Another five years
04 August 2026It was five year ago to the day that I boarded a flight and officially emigrated back to Britain with the intention of starting a post-Covid life, and so far in terms of long-term goals has mostly been a disappointment. In short not only do I think being in Manchester is very likley not my long-term future but I also have serious doubts whether Britain as a whole is somewhere where I will still be living let alone working by the end of the decade. Thinking about reasons that ultimately caused me to emigrate in the first place draws the conclusion that fundamentally nothing has changed for the better and that my personal history may well repeat itself.
Overseas then London
Emigrating to New Zealand was an act of rationalised impulsiveness but it is hard to see how else I could have got the energy to clear the deck in the way I did and go on to transform my life. While my time in New Zealand in itself was an objective failure the time spent living within Europe but outside Britain so far feels like the best phase of my life. Following my lockdown-induced break-down and break-up, problems with a property purchase were too much to deal with and made me conclude the whole local accomodation market should not be part of a post-Covid life. Therefore the thing to do was clear the deck and start over in a new city with London being the only realistic choice.
For all its faults Britain was de-facto fully open by mid-2021 and given subsequent events it proved to be the only way I could have got on with my life. Lifestyle in 2021–2022 and to a lesser extent 2023 was a massive psychological back-lash but realistically there was little more nor different that could have been done in achieving my objectives. Yes there are a few minor regrets of things I did and did not do but this is with hindsight and they are part of the package with life. Ultimately the idea of a new life in London had started to turn sour by late-2022 and finally considered a failure although with the passage of time it now appears less of a write-down than I thought.
Manchester life
Moving across the country to Manchester was out of necessity and on the whole the first year was me trying to do too much in the face of under-estimated pressures, with a weight-loss regime being by far the biggest failing. The first quarter of this year was a combination of unusually cold and wet weather which made any sort of social life building a non-starter, coupled with the company having issues with client contracts ending before follow-up work agreements had been signed off. It is not unusual for the run-up to the end of the financial year to be a bad time and six weeks off-charge of which one I was away at conference anyway was good going considering how badly things are going with the economy in general. The combination of personal and internal projects done at the time were in themselves quite interesting but with the last few whistle-stop trips for some final touches to dental work the quarter ended up being non-memorable.
The half-yearly review which was supposed to be in April but got delayed until well into May was the usual formality but it de-facto also became a mile-stone, as it starkly showed the extent that Manchester was not really a home. It was just hours after getting back to Manchester and on a back-of-envelope calculation was it only being the 19th day in 48 I had been in the city, and on top of this was already being booked to be away two of the next three subsequent weekends. Aside from a brief period last summer there had so far never really been any point where Manchester felt like the place I preferred to stay and longer-term thinking came down to the logistics of moving and further minimising what was kept in the apartment. In short I had long given up on building a social life in Manchester outside of work and my innate desire to be in the city may have passed a point of no return as it had done with Bristol.
The co-location has always been a strain and as things stand am doubtful whether to continue with it for more than another year, particularly as I am essentially rekindling social circles in London in favour of anything in Manchester. However the one thing holding me back is knowing that I would probably need to co-locate anyway in order to avoid going back to pre-Covid commutes that were a strain in their own way, as crossing London can take almost as long as doing Piccadilly-Euston.
The economics
The 2025 autumn statement made me look back at things I wrote both publicly and privately about the economic state of Britain, most notably how everything left was government spending, which is what begged the question: What has changed? In particular was looking into what most influenced my 2012 decision to leave Britain because if they caused me to leave once they can cause me to leave again — in fact this is something that actually nearly happened back in 2024 as shortly after accepting my current rule I received an invitation to a final on-site with the CEO for a job in Belgium. My conclusions are not good.
The biggest mistake back in the aftermath of the 2008 crash was how SMEs were left high-and-dry and since they are the life-blood of any economy it is no surprise GDP-per-capita has been stagnant ever since. With this in mind the 2025 autumn statement was the turning point for me with another smashing of businesses coupled with a raid on pensions, and events since show the extent that the British state simply does not care about those who have to make it in the private sector. Even more egregious was this shortly being followed by the winding down petition of Wootzano by supposedly UK startup supporting Innovate UK and this is far from unique with my brother’s own company being killed by a civil service who are are clueless about business.
With a pervasive attitude towards business that is actively antagonistic the country is completely uninvestable, and it is of no surprise there is now a 1970’s style brain-drain where the huge majority of those leaving being under 35. I am no longer an under-35 but back when I was exactly the same thing is what I did, so I can understand why the next generation are taking such action. So far I am in the lucky position of working for a company on contracts that are overwealmingly dependent on clients in other countries, but there are chills going through the IT industry world-wide so it cannot be taken for granted that this will continue indefinitely. With the UK in such a bad position I am under no illusion that it may be me going to overseas work rather than overseas work coming to me.