I need to hear good things about the UK

I like the idea of these lists, a very positive way to think. Some things I miss/love about the UK (am back in the US now, but may be returning):

-NHS- cannot emphasize enough how important this institution is, and it depresses me that it seems the current gov is doing all it can to demolish it!
-The BBC (see above!) Whether it's TV, or radio or online, it's great content, and so soothing to have on in the background.
-Conkers in the autumn
-Lovely parks (spent most of my time in the UK in London, and the parks there are incredible)
-Better cycle paths in cities
-Curry!
-Turkish food!
-Taking a double-decker bus over one of London's bridges, or down narrow, windy streets.
-The smell of chips in the air
-99 with flake
-Being able to find tarmosalata in most any grocery store. Ditto high-quality chorizo.
-Scottish strawberries
-Bacon butties
-Chip butties
-Long walks through town, seeing places from Dickens novels or Sherlock Holmes stories.
-Borough Market
-Neal's Yard Cheese
-Highgate cemetery
-Women's Ponds at Hampstead Heath
-Allotments
-Taking the Overground through London and peeking into people's back yards.
-Sitting in the garden at a pub.
-Welshcakes

Many more, I am sure. But this is a start!

-The BBC (see above!) Whether it's TV, or radio or online, it's great content, and so soothing to have on in the background.

LOL... I'm all in favour of a list of positive points about the UK, but...

Bill Turnbull, Naga Munchetty, that awful Steph woman... the entire shower of them on BBC Breakfast are the complete OPPOSITE of 'soothing' to me! 

Ha, fair point about BBC Breakfast! Guess I was thinking more of the radio shows and shipping forecast!

I'll desperately miss:

English TV.
Little old men in tweed coats riding their bikes along the street.
Narrow boats on the canal.
London.
Lush cosmetics shop.
Watching little kids in cute English school uniforms file along the sidewalk to school.
The cathedrals.
The museums.
Market Day.
The slower pace of life.
Being so unique in my neighborhood.
Proper english breakfasts.
Political flexibility.
The Guardian!!!
Being surrounded by gorgeous, varied accents.
Sunday roasts.
Pubs.
Strong, local beers.
Women in hats at weddings.
Non old-lady Bingo.
The countryside.
Sunsets over the Fens.
Little pheasants running all around the fields.
Ancient houses all over the place.
Preserved historical buildings.
Pub quizzes.
Christmas carol services in a church older than my country.
Gargoyles.
Flowers blooming in winter.
I actually planted a bunch of winter Pansies and Cyclamen just for the novelty of it
Charity shops.
English Maternity care.
Documentaries galor on TV.
BBC Radio 4.
Good public transportation.
Closeness to Europe.
The cool antique shops.
Having a different perspective on US goings-on.
Greener greens than I've ever seen before.
Green in the winter, too.
Ghost walks & stories in local pubs, houses, etc.
The friendly relationship between mainstream medicine and non-traditional medicine.
The dressier type of clothing available.

There's millions more, but that's just off the top of my head..
.You reminded me of so many nice things Thank you!! I just took all those wonderful thingsfor granted. Especially the Little old men in tweed coats riding their bikes along the street.
Thank you

I know some of these have been said but as I'm feeling a little homesick I feel like posting some things that I really enjoy about the UK.

Pubs! There's nothing like a cozy pub in the USA and I'm not even a big drinker, they are just so relaxing. The one I go to often has a really nice ploughman's.

Castles, I'm a sucker for anything medieval. Not so much as when I was a child but I still love going to castles.

The city centers where you don't have to drive to get to each shop, lots of shops where you can just walk around all day if you like.

The old waddle & daub buildings in my area are just amazingly pretty. 

Over all it's a gorgeous country and I'm happy to be here.

I'm heading back to the UK for a 2 week vacation after moving back to Texas. I'm not homesick, just appreciative of everything that I love about the UK, and grateful that's where I'm going to retire.

Being able to walk places, buy pasties and cakes in our village, go to the pub, the lovely restaurants with good food, country walks, being near the cliffs and sea, the abundance of history in our small area - I can't wait to see and experience it again.

I dislike having to drive everywhere, high prices for sub standard and tasteless produce (can't find a decent grocers anywhere here), chain restaurants and the seemingly mindless acceptance of badly managed health insurance!

Rant over, off to pack for my hols!

What are the good things about the UK that you can't live without or would miss terribly.  Or what are some kindnesses people have shown you when you needed help, or what was the one point at where your attitude went from "oh my God what did I do" to one of "I actually like this" or "it's not so bad here".

Never went through an "oh my God what did I do" phase, though I sympathise with anyone who has had to painfully tear out roots. My wife and I weren't deeply embedded in the US, in part because she wasn't from there in the first place, and I was very open to a change in scenery, lovely as the scenery can be in the States. My list of missables:

- Open rambling
- Driving on the left, if only because I've realised I've now been doing this longer than I drove on the right
- The NHS
- The British Museum, world-class plunderers though they may be



- Scotland, which I don't get to often enough, but it's nice knowing it's only a (bloody expensive) train ride away.
- Lots of little things which aren't necessarily special in and of themselves, but which together constitute a reasonably satisfying experience. Which is my way of getting out of writing a longer list.

I would also miss having to decide whether to spell some words with an s or a zed, but not terribly. I wouldn't miss calling z zed, which a quick search informs me most of the English speaking world does.

Did the beard have it's own reign??? For eight years after the man died??? What???

Did the beard have it's own reign??? For eight years after the man died??? What???

"museum employee knocked the beard off during work on the relic’s lighting in August 2014, after which it was hastily reattached with epoxy."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/21/fixing-tutankhamuns-beard-unfortunately-they-used-epoxy

I imagine there is but one universal utterance for occasions like this, when you knock a lamp over and break off Tut's beard....and it isn't 'Oh darn'...

Did the beard have it's own reign??? For eight years after the man died??? What???

I'll leave that question to students of history more learned than I.

"museum employee knocked the beard off during work on the relic’s lighting in August 2014, after which it was hastily reattached with epoxy."

Talk about a poxy repair...

Asking for a kebab and not getting this overpriced thing on a skewer. 

Ha, fair point about BBC Breakfast! Guess I was thinking more of the radio shows and shipping forecast!

You can get the BBC just about anywhere in the world with new technology. With Firestick you can pretty much get all the various channels of bbc.

the original post is ancient, but some of you will still want to hear good things about the uk

so here are a few i can think of

- reasonable coppers and no stupid motorcycle cops to look out for
- you can walk along a road without having some idiot shout at you from their car
- you dont feel as judged as a female here as you do back home, nowhere near so
- you can go out looking rough and people dont comment like they do back home
- you don't have to have super white teeth, it's actually considered weird over here
- you can have two or more drinks and people dont assume you're an alcoholic
- you cannot buy a gun (legally anyway)
- NHS
- a female prime minister
- benefit system so the poor can survive
- a very charity driven country
- more holiday time
- less stupid rules
- people are less confrontational, less rude, less nosey, and less loud
- CURRY
- premiere league footie
- eurovision (even though we'll probably be out of it soon)
- not as many adverts on telly
- less traffic lights
- poundland
- easy to get to spain

When I do visit home, while I do love being back for a visit, I am taken aback by how many rules there are when you go anywhere, you put one foot wrong and someone pounces immediately.  We went to Vegas for a few days, and just wanted to stand in the wave pool, and we weren't allowed. You had to go at least waist deep. Stupid. Things like that get to me as you get used to not be barked orders at when you live in england a long time. You also get a bit freaked out when random strangers start talking to you as it's not done here nearly as much. Years ago, during a visit back home, my son was only around six and he had long hair then, and we were dressed casually waiting for our food on the patio outside a fast food place, and someone thought we didn't have money for food and offered to give us theirs. Kind, but also utterly ridiculous. x

If you like being in Eurovision, I shouldn’t worry as many of the 43 countries that participated in 2018 aren’t in Europe and Israel was the winner.

Im aware of that. But those other countries haven't voted to leave the EU, have they? There's a certain element of spite against the EU by us having done that. Haven't you noticed that even before this referendum, the UK always comes near last or last? Do you ever wonder why that is? Humperdink walked off the set after he was near the bottom if I remember correctly, didn't he.  It's not because we have the worst acts. I reckon that once we actually  leave the EU, we'll be booted out of eurovision as a return "thank you" for us leaving. It's OK, though, because we can still  route for Australia lol.  Wolfmother, get on there and get the win lol.

BTW, I only watch Eurovision for a laugh. It was far better when the late Terry Wogan commentated. Not the current bore. 

And the post wasn't focusing on Eurovision anyway. It was about the good things about being here. So let's stick to the actual subject at hand, shall we?