Public libraries are OK in the UK but nothing special, in my experience. Surprisingly, I'd say that in the US (not a country well known for quality public services) public libraries are better than England. I've no complaint about county library services in Norwich & Norfolk, but they really are not as good as US libraries I use, from impoverished little towns & villages to the great city systems such as Chicago, Boston and NYC ... just to name three big city libraries that I've used.

In Wales at least they're closing many of the smaller ones. Do you remember the librRy van that used to come round to the more isolated villages?

I worked on one for a while back in the mid 1980s in Wiltshire. tt was the only chance many people had to get to a library, especially with kids, and it was freat to see how excited the kids were to get into the van and be able to choose books for themselves. A lovely time in my life that I will never forget.

I loved the library van . Time in a library used to be my favorite evening or Saturday morning pastime.

Not too keep on the modern libraries of today. Far too much activity and distraction and not enough hush and books for my liking.

We've not really got a half tidy library where we are. In fact the local community run library, which is funded by donation and grants and is run by volunteers is the better one.

Yes, it was a lifeline for me and my sisters before any of us were 10 years old !
In today's atmosphere where little kids aren't able to get to public libraries the return of the library van would be a godsend and who knows perhaps reading and writing skills would improve?

They still have a library van where I live.

I recall being surprised and delighted when I moved to the US at the quality of public libraries. And now the central one I use in SF is superb.

This is a very enlightened comment. My wife and I too have been living abroad for so long that we don't identify with any particular nationality. Mind you, we have lived (for three years or more, each time) in several countries, and after six or seven years of living in foreign places (we were officially Australians at the time) we sloughed off our patriotism and tribal loyalty and decided we were "expats", who belonged to a notional "expat nation". (We became English ten or eleven years ago, but that hasn't changed anything.)

We have lived for 37 years in this Caribbean Island, and our friends are a broad cross-section of the expat community. Mostly English, but not overwhelmingly so. Wherever we visit, overseas, we instinctively seek out people who are currently or formerly expats. It is usually hard to get on the same wavelength as people who have never lived outside their home countries. Many other permanent expats tell me that.

With respect you seem to be doing exactly what you say you are not???

Your friends are "expats", "Mostly English", isn't this a 'colonial' attitude--making use of a country for 37 years and only mix with 'your own kind'
If expats to the UK do this they are vehemently condemned for not integrating!!

As DuoPats we belong equally to two countries, in UK most of our friends are British origin and in India we probably don't even see a British or European face for months at a time, unless we happen to travel to a tourist area.

As in above posts I agree libraries and NHS are positive in UK, I would add traffic rules, and ---dare I say supermarkets

Ah well - much depends on the ratio of expats to natives. Here, expats (from a total of something like a hundred nations) comprise about two thirds of the total population (of 50,000)! I don't think you'd have the same ratio wherever you are in India.

Having said that - wherever we've lived, we've felt a natural inclination to associate with people of the same general culture. In the south of Spain, we didn't mix with the gangsters or the drunks; in London, we tend not to mix with the cock sparrows; and so on. In India, we probably wouldn't find enough in common with natives of the lowest castes. Ours is a personal inclination, of course; everybody probably doesn't feel the same.

Casteism is illegal in India. I suppose the word 'class' is more appropriate.
Are you suggesting that we mix only with low class people, gangsters and drunks ??????

India has academics (Nobel prize winners), scientists, surgeons, lawyers, teachers, military people, politicians etc etc. just as anywhere else. Would they not be good enough for you??
60% of the people are termed 'middle class' as are my Indian family, but we happily 'mix' with people of more humble origins.

(I assume your post is a joke).

Your optimism is admirable.

You are trying to stir up controversy where there is none, by drawing illogical conclusions. Don't be silly. You seem to be way out of your depth. Let it rest.

In what way "out of my depth", perhaps you could explain? Which conclusions are illogical??