Britain Worst place to live in Europe.

Britain is the worst place to live in Europe (despite our big pay packets)

By Laura Clark
Last updated at 12:50 AM on 12th October 2009


Britain is the worst place in Europe to live despite offering the biggest salaries, a study reveals today.

High incomes in the UK are cancelled out by long working hours, poor annual leave, rising food and fuel bills and a lack of sunshine.

Researchers weighed up official data for ten countries, including France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Poland.

It found Britons enjoy the highest aftertax household income of £35,730-a-year, more than £10,000 above the European average.

But most of it goes on keeping a 'roof over our heads, food on the table and our homes warm', according to the uswitch.com European Quality of Life Index.

After comparing 17 quality of life measures, the study ranked Britain at the bottom-with Ireland second from last. The best quality of life can be found in France and Spain.

Britons can expect to work three years longer - retiring at 62 years and 6 months - than the French, and die two years younger at 78.9.

Workers here get the least annual leave in Europe, with 28 days a year, compared with 41 in Spain. We also have to contend with a higher cost of living, paying more for fuel, food and transport.

British drivers pay the most for diesel --while only one other country has more expensive unleaded petrol.

Essential weekly groceries that cost £134.48 in the UK would be £124 on average in Europe --and £118.76 in France. Annual household energy comes in at £1,239, with Britons paying the third-highest electricity rates.

Ann Robinson of uSwitch.com, said: 'There is more to good living than money - and this report shows why so many Brits are giving up on the UK and heading to France and Spain.

'We earn substantially more than our European neighbours, but this level of income is needed just to keep a roof over our heads, food on the table and our homes warm.

'The recession could prove to be a turning point, forcing us to re-evaluate our way of life, get back to basics and to the things that really count.

'Consumers are already beginning to do this - the Government and its policymakers would do well to follow suit.'

 

Isn't Spain one of the worst-off countries right now due to the recession/depression?

Maybe it's because the get too much vacation and work too little... ??

 

By far the ugliest people in all of Europe. Every time I've been to the UK I think every ugly American must have some UK heritage.

 

It is not putting off the immigrants.

 

I was in london for a while and I swear I think they opened up the floodgates to arabs and indians. I almost thought I was in some arab country.

 

it's national suicide

i saw a thing on PBS a while back. Some gay guy, fearing the christian right in the late 1980s, moved to holland, becasue it was 'welcoming' to immigrants and 'tollerant' to all cultures

but he was becoming fearfull, becsaue they were letting in so many muslims, who hate gays. he also noted that there were so many, that they were making sharia law here and there

he went on to say, that he was learning a downside to open borders and multiculturalism, that you might let in so many people, that you become a minority, and that the newcomers, rather than holding hands with you and singing kumbaya to celebrate your diversity, might acutually be hostile to you, not tollerate you and end your way of life

i guess i was mildly impressed that he was capable of learning, but dumbfounded how anyone could have been so stupid in the first place

really, what did he THINK was going to happen?

how is it that so many think the laws of human nature have been successfully repealed?

 

Yep, that's pretty much what happened in the United States with the first Colonists from Britian, and the Native American Indians ... ROTFLMAO!!!

:eek:

 

Mix a bunch of ugly Christians with a gang of hostile retarded Muslims and you have Britain.
London. Where every other person is named Mohammed.
No wonder its become such a shithole.

 

Britain's large population of "ragheads" is enough to keep me from ever living or visiting there!!!

 

You know you have a problem when your country is compared to Poland which is squarely in Eastern Europe.
Or perhaps, Eastern Europe is catching up rapidly. In 50 years it could be that part of the continent that is still "European" . I personally have no problem with "non-saxons" as long as they assimilate and not try to create new Somalia, Egypt or Turkey in their new place of residence. However, that may not be the case. We are witnessing a clear decline of western civilization.