The 'Trainspotting' actor - who recently completed a 15,000-mile motorcycle ride around Africa with his actor friend Charley Boorman - revealed the trip made him realize how "ludicrous" some of Britain's rules are.
He said in an interview with Britain's Radio Times magazine: "Our trip really opened my eyes to how insane the rules are everywhere in Britain - CCTV cameras everywhere, congestion charges - it's just a ludicrous nanny state. If anything drives me out of the country it will be that, not tax. I don't earn enough to worry about tax!
"Health and safety is out of control too. In Africa, garage attendants smoked as they filled the bikes up with petrol. I took great pleasure in that.
"The happiest people are often those who have the least. In Britain we're depressed yet have so much."