United Kingdom

Visited: 1994-2006/08, 2022+ | Rating: 6/10
Last updated: Dec 2024

I lived in the UK in Aberdeen (1994-6) and Preston (1996-2006/8) before moving to the US, and then regularly stayed in London after 2022.

South England
  • London – 8/10 (1998, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2022+)
  • Bath – 7/10 (~1999)
  • Battle – 6/10 (2022)
  • Bletchley – 6/10 (2023)
  • Brighton – 7/10 (2019)
  • Cambridge – 8/10 (~2005)
  • Canterbury – 8/10 (2018)
  • Chatham – 7/10 (2023)
  • Deal – 6/10 (2022)
  • Dover – 6/10 (2023)
  • Guildford – 6/10 (2017)
  • Luton – 3/10 (2023)
  • Margate – 6/10 (2024)
  • Old Sarum – 6/10 (2022)
  • Oxford – 8/10 (2006, 2016, 2018, 2023, 2024)
  • Penzance – 6/10 (1999)
  • Portsmouth – 6/10 (2016)
  • Reading – 6/10 (2023)
  • Rochester – 7/10 (2023)
  • Salisbury – 7/10 (2022)
  • St Albans – 8/10 (2019)
  • Torquay – 6/10 (1999)
  • Winchester – 7/10 (2025)
North England
  • Blackburn – 4/10 (often)
  • Blackpool – 5/10 (often)
  • Bolton – 4/10 (often)
  • Broughton – 3/10 (often)
  • Chester – 7/10 (2004)
  • Chorley – 4/10 (often)
  • Durham – 5/10 (2007)
  • Fulwood – 4/10 (often)
  • Kendal – 4/10 (often)
  • Lancaster – 6/10 (often)
  • Leyland – 4/10 (often)
  • Leeds – 5/10 (~2004)
  • Liverpool – 5/10 (often)
  • Lytham St Annes – 5/10 (often)
  • Manchester – 6/10 (often, 2023)
  • Morecambe – 3/10 (often)
  • Nottingham – 5/10 (2023)
  • Peterlee – 3/10 (2007)
  • Preston – 3/10 (1996-2006/8)
  • Sellafield – 4/10 (~1999)
  • Sheffield – 5/10 (~2002)
  • York – 7/10 (~2002)
Scotland
  • Aberdeen – 4/10 (1994-1996)
  • Dundee – 4/10 (1996)
  • Edinburgh – 7/10 (1995)
  • Inverness – 6/10 (1996)

Wales
  • Conwy – 5/10 (2007)

Northern Ireland
  • Belfast – 4/10 (~2001)

Historical Sites & Nature
  • Giant’s Causeway – 5/10 (~2001)
  • Grampian Mountains – 7/10 (~1995-1996)
  • Isle of Skye – 6/10 (1996)
  • Isles of Scilly – 5/10 (1997)
  • Lake District – 6/10 (often)
  • Land’s End – 5/10 (1999)
  • Snowdonia – 7/10 (often)
  • Stonehenge – 8/10 (2022)

I did not like Scotland and Northern England, and to be honest, rather hated my childhood there; the centuries of dysgenics and elite outmigration documented by Gregory Clark do make themselves felt. Best thing about Preston? It has Europe’s biggest bus station. Manchester these days comes off a dump, and drearier than many ECE cities, with price-adjusted salaries that are barely any higher.

London is the UK’s real economic engine, and is a genuinely pleasant and interesting metropolis. However, its rationalist/TPOT scene, while substantial, is still just a pale shadow of the SF Bay Area one, and is colored by the pessimism and degrowth ideology that permeates British culture, e.g. mention AGI and they will start lecturing you about how it’s contributing to global warming.

Freedom of speech is tightly restricted, the police spend their time policing Facebook comments while thieves and hoodlums are allowed to run amok. Multiple aspects of everyday life up to and including “See it. Say it. Sorted.” announcements in that longhouse Karen voice annoy and trigger me.

I don’t want to comment much more about this so I will just refer to the lengthy US – UK – Russia comparison series I wrote (2011, so dated) and my London Guide.

Scroll to Top