British Expatriate Network

Here's a fun read - it's titled "Why England is Rotting - England leads Europe in illiteracy, obesity, divorce, drug use, crime and STDs. Bloody hell." It certainly has a slant (he writes for the Telegraph) but it does remind me of why I left and what I felt when I came back. It appears in Macleans which is a Canadian publication not a million miles away from Time or Newsweek.

http//www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20070611_106150_106150&source=srch

It really does feel like this country is about to collapse. It's an eerie feeling and I hope we don't get dragged in to it.

Nevermind.... America leads Britain on each of these :wink:

What about this, though:

"UNICEF this year ranked Britain bottom in the league of industrialized nations in terms of the well-being of children."


And how does this bit compare to the US:

Perhaps most worrying is the alienation of large sections of the country's young people. These are people detached from society, floating free of family, jobs, education and training. NEETs, or young people "not in education, employment or training," now comprise one-fifth (1.2 million) of British 16- to 24-year-olds. In the 16 to 19 age bracket, 11 per cent are classed as NEETS, double the proportion in Germany and France -- and this despite massive spending on "welfare to work" initiatives by Gordon Brown since he declared, on taking up the reins of power in 1997, that "staying home is not an option."

And this:

"The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development last year claimed a quarter of the British population aged between 25 and 34 are "low skilled" in terms of educational attainment, five times the numbers in Japan.


And this:

An OECD report also said that Britain lags behind in literacy rates among developed nations

40 per cent of 11-year-olds are leaving primary school without having reached an appropriate level in reading, writing and math. Grade inflation, through which the government stands accused of covering up low achievement, is endemic. In 1989, for instance, a grade of 48 per cent was needed to get a C in GCSE math. By the year 2000 it was 18 per cent.




I'm not saying that the US is perfect. Far from it. No country is. And although I didn't read the whole article it does come across as very bleak. But it would be interesting to compare say the US to the points that have been brought up.

Also, while the US has terrible figures for child health, education and standard of living, do the rich in this country help keep this country afloat? Are there as many rich in the UK to have the same effect? Or, is the gap between the rich and poor, although wrong, is not balanced well in the UK compared to the US?

love to know where they got all the information and is it collected in the very same way else where.

What was that Clinton saying "depends on what your definition of is is."

The UK has moved more and more towards capitalism than the rest of Europe. It stands to reason that social systems are breaking down.

It started with Thatcher, who left a whole generation in some areas with no jobs for their prime years, so it became a way of life.

Yep her idea was screw everyone else as long as I am ok, plus get on yea bike lol