Why Did You Leave Britain?
The Daily Telegraph — 24-08-2007
A contribution to an on-line debate concerning the large number of British nationals who were recorded as leaving the UK in the previous year.
by Christopher Long
I didn't leave England: England began to leave me in the mid-1980s. I started waving goodbye but England really couldn't be bothered to wave back.
So, I worked abroad throughout most of the 1990s as a foreign correspondent and by the time I returned, in 1999, there was very little indeed in England that I recognised. I had become a foreigner - none of the values of the UK made any sense to me any more.
So I went away again permanently - to France, because I speak French - and immediately felt at home. Here we are very happy indeed. Everything around me makes sense. The values are the values I grew up with. Common sense and civility prevail.
I dread having to go back to England and seeing what you/they have done to it. It has become a very sad place and I feel sorry for the children who have no option but to grow up in it.
Posted by Christopher Long on August 25, 2007 12:06 AM
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A contribution to an on-line debate concerning the large number of British nationals who were recorded as leaving the UK in the previous year.