Sometimes, life wants to kick you in the back and laugh at you as you topple forwards onto your hands and knees in the mud.
Other times, your country's political leadership asks to do it instead.
Today is one of those days.
A quick contextual setup:
- I live in China yadda yadda
- Married, and planned to bring her with me back to the UK
Ok. So given that I have no UK-based salary, the only way we could realistically do this was to amass a large savings and hold it for 6 months without ever going below the threshold. This is a large amount - £62,500 ($100,000)
Well, we did that and then some.
So all that was needed now was a bunch of paperwork, pay an exhorbitant fee to the national health service (something like £1,800), and other fees, and get ready to go.
The problem
You see, the problem with England is there's too many bloody illegal immigruntz. Coming over by boat, taking over our country. You know the gig.
The solution
our only option is to cut off british expats from bringing their wives legally to the country
Makes sense right?
So yeah, in a desperate attempt by the Tory party currently in power to stay in power (basically impossible), they decided that, as of today, the financial threshold goes from £62,500, to £88,000. (If you have a job in the uk, it means £18,600/year goes up to something like £22,000)
Great. The bottom line here is, even if we had that money, we didn't have it in savings. We could immediately dump it into savings, but the clock has reset. We have to wait another 6 months.
By which point, they raise the requirement again. And then soon after, again, until it becomes £112,000 ($200,000) for us.
Now, we both have pretty well paying jobs and a hearty savings, but it's a pretty fucking tall order to just have £112,000 lying around for 6 months!
For perspective, about 50% of UK citizens have less than £1,000 in savings. The salary-version of this method at this point is about £39,000 - more than DOUBLE the previous requirement, and higher than over 75% of the entire population.
But don't worry. Those illegal immigrants can continue coming in for free, and be housed and paid for with taxes. That's who we really need. Not a highly experienced, and much needed teacher with his successful brand director wife.
To be honest, England has too many native English people already, and certainly too many native-level English speakers who are ready-integrated and highly educated.
Fuck these guys amirite? lolz. Boot 'em out.
This decision by the powers-that-be was a desperate, futile attempt to gain popularity points before an upcoming election to STOP immigration. In doing so, they basically completely cut off about 25,000 spouses and 25,000 brits from entering. Which accounts for like... less than 5% of total immigration. About half that of illegal immigration.
Good job guys! Excellent smoke & mirrors.
Realistically, it was just the easiest donkey to punch to perhaps trick some sub-70 IQ 'tards that they're actually doing something useful, rather than actually destroying lives unnecessarily.
I signed a petition to stop this, but I know it's 100% useless, even if it did get enough votes. What tends to happen is one person brings it up in front of about 3 other party members who are there to voice their own petitions. And then they move on to the next subject. That's it. That's what 100,000 signatures gets you.
The Bottom Line
Tbh, I now just have to accept that my goals have been completely upended, and we can no longer go to England. I have to accept a life in China, as far as I can see. There will be no rollback. The opposition party who will absolutely come into power soon, haven't even voiced opinions against this - they are two sides of the same coin. Once something is made into law, they never un-do.
And, frankly, I don't even want to be in a country that actively pushes me away like this for the sake of some brownie points as they slowly swirl down the toilet into oblivion.
Let's be honest here, the country sucks: small, ugly and expensive houses, pathetically tiny salaries, dangerous cities, garbage public transport, completely dysfunctional health service, bankrupt councils, an overall economy poorer than Mississipi when excluding London, deserted high streets, laughably low productivity, and snobbish NIMBYs desperate to hold onto the long-dead romantic idea that the UK is still some kind of relevant power on the world stage.
The country is broken, its brittle bones are turning to dust before our very eyes, and the plague of people who don't give a damn are just sinking with the ship while pointing fingers at each other.
I'd like to say I'm just butthurt and saying this to make myself feel better, but truth is I've been telling myself these things for a long time. My plan to return to England was no epic glory a la Odysseus returning to Ithaca. It always was a begrudging move out of a necessity, mostly, to reconnect to my family, my aging parents.
But I also had other dreams. I dreamt for years that I could bring my old cat Smash home and give him a retirement garden to enjoy his last days with the nature he loves so much.
I wanted to give my wife a working culture that wasn't:
"9am-6pm... but also overtime until 3am, weekends, holidays, shower, and then some, for no extra pay"
I wanted to live without being a slave to a work visa, higher quality food ingredients, cleaner air, beautiful parks and lakes, a place to get a dog, all things going well, a child that can be properly supported and educated outside of the communist utopian educational system.
I wanted, oddly enough, to contribute to society and do my little part in turning it around with all the skills and money i've stored up over the years.
England has so much potential, but the politics is singlehandedly destroyed the place year after year, with nothing but decades of decline to come. Perhaps it's a blessing in disguise that I can no longer be there to burn alongside it.
In the meantime, I need to re-set all my plans and get settled in here. Maybe fly my mum over for another visit or something. I dunno.
/rant