Quote from Spud,
''Us Brits seem to love putting down our country but we have so much which is the envy of the World……......''
As this wasn’t addressed to me, John, or anyone in particular it might equally well be ignored, yet it’s better to congratulate you on mentioning UK’s current R-R jet engines - and foreign car plants which are financially worthwhile for not only Overseas HQ and shareholders, but also workers, the vast majority of whom are traditional Brits – the self-same root stocks who made Britain ‘Great’ down the ages – not the Overseas Nationals mentioned.
Because you’d spent your whole life in the same place till retirement, it may well not have been a good idea to uproot from your UK heritage, leave family and a life’s contacts behind to attempt to successfully settle in another country - you say your visits to other places have confirmed this.
With respect, to even begin to consider immigration, one normally needs to ‘live and earn’ in a place for at least a couple of months, longer if you go for a ‘new’ reason, e.g. retirement, new profession - unless a specific job awaits you, as I’ve always had - a bit like the army, a case of arrive, start work next morning, unless there has been over 9 hrs jet lag. Or you may go to meet a national need, as did Roy’s teachers – who wisely made a ‘look, see and learn’ visit before deciding to go.
As I last left UK 16 years ago, I obviously completely agree with:
‘And despite all of this for the last Fifteen years or so we have been served by some the most inept self interested Politicians. Just imagine what we would be capable of with some real Leadership.
As Labour was always going to win the next election, very sadly, any prospect of decent leadership died with John Smith, and you got ‘the husband of Alf Garnet’s granddaughter’ as PM …and would be President of EU....then, quite soon, this lot.
Despite opportunities to take other nationalities, including now, I've kept a British Passport or rather the EU 'ration book rag' that replaced the dark blue true British passports in the past century. My nationality reflects my brum roots of which I'm proud - warts and all
Good Luck