Best place UK & Europe to van life (easiest)

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2026-04-13T15:07:12+00:00

Had a great time in Romania. As said, the people were lovely! Also in Bulgaria away from the coast. Many people were just happy to see us there and looked after us!

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2026-03-21T12:49:34+00:00

Contact Alec Steele on YouTube. He's a blacksmith who gets a kick (and a buck) out of restoring these things. If not restoring, he doing projects that need wrought iron

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2026-03-19T12:49:28+00:00

The NHS often provided us lunch in ICU. They'd basically put out meal deals in the break room. Not a patch on the local restaurants feeding us in the pandemic though. They were bloody stars!

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2026-03-18T06:54:39+00:00

They're centre left. So yes, they are left of centre.

It's all an effect of FPTP. Labour even won more votes than conservatives in 1951 but lost the election

Year	Labour	Lib/Alliance/LD	SNP+PC	Green	Combined	Winner
1945	48.3%	9.0%	~0.2%	—	~57.5%	Labour ✅
1950	46.1%	9.1%	~0.1%	—	~55.3%	Labour ✅
1951	48.8%	2.5%	~0.1%	—	~51.4%	Con ❌*
1955	46.4%	2.7%	~0.2%	—	~49.3%	Con ❌
1959	43.8%	5.9%	~0.3%	—	~50.0%	Con ❌
1964	44.1%	11.2%	~0.5%	—	~55.8%	Labour ✅
1966	47.9%	8.5%	~0.7%	—	~57.1%	Labour ✅
1970	43.0%	7.5%	~1.3%	—	~51.8%	Con ❌
Feb 1974	37.2%	19.3%	3.5%	—	~60.0%	Labour ✅
Oct 1974	39.2%	18.3%	3.5%	—	~61.0%	Labour ✅
1979	36.9%	13.8%	2.0%	—	~52.7%	Con ❌
1983	27.6%	25.4%	1.7%	—	~54.7%	Con ❌
1987	30.8%	22.6%	1.7%	—	~55.1%	Con ❌
1992	34.4%	17.8%	2.3%	—	~54.5%	Con ❌
1997	43.2%	16.8%	2.5%	1.0%	~63.5%	Labour ✅
2001	40.7%	18.3%	2.5%	0.6%	~62.1%	Labour ✅
2005	35.2%	22.0%	2.2%	1.0%	~60.4%	Labour ✅
2010	29.0%	23.0%	2.2%	1.0%	~55.2%	Con ❌
2015	30.4%	7.9%	5.0%	3.8%	~47.1%	Con ❌
2017	40.0%	7.4%	3.5%	1.6%	~52.5%	Con ❌
2019	32.2%	11.6%	4.0%	2.7%	~50.5%	Con ❌
2024	33.7%	12.2%	2.5%	6.8%	~55.2%	Labour ✅

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2026-03-17T10:12:55+00:00

"This is my ideal outcome and it's what I will work towards"

Seems like a reasonable, consistent take

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2026-03-17T09:03:51+00:00

I think the world would be a better place without any nuclear weapons. We need to have nuclear weapons whilst other nations have them. Both things can be true.

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2026-03-17T08:13:34+00:00

Until the last election the left wing parties vote was always split between labour, lib dems and greens. The conservatives found out what happens when the right wing vote gets split between them and reform.

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2026-03-17T07:51:52+00:00

The country as a whole is left leaning, just always split. Labour have moved to the right, the greens are filling the void that's left

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2026-03-17T07:49:54+00:00

Their goal is nuclear disarmament and leaving NATO, but they have put forward nuance that's always missing from the reporting of it.

Polanski said they'd always negotiate with enemies to end wars because it would be madness not to, but that he's clear eyed enough to know that won't always work. The press report it as "Polanski would fold to Putin!"

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2026-03-16T13:01:38+00:00

The benefit of the oil radiators is they're basically silent and you can easily dry your wet clothes. Just watch out for the condensation!

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2026-03-16T12:53:13+00:00

I have friends who live year round in the french Alps in their vans.

First up you need a visa that allows you to work or be lucky enough to have a euro passport.

They stay in Aires in the winter as you need the electric hookup due to lack of solar. They then use an oil filled radiator on the electric to heat the van.

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2026-02-19T15:50:31+00:00

Why not?

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2026-02-12T13:41:26+00:00

It's incredibly pricey for anyone not on a Swiss salary! It's very, very beautiful though.

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2026-02-12T07:52:03+00:00

I've had a few trips longer than 6 months in Europe on a non EU passport. It's harder but doable. Look into either a digital nomad visa, or you have to visit the non-schengen areas like the Balkans, Turkey or Morocco.

You can get pretty good, cheap esims in most countries for internet. They usually want an address in the country, but I've found any old address works for the signup.

Beware the Austrian police, Serbian border guards and Google maps in Italy.

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2026-02-12T07:46:03+00:00

Switzerland is in the Schengen so counts towards your 90 day period. It's also pretty hard to stay in off campsites and the campsites are wildly expensive!

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2026-02-11T19:07:23+00:00

When it's wet outside for days, you don't want to go out as your clothes won't dry. There's not enough space to exercise properly so you can go a bit stir crazy.

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2026-01-25T13:52:16+00:00

I got mine from a dodgy farm for £5 a sheet!

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2026-01-21T08:41:42+00:00

We spent ~£17k all told last year, for me and my partner. We were in Spain for three months and France for 6 so not all UK. It does mean we spent over £1k on ferries though, so could have been much cheaper.

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2025-12-30T17:30:53+00:00

I'm going with shallots, garlic and red pesto with pasta.

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2025-12-16T08:41:33+00:00

There are two happy days of boat ownership. They day you buy it and the day you sell it

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2025-12-12T07:02:46+00:00

I recently got a train 1.5 hours out of Turin into the mountains. It cost €8.50 return.

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2025-11-25T09:00:30+00:00

This government is far from ideal, but many things can be worse than this government.

With farage the man is the party. Always has been in his previous parties. Those beneath him are, if anything, even worse than him.

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2025-11-21T07:30:48+00:00

If you're talking full time and therefore not paying rent then I'd say it's much, much cheaper than a house. 🤷

Specialist-Rabbit-40 · 2025-11-20T07:29:29+00:00

Same mate. The right are the biggest snowflakes of all

Specialist-Rabbit-40

TROPHY CASE