Best Place to Live in ENgland??

Hi there!

After carefully thinking I'm planing to move to England.

I was wondering, what is the best place to live in England, when it comes to these criterias

- easy to find a job
-friendly and nice city
-not that expensive and good wages so you can have a good standard of living??

London?Manchester?Liverpool? Really dont have a clue!

Would be great to get some advice!

Thanx!

London and the Isle of Wight! Google them!

Good luck

London is where its at there is everything there,no matter what your tastes are.Other good places are Bristol,Brighton,,Oxford,Edinburgh and Manchester.Dont go to Portsmouth or the Isle of Man-they are both dumps

Hull or Middlesboro

Another idea would be Belfast Northern Ireland, it's now one of the best UK cities to live in, There was a lot of troulble there but now it's safer than most of the UK and everyone is very friendly. It has everything the main land UK has and more, a weekend trip is cheap and will give you an idea of how things work there, I live in London for two years and I must admit Belfast is 10 times safer and friendlier, I like the UK mainland but it can be a dangerous place with so much violent crime these days, try something different, you may like it.

heya!
I would definitely say up north somewhere like, manchester, leeds, york, they are all much friendlier and cheaper for rent etc although they all still have great job oppurtunities, restaurants,nightlife, and culture.good luck!

Id say Brighton, its London by the sea. Its a fascinating city. Though it can be quite pricey for buying houses, renting is ok.

Up north is a lot cheaper and with this so are the salaries. The south is a great place to be, its easy access to London, which has great connections.

Brighton also has plenty of jobs, have a look on google and see what you think.

All the best

I'd say there is no where in England that meets your criteria.

Cognomen, I do not usually post on the Thorn Tree unless I am asking for advice or doing my best to provide helpful advice to others but I feel compelled to comment on your remark above and other remarks I have read of yours posted on different threads - your response to the person desperately needing help over a rental problem in Canada, for example. Making snide, pointless, bigoted and unhelpful remarks upsets people and wastes the time of those needing a quick answer, particularly those in a tight spot or who are stressed by certain situations. If you feel unable to honour the friendly and helpful ethos of the Thorn Tree I suggest you refrain from posting in the future.

Beck

I suggest you mind your own business beck.

If you have no comment to make to the OPs post, don't bother to waste his/her time with comments about what someone else (me) has to say in response to the question asked.

I have given my honest opinion about whether anywhere in England fits the criteria the OP has provided. I don't think anywhere in England does. Obviously I don't have a high opinion of England as a place to live and work. That opinion is based on experience living in the UK. The OP is free to take my opinion into consideration or not as s/he pleases.

You have contributed nothing towards helping the OP make his/her decision on the other hand.

Oh, and Tiago, with regards to living in England, probably one thing to do would be to decide what sort of work you are looking for and then decide where to live, as some areas specialise in certain careers more than others. For example, if hospitality is your bag, a major centre with a big student population such as Leeds, Glasgow, Manchester, Bristol or Birmingham might be suitable. Media jobs tend to be London-based, or in Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast, Dublin. If you are after a quieter time, taking advantage of the beautiful UK countryside might be better - the Cotswolds, Norfolk, Shropshire, Yorkshire and Derbyshire all offer stunning outdoor scenery and friendly smaller towns and villages, if that sounds tempting.

Classic city life can probably be found at a similar standard and cost in all the major cities - Ireland can be more expensive though. I would get an LP, read up on the country, pick a few locations to visit and take a few weeks traveling round and deciding what you like the most. Travel is, theoretically, cheap and easy, especially if you use buses and coaches like the National Express. Brighton sounds like a good choice above - seaside, close to London and full of interesting bars, shops and things to do. Spent 5 years in Edinburgh and now live in Bristol, although posting from India, and can highly recommend both - great music, surrounding countryside, places to eat, friendly people to hang out with, plenty of job opportunities and close to other interesting cities and both are a few hours from the sea. Good luck!

Beck

Read above, Cognomen. While you were airing your incredibly valid and enlightened response, I was thinking of helpful advice for a move to England. It takes time to be nice. Glad you found the time to travel to everywhere in England and can now rule out the entire country as a travel and work destination.

Beck

Cognomen you sound very bitter. Why are you so pissed off with the UK?

I'm not pissed off with the UK qwba, I just don't consider it a good place to live and work as I said. What's hard to understand about that. If I made up a list of my top 10 countries to live and work in, it wouldn't make the list.

Beck, blow it out your ear. I have lived in the UK (7 years) and travelled it extensively. Besides the crap weather it is the culture I fiind not worth putting up with. The UK is the only country I know of where lying in the street drunk is a national passtime. Where 25% of people lived in subsidized housing and consider it normal. Where generations of people are happy to live on welfare and where schools have to pay danger pay. Where practically every industry has failed due to a lack of ability to realize that doing the same only produces more of the same. Where a father would encourage a son to get a job in a Glasgow shipyard when it is obvious to anyone with half a brain that the shipyards are a dead industry. I could go on and on.

The UK is a nation of poor people who think they are middle class, living on past glories ad nauseum on their 'tellys'. It has been going slowly downhill since ww2 and the pace is accelerating. It is a country where over 50% of the people said they would move to another country to retire if they could. The rats are leaving the sinking ship.

Cognomen that is a huge pile of ignorant, prejudiced and exagerated crap, and it shows how little you understand the country you lived in for seven years. Yes, we have our problems, but what country doesn't? You obviously had an unpleasant time here and while I'm sorry about that, I am tempted to suggest it was less because of what's wrong with England and more to do with what's wrong with you. In my experience bitter, miserable people will have a bitter, miserable time wherever they are.

The point really is that the OP didn't ask for advice about whether to move to England. He/she has already decided to come and just wants to know where to live. Your rant about how much you hate the whole country is neither relevant nor helpful and just makes the OP nervous about moving here.

I don't care how established a member of this forum you are... it's never necessary to be so rude and aggressive about someone else's home.

Tiago - I would recommend having a think about whether you're after a busy, exciting, expensive big city, or a small town in the countryside (where it might be cheaper, and easier to make friends, but could be harder to find a job). Then buy a big pile of guide books and read up so you get a good idea of the characters of the different counties and the places in them.

Then come back to us with what you're thinking and ask some more questions!

kitamaiyu, first I would like to hear just exactly what I wrote that was ignorant, prejudiced or exaggerated. Second, I did not have an unpleasant time. I had quite a good time but only because I was able to ignore the downsides of the country. Third, England is not the UK, it is simply a part of the UK. I referred to the UK as a whole. The assumption that England is the UK is an assumption by the English that many Welsh and Scots find extremely annoying. Fourth, the UK is not 'someone else's home', it is the country I was born in and thank God, left. The 7 years I referred to was simply a long visit. That means that I can say what I please about the UK. Fifth, the OP did not ask for advice nor did I offer any on whether to move to England or not. The OP asked where best met his criteria. I answered that question with, nowhere. Finally, I am neither bitter nor miserable. I just tend to call a spade a spade. I do find however that whenever someone doesn't like a comment they tend to decide the person who made the comment is negative, bitter, miserable, etc. rather than simply telling it like it is.

Now, tell me, how many countries other than the UK (England is not a country) have you lived in that might qualify you to have an opinion on how it compares? "Yes, we have our problems, but what country doesn't?" You obviously have no idea just how badly the UK compares in so many ways to so many other countries.

I said England because the OP asked about England, therefore this thread is ABOUT England. I apologise if I hadn't noticed that you were in fact slating the whole of the UK. I am of course, as a Brit, perfectly aware that England is not the same as the UK, and it is ridiculously patronising of you to assume that I'm not.

And yes, I have lived in a number of countries (across the UK, in Europe, and further afield) and they all have their upsides and their downsides. There are many things I have preferred abroad, and there are many things I have found to be better here. I think you can find things to love anywhere if you go with an open heart and mind and try to actually understand the people and their history - the point of travel is surely to learn why different cultures are the way they are, not to slate everything that's different to how you would do it.

The point is still that the OP did not ask whether to move to England, he/she is ALREADY coming. Therefore ranting on about how it's the most hideous country in the world is pointless.

And no, I'm not going to get into trying to correct each of your ridiculous criticisisms. You clearly aren't open to learning anything so it would be a pointless exercise.

And you will notice it's not just me commenting that you sound bitter. So it's nothing to do with me personally not liking what you have to say - you just sound bitter!

"I'm not going to get into trying to correct each of your ridiculous criticisisms." LOL Then what exactly do you think you are writing about. Never mind, I'll correct your ridiculous criticisms anyway.

1. You weren't writing about 'this thread', you were writing about my comments.
2. Patronising in the sense that you mean it, refers to treating somebody as if he or she were less intelligent or knowledgeable than yourself. Your right I was being patronising. What else could I be? You are wrong however in your assumption that I thought you didn't know the difference between England and the UK. What I took exception to was your writing AS IF there was no difference.
3. I'd like to hear about the things you have found to be better in the UK.
4. I do travel with an open heart and mind and did find things to love in the UK not the least of which is my wife. Where exactly did you read in my comments that I don't travel that way?
5. Where did you read that I was slating what is 'different'. I can agree that not everything that is different is bad. However, I cannot agree that anything bad is just different. A preponderance of drunks in the streets on a Friday night is not just different, it's simply not a good thing.
6. I did not say England is the most hideous country in the world. It isn't even a country come to that. I simply said it didn't fit the criteria the OP gave, in my opinion. You are the one who has decided my opinion translates to calling England hideous.
7. I am very open to learning and always have been. I also don't go around with blinders on and unable to see my own country as it truly is. It doesn't appear you can say the same.
8. You're right there is another poster who thinks they can 'hear' how the written words sound. Try this exercise kitamaiyu. Say the sentence, 'I have no reason to dislike you', with a smile on your face and in a pleasant tone. Now try saying the same sentence with your teeth gritted. You can't 'hear' tone in written words alone. You need sound to hear them.

Good Lord, do you really expect me to answer your numbered points one by one? OK, I'll try. I obviously didn't get away with trying to sum things up last time.

1 - As I have already said, I hadn't noticed that you were referring to the whole of the UK. The thread is about England, so I took your response to be about England. I have already apologised for this. Does it matter? Are you worried that any Scots, Welsh or Northern Irish readers will miss the fact that you are insulting them too?
2 - I was not writing as if there is no difference between England and the UK, as I have already said, the thread is about England, so I took your response to be about England. I hadn't realised you were talking about the UK. Do we have this straight yet?
3 - I'm sorry, I can't be bothered to list all the things that I have found to be better in the UK than in some of the other places I've been. It's late at night. Just believe me when I say I have lived in some places where people envy us the things that we take for granted every day.
4 - I'm glad you did find things to love in the UK (especially your wife!) but are you serious when you ask what in your posts led me to think this wasn't the case?????
5 - No, drunks on the street is not a good thing. We don't think it's a good thing. But we're hardly the only country in the world to have them. And most people do not behave that way.
6 - No, you didn't use the word hideous. It was my word to sum up the impression you gave of the UK. And will you please stop trying to show off your understanding of UK geography - everyone over five understands this stuff. No England isn't technically a country, it's a part of Britain and the UK. But yes, we do call it that in day-to-day speech, as we do Scotland and Wales. How do you expect us to refer to them? Administrative regions? Don't be silly. They were separate countries for a long time before they were joined in a union, and for all we have in common, we have very different histories and cultures. Try standing in a Scottish pub and telling them that Scotland is the same country as England and see how far you get.
7 - I can see my country as it is - there are good things and bad things. Like I said before, I think this is the case with most places. The fact that I'm not completely negative doesn't mean I have "blinders on".
8 - You are right that it's hard to hear tone in written posts, so perhaps I took your post to be more aggressive and rude than you meant it to be. If so, I apologise. But you must admit... phrases like "The UK is a nation of poor people who think they are middle class" just come across as offensive! If you didn't mean to be, perhaps you could be more careful in future. Or say something like "sorry, I didn't mean to sound rude".

I wasn't going to comment on this, because I didn't want things to get heated, but actually I'm pssed off now so what the hell...

" Patronising in the sense that you mean it, refers to treating somebody as if he or she were less intelligent or knowledgeable than yourself. Your right I was being patronising. What else could I be?"

Am I reading that right? You're saying you had no option but to treat me as "less intelligent or knowledgeable than yourself" ie, I am less intelligent or knowledgeable than you? Who the *** do you think you are?

And PS... If you are so intelligent, you would know that "your" means belonging to, "you're" means you are.

The UK isa nation of poor people who think they are middle class kitamaiyu. That isn't being rude or an insult, it is a simple statement of fact. A check on the income by percentage of population (not the same as average income) will quickly confirm that. The majority of people in the UK are poor. There is a shrinking middle class which has been shrinking since WW2 and there is a small percentage of people who are well off, which has held fairly steady since WW2. The fact is that many of those who are actually poor don't realize they are. They think they are middle class based on measures from the past. They can take a holiday in Spain for 2 weeks for example. Even 30 years ago that would have been a measure of someone being middle class but today almost anyone can afford it. The real measure would be can they take a holiday where 60% or so of the population cannot afford to take a holiday. So for example can they afford £10k for a 2 week holiday in the French Polynesian islands. That would be middle class today. Well off? Well off would be someone who can afford to rent Necker Island at around £25k per night.

Things are not getting heated kitamiayu. At least not on my end. I'm quite unemotional about this whole exchange.

Yes I was patronising as it appears I have no choice other than to be. Would you suggest I treat you as an equal when I don't consider you to be equal? As for who I think I am, I'm me. You see you are still reading implications into what I write, such as the intent to insult. I can assure you there is none but it would be insulting to the intelligence you do have, to pretend to treat you as an equal when I don't consider you one, don't you think?

Yes 'your' is possessive and 'you're' means you are. My thinking, composing and writing are sometimes faster on the keyboard than my simultaneous proof-reading. I type at around 80 wpm but that isn't fast enough to keep up with what I am ready to write, so there is a definite time lag between where I am in my miind, what is appearing on the screen and my proofreading of what has been typed so far. Speech recognition software is even slower so that's no answer. Bottom line, I sometimes miss a mis-spelling in my proofing. C'est la vie.

I've no doubt you are probably a nice, average person. Statistically that is the most likely possibility. I'm not average however by whatever measure you wish to use. Again, a simple statement of fact, but no doubt you will interpret that as bragging. Tell me, if you had well above average intelligence and were aware of it, would you go around saying, 'oh gee folks, I'm just an average guy'? If you did far better than average in your professional life would you go around saying, 'oh gee folks, I guess I've just been lucky'? It isn't bragging to simply state a proven fact but it is often taken that way by others. Saying you are not better in some way than others when you know you actually are doesn't make others any better in whatever way but it may lead them to think they are as capable as you are when in fact they are not and thinking they are may get them in trouble. I'd rather just tell it like it is. You don't have to like it, you don't have to agree with it but I have the right to do it.

England is just not on my list of places I'd want to live kitamaiyu. If I were from a third world country it might be but I'm not from a third world country. If I were poor, uneducated and hadn't been exposed to anything better it might be, but none of those apply to me either. The thing about having blinders on kitamaiyu is that by definition you cannot see beyond them.

Your arrogance astounds me. Your assumption that you of superior intelligence to the rest of us astounds me. Your ill-informed opinions , dressed up as "fact" astound me.

I am going to leave it at that.

I have not been here for a good while, but I see WW is back on form. He gets some kind of kick from winding up other posters who are trying to be helpful. It used to add a bit of interest but for one so intelligent, his opinions seem to have been set some time ago and need updating. I don't believe anyone in England would consider themselves 'middle class' (an outdated concept really), just because they can afford two weeks in Spain. (Maybe that was the case in the sixties). Those people you refer to have probably taken early retirement, benefitted from the house price boom and gone to live there full time on the proceeds anyway ;-).

Don't be put off OP, life here in England can be as rich and diverse as you want it to be. No sweeping generalisation can convey an experience of any country, there are opportunities here and you make your own luck.

As a previous poster said, define your preferences and post again. Then you can narrow your options to meet your requirements.

I see that BP (WW) has had an especially boring weekend.

Tell us more about your vaunted early retirement and what wonderful leisure activities you do with it.

Oh MsMitty, just when I had this one well wound up you have to show up and spoil my fun.

Yeah, you're right, they have all moved to Spain. What do you think will happen when the 50% plus who want to retire to another country have all moved?

Im probably a bit late replying to this before it descended into patriotic chaos.. but if you work in finance and are an outdoorsy person, a good choice is the Isle of Man. Good pay, very low tax, beautiful scenery. Not an abundance of nightclubs but judging by some of the comments above, thats not always a good thing. Beaches, mountains, glens, lots of outdoor sports. :)

many, many, australians and new zealanders are on their way, as we speak...........

Many, many Australians and New Zealanders are on there way where mccutcheon??

If it is to the UK then you have you facts wrong as I know that atleast in Australia that we take four time the amount of Brits applicants to the WHV program than Britan takes Aussies. We also have what I consider a huge problem in that it seems we have about 1.5mil Bits living in our country that just wont seem to go home.

There are a lot of people leaving the UK, especially to retire. High house prices have enabled people to trade their flat in London for a spacious villa on the Costa del Sol. However, there are still more people arriving than leaving, a large number of them from the new EU states.

Anyway, back to the question. Middlesborough is cheap but supposedly has a problem with pollution from the factories. I wouldn't live there. My native West Country is beautiful but the wages are lower than average and accommodation costs are higher. Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Liverpool are supposed to be on the up and worth checking out. I know you asked about England, but some of the Scottish and Welsh cities may be better value for money than much of England and may fulfill more of your criteria.

Cognomen, if you had "quite a good time" in the UK it would be helpful to hear what you did like as a reference point to all that you didn't. Your posts do make you sound bitter, whether you intend that or not. And you may not see it as bragging, but you are the only person I've seen mentioning their intelligence on Thorn Tree. Surely it should speak for itself? Lighten up, for your own sake. As it is, you're just confirming my belief that money can't buy happiness.