penalised mercilessly.
The lengths that Brown has gone to in perpetuating this boom mean there is no chance of owning a roof over one's head.
Once I've completed my postgraduate studies (which I am self-funding without any assistance whatsoever) I will be leaving the country.
Alistair, London,
I have read the Comments here and as I recent (2.5yrs ago) emmigrant, I can understand everything said here. I left the UK, not because I hated it, just because the opportunity arose. And I could never see myself going back. I know that Melbourne has become ( apparently) one of the most unaffordable cities in the world, but I don't see it compared to the UK. Yes interest rates are high at the moment, but that is just signs of a booming economy.
I have moved from a (UK) 3 bed semi, new build, small garden, box rooms, tiny kitchen ect into a brand new four bed detatched house, huge garden, 15 mins from Melbourn CBD, all for 180K ish Pounds.
I have great lifstyle, start work early finish early, go out for BBQ's, eat out loads, have great friends, great weather, spend weekends at the beach ect ect.
I also work in recruitment, and deal with Britons regularly. It doesn't surprise me how many people want to come here.
Ruth, Melbourne, Aus
Having left over five years ago for Southern Spain I can honestly say that it was not the price of housing that made us go. It was the appaling education system and worse health service which was either going to kill our children or condemn them to "chav" serfdom.
Yes, both I and my wife have degrees, but we aren't using them. I'm now a professional driver.
My advice - don't be fooled into thinking that you need to be highly educated to emigrate. All you need is the courage to make that move and the committment to make that move work once you arrive.
Do I have regrets about emigrating? A few, but never enough to make me come back. If I ever leave Spain it will NOT be to come back to the UK.
El casareño inglés, Casares, Spain
Hi all Brits,
I am a 29 year old professional American and am planning to move to NE England soon. I know that I will be in the 40% tax bracket but I am going for a couple of years for training. After reading the posts of all the British expats on here I am rather alarmed. I visited the NE city a couple of times, it is a short drive away from Hadrians wall, and it seemed like such a beautiful city. So I always wandered why they were not able to fill the position and are willing to eat the costs of importing me. ...Is it really that bad?
All the above mentioned unfortunate reasons are happening in the US as well: massive third world immigration, derision for any signs traditional/Christian culture and any manners, political correctness wiping out freedom of speech and freedom of thought, etc..
I am at a loss for words were we are to go to preserve and live within out traditional cultures??? Maybe to Eastern Europe?
Ryan Thompson, New York, New York
The Government throws money at immigrants and the 'won't work/can't work' underclass. They allow very wealthy people to live here without making a proper financial contribution to society, and do this by taxing extortionately the working and middle classes. These groups are working harder, longer and for less reward than ever before. The quality of life, education and prospects they can offer their families is completely out of proportion to the contribution they make to the exchequer.
My sons are aged 19 and 17 and I am advising them to leave the UK when they have completed their education and established careers. I would go to, if I could.
Donna Walker, Effingham, Surrey
"Things may change again radically and not necessarily for the worse".
But what if they do? What if all that can sort out this mess is a dictatorship. I certainly don't want to hang around and live through that.
Yes - another middle class, highly educated (multiple degrees) family has been snapped up by a country that wants them! We're off.
www.goodbyeblighty.com
If my children are to walk home from school without the daily risk of being mugged, if I am not paying almost half my income in tax, if there is the remotest chance my children will ever get on the property ladder - then that makes it even more attractive to leave.
And the bitter limit is seeing the corruption and "snouts in the trough" of those supposed to be "leading" us - yes the politicians! The rot starts at the top and filters down from there!
Goodbye Blighty, London, UK
This is the first article I've seen which lays the blame for Britain's excessive emigration where I too think it belongs: extortionate house prices! I like England and I don't see it as crime-riddled or unpleasant but nevertheless we are going to emigrate because we want a house big enough for a family. It is a natural human desire to have children and they simply don't fit into all the "luxury two-bed apartments" that is all they build around here. I feel like I am being forced out but I have lived in several foreign countries and I have never been unhappy abroad so I'm sure I will make the best of my new life.
Sarah Knight, Oxford,
Yea, well Rob if you live in Scandinavia, as I do, when the honeymoon is over, you will find that life isn`t so rosy here either. Most of the trends in England are here also: crime is rocketing, education standards down and dropping fast, a health care que, ever rising taxes and lessening benefits, ad infinium ad naseum....
Particularly, if you live in Sweden, high qualified natives are also emmigrating to greener pastures.
Furthermore, you may find your social life somewhat restricted compared to an Anglo Saxon environment.
Jack , Gränna,
The grass is always greener on the other side. In both Sydney and Melbourne house prices are as high a multiple of salaries as they are in England. The Economist calculates that Australia has had one of the most rapid housing bubbles.
Ian, Frederick, USA/MD
Minette Marin is absolutely right. The property crisis of the last ten years has destroyed the quality of life for many people in Britain, especially younger people. Because the country is run by a gerontocracy who cannot see past their own noses and think that sky high property prices, closing the final salary pension schemes they currently enjoy and making a respectable life an unaffordable dream for the people the country desperately needs to keep are all good things, the decent people are slowly draining away. Without them the country is turning into a slopping ground full of chavs and the elderly. There is no justice, so sense of community and in short I am counting the days until I join the current exodus. The UK is a sinking ship.
Shane O'Neill, London NW7,
My wife is French and I have just come back from Canada. Having seen the quality of life for young skilled workers and professionals in both France and Canada I can only suggest that as many graduates and skilled workers leave as soon as possible. The young of this country are being ripped off with excessive housing costs (due to greed being actively encouraged), excessive debts for next to useless qualifications and excessive bills. In addition the boozing culture and lack of real choice concerning the media is alarming.
Joan Kingsbury, Portsmouth, UK
I left because of how much impact house prices have on the rest of your life. We were looking to move up the ladder in 2005, we wanted to start a family and were faced with a longer commute and the heathcare/education/childcare lottery plus a lifetime of work for both of us to pay off a massive mortgage for not a lot of property.
The final nail in the UK's coffin was a brush with some "scumbag" teanagers in a Chinese Restuarant and a Friday night (6.5 hrs) spent in traffic jam in East London because the Police had closed the North Circular and part of the A12.
Fortunately, I have family in Northern Europe. I pay more taxes. However, I do know that I have access to high class health care, access to reasonably priced child care and a good education system when my son turns up next month.
Do I miss England? A little.
Rob, Northern Europe,
Why are we the only nation which does not have a fast track for UK residents at airports as we are forced to queue with the EU passport holders?
Dave, chorley, UK
I am 40. My two Brothers, best friend, and about 10 assorted other friends have all left this country. We all went to a comprehensive school in Dudley. The only reason I am still here is I now own the family engineering company and we have moved production employing 50 to various other countries including, Italy, US, Japan, Denmark. Due to HR issues I will spend any amount of money not to employ people in this country. There is something very wrong with life under New Labour.
Duncan F, DUdley, UK
Yes property prices ARE frightening - and hope you're right that they will come down. Pity our poor children if not - since their parents will both be working full time with neither the time nor the energy to take care of them properly. But that's exactly what Labour want isn't it? All children in full time daycare and older children in breakfast and after school centres, until they are old enough to turn their backs on that and end up roaming the streets since, after all, there are no apprenticeships or jobs for our young people. And neither can they afford to set up home and start a family (unless the grandparents help out) - family life used to have a civilising effect on people but family life isn't encouraged or valued anymore by the government. You're nobody unless you're out at work 24/7!
M Lewis, Salisbury,
A few years ago as a redundant, 50 yearold engineer I sent my CV to about 30 potential employers and recruitment agents. I had received an excellent training and work experience but I got just one interview in the UK and they offered a derisory salary.
Then one day my 'phone rang and a voice from Switzerland asked me a few questions. I was then invited for interview and offered a good job for which the terms and conditions were excellent. An engineer with my experience was just what they were looking for. I had never imagined working abroad but it was the only decent offer on my table so I accepted because I needed a job.
That was six years ago - and I consider myself to be very lucky to be in Switzerland. I feel that my employer appreciates my efforts, a feeling that I never got in my last years in UK employment - the managers were just incompetent bullies whose only skill was to stamp their feet and shout.
My way of life is gentler and I have more energy for myself.
Richard Crompton, Baden, Switzerland
If I were younger and higher qualified I'd be out of here tomorrow! Thatcherism followed by its manifestation as Blairism has ruined this country.
Paul, Coventry,
Why is it only assumed that 'the middle classes' want to emigrate? I've always considered myself to be working class, but I've had enough of this filthy overcrowded, overpriced island as well! Unfortunately, as I'm now the wrong side of 40, I've left it too late points-wise to be able to move to another country with more breathing space and a better quality of life.
Paul, Coventry,
What do you expect? After ten years of Labour policies based on bogus inflation figures, spiralling debt and a housing market out of control ravaged by speculators.
Decent hard working people who wish to make a life for themselves in the UK need not apply.
I didn't vote this government in but those that did should hang their heads in shame.
Ade, UK,
A lot of "educated" Brits leave simply because they can.
It's not about not liking the UK or work. Having a degree does not automatically mean that you use it.
It's often not about money either - just the opposite. A decade or so in one of the world's powerhouse wealth-generating economies has given us the wherewithall to spread our wings and try something new.
Vicky, Germany,
Emigration is fine if you are emigrating in search of something, as opposed to escaping from something else. If the latter, you are far more likely to fail in your new country than you did in your old one.
David Williams, Eastnor, England
I am also thinking of leaving. Not because of immigration, but because of a government that doesn't listen, high taxes (direct and indirect) and more importantly the lack of enthusiasm from the government in fighting crime.
Hamad Lone, London, England
It's simple: HOUSE PRICES, HOUSE PRICES, HOUSE PRICES....
This is the social cost of house price inflation.
I've taken my PhD and left. Not out of choice, but because I can't afford even a moderate standard of living in the UK. And yet the majority, including the government and the media continue to see house price inflation as a good thing!...
Bob Jones, London,
I had for several years believed that this government was indeed incompetent, but even the incompetent strike a lucky seam sometime. I do wonder if this is more a case of wanton destruction of just about everything many of us cherish.
William, Southampton, Uk
I am 35, have a Ph.D., a well paid professional job and some savings, but can I afford a decent home in this country? No chance. I have 3 years to wait until my Canadian visa comes through, I am counting the days to be honest. It's not just the property prices, it's the fact that my home town has become a multicultural mish-mash where Christmas will soon be a mid-winter festival; it's the endless incompetence of our government and public services...Northern Rock, I now owe £3,000 more than I did a year ago because the people running this country don't understand economics. Finally, many of my friends have gone, and I'm starting to feel like I'm being left behind in a place which offers little hope to someone like me.
Oscar , Hove, UK
I'm about to turn 60 and I live in Melbourne, one of the "world's most livable cities". Quite how it got that tag I don't understand. It worries me when I think if this is one of the best, what must some of the others be like?
We constantly read about the increasing violence in Melbourne at night and on the weekend. Stabbings, shootings, people bludgeoned to death, or attacked with machetes.
I'm firmly in the age bracket that can look back and see a better Australia, so I can empathise with most points in this article. Most of what you say holds true for Australia, but perhaps with a lag of some years.
Without question the fabric of our society has changed and it's not just generational "rose-coloured glasses" giving us a view of the changes. As a kid, I used to put the money out with the empty milk bottles and collect the fresh milk the next morning. Now, they'd not only steal the money, they'd smash the bottles and graffiti your front door as well.
Good luck!
BobK, Melbourne, Australia
Not a surprising trend. Increasingly the educated and the respectable are treated as if we are illiterate and criminal. Not only by public authorities but by banks and private companies. The assumption is constantly made that we are lying cheats trying to evade paying our way.
Then there's invasion of privacy ... CCTV ... try telling the BBC you don't want a TV and they insist on inspecting your home which is a gross insult ... our civic rights are being eroded and don't the bullies in uniform and on the phones know it!
The real earnings of ordinary people haven't rision since 1979. Comfort relies on debt (euphemism credit). Bills rise and rise but earnings don't. Thankfully banks are "worried" that people are being more sensible about credit!!!
Yes property is way out of control. But it's been falling in price for 2 years now. The prices in estate agents' windows are only "asking prices" - what the sale price really is is much lower. This will continue.
I'd leave if I was younger
Shan Morgain, Newport Wales, UK
Amen. Agree completely -- this is located in the ridiculous state of the housing market. I'm a young (early 30s) university lecturer in a high-skill, highly-sought after field: I have three degrees and a job that would be relatively well-paid and rewarding were it not for the fact that I and my husband (also a professional) have no hope of buying somewhere to live in our town in the south-east. We are making plans to emigrate, even though I don't particularly want to, because we want to have a family and can't afford even a two-bed flat or childcare where we live and certainly not both (and we earn over 65k between us -- if we can't, how on earth do other young people manage?) The UK is simply far too expensive -- council tax is exorbitant; our rent is ridiculously high; we don't even have a car so that we can save money, but even one-bed flats where we live are over 250k. Why bother to waste our lives and skills here when the rewards are so small and so few?
Jessica, SE England,
There seems to be an identity crisis at the heart of Britain's malaise. Your once deep embracing of Christian faith was gradually discarded... perhaps you thought that the values your grandparents fought for, would simply just happen. Secular, atheistic, materialism is at the heart of Britain's demise. Despair, meaningless, hopelessness can only be countered with a spirituality of hope, life and joy. Even in the darkest periods of British history, faith in God, seemed to carry people though. Now there is a vacuum of spirituality. It's a vacuum that is being filled with ideologies of fear, power struggles, legalism and oppressive behaviours. It's time for a new spiritual awakening. I believe this can - and will - turn the tide of a national depression hanging over this nation.
C.R., Cairns, Australia
I now live in Sydney, lovely city with a wonderful climate. However they have the same problems as the Uk, crime lousy public transport and crippling property values. The grass is not always green elsewhere.
mucha petrov, sydney, australia
I only stay because the weather is so great.
John H Woods, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
OECD figures are far too low. They don't know where I am. Nor my neighbour. Huge white flight has and is occuring, figures of which the truly incompetent NewLab are unable to obtain, and would hide such figures were they able to do so.
I love the UK for what it was, not what it is today.
Thomas, Baguio,
Who can blame them. I've considered it and I think any person who understands that if you come from nothing but work hard, educate yourself and try to do a good you job for your employer, you'll get very little in return from our Great British society.
Of course I'm speaking from personal experience and what I see is an aggressive, selfish & fraudulent society riddled with corruption & conspiracy throughout the classes. All this greed, fear & exploitation only contributes to its devolution.
Personally I think an inherent problem with a pro-capitalist society and the world would be a better place with a few key socialist principles e.g. common-ownership of finite resources & land. Oh and Democracy would be nice.
Uninspired, W Mid's, UK
Whilst not throwing any weight behind some of JC's more dubious racial observations, I'm left as sad by the destruction of the UK I remember as a younger man.
I've lived abroad for 9 years, only to return to the UK to find things in a much worse way : the uk seems to work too much to me. We blame unruly teenagers on all of societies ills, but never stop to question that parents who, now, have to work long long hours in order to achieve a lower quality of life than is easily achievable elsewhere (for less hours per week), aren't around to monitor their children anymore. What's even more obvious is that Thatcher's revolution has resulted in abject failure : we now have larger government, competition that's driven up prices, zero pension confidence, runs on banks, massive amounts of agency workers and customer service that's the worst I've encountered on planet earth.
Why on Earth would someone who can easily leave, stay? I for one cannot wait until another opportunity to leave.
Noah, London, UK
What a bloody mess this once great nation is in at present - come back King Arthur and bring Merlin with you !!!!
Ian Payne, WALSALL,
Britain has always been a country of both emigration and immigration. Emigration, temporary or permanent, is built
into our DNA through the centuries. In an age of globalisation in which English is the common lingua franca there is no chance that it will change.
Opportunities in the English speaking world, Asia and the Middle East will continue to attract.
Taxation is one aspect of this. A few years in the Middle East and, hey presto, the expat can afford a home back home and private school fees.
Retirement and high house prices are another factor. If house prices correct, as I expect, that bonus will decrease and reduce that form of emigration.
So lower taxes and less of a nanny state would help. Those who bewail immigrants should watch out - it's the same everywhere.
I left in 1961 for the US, later moved to Asia and after 37 years moved the family back here for their private education. In 2 years time I will have another decision to make on where to live.
oldasiahand, Guildford, UK
The government have a clear policy to ensure that the educated middle classes are disenfranchised. They cannot bear the concept that hard work and concientiousness should result in any betterment , and the prospect of that benefit being inherited by their children sends them into appoplexy. In short we have a Stalinist government that spies on our every last move and persecutes the middle classes at every turn.
Penny, London,
This Government which measures everything, sets targets and insists on numerous publi service league tables has failed to measure, target or have any real policy on immigration.
This short sightedness now leaves the UK with overstretched public services, prisons, house prices and an underclass which is trapped on benefits. The last decade of benign inflation is seemingly at an end and the UK finances are in a mess when they should have been eady to whether the storm that is on it's way.
I have a sister who lives in Australia, a brother moving to Canada and I am seriously considering whether I too will leave the country I was once proud to call home.
Haydn Evans, Worksop, England
I've lived outside Britain for the past 9 years, venturing back just once for about 6 months then regretfully leaving. As soon as I land at a UK airport, have my passport checked by an Asian, go through security checks by a woman in a hijab and hire a taxi driven by a Pakistani, which takes me along the Stratford Road unrecognisable from that of my youth, where I was born and brought up and which is now a part of a huge Muslim ghetto, I wonder where I am. So I try out the buses and am forced to spend time in the company of teenage girls with 3 or 4 children swearing at their offspring and smothered in tattoos. The 'f'' word incoherently inserted into every phrase uttered has apparently become de rigeur, not only among children, but in the 'meeja'. A depressing set of shallow values, no discernible pride in being British, general lack of respect for anyone other than themselves and an appallingly incompetent government are all factors in my decision to live and work abroad. How sad I am
JC, Konigstein,