Is the UK worth the change in life style and uprooting from America?

A Londoner would say anything north of Watford Gap!  I go with Stuart Maconie's definition (Pies & Prejudice), The North begins with a line drawn through Crewe.  Below that is the Midlands.  And above The North is Scotland! 

Sounds like a fair definition to me.   

They aren't mandatory in that existing installations have to be changed, however, if you want any electrical work doing it is mandatory for this to be done. We had a new kitchen fitted so it needed power points putting in for appliances, they wouldn't fit the kitchen without us having a new fuse board put in. It's a pain at times when a light bulb blowing trips the fuse though when you came in when it was dark!

It isn't a fuse though and doesn't affect the whole room.  It literally only affects each individual outlet and it simply reset by pushing a little button on the outlet itself.  Fuses are blown, or circuit breakers tripped, when there is too much electricity drawing on the board.  So, if you have like 10 appliances plugged in and they are all heavy duty.

This is a different thing altogether.

Here in West Dorset (and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall--possibly?  Cornwall is kind of its own thing ) we don't call ourselves Southerners.  This is the West Country.  The ancient Kingdom of Wessex.  Dominion of Alfred the Great.  Last bastion against the Viking invasions.  I don't get a sense of north/south divide, more one of "West Country folk vs everyone else."   

Here in West Dorset (and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall--possibly?  Cornwall is kind of its own thing ) we don't call ourselves Southerners.  This is the West Country.  The ancient Kingdom of Wessex.  Dominion of Alfred the Great.  Last bastion against the Viking invasions.  I don't get a sense of north/south divide, more one of "West Country folk vs everyone else."   

I get both here, but more Cornwall (or Celts) vs everyone else than the whole West Country vs. everyone else! I don't know that I've noticed much affinity with Devonians down here! And there are also definitely jokes about the north and a strong feeling that we're not northerners.

Here in West Dorset (and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall--possibly?  Cornwall is kind of its own thing ) we don't call ourselves Southerners.  This is the West Country.  The ancient Kingdom of Wessex.  Dominion of Alfred the Great.  Last bastion against the Viking invasions.  I don't get a sense of north/south divide, more one of "West Country folk vs everyone else."   

I would probably include Bristol, Bath and Gloucestershire in the West Country as well . I'm from Bristol and have always considered myself to be from the West Country. I would normally say that I'm either from the South West or from the West Country rather than being a Southerner (I tend to think of 'The South' as being London and the Home Counties).

(I tend to think of 'The South' as being London and the Home Counties).

Yes, that is exactly my Somerset-born-and-raised husband's opinion.

A Londoner would say anything north of Watford Gap!  I go with Stuart Maconie's definition (Pies & Prejudice), The North begins with a line drawn through Crewe.  Below that is the Midlands.  And above The North is Scotland! 

I refer to going to Hampstead heath as going "up North"

I refer to going to Hampstead heath as going "up North"

Haha!  Until I moved out of London, "The North" was anything between the M25 and Scotland. 

A Londoner would say anything north of Watford Gap!  I go with Stuart Maconie's definition (Pies & Prejudice), The North begins with a line drawn through Crewe.  Below that is the Midlands.  And above The North is Scotland! 

I was registering on a job site and it had a dropdown menu for region - guess what....Yorkshire wasn't on and I had to guess between North East and Midlands! I went for North East but from the jobs being posted it would appear that Leeds are included in NE whilst Sheffield is down as Midlands.....so now I have to keep switching my profile to search!

It isn't a fuse though and doesn't affect the whole room.  It literally only affects each individual outlet and it simply reset by pushing a little button on the outlet itself.  Fuses are blown, or circuit breakers tripped, when there is too much electricity drawing on the board.  So, if you have like 10 appliances plugged in and they are all heavy duty.

This is a different thing altogether.

Oh I know the type of thing you mean.....seen them in the States. Would have helped us a couple of weeks ago when DW phoned me at work to say electric had gone off in the kitchen (turned out it was the washer that had broke)

A Londoner would say anything north of Watford Gap!  I go with Stuart Maconie's definition (Pies & Prejudice), The North begins with a line drawn through Crewe.  Below that is the Midlands.  And above The North is Scotland! 

I enjoyed 'Pies & Prejudice' a lot, and I think he got it about right. I especially enjoyed the chapters on Liverpool (lived there for a while).

My Dad is from Lancaster, but not generally that stereotypically 'Northern' - he doesn't drink tea and has never had 'a local' However, he does view Yorkshire as 'the wrong side of the hills' and 'the old enemy'. We do sometimes remind him that the War of the Roses ended in 1485, to which he replies 'really?' 

During the Olympics, my wife and I went to see the USA women's basketball team, who dominated everyone they played.  Most of the crowd was British, having come to see team GB play prior to the US game, and as the US/Czech Republic game was winding down with the US team winning handily, people started to boo the US.

I said to my British wife, "What are they booing for?  There's that much love for the Czech Republic?"  She said, "It's the US.  Unless you're playing Germany or France, they're going to boo you."

 

Isn't that Anti-Americanism? I can't think of a situation when Americans would want to boo British athletes even if that person(s) was playing an American. I could be wrong but that example does show the Brits to have a conscious or at the very least a sub-conscious dislike for Americans.Not all Brits of course.Am I off based on this score? I hope my observation is wrong.

What you will find is many people in Britain take more of an interest in US politics than vice-versa. And you will find that predominantly those people are more in favour of the Democrat candidate.
Also, I think there is something here about who others support, and i would not say they are similar in policy. To us the US are similar in policy mainly because they seem to take the same stance on foreign policy, but they are big differences here.

I would disagree with the poster that said they are all right-wing here.....they might have shifted toward the right but they are to the left of both parties in the US. But from a US perspective they see our parties as left wing. Particularly on social issues.....even the Conservative leadership are looking at gay marriage proposals, back the current abortion limits etc. Yes there are many in the grass roots that take a more US style conservative approach to those issues but they aren't in the mainstream and they are not seen as political issues like they are in the US.

What does happen is that people generally don't discuss it. You might get discussion on different topics and from those views could take a judgement on who someone supports but its rare that people just come out and openly say which side they take. With friends we tend not to discuss politics, occasionally things come up but not often....the saying over here I recall was "there are 2 things you shouldn't talk about - politics and religion", and in the main thats what happens, they are seen as issues where people have strong opinions either side and you can fall out, well I don't want to fall out with my friends so the subjects rarely come up. Although I know that with my best friend we have similar political views there are areas where we would disagree.

Tykeman Thank you for your post.The information was quite informative.

During the Olympics, my wife and I went to see the USA women's basketball team, who dominated everyone they played.  Most of the crowd was British, having come to see team GB play prior to the US game, and as the US/Czech Republic game was winding down with the US team winning handily, people started to boo the US.

I said to my British wife, "What are they booing for?  There's that much love for the Czech Republic?"  She said, "It's the US.  Unless you're playing Germany or France, they're going to boo you."

Isn't that Anti-Americanism? I can't think of a situation when Americans would want to boo British athletes even if that person(s) was playing an American. I could be wrong but that example does show the Brits to have a conscious or at the very least a sub-conscious dislike for Americans.Not all Brits of course.Am I off based on this score? I hope my observation is wrong.

Yeah, it is anti-Americanism, but I think it just reflects the conflicted feelings many people have about America.  On the one hand, there are things people love about America, so when they meet an individual American, they're positive and want to ask questions about America.

There are also things people dislike about America, and when the US women's basketball team is beating up the Czech Republic, that's what they're reminded of.

At any rate, I wouldn't not move to the UK because of rampant anti-Americanism, even if they boo us when we kick a$$ at basketball.   

Yeah, we are proper reet local Northerners.

Oi! Me too! Me too! (Also, if I say "Oi Vay" does that make me a proper northern jew?)