Ilkley and Sheffield apart, the fact is, Ilkley is still within the Metropolitan Borough of Bradford. I know the delusional residents of Ilkley don't like this and have managed a token effort to become part of the Leeds postal district and secure a Leeds postcode. My original point was that Ilkley is covered on the Bradford tourism site because is within their boundary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Bradford

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilkley

I lived in Ilkley for many years and always paid my council taxes to the City of Bradford Metropolitan Council and still would if I lived there.

http://www.bradford.gov.uk/bmdc/cont...kley_town_hall

I realize that Johnh, but in the context of this conversation (whether Bradford is a dump or not) it just seems that including Ilkley is giving the city an unfair advantage ;-)

I think you're taking my comment more seriously than it was actually intended.

LOL, I am sorry, I shouldnt always use Bradford as an exemplar of places I wouldnt really want to live. My tomtom has an aversion to Bradford and it has become a bit of a joke to me - it just refuses to get me smoothly through Bradford to get to my friend's place near Settle so I just avoid the place altogether now. Actually, as I said, my friend's son is more than happy to live there and he has bought a nice house and has a good job so I shouldnt knock it.

Since returning to the UK, it is obvious that just about every city/town has its good and bad areas. I am currently working in the Wolverhampton area and the suburbs go from homes worth millions of pounds to depressed areas where the buildings are boarded. Same with Bradford. And even the much touted Harrogate has its bad areas. It is not just the North either. I recently worked in Great Yarmouth and how the word "Great" became part of the name is a loss to me. I have never seen as many ankle monitoring bracelets in my life.

On a different note, the press speculates that George Osbourne is to be replaced by William Hague. Imagine, the country's finances being run by a Yorkshireman rather than a little snot from Eaton. Great, this is what we need.

Yes exactly. We are lucky to live in a village which has no bad areas but every city in the world has good and bad areas.

True. Although the "bad bits" of the towns round me have a way to go before they can match the bad bits of New York City

It would be my preference that arrogant posh boys from privileged backgrounds, no matter which county they come from, do not run the country.

The North / South divide is all relative.
In Norfolk recently I irritated someone coming from somewhere south of Norfolk and she accused me of being an uncouth Northerner, lol, given I have a somewhat mid-Atlantic accent.

There once was a Little Yarmouth thus the need to differentiate by naming the larger neighbour as Great. I haven't been there in 30 years despite it being only 50 miles away but I have heard it is not as desirable as it was when we holidayed there as a children.
However, travel up/down the coast a bit from Gt. Yarmouth and you will find rather expensive areas frequented by posh 2nd home owners.

Great post

Generally i find people who moan about the UK either

a) Never lived abroad and think that holiday to Spain is how life would be if they moved there

b) Looking for a reason not to stay in the UK, Saying how crap the UK is makes it easier

c) They live abroad are not really happy where ever they are but the thought of moving back to the UK makes them feel they failed, So find it easier to think and talk about all the bad things about the UK - Which every country has (crime, unemployment, stupid governments etc...)

d) They read the daily mail newspaper


Alot the time it is mostly D lol

The UK has a very self-deprecating press which can create a bad impression of the country. On the other hand, if you go to Canada, which has very similar problems to the UK, then the press portrays a "rainbows and lollipops" scenario.

I bought into this "UK is going to the dogs" scenario when I was much younger and went chasing dreams. Now realise that I would be much better off had I have stayed in the UK, although I suppose I have gained the life experience for what it is worth.

Better to read everything (including the Daily Mail) and form your own opinions.

In reality, I should have gone to Devon.

It is good to see Chris955 presenting such a positive viewpoint on the return to UK. It must give a llot of hope to a lot of people.

I do think the return experience does depend a lot on your circumstances, what resources you have available to you and how well you do your research beforehand.

There are lots of nice places and nice people in the UK and if you are lucky enough to find them (as Dorothy says) "there's no place like home".

If you return with little money and no job, then it can be difficult to avoid some of the things which people complain about in UK - it is a stark reality that there is a section of society who are literally anti-social/anti - society.

I hope that when I come back, which should be sometime soon, I am able to find an existence like that described by Chris955

Its been a while coming. Hope Hague finally gets the chance

Unfortunately those arrogant little posh boys pervade and make things very difficult whenever they don't get their own way, all politics aside.

Thanks. From our point of view there are far more positives about living in the UK than negatives.
Of course there is anti social behaviour, there was in Australia too but we havent seen any since being here.
We were lucky in that we could to a degree pick where we wanted to live and we had a fair amount of money to do this.
For the first couple of weeks we found ourselves actively looking for the bad things we had been warned about without much success We didnt see miserable people, bad service, gangs on street corners.
England for us is still the England we have always loved.

I rang the council to set up paying Council Tax yesterday and have never laughed so much in my life! A complete "off the wall" conversation with the guy on the other end, instead of somebody reading through a script. It was fun and made me feel so at home, and almost lessened the sting of council tax!

What a load of bollocks. Have lived in 5 countries. Just because someone prefers not to live in the UK doesn't make them any of your pathetic choices. It means their lives are better somewhere other than the UK.