The following is a script that I wrote for my own YouTube channel but decided not to make as I didn't want to make my motorbike channel all political. However I still want to express myself, so I thought here could be a good way to "vent". Ignore typos and grammar as it was meant to be a script that I could read and understand by myself as I was reading it! Let's begin
The UK is totally broken! As a man who's lived abroad for 15 years coming back to England last July has totally shocked me. I've found myself shaking my head in bisbeleif at SO many things. Not just the the cost of living crisis (the prices of EVERYTHING are out of control) nor how standards have dropped so much. It's how people aren't fighting for it, and how the unreasonable conditions that people are living under have just been shrugged off and accepted.
When I first got back in July I was in holiday mode and was loving the summer, going on holidays with family to Scotland, Devon and other places enjoying some nice ice cold ciders that I missed so much in Asia. But now they've gone back to our home in Japan I don't think I would be happy for my daughter to come and live here permanently like we we're planning. In 15 years of living in Asia I have never once felt threatened or scared in any situation. I would leave the keys in my bike outside the busiest 7/11 in the city while I was inside buying a coffee without any worries. Primary school kids walk to school, and even take the underground by themselves and most parents aren't worried about them going missing or getting hurt. Here, when my daughter ran off to the sweets aisle in Tesco my wife was paranoia personified. There's no fly-tipping, kids don't call old people cunts, there are NO strikes, the police are respected, trains and buses are clean and always on time, old people meet in the morning to clean the streets with their straw brooms, and it's generally just safe and clean. I paid 1 quid for a litre of super unleaded, 3.20 for a packet of cigarettes, i can eat out at a curry shop or japanese bar for a tenner, and i paid way less tax. It's not all sweetness and lightin Japan, but overall the living-standards are way higher than here. Alas, today I want to give you my thoughts on blighty after being away since 2007.
I can see that for me to talk about England might not be as subjective as people who have lived here all their lives, and lived through the pandemic which I am sure has been a major contributing factor to how things have changed, but on the flip side, the changes that I've noticed were blatantly obvious and things have changed SO much since 2007 when I last lived here.
Remember as I said at the beginning, these are just MY opinons and I'm honestly happy to hear your views on why I am wrong.
Growing up I would have considered myself to be a partiotic Brit. My grandparents fought in WW2. RAF and Army. I looked up to them, aw well as past and present servicemen. I think if my grandparents saw the state of the country now they would be turning in their graves. I get the feeling that the majority of men these days wouldn't fight for their country if push came to shove, but would happily fight for their football team. The patriotic Brit that I was 20 years ago has well and truly gone.
I usually don't watch TV, but over the Christmas/New Years break I did end up watching a bit. The narrative on the news was unreal. Please donate money to other countries at war (which we're openly funding and profitting over). Accept without question Trans people. Allow children to get sex changes. Accept lockdowns and mandates without question. Jokes being considered sexual harrassment. People getting arrested for Tweets. Police wasting time and money arresting people for something they wrote on the internet meanwhile in a local story I read about an old widow who's house got burgled on Xmas eve and was told to just call her insurance company and arrange a locksmith because the police were too busy to come over. A crime report number is important, but sending over a female officer to comfort the lady who was obviously distraught at having her home invaded would be the right thing to do.
On the subject of TV, according to adverts the whole country is multiracial now. I even saw a family on a furniture advert where the Dad was black, Mum was white, and the kid was obviously Asian. I checked the census from 2020 and it states that only 2.9% of the UK population is mixed race. Obviously my wife is Japanese and my daughter is half English and Half Japanese, so I'm not trying to slur interracial couples, but the way it's portrayed is over the top. As is the LGBTQ+ or whatever it's called this week. I don't see why the entire population needs to cowtow to this small minority. Again, the UK Cenus (Links in description) says that in 2020, the UK population aged 16 years and over identifying as heterosexual or straight was 93.6%. Is 6.4% a high enough percentage to warrant Sexual orientation and gender identity workshops for 11+ year olds at school? I really don't think so.
Talking of race, I used see interviews with these Right Leaning labelled figures who start their sentences with "I'm not racist, but.." after which they usually say something that could be considered offensive, and to me they illegitimize their points somewhat. My turn...I'm not racist, BUT...I find it offensive that so many Brits are sleeping on the streets begging for food, or families are living off food banks and handouts while there are between 594,000 and 745,000 illegal immigrants in the UK. This number can be taken with a pinch of salt as the .Gov website claims they granted refugee status to only 14,773 applicants. The actual number is very hard to pin down as various organisations have differing agendas that a lower or higher number would suit. Google shows anything from 500,000 to 1.2M illegal immigrants currently living in the UK. I often hear people saying things like "It's hard to hear an English voice if you go to London" or similar. While I KNOW that the UK and it's allies have completely devistated the places like the Middle East, and North Africa over the years and the people who's lives "we" have destroyed need some compensation, I honestly believe that this country should sort out domestic problems on it's own shores before dishing out aid close to the Billions of pounds of tax payers money to others. People seem to forget that the politians are supposed to work for us, the people, in theory anyway.
On the other hand, I don't want to give you the impression that I am against other cultures or against letting genuine refugees into the country, As it stands, people are unable to claim asylum in the UK unless they are physically in the country, forcing them to make the illegal crossing across the channel by boat. These so-called Dinghy Divers ARE mostly men of a fighting age coming across by themselves, but let's not assume that means they're all here as scammers or part of some nefarious group intenet on mischief. It's hard to avoid picturing scenes of rioting, fighting and reports of gang...you know what in the news, but hopefully those are just the minority. A refugee is someone who is seeking refuge. Obviously! Be that from a war torn country, or that they were persecuted in their respective countries. When they arrive on the beaches next they have to visit a Police Station or similar and claim Assylum. Most of the time without any documentation at all. How the authorities can make this decision without any papers, records, ID etc. is beyond me, but IF they do get assylum THEY (the newly arrived single fighting age males) can then sponsor their families for a UK visa. It's called a Family Reunion Visa and allows their family in Africa, Afghanistan or wherever to apply for a visa using the spouse who's now in the UK as their sponsor. As we speak there's apparently 37,000 assylum seekers being put up in 200 hotels across the country at a cost of 5m per day. All tax payers money of course.
I do think "we", Royal We again, should take reposnsibility for some of the peoples who's countries we have inteferred with, but I think what would be better is to make them WANT to stay in their own countries. Help those countries recover, re-build and give the illegals who come here in their flocks some hope that their own country can be good again. Did you know that the UK sent 2.3bill to the Ukraine in Military aid in 2022? That's a lot of money that could be spent more positively. It also seems to me that the UK media is brilliant at whipping up fervour for war but is not so good at campaigning for peace. Some British politicians are now speaking for Ukraine’s interests a bit better than they do British national interests.
In some ways I see these events as fallout from all the dastardly deeds the UK and it's empire or commonwealth has dealt to these poor countries in the past, but I also see it as unfair for this generation to suffer for the sins of our forefathers, something that the media doesn't seem to agree with as there's constant shaming stories in the media that tell us we should be sorry for what our ancestors did to the world. The cultural differences between our apparent Christian Britain and some of the immigrant countries are so vast that I think it's quite hard for them to truly integrate into ours. And while I am not a fan of religion whatsoever, I feel that a lack of Christian values and morals has also added to the general decline of the UK. I was raised a Roman Catholic, but have zero interest in it now, (or any other religion for that matter) but it did teach me certain values and discipline that are lacking nowadays. Not just showing respect to elders (which is definitely lacking) but also the weakening of basic family values. I'm afraid to say that I don't see diversification as a plus, rather a big minus point for the future of our country. But maybe that's the plan! Divided people are easier to rule.
Something that didn't quite surpsise me was the lack of arrests in Qatar during the world cup. Apparently no Brits were arrested at all, while at home there were 531 police recorded incidents with 150 being on the night of the England vs. France game alone. That just goes show you how much lack of respect for the law there is here. I'm sure the footie fans didn't want to risk a flogging or a beating in a Qatari police cell, but here in Blighty people just don't give a shit about the law because they know they can get away with it. Seeing all the bike related crime, ramrades, muggings, knife crimes, even people having acid thrown in their faces FFS, bicycle thefts with angle grinders in broad daylight with the yoots then openly bragging about it on instagram just illustrates how weak the legal system/police have become in the publics eyes. It seems to me that priorities in all sectors of public service have gone wrong. All the politically-correct bollocks is just causing weakness. The police themselves are probably too afraid to do their job as they want to as there is too much comeback for them with the public being able to claim harrassment, racism, genderism? etc. If you've followed my channel for a while you might remember that I had a little holiday on the emperors expense a few years ago. 6 weeks in a Japanese jail was enough for me to learn my lesson. No TVs, no phones, no gym, showers only twice a week, and in your cell for most of the day. That quickly taught me to respect the system. In the UK we have ankle tags and home leave from prison. Hardly a detterent is it!
So I've ranted a bit now about some of the issues that I think have changed the UK for the worse, I could go on, but it's beginning to sound too negative. Conversely there are so many positive points that differentiate the UK from other countries I've lived in or visited. Overall I am enjoying being back home but I do worry that the country I bragged about and even enjoyed admiration from so many Japanese people is not the beautiful, fairytale, green, historic, traditional, artistic, land of plenty that I made it out to be.
Let's just hope I am wrong and there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Links:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationa...shipuk2018
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationa...ityuk/2020
https://mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/re...-workshop/
The UK is totally broken! As a man who's lived abroad for 15 years coming back to England last July has totally shocked me. I've found myself shaking my head in bisbeleif at SO many things. Not just the the cost of living crisis (the prices of EVERYTHING are out of control) nor how standards have dropped so much. It's how people aren't fighting for it, and how the unreasonable conditions that people are living under have just been shrugged off and accepted.
When I first got back in July I was in holiday mode and was loving the summer, going on holidays with family to Scotland, Devon and other places enjoying some nice ice cold ciders that I missed so much in Asia. But now they've gone back to our home in Japan I don't think I would be happy for my daughter to come and live here permanently like we we're planning. In 15 years of living in Asia I have never once felt threatened or scared in any situation. I would leave the keys in my bike outside the busiest 7/11 in the city while I was inside buying a coffee without any worries. Primary school kids walk to school, and even take the underground by themselves and most parents aren't worried about them going missing or getting hurt. Here, when my daughter ran off to the sweets aisle in Tesco my wife was paranoia personified. There's no fly-tipping, kids don't call old people cunts, there are NO strikes, the police are respected, trains and buses are clean and always on time, old people meet in the morning to clean the streets with their straw brooms, and it's generally just safe and clean. I paid 1 quid for a litre of super unleaded, 3.20 for a packet of cigarettes, i can eat out at a curry shop or japanese bar for a tenner, and i paid way less tax. It's not all sweetness and lightin Japan, but overall the living-standards are way higher than here. Alas, today I want to give you my thoughts on blighty after being away since 2007.
I can see that for me to talk about England might not be as subjective as people who have lived here all their lives, and lived through the pandemic which I am sure has been a major contributing factor to how things have changed, but on the flip side, the changes that I've noticed were blatantly obvious and things have changed SO much since 2007 when I last lived here.
Remember as I said at the beginning, these are just MY opinons and I'm honestly happy to hear your views on why I am wrong.
Growing up I would have considered myself to be a partiotic Brit. My grandparents fought in WW2. RAF and Army. I looked up to them, aw well as past and present servicemen. I think if my grandparents saw the state of the country now they would be turning in their graves. I get the feeling that the majority of men these days wouldn't fight for their country if push came to shove, but would happily fight for their football team. The patriotic Brit that I was 20 years ago has well and truly gone.
I usually don't watch TV, but over the Christmas/New Years break I did end up watching a bit. The narrative on the news was unreal. Please donate money to other countries at war (which we're openly funding and profitting over). Accept without question Trans people. Allow children to get sex changes. Accept lockdowns and mandates without question. Jokes being considered sexual harrassment. People getting arrested for Tweets. Police wasting time and money arresting people for something they wrote on the internet meanwhile in a local story I read about an old widow who's house got burgled on Xmas eve and was told to just call her insurance company and arrange a locksmith because the police were too busy to come over. A crime report number is important, but sending over a female officer to comfort the lady who was obviously distraught at having her home invaded would be the right thing to do.
On the subject of TV, according to adverts the whole country is multiracial now. I even saw a family on a furniture advert where the Dad was black, Mum was white, and the kid was obviously Asian. I checked the census from 2020 and it states that only 2.9% of the UK population is mixed race. Obviously my wife is Japanese and my daughter is half English and Half Japanese, so I'm not trying to slur interracial couples, but the way it's portrayed is over the top. As is the LGBTQ+ or whatever it's called this week. I don't see why the entire population needs to cowtow to this small minority. Again, the UK Cenus (Links in description) says that in 2020, the UK population aged 16 years and over identifying as heterosexual or straight was 93.6%. Is 6.4% a high enough percentage to warrant Sexual orientation and gender identity workshops for 11+ year olds at school? I really don't think so.
Talking of race, I used see interviews with these Right Leaning labelled figures who start their sentences with "I'm not racist, but.." after which they usually say something that could be considered offensive, and to me they illegitimize their points somewhat. My turn...I'm not racist, BUT...I find it offensive that so many Brits are sleeping on the streets begging for food, or families are living off food banks and handouts while there are between 594,000 and 745,000 illegal immigrants in the UK. This number can be taken with a pinch of salt as the .Gov website claims they granted refugee status to only 14,773 applicants. The actual number is very hard to pin down as various organisations have differing agendas that a lower or higher number would suit. Google shows anything from 500,000 to 1.2M illegal immigrants currently living in the UK. I often hear people saying things like "It's hard to hear an English voice if you go to London" or similar. While I KNOW that the UK and it's allies have completely devistated the places like the Middle East, and North Africa over the years and the people who's lives "we" have destroyed need some compensation, I honestly believe that this country should sort out domestic problems on it's own shores before dishing out aid close to the Billions of pounds of tax payers money to others. People seem to forget that the politians are supposed to work for us, the people, in theory anyway.
On the other hand, I don't want to give you the impression that I am against other cultures or against letting genuine refugees into the country, As it stands, people are unable to claim asylum in the UK unless they are physically in the country, forcing them to make the illegal crossing across the channel by boat. These so-called Dinghy Divers ARE mostly men of a fighting age coming across by themselves, but let's not assume that means they're all here as scammers or part of some nefarious group intenet on mischief. It's hard to avoid picturing scenes of rioting, fighting and reports of gang...you know what in the news, but hopefully those are just the minority. A refugee is someone who is seeking refuge. Obviously! Be that from a war torn country, or that they were persecuted in their respective countries. When they arrive on the beaches next they have to visit a Police Station or similar and claim Assylum. Most of the time without any documentation at all. How the authorities can make this decision without any papers, records, ID etc. is beyond me, but IF they do get assylum THEY (the newly arrived single fighting age males) can then sponsor their families for a UK visa. It's called a Family Reunion Visa and allows their family in Africa, Afghanistan or wherever to apply for a visa using the spouse who's now in the UK as their sponsor. As we speak there's apparently 37,000 assylum seekers being put up in 200 hotels across the country at a cost of 5m per day. All tax payers money of course.
I do think "we", Royal We again, should take reposnsibility for some of the peoples who's countries we have inteferred with, but I think what would be better is to make them WANT to stay in their own countries. Help those countries recover, re-build and give the illegals who come here in their flocks some hope that their own country can be good again. Did you know that the UK sent 2.3bill to the Ukraine in Military aid in 2022? That's a lot of money that could be spent more positively. It also seems to me that the UK media is brilliant at whipping up fervour for war but is not so good at campaigning for peace. Some British politicians are now speaking for Ukraine’s interests a bit better than they do British national interests.
In some ways I see these events as fallout from all the dastardly deeds the UK and it's empire or commonwealth has dealt to these poor countries in the past, but I also see it as unfair for this generation to suffer for the sins of our forefathers, something that the media doesn't seem to agree with as there's constant shaming stories in the media that tell us we should be sorry for what our ancestors did to the world. The cultural differences between our apparent Christian Britain and some of the immigrant countries are so vast that I think it's quite hard for them to truly integrate into ours. And while I am not a fan of religion whatsoever, I feel that a lack of Christian values and morals has also added to the general decline of the UK. I was raised a Roman Catholic, but have zero interest in it now, (or any other religion for that matter) but it did teach me certain values and discipline that are lacking nowadays. Not just showing respect to elders (which is definitely lacking) but also the weakening of basic family values. I'm afraid to say that I don't see diversification as a plus, rather a big minus point for the future of our country. But maybe that's the plan! Divided people are easier to rule.
Something that didn't quite surpsise me was the lack of arrests in Qatar during the world cup. Apparently no Brits were arrested at all, while at home there were 531 police recorded incidents with 150 being on the night of the England vs. France game alone. That just goes show you how much lack of respect for the law there is here. I'm sure the footie fans didn't want to risk a flogging or a beating in a Qatari police cell, but here in Blighty people just don't give a shit about the law because they know they can get away with it. Seeing all the bike related crime, ramrades, muggings, knife crimes, even people having acid thrown in their faces FFS, bicycle thefts with angle grinders in broad daylight with the yoots then openly bragging about it on instagram just illustrates how weak the legal system/police have become in the publics eyes. It seems to me that priorities in all sectors of public service have gone wrong. All the politically-correct bollocks is just causing weakness. The police themselves are probably too afraid to do their job as they want to as there is too much comeback for them with the public being able to claim harrassment, racism, genderism? etc. If you've followed my channel for a while you might remember that I had a little holiday on the emperors expense a few years ago. 6 weeks in a Japanese jail was enough for me to learn my lesson. No TVs, no phones, no gym, showers only twice a week, and in your cell for most of the day. That quickly taught me to respect the system. In the UK we have ankle tags and home leave from prison. Hardly a detterent is it!
So I've ranted a bit now about some of the issues that I think have changed the UK for the worse, I could go on, but it's beginning to sound too negative. Conversely there are so many positive points that differentiate the UK from other countries I've lived in or visited. Overall I am enjoying being back home but I do worry that the country I bragged about and even enjoyed admiration from so many Japanese people is not the beautiful, fairytale, green, historic, traditional, artistic, land of plenty that I made it out to be.
Let's just hope I am wrong and there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Links:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationa...shipuk2018
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationa...ityuk/2020
https://mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/re...-workshop/