Unhappy with my PhD program in my home country, thinking about applying to another university in UK My problem is a bit unusual and I would love to get some advice…

I'm a first year PhD student in social-sciences and I already got my proposal approved. I moved back to my home country (where I am currently doing a PhD) after completing an undergraduate and an MSc. I am very unhappy here. 

I would like to have a future as an academic. The only reason I decided to a PhD in my home country and not abroad was because I was determined to try, stay, and make it work here, but recently I been thinking it was a mistake. I am thinking more and more about discontinuing my program here and applying for doctoral studies in the UK, as a new student (after a bit of online research I found that they rarely accept a transfer and it is best to start as a new student). 

I would love to get your thoughts regarding my situation, 


I am considering sending an email to a potential supervisor but I am not sure how to explain why I want to drop-out of my current PhD program without talking my university down? How do you suggest I do that?
Did anyone had a similar experience or have some advice?
It happens that people change their PhD programs (I know a few.)

Basically what you lose is:


Time (usually you need to start from the scratch),
Relationship with advisor (the latter is not always the case).


If, for any reason, the first year was bad, it is rather unlikely that the next ones will be better (I have never met anyone who is enjoying PhD more and more with each year...). Moreover, if you don't like it, maybe your advisor does not like it either and eventually you won't be able to finish at all.

But beware - "grass is greener...". You can experience the same problems in other places. So here are the most important things:


What is not working?
Do you have any reasonable argument that in the target place such thing is better?


(Anyway - if you are very unhappy after one year (of 3-5 more years to come), then just change it to another PhD or to something different (don't disregard other careers). It's better to end up with "wasted" years or a "suboptimal" career than hanging on a tree.)

HOW to do that is a different question (or questions - because it involves both application to a new program and quitting your current one). See e.g.:


current PhD applicant applying to another university
Apply to PhD after expulsion from another
Switching from one area of graduate study to another?