I love Liverpool but....

[Frozzy]

NZ isn't that fussy at all about asians. Except when they drive.

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by Agathon
Move to New Zealand – proper Labour government, no anti-immigrant hysteria.

She's female, she doesn't need the sheep.

ACK!

[Urban Ranger]

I heard NZ is so boring that even philosophy majors leave the place

[duke o' york]

Nope. They're stuck there until they get promoted to philosophy brigadiers.

[Spiffor]

France:

Political system: semi-presidential democracy, which should become a full presidential democracy in the coming decades. It's possible to vote for small parties, thanks to the fact we have runoffs.

Geographic distribution: heavily centralized on Paris (metropolitan area = 10m inhab.) Many medium sized cities of a few hundred thousands however.

Transportation: excellent railroads. Good inter-city car traffic and air traffic. Intra-city car traffic sucks. Most cities have an acceptable to good mass transit.

Beliefs: strong secularism. Religion is seen as a private matter, and few people will attempt to shove their religion down your throat. Political activity is fairly calm when there is no election. Awkward relation to money: income (when high) is still a taboo. Increasing income disparity, that goes against the value of equality (which is largely shared) because free-market policies are widely and reluctantly believed to be the only thing that works.

Economics: strong interventionist tradition. Economic downturn for the time being. Services are the economy's driving force. Corporate culture is probably less openly money-grubbing than in other countries. Pretty good working conditions.

Relationship with law and order: this is where France's dichotomy between Germanic and Latin cultures is the most clear. Most people expect protection from the police (which was the main issue during the last presidential election), and at the same time, many will try to cheat for some personal benefit.

Consumerism: advertisements seem to be more and more dweebish, but maybe they haven't changed, and I did.

[Pekka]

I find this amazing, next thing she wants to know about cities, then parts of cities and somehow Verres ends up living RIGHT next to me, conviniently using the same grocery store, gym and butt waxer. Conviniently getting up exactly 7.20 as I do, looking outside to my direction where I usually do my naked streching and super yoga with influence on kill moves.

I find this to be more than a coincidence, but hey, it's a free country. I guess I need to report a stalker....

[DeathByTheSword]

netherlands:

Political system: parlemetrial monarch where the king/queen doesnt have any political power. vote for party where the biggest party give the prime minister and forms a colations with another country. in my opinion very good...


Geographic distribution: mostly western part (noord and zuid holland). amsterdam, den hague, rotterdam. with some outcrops all around the place...3rd most polulated per square mile country in the world i think...but i dont notice it.

Transportation: everyone always *****es about this. but in general very good. railroads to everywhere and in every town busses. major cities metros or trams also

Beliefs:
strong secularism....life and let life atitutede (spelling?)have some problems now adays with muslims and extreme right groups but most of the time IMHO not much problems...most things are being blown out of context by media and politicians

Economics: social struture but last couple of years it is degrading much to my discomforts and irritation. 10th or 11th economy in the world. so we are pretty rich.

some extra notes: dutch people dont care what you do as long as it is pretty legal. life and let life (think about gay marriage abortion and euthanisia laws) but dutch people will tell you directly (without sweet talking) what they think of you or your actions

[molly bloom]

Re: I love Liverpool but....

Originally posted by Verres
a hope in hell of understanding, its all welcome.

I am dead serious about this - I want to know what options there are outside the UK and US.

Australia is currently seeking skilled migrants from the United Kingdom.


State governments are Labour (which, like the U.K. meant socialist once upon a time) and the party in power at the national level are the Liberals, who unlike the U.K.'s lot, are a bunch of hypocritical rightwingers like anti-abortion Tony Abbott (producer of children out of wedlock).


Victoria and Tasmania and southern New South Wales have discernible seasons, there's cheapish housing outside of the main metropolitan areas and stunning landscapes.

[CerberusIV]

Having just left the UK I can understand your wish to get out too. You have more choice on where to go than I did (as Aus and NZ, amongst others, don't really want old gits).

We decided to stick to the EU since you have a legal right to live and work in any EU country - although some try to make the bureaucracy as difficult as possible. First choice was Spain, mainly for the climate, but having driven all the way there we didn't like it and didn't stay. I can't really explain why, more a feeling than anything definite. The locals will sell you stuff but foreigners seem to get stuck in ex-pat communities and we didn't leave the UK to end up drinking with and working for a bunch of people who only want the home counties in the sun.

So we loaded up the car and headed north again and came to Ireland. It's nice here. The weather is better (a lot better!) than northern England. The government seems to be vaguely socialist - actually it seems to be more vague than socialist. Everyone speaks English - of sorts. In some ways it is like the UK 20 years ago, in other ways up to date. Costs are comparable to the UK, some things more expensive, some things less.

It's a lot less stressful. When we were looking to rent a house the agent told us Waterford was much more hectic than a few years ago. We laughed. After the UK this place is very relaxed.

Employment prospects are fairly good. The economy is growing healthily, unemployment is less than 5% (you need to be careful which part of Ireland you go to though as it is a lot higher in some areas) and there are pockets of high tech industries with reasonable prospects. I'm not working yet but don't anticipate any real problem.

Outside Dublin it is still a rural country, but not hicksville. Pro-european and quite outward looking. Hard to tell what they really think about Northern Ireland - wishing it would just disappear is one interpretation.

We also liked France as we drove through and intend to go back for a while.

Ireland isn't everyone's cup of tea but we like it.

[Zevico]

Australia has a very good electoral system and a natural suspicion of politicians and ideology. This is a very good thing, in my opinion. There is no chance of American-style wafflers and holier-than-thou preachers being succesful in Australia, no candidates for prime minister waxing lyrical about their strong belief in [insert religion here] to gain support. Australians of all political beliefs (most, anyway) simply see this for what it is--crap.
It is also, I would consider, an overwhelmingly tolerant, non-racist, and polite country. I am told by those who visit here that Australians are very friendly, too. Though is looking at the country from a positive viewpoint.
Finally:

Tony Abbott (producer of children out of wedlock).

Well, he didn't have an abortion, did he?

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Zevico


Well, he didn't have an abortion, did he?

That might have been beyond even his talents.


Pity his parents didn't, though.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Zevico
Australia has a very good electoral system and a natural suspicion of politicians and ideology.

Yup, The Last Continent

[duke o' york]

Re: Re: I love Liverpool but....

Originally posted by molly bloom
Australia is currently seeking skilled migrants from the United Kingdom.

Have you got the 1337 skillz required Verres?
Go to Finland! (You can ask Drogue for directions, or just follow the smell of evil )

[duke o' york]

Re: Re: Re: I love Liverpool but....

DP.
I got confused with the punctuation marks disappearing.

[Immortal Wombat]

Re: I love Liverpool but....

Originally posted by Verres
I am dead serious about this - I want to know what options there are outside the UK and US.

If you want somewhere which is majority English-speaking, then New Zealand is probably your best bet. It's a bit like what you'd get from taking North Yorkshire and spreading it out to the size of Britain. And then doing an accent overhaul.

They have a better voting system, so more parties get representation, and there's currently a leftish coalition government. Culture and Politics at Wikipedia.

It's not a socialist paradise, but it's lefter than Britain, probably, and it's doing ok. Also, the rest of the world tends to ignore it, so there's no major international political issues to get *****y about. Oh, and it has entirely banned nuclear materials, which is nice.

Or as Cerberus says, Ireland seems to be fairly relaxed about things.

If the language isn't a problem, then Scandanavia is the place to be.