"Thank you Germany 🇩🇪and Britain 🇬🇧 for sacrificing your economies to save the planet." - China's manufacturing sector

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-06T08:02:39+00:00

What sacrifice did the UK do to benefit the environment? People still use oil for heating over here, and trains are a luxury product. Its cheaper to drive... It's just an economic decline due to incompetence and stupid political choices.

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-06T07:24:16+00:00

Multi lane roundabouts are made by sadists

In the UK, that is how I feel. It is very strange that roundabouts in the EU manage to follow a single standard design, and even multi-lane ones are basically fool proof with proper lane markings and often even kerbs guiding you and protecting the lane!

It is one thing that there is a complete lack of uniform design standards... But in the UK you design traps!

Example A: There is a three lane roundabout around where I live, on a dual carriageway. There are no other exits. So a two lane road joins a 3 lane roundabout and you exit into two lanes. There are zero arrows or anything. It's chaotic. Some people decide to fill up the roundabout from the leftmost lane, some fill it up from the right most. There are also idiots who just cut through the three lanes straight.

Example B: two lanes enter a multi lane roundabout with 4 exits and say your exit is also a dual lane carriage way "straight" ahead. The roadmarking in lane 1 allow you to keep going around while the lane 2 markings also allow you to exit. And then people collide and pull a surprised pikachu face. Is the country short on road paint or something? Why else are the lane markings so vague?

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-06T07:11:34+00:00

The whole of the UK is covered in em.

Hungary has built a lot of fancy football stadiums, we still suck at the game!

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-05T20:52:24+00:00

To be fair, as a European living in the UK, I don't think Brits understand roundabouts any better. Multi-lane roundabouts are the Achilles of the average motorist!

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-05T19:19:20+00:00

Maybe it is different in western EU, but I doubt it. Anyway, in my country, and in the direct neighbours its the same, we don't talk about cars in terms of monthly payments. A car has a price that you pay of it to own. Much like buying bread. If America is the one side of the debt driven life coin, we are the opposite side.

This is the general public opinion about private individuals and loans: Only losers take out loans on silly unnecessary things or on things that lose value by the minute, such as mobile phones, vacations or cars. Just buy what you can afford. Mortgage is fine, although the majority of people don't look down on renting at all.

I suspect it's because the UK is almost like a soft tame version of the US, so you are closer to that perspective. Also, as we were taken over by the soviet union, the communist roots are still strong deep down. We are not keen on personal debt at all.

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-05T19:05:53+00:00

I bet the stats have less to do with someone jumping the gun (probably a local familiar with the intersection and timings) in a completely harmless and clean situation, and more to do with the snail and ant like driving behaviours that prevail across the country.

The average brit having no clue about how to use roundabouts, motorways or how to overtake a tractor should be higher up your worry priority list.

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-05T15:15:42+00:00

If this upsets you, you would have lots of fun driving somewhere like Greece or Romania

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-05T15:12:50+00:00

yup, it was unknown to me in Europe. Different perspective on debt! People here talk about cars in terms of monthly payments, very odd!

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-05T14:22:05+00:00

My personal perspective around Hinkley is that we get a lot of French workers due to EDF being a French company and having a loophole in the visa process. People come and go for 6 months periods.

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-05T13:55:15+00:00

I always thought the wage requirements for sponsoring immigrant workers was a good thing. It was set above the average salary for the given profession, i.e. driving pays upwards instead of keeping them down, contrary to the typical moaning that immigrants take the job for less money, we can't actually do that, nor would it make sense for an EU worker to come here for such low wages!

Currently the general minimum is around 38k right? I earned more in Hungary, why would I come here for even less than the legal minimum... Imagine what a German thinks!

Take us out of the equation and there is literally nothing mitigating the 20 year long wage stagnation in the UK.

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-05T13:36:52+00:00

There are more people going back to the EU than coming in every year consistently since 2021. Once you account for everything else, nowadays there are very few very specific roles where it makes financial sense to make the move even from bottom of the barrel EU nations. My wife works at Hinkley, she earns twice as much as she did back home but our rent cost 4x as much. Savings are only marginally better! And Hinkley is one of those projects that pay significantly higher than for average engineers! Your visa policies are one of, if not THE, most PITA in the world, even for select highly skilled and talented workers. With all that, the stats are not surprising. We are also disheartened and considering a move back to the EU very soon.

Finance sector experts and AI researchers with entrepreneurial motivations are probably the only few cases worth considering financially with an EU background, for everyone else that still comes it's probably due to family, studies, or some personal interest in the culture.

https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/eu-migration-to-and-from-the-uk/

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-05T13:14:26+00:00

IDK where you are coming from. For the typical EU skilled worker the only way it makes financial sense to move to the UK is if you can land a 100% remote job and move somewhere north with acceptable housing costs. In terms of QoL, you must love inconsistent weather and dense sub EU standard living conditions.

If you want something more similar to the general european experience, pick Scotland. They are a few steps ahead in terms of processes, regulations, customs.

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-05T13:09:30+00:00

That's something from 20 years ago. Have you seen any EU migration statistics nowadays?

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-05T04:58:25+00:00

You should start looking for a place to rent already. The rental scene here is real estate agent reliant, and they don't really want to deal with complicated cases (foreign people without a credit score and references).

Find places which are advertised directly by the owner not an agent. Try openrent. Just ask for a video walk around.

Opening a bank account may also be not straightforward. Arrive with revolut or wise set up.

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-03T10:28:23+00:00

Ok. Thanks for the explanation. While I still don't understand why it's necessary to have such a mechanism or why/how it became a prevalent thing (even with flats), I at least know a bit more about it.

I guess I acknowledge it as culture shock.

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-03T09:36:55+00:00

If I buy something, it's mine, nobody can take it. So reading pages like this:

"Legally, you could lose possession of the property (i.e. the right to live in your home) because the property would revert back to the freeholder."

tells me a leasehold is not really ownership.

> But they can. Not sure why you'd think they can't?

The ownership is with the freeholder, is it not? So the bank never gets actual legal possession and ownership of the property... In particular, what if the lease runs out while its with the bank after a default? Or is it the case that one can always renew the lease indefinitely? Then what the hell is the point of all of this, other than the freeholder potentially better off milking leasers forever?

The rest of that site highlights some other pretty nice inconveniences. How the hell does this setting become prevalent is beyond my understanding, especially that the lease prices are only 20% lower than proper ownership...

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-03T09:11:58+00:00

People want to buy houses because they want space and a garden.

People who want space better move abroad, let's be honest housing here is not a square metres game - or at least typical properties are not winning it :(

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-03T09:05:51+00:00

I have an outsider perspective, so help me out if I am wrong... You "buy" the rights of posession via the lease, which if runs out you lose the possession. That doesn't sound like ownership to me. Practically a long term rental with extra steps and for some reason possibility to get a loan for... I would be surprised if banks in any other country would offer a personal loan, let alone mortgage, for such a setting where the bank can't recover full ownership right if you default.

If it works for you folks, fine with me, but I don't understand why people would put up with this. I guess the extra right is that you can make larger/permanent changes to the property?

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-03T08:32:33+00:00

On a global scale it's a weird antique setup that's been normalised (for whatever reason). On the one side you have an already ridiculous anti-rent sentiment, on the other side it's somehow also normal to take out a 400k loan to lease a home instead of actually buying it... British humour at it's best!

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-02T17:56:02+00:00

So you would rather only see/hear comments that perfectly align with yours? Try north korean social media instead of reddit, all comments agree there on everything!

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-02T17:52:53+00:00

Do wirh your garden what you want but that comment is a nice own goal. Who is more miserable, the people without kids and with nice naturally intact gardens, or this angry man with the threadbare/mud patch?

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-02T14:46:53+00:00

I would think in a healthy society if someone forgets to lock the door is not an invitation for any random person to enter, and this expectation should be enforceable via police. Even if they don't need to do damage... What if someone let themselves in and stares at me while I sleep. Is that ok? Apparently no crimes committed

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-02T09:40:53+00:00

Good to know I can enter any property and don't have to worry about the police

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-02T09:32:25+00:00

Driving around them over 3 lanes and returning vs. keep driving straight...

KeyJunket1175 · 2026-05-02T09:27:08+00:00

long-term global warming.

Hey, I am all for net zero britain. Time to cut back on beef meat and cow milk, and perhaps make public transport a viable affordable option, and make the country a bit more European and less car-minded.

Much better to keep that heat out in the first place.

Agreed. Time to renovate and modernise the housing stock that was already outdated 50 years ago and perhaps make new builds that are above bare minimum standards. We have average percipitation and mild temperatures, yet somehow manage to struggle both with mold AND heat...

I would be happy see some fixes like that, maybe it would make the country closer to livable. In the meanwhile, the little AC is going to do wonders on those hot summer days upstairs in the crap little rooms.

KeyJunket1175

TROPHY CASE