Originally Posted by daven2505

£140 PY for the BBC is amazing value compared with the crap Charter cable put out. I'd pay that just for Andrew Marr & Newsnight. Also it makes you aware how advanced SKY is back in the UK. Today I have just turned off most of my cable because it is dire!!

Watching the Tour de France on Versus Channel was just a nightmare with ads every second so I gave up watching on a 50" HD set & went to the laptop & streamed eurosport. Versus also for some reason think it is fine showing in primetime idiots hunting deer with crossbows.....my god how backwards is this place???

As for living here in MA its been 8 months for us now & we have had enough, the place is just not what you think it will be, its poorly run, the roads & bridges are falling apart, quality of food is so bad with so much salt & trans fats you gotta watch your blood pressure unless you shop at Wholefoods & wanna pay $300 to $400's for a weeky shop.
The lack of competition in the shops means that apart from Jeans & BBQ's even with a vat rate of 6.5% most things are the same price or much more than the UK.
Standard of driving is scary
Cost of living including heating & cooling our wooden framed house is vast & car insurance is some 60% higher than UK
Apart from 3 roads in Boston its all the bloody same, Malls, Dunking bloody Donuts & Starbucks as far as the eye can see & I know its a stereo type but the locals are very limited in their way of life it almost 1980 again.

Even at my age of 43 I on occasion still get asked for photo ID when I want a beer in a certain chinese restaurant yet I could go over the road into Dicks sporting goods & buy crossbows, guns & ammunition with little more than the photo ID............crazy!!!!!

As you can see its not worked out for us here in the US & to be honest we left the UK because were caught up in the broken Britian/Rip off Britian crap that the Daily Mail promotes but this is not the case at all.I never thought id ever say this but oh for the quality of Tesco's & Sainsburys for your weekly shop.
When we went back to the UK in June we realised at long last how advanced it really is & how freedom really operates so we are booking our seats on good old Virgin Atlantic(make sure its not the a340 300 with the old IFE & going home to our lovely house in Somerset early next year(thank god we didn't sell up)& appreciate England for what it really is........GREAT!!! & it's closer to France....Rant over Ladies & Gents

Originally Posted by Bob

well to be fair, grocery shops in MA are pretty crap for the most part, seriously, only one in a chain allowed to sell beer?

Originally Posted by Bob

Wholefoods is great but pricey, Trader Joes is generally pretty good...Stop and Shop is generally crap and expensive, there's hardly any Hannafords which are good, Shaws are crap and that's about it for the large chains, oh, Roche Brothers, rip off merchants.

Originally Posted by Bob

He's nailed the roads and drivers too

Originally Posted by lansbury

You lost most of your credibility when you said you read the Daily Mail. Saying Trader Joe's isn't on a par or better then Tesco lost you the rest of it.

Originally Posted by Englishtart

I really don't 'get' the complaints about the TV License in the UK, we pay almost $100 a month for cable here and it's mostly crap!

Originally Posted by lansbury

You lost most of your credibility when you said you read the Daily Mail. Saying Trader Joe's isn't on a par or better then Tesco lost you the rest of it.

Originally Posted by HumphreyC

I was surprised at that, is one of the grocery chains actually allowed to sell beer? I thought the liquor stores had a monopoly?

Originally Posted by HumphreyC

Yes, worst is the older generation who all seem to drink and drive. My Grandmother in Law's boyfriend (bit odd calling him that, he is in his eighties) is always getting told to go home as he is pissed off his face at her garden parties. He always just jumps in the car and drives off despite being tanked. Bit scary thinking that there are people like him on the road.

Originally Posted by Sally Redux

He hath repented of the Daily Mail sin. Trader Joe's I like but it's much smaller than Tesco.

Originally Posted by Bob

No, I mean literally, each chain is allowed one store in the state to sell beer, usually in a smaller shop that doesn't have another chain doing the same locally. So Whole Foods is in Wayland, Trader Joes in Framingham.

Liquor stores are a plenty, but again, some really random rules for them too, there's one store down my way that weren't allowed to sell those little nips bottles, apparently because tramps were using them, which is daft, if they can afford a car to get there, they can afford to get proper bottles of booze

Originally Posted by daven2505

Humphrey, it's not bad it's just different to living in the UK which we are led to believe is terrible with binge drinking, anti social behavior, CCTV watching our every move & so called high taxes & I fell into this way of thinking

Originally Posted by lansbury

You lost most of your credibility when you said you read the Daily Mail. Saying Trader Joe's isn't on a par or better then Tesco lost you the rest of it.

Originally Posted by Sally Redux

I was watching a programme about a woman with Alzheimer's, it was all very sad and she was really struggling to cope with day-to-day tasks, next thing you know she's grabbed the car keys and gone off on a joyride.

Originally Posted by TimberHut

I think some of you are missing the point in regards to the 140 quid license fee.

I hate it because it is compulsory - whether you watch the BBC or not.

If you buy a TV in the UK just to watch DVD's you still have to pay 140 quid for the pleasure of doing this.

It should be optional (like Sky TV is). If you want it you pay. If you don't - you don't pay and you don't watch it....

Originally Posted by HumphreyC

This is also my objection. It's the fact that you have to buy the thing whether you watch the BBC or not and the state then employs Capita to spy on you and send you threatening letters if they suspect you of not having one.