I can tell you why I left !First, lets set the stage:Lived here over two decades.Had a 9 to 5 job for 2 years. (In Richmond.)Parents lived here, I went to school and college here.Now, some of the reasons why I left and moved to Scotland, where incidently I got a job before I had even moved into a house there !You can afford to buy a home in Scotland (Or at least, you could last year.. prices have gone up over 100% in 4 years mind you here!), where as the house I used to live in Ealing with my parents costs £1.4 Million, so I don't think any minimumn wage job I could get would ever help me to afford to buy that now !So, where else did I live..Lets see, I spent over a decade in a bedsit, dealing with rats, mice, bedbugs, cockroaches, fleas and sharing the bathroom with several dozen other folk too.No where to park, even if I could afford a car !Shops that no longer sell things you want, or can afford, thank goodness for Ebay ! (Though, not all sell to Scotland..)I can get a GP, and see them ! (Mind you, there is a 5+ year waiting list to see a dentist up here..)On the plus side, you can buy a flu jab in Ealing, where as in parts of Scotland, you can't.. but its free they say ! except the GP's refuse to give it to you..Local colleges dropped useful courses, so its hard to get skilled training in a new job.Luckily my mate got his training in India, so he's sorted.Talking of jobs, I couldn't seem to get a job in Ealing, doing anything, even though I applied from working in the supermarket to cleaning the streets.Maybe some discrimination at work..Then there is the crime problem, though its not effected me much, just an attempted mugging once down by the canal.My girlfriends on the other hand, didn't come off so well, from being robbed at gunpoint, to gang raped in the local parks, and having their cars vandalised.Oddly we have hardly any crime up here at all, I wonder why the difference ?Unemployment in Ealing running at what now, 16% last time I could even find the figures.. it's more like 0.16% here !Rubbish collections, well..What do you need now to get rid of stuff, a passport, driving license, oh and a car, as you can't take stuff in by foot to the local tip..And the refuse enforcement officers make sure you can't throw what you want in your wheelie bin, if you can fit it in that is !Up here, bins are much bigger and they take anything, without fuss, even on a bank holiday !Oh wait, I forgot the time stuff was stolen from my home, on moving day !Did I mention how I was homeless a couple of times too, and how the waiting list is how many tens of thousands long, and even if I was on it my entire life, I'd never get a place !My neighbour, he was on it, lets see now, over 30 years !But still lives in a bedsit. :-(And he's one of the lucky ones, other friends of mine still live on the streets after being kicked out by the thousands after those new regulations to help the poor by making sure landlords keep their places decent and registered, put off many from doing that and they changed to bed and breakfast.Thank goodness there are still so many caring landlords that build rather nice places in backgardens for us poor all to live in, or we would have no place to live.So, that's a little taster for everyone.
Dave Smith ● 3344d