Have you ever felt like Britain is dull and oppressive?

The healthcare experience in Japan, based on what my uncle said, it was better in some ways, but other ways ours is better. (Your experience probably differed drastically though). But if I was our prime minister, if I was going to model our country on any others things better Japan to model on than any other country.

not mention racist towards anyone or anything that isn't aussie bred.

Agree with this but it depends entirely upon what you value you in life. The UK for me has become too Americanised. There's too much focus on materialistic goods and this culture of children being dressed as models, a consumerist culture that many value, is leading towards a sick society and in my opinion, encourages division. People making false claims, the religion seems to be money and caring for others often comes second. I know this isn't true for everyone and there are some lovely people in the UK but they seem few and far between these days to the point that charitable acts of kindness are made a massive deal out of in the press as if this isn't the norm, and thats because it isn't. Why Britain wants to become more like America I don't know. Money has divided America greatly, it's education system is not that good, the people in many places lack respect for one another, intolerance in some places is extremely high and the claim culture is ridiculous as well. Its horrendous.

We should be more like our European cousins - family orientated, big emphasis on family life and build work around that way of life, get children active more and out into the streets, let them be children rather than forcing them through exam after exam, let them learn from their mistakes in life and engage the environment, eat a more healthy diet like those in Spain or Eastern Europe, be more open to learning languages and integrating with our cousins in mainland Europe rather than seeing them as second class just because they're not on this island, we should be embracing it all including parts and elements of their culture but instead we're going down the materialistic worshipping money route like America. Its not progress for me.

As I've said earlier in the thread, I've been all over Europe and the UK is one of the worst places in my opinion mostly because of this. I've seen families fall apart over inheritance, I've seen people making numerous claims against others which they believe has no impact on peoples lives but the knock on effects can be horrific, I've seen the binge drinking culture and the youth today seem more despondent and left out than ever, depression is an epidemic with numerous teenagers killing themselves or self harming, if not that they're put on drugs and told they need help - what they really need is love, humans around them and a society around them that puts them first, not work, not money, THEM. Britain doesn't allow this way of life though, people are doing 60 hour + weeks to make ends meet and service the debts of those before them, they're struggling, old people are dying from lack of heating because of sky rocketing bills and on top of that, house prices are ridiculously high.

That's really interesting - I was mainly in Sydney so everyone was very p.c there. Where abouts did you live?

England is full of people like this. I'm not from England and I have had comments made about me. I've seen quite a lot of intolerance as well particularly aimed at Japanese/Chinese people in the area I'm from. England for me has been one of the most xenophobic countries I've lived in and I cant wait to leave. I find there is far less xenophobia in places like London and Cardiff however.

I was lucky enough not to have a first hand experience of it, so I'm just going on friends' experiences. I suppose a big downside is that hospitals close on the weekends don't they? But it seems more efficient in other ways.

The NHS is pretty good, although trying to see a GP is really difficult here

Depends where in the UK you live...dull maybe, but oppressive? Absolutely not. Go and live in the middle East then you'll know what oppression is

I live in the middle east and it's not as extreme as people make it out to be

Of course it is. I've read the papers and they'd never lie to me. Neither would the government. /sarcasm

I don't think Britain is perfect by any means but after visiting multiple countries I've realised I'm simply used to it here and enjoy the freedom I definitely wouldn't have in other countries, even other European countries. Although if I had to live elsewhere it'd probably be Switzerland, the Netherlands or Holland

Uh, you do realise Holland is simply a region in the Netherlands, not a separate country?

Lmao says the person who gets told how to sort his rubbish by the government

You get that all over the place, most places a lot stricter than the UK.

I live in the middle east and it's not as extreme as people make it out to be