Britain is the worst country in which to raise children, while Australia is the best, a study has found. The survey of expatriates living in six different countries found there was a better standard of living Down Under, and a better quality of family life. A massive 78 per cent of children who moved there from countries such as the UK spent more time outdoors than they did before, and the majority ate more healthily.
In comparison, foreign children who moved to Britain were more likely to become lazy and inactive. A third of parents who have moved here said their children watched more TV than they did before and 27 per cent saw an increase in the amount of time spent playing video games.
Overall, Britain was also branded the most difficult country to move to. Schools were found to be less welcoming, and it was difficult to arrange child care.
A massive 45 per cent of parents said the quality of their family life had decreased since moving to the UK - just 16 per cent noticed an improvement, according to the survey commissioned by HSBC. Britain was rated the lowest of the six countries examined. The list, from best to worst, read Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, the U.S. and the UK.
An HSBC spokesman said: 'When you're talking to an expat community you're obviously talking to people with a varied degree of experience in terms of different countries. The key centres around childcare and education ... they were the things that were really highlighted. The UK has scored lower than some of the other countries in those respects.'
The Offshore Offspring report, commissioned by HSBC, examined children's integration, health and well-being by questioning 3,100 expats from 50 nations living in the six countries. In 2008, emigration from recession-hit Britain reached a record level with 427,000 people leaving, up from 341,000 in 2007, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The GOS says: The American website Cryptohippie has just published this report which lists the UK as number 6 in the list of the world's most repressibe régimes. The report says "The UK is aggressively building the world of 1984 in the name of stopping “anti-social” activities. Their populace seems unable or unwilling to restrain the government".
There's the nub of the problem, really. The answer should not be to run away to other countries (though I for one can't blame anyone who does) but to fix this one. The fact that according to recent opinion polls there is every possibility that the Tories won't, after all, be able to completely oust this wicked and authoritarian Labour government, shows that there are far too many people in the UK too ignorant and supine to lift a finger to defend themselves.
Pathetic.
That alone is the reason I might be tempted to live abroad: I have no complaint about my standard of living; my personal liberty has not been infringed yet (although it's bound to happen sooner or later); none of my neighbours are running bomb factories; my children are grown up so we're not affected by the parlous state of British education, and I haven't been mugged lately.
But ... I seem to be living with several million other people for whom I can feel no affection or respect, because they don't feel any for themselves.
either on this site or on the World Wide Web.
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