In response to Mr Robert (Letters, June 30), my heart goes out to the survivors of the great wars (lest we forget).
I am 64 years old and remember very well as a child the resonance of the Second World War and felt very frightened that it may recur.
Every year I pay my respects to the fallen and thank them for our freedom. However, I believe fervently our young men who never survived to see this day, who fought, suffered, died and swore oath of allegiance to serve King and country, not to be rescinded, have been betrayed.
I was born in this country, migrated to Australia in 1966, and am here for six months, visiting family and soon to return.
It is hurtful to the core and I am mortified at the state of Britain. On my travels, meeting with British strangers, I see for myself, and the general consensus has it that – and I agree – England is being sold out. I see closed pubs everywhere – one of Britain’s great icons – shops boarded up; overcrowded population; streets overflowing with traffic etc.
British people are not happy and when it comes to our youth murdering one another, Britain appears to be a horror story. I’d go as far as to say thank you to the do-gooders.
To me and many other true Brits, this is not about the economy. It’s about morale, freedom, loyalty and inspiration, all of which contribute to happiness, to say the least. It also appears that British people are not given a say in what happens to their country. Britain once had a way of life that was close, humorous, caring, something to strive for. Where has it gone?
I shall be returning home soon, and in my heart will take the plight of the true British people with me.
Barbara Fenn alias Wilkes, Fowler Street, Blakenhall.
28 Comments
True words spoken. The so call do gooders cant see their failings,they have given the youths of today an International Passport we are the untouchables. Parent cant who can.
God help us.
Headley
What ridiculous, insulting, maudlin and nostalgic nonsense.
It is splitters and deserters like you whom should be ashamed of yourselves, not the brave who stay in Britain and continue to make it the great country it is today.
If Britain is so awful, why do we welcome so many people to come and live, work and study here?
If Britain is so awful, why is it the fifth largest economy in the world? Why are our universities world leaders? Why is our art scene so diverse? Why is the Premier League so popular?
Come on Brits, stop believing the nostalgia of splitters like “Barbara Fenn”. If you think Britain is so rubbish, put your money where your mouth is and move to Angola or Bulgaria, I’m sure you’d love the standard of living there.
Rather than whinge about it - let’s do something about it: go out and celebrate the creativity, diversity, tolerance, vibrancy and health that we have in Britain. Stop reading the Daily Mail (and the Express & Star, for that matter) and you’ll soon realise that if you actually stepped out of your cars and your tiny little houses for a change, that you live in a great country.
And good riddance to deserters like Barbara Fenn - in my experience the British emigrants in rural hick towns in Australia are the most racist, ignorant and bigoted people I have ever had the displeasure to meet. You can stay in your drought-ridden ecological disaster zone of a country and pray for rain.
Barbara Fenn alias Wilkes, your observations are indeed a reflection of the truth.
Britain has been raped! ……. Raped by mealy mouthed self serving Politicians … Raped by the Politically Correct lunatics who have no conception of the harm they have done …. but worst of all Raped by the General Populace who have lost all cognisance of the values that once made Britain a Proud Nation …….. many of my family members fought for those values in WW1 and WW2 some never to return and I often wonder if those who went so willingly would have done so if they could but see what Britain is becoming………………
Everything that is happeneing in this country is down to the people who live in it. We are all responsible for our proud nation turning to shite. we have all raped it and we have voted for the politicians who have done ours and their bidding. It must be good to be an outsider like barbara looking back in at a country that has been through alot of changes since she was last here. Can’t blame her for leaving but please don’t say you are a true brit cos we true brits have stayed loyal to our country and crown and have lived here and have a voice and story to tell unlike all the so called emmigrants if there is such a word who love to talk about how great it is to be a brit but as for living there its a case of STUFF THAT! I agree with rebecca on some issues. When you look closely we do have a resonable country to live in and one that has a lot more safety nets in place within the system than most other countries. True rebecca i don’t see many people going to live in zimbwe or mozambique. Trouble is you can’t please everyone its either higher taxes and an NHS, social security and education system second to none or lower taxes and nowt at all and pay for everything out of our own savings as in the usa and everywhere else.
This letter struck a very deep and resonant chord here. I decided over a year ago to get out and did precisely that. After almost 40 years of watching the UK slide, enough was enough.
No place is perfect, but I’m happier where I am.
Please note, Rebecca, that with me I take a skill set and professional training. That is one of the reasons people move to the UK - there is a need, since so many professionals have long since departed leaving a vaccuum. Thank you, though for your rediculously aggressive version of a “happy clapper”. You are exactly the kind of citizen Gorgon Clown and his cronies want.
I hereby commend the UK to history, where it was proud and inventive. Some things are best left in the past.
It’s up to the people of this country to keep us great and thats where the problem is. We have an old fashioned out of date management attitude where we think the workers are there to slave away. They sold our once great companies out and betrayed us all (ROVER?JAGUAR AND LANDROVER) to mention but a few. I don’t blame anyone leaving this country but only because of our useless attitudes to each other. We can build all the new businesses we want but with old fashioned idiot managers they will die a sad death. Britain has to wise up and start to change and fight for what we want. DO NOT SELL US DOWN THE DRAIN or we will become the third world country.
Well said, Chris.
We get the society we deserve. If we don’t like our country, then we’re to blame - to simply emigrate is cowardly and lazy.
Australia (and any other country, for that matter) has its benefits, and it also has its bad points - just like Britain. The inability to recognise is evidence of ignorance, bigotry or just immaturity.
If we think Britain is going down the pan, then let’s do something about it - tell that kid politely to take his feet off the train seat, smile at your neighbour rather than walking past scowling, walk to your local shops rather than getting in your SUV, write to your councillor or MP ( or even better, actually join a party rather than just b*tching about politicians), start your own business if you think you could do any better.
It’s so easy to just complain and whinge - it takes far more courage, talent and drive to do something about it.
We’re turning into a country of Daily Mail reading whingers, who can find nothing positive about anything. That’s a sure fire way to depression. Even if you leave, you’ll just find fault with wherever you go - because the problem is in your own head, not with reality!
What a brilliant letter - if it were a book I’d call it THE DEATH OF BRITAIN !!!!
Well done and said Barbara.
Rebecca, it’s a shame you seem to be unable to make your points without getting personal and your often vitreolic comments contradict themselves. Either Australia “has its benefits” or it’s a “drought-ridden ecological disaster zone of a country”. Make your mind up. As for asking the kid to take his feet off the train seat; ask yourself why he thinks he can get away with it in the first place! Because the country is full of do-gooders who have sold out the majority of right-thinking law-abiding Brits and the heritage and pride that we were made from that’s why. The things that our veterans fought and died for and that you are obviously ignorant of. The poor souls must be turning in their grave and the survivors must just be bewildered at it all. If the Britain-to-be is going to end up full of people like you then there is no hope for any of us.
Too right!
Sell out’s like Rebecca are why anyone who can read write and has the capacity to pay tax is leaving this forsaken country. When we’re all gone I hope your and the current replacements for us, illegally entering the country by the thousands will all be very happy together walking in small circles wondering who’s going to pay for it all now.
I agree with the letter and many of the above comments. It sounds like Rebecca is a New Labour activist.
Hey rebecca, If you ever fancy a free holiday in this “drought ridden ecological disaster of a country” let me know. We live 30 kms from Surfers Paradise, 45 minutes from rain forest (so not quite so drought ridden eh)you can have a swim in my nice 35 x 10 foot swimming pool, that we use for 9 months of the year, and if you’re really nice we’ll take you to… The great Barrier Reef, Brisbane, Australia Zoo, Dreamworld, Movie world, Wet and Wild, Tamborine Mountain Rainforest, The Gold Coast, The Sunshie Coast, 100 kms of the best SAFE beaches in the World and if you’ve still got any time left you can help me mow my 2 acres. Now, why did I move to Australia again???? And guess what, I wouldn’t move back to the Uk if I won the Lotto. My family and I are about to become Australian Citizens. We have to take a test (in English)and have a police check approved. The only people left in the Uk are the ones that can’t get out or th3 one’s that just can’t be bothered. if you think you can change the Uk back into a country that is worth coming to you are either very niave or a polititian. For The reason that so many people want to come and work in the UK, you need to look where they are coming FROM. How many bus drivers are going to Poland? How many builders are going to Romania? how many Sparkies are going to Yugoslavia? You’ll find that they’re coming the other way. Working for a pittance (to send OUT of the UK to their motherland) and pricing British workers out of a job. The only people who CAN emigrate to OZ are Tradespeople and professionals, and even they srruggle. Take the blinkers off, get a visa application in the post and come and live ain a country where you can still walk down the street and not get harrassed by Hoodies, and you don’t need metal detectors at the school gates. Enjoy the rest of your life. I’m bloody loving mine.
Wolf has got a good valid point about our country and it’s tradesmen. We should take a leaf out of Australia’s book. They don’t have asylum seekers and they only take people with someting to offer the economy. Theres nowt wrong with immigration provided they come with the intentions of working and not expecting a free ride and that is the problem in this country, too many free rides.
WE di accept asylum seekers down here, but they have to from a country that is actuall persicuting them. The problem in the UK is econoomic migrants. Now the EU have basically taken down all border controls by sovereign states and made it a right for people within the EU to live and work in any country within the EU, they’re going where they can get the most money. Guess where that is? Over here you cannot even claim the dole fo the 1st 2 years, and any visa can be withdrawn for a serious crime. Australia is not the land of milk and honey by a long way. It is, however a country that rewards hard work and discourages the hangers-on that are blighting the UK so much. Australia is just a better place for me and my family.
To comment 7, Rebecca fancy a house swap? move to dudley, you’d love it there.
I want to move to OZ, taking my Education, profession and taxes with me.
There is no hope left here.
“to simply emigrate is cowardly and lazy.”
I strongly object to this ridiculous comment too. Do you have any idea what ditermination and perseverence it takes to get an Australian visa?
I was once told by a friend that they thought I was being brave by emigrating… I actually told them that I thought they were braver staying in the UK. Good luck to you , you’re going to need it.
Rebecca obviously is a staunch labourite with leftwing leanings. Are people not allowed to tell you what they see when they visit Britain? Are they not allowed to comment - or are you like the beloved Labour Government want to stop freedom of speech.
Thankfully like others we emigrated for a ‘better’ life and we have found it. I feel sorry listening to others still in England - and worse, I am heartbroken that my parents are still there. I would move them tomorrow, but as they say ‘they are on the way out, and thankful for that’.
Everything Barbara says is true, my yearly visits back to England to see my folks shows me why I left. Filthy streets, crime rate soaring, rude and ingorant folks. I remember when people were proud of Britain, seems like due to the number of immigrants that pride has gone.
A friend of ours has just come back from a visit to the UK to see family, She’s been in Oz for 2 years and couldn’t wait to get back on the plane “Home” The streets are dirty and full of litter, everything that could be vandalised, was, She didn’t see a single bus shelter or phone box without at least one broken pane of glass strewn on the floor. England used to be a place to be proud of, but that was a loooong time ago. My only regrets are that I didn’t emmigrate years ago, and that my parents can’t join me. I still find it strange that I can walk into a local shop and spend a couple of minutes chatting with a shop assisitant, or the neighbours. I’d like to say that Australia has no problems, but that wouldn’t be true. I do think, however, it’s how England USED to be.
The weather there is a perfect reflection of the country - what was once bright and lively is now always wet, miserable and dull.
I will enjoy my suncream and you, Rebecca, can enjoy your umbrella.
Oh and here’s an update . I am now a PROUD citizen of this “drought ridden ecological disaster of a country” so i now get to vote.
The only difference here is someone may actually listen to me, rather than be told what to do by unelected cronies in Brussels.
Miss Dynamite is still exploding,think ,you sound like a new raceist.you dissmiss the old white folks,we accept the fine folks who fit in
21, Any chance of repeating that in English please?
Why does a proud Australian immigrant choose to use a West Midlands place as his nom de plume?
I’m proud of my roots. Jeez, it’s hot over here; we’ve got the longest drought for hundreds of years yet we’re building more and more houses. Australians have the biggest carbon footprint in the world. Next time you curse the rain in Britain just think of us all driving round in air conditioned cars, living in air conditioned houses. Global warming? Naaah
Katie, like you I emigrated over 3 decades ago to secure a better life for my family and myself ……. in this I have more than succeeded.
The Rebecca who posts here is awfully reminiscent of The Miss Dynamite who exploded on these boards some time ago and is obviously vainly trying to make “A silk purse out of a Pigs ear”.
I travelled back to my birthplace recently and used the train to reach Birmingham … from the carriage window the sight of those endless miles of backyards resembled a land fill ….. what the Rebecca’s fail to realise is that we were born in England and grew up there so we know what that beautiful Country once was … it sure as heck ain’t like it now! …….. The Filth, the Vandalism, the Graffiti, the Rudeness, the ME generation and the ever pervading sense of fear just to walk the streets even in broad daylight …… I can honestly say that I return home and kiss the ground of my adopted Homeland………….
No 24. please use your own name, not mine. Is there any point in masquerading as someone else on an open forum?
23. I use the name because I want to, and the problem with that is? It’s actually a nickname I use on the Wolves board, so I can type it quickley.
ENGLAND GAVE AUSTRALIA ALL OUR BAD FOLK MANY
YEARS AGO AND THINGS AINT CHANGED .
ENGLAND GAVE AUSTRALIA ALL OUR BAD FOLK MANY
YEARS AGO AND THINGS AINT CHANGED .
If ignorance is bliss, you must be the happiest person in the world. Ever been to the “lucky country” as it’s known? Thought not. We now export all the dodgy brits back mate, try reading the news.