[singular]

   "It's a horrible place to live"

Though we have many problems, please speak for yourself and stay off general comments about the country. Your other points are valid and interesting but you really ruin them with your frankly childish comment - just because you, personally find the entirety of the country horrible doesn't mean that is close to the reality of living here or the experience of everybody else.

[enraged_camel]

In all fairness, it does sound like a horrible place to live. I mean, on top of all the problems he listed, you guys also have awful weather. :)

[singular]

I'm not going to deny that our weather is awful :) but there is a lot of good too - a relatively free democracy (aside from all the questionable stuff listed above that let's face it is likely occurring in every western country, though we might be leading the way on CCTV) which is far, far less infiltrated by religious nuts than many countries, London which alone counts for a HELL of a lot :), lots of history, good cheddar cheese, and most important of all - weather-induced sense of humour! ;-)