To wonder what the good points of living in the UK are?

[waddlecakes]

If you were selling it abroad as a country people should live in, what would you say are the things you love the most about it?

Loads it's very difficult to write down. I live in a pretty rural area not a built up city just small towns, right on the lake districts door.
I would like many others say the weather not great, but rain is nothing compared to extreme weather/natural disasters many other places have.
There is very little crime around my area and I feel very safe at home and when out and about.
Good sense of community people look out for each other and smile, nod, speak to you in passing.
Lovely places to walk dogs on my doorstep.
Then all the things I never realised we were lucky to have, healthcare, right to vote, education.

Pretty much everyone has a sense of humour. Dark and jaded as well, which suits me.

As a foreigner (Swedish)-

It's cheap.
Most people are friendly (and we live in London btw which is stereotyped as being the exact opposite, it's not)
Varied countryside which is easily accessible.
BBC!
NHS.
Multicultural in many areas.
Roads are good.
Weather is good/easy in most places.
Freedom of speech, for sure.
Great education.
Democracy!
Wider range of religion!
People say PLEASE and THANKS (nonexistent in my country, including me, it's just not part of our culture unless you're begging for something)
Tasty food (you get fish and chilps, we get pickled herring...)
Not too insular (a real problem in more rural areas of Sweden...) which I haven't experienced even in small hamlets and villages.

It's definitely interesting to hear it from somebody who isn't originally from here, Magic Key!

People and activities are generally fairly prompt (admittedly the only other place I have lived is southern Spain, I imagine the UK is not unique in this one )

The weather is not too extreme, and if you don't like how it is now, you can assume it will be different in a week or so

Most of the UK has relatively few biting insects, even midges on the whole stay outdoors so you can escape them by going in the house.

I'd rather have pickled herring than fish & chips, though.

Relatively politically free.

So many countries aren't.

My parents started out with a large farm in South Africa, moved to a medium sized farm in New Zealand and then a tiny farm in England. That's where they prospered.
They also came here for the free education (my siblings and I were lucky to be at Uni when you not only didn't have fees but were paid a grant)
I was born in England but I still appreciate grass remaining green throughout the year (most years)
From what I gather from family and friends that live abroad no one quite has our sense of humour or irony.
You're never more than a few hours drive from the coast. We may have built up areas but we also have beautiful countryside which is close enough to visit even if you're a city dweller. I may have moved up to Scotland, but that's as far as I'm going to move away. No wanderlust in me other than vacations where I'm glad to come home afterwards.

Sense of fairplay
Politeness and civility
Appetite for eccentricity and twee-ness

4 seasons- particularly Autumn
Prehistoric monuments
Intellectualism
Church of England
Bitter beer
Good universities
Moderation
Pubs
Kippers
Public transport

All of the above & milk ... The milk tastes nice here as does the water (well in our part of the country NE, it does)

NHS - at the moment (most of the time) but sadly thats about to go and after that I am clutching at straws really. I can think of lots of other places that offer pretty much everything else we have and better/more.

.Someone up thread mentioned that we can have HIGNFY on telly, I don't think that one should be underestimated!
.For all our complaining and government meddling our education system.
.The NHS
.the fact you can visit pretty much anyone wherever they live in a weekend without flying.
. Our stunning and varied countryside.
. The lack of corruption/bribe paying.
Once you've lived overseas you actually do appreciate the UK far more- there's far more than I could list.

Northern Ireland

Human rights and the fact as a British citizen we are allowed to travel the world which is a right not many other nations get the privilege to do.

Food from all sorts of places available in the supermarket (not just "local" things - the supermarket in France near FIL's place is lovely from French stuff and then like a corner shop in the 1970s for anything else).

Oh and YABU because you're not asking a question of reasonableness, you're saying "tell me this".

haha I would sell yourself on your chocolate, it mings.

Try european chocolate if you want to actually try decent stuff.

Great British Stuff :-
A British passport opens doors.
Haggis.
Butteries.
Mealy Pudding.

The post is pretty good - and internet shopping (both the kind that comes in the post and grocery shopping)

A sense of the past and willingness to preserve it.
Museums , theatres etc
Large one-stop supermarkets
Policing without routine equipment of firearms
Justice system
Range of culture and food
Coastline and varied scenery
Maternity rights, parental leave and statutory paid holdiays

Depends on whom you are selling it to: if to my Swedish friends and relatives I wouldn't bother mentioning the 1st world and democracy; they've got that too.

But would lay stress on the culture, certain aspects of the education system, the (comparatively) pleasant climate, the lack of distances, the fact that things stay open throughout the winter, the entertainment industry.

Not sure I agree about the manners (where on earth are you from MagicKey where they don't say "tack så mycket"?); ime you tend to lose as much as you gain when you move from any one country to another. They all have manners, just different ones.

When we go home to Sweden I have to remind my children that even as a child you do offer to shake hands when you meet somebody new: they look terribly rude if they just stand there in the British manner (when I was young I also used to have to curtsey- I found that quite hard when I got to the UK and had to keep my knees straight in the presence of older people). It's swings and roundabouts.

Not from here, and had never intended living here long term, but this is a great country.

Yes, with a disgusting current government who seem to be attempting to dismantle the NHS, yes, with significant economic problems, yes, with widespread inequality, but still somewhere I admire and am happy to live.

Has anyone said 'English literature' (by which I don't just mean the literature of England, obviously) as a reason to be massively proud of here? Also, the network of right of way paths.

I agree too that it takes living in a country that really doesn't have a functioning civil society/ isn't a democracy/ hasn't an NHS equivalent or a free press to appreciate the merits of living here.

"the fact that things stay open throughout the winter"

Cory, I desperately wanted to go and spend a winter in Sweden as a child (was actually a possibility, as my parents had friends there, but sadly never happened) after I heard that they flooded the tennis courts in the town where they lived and you could skate on them all winter as much as you liked!

Second ease of getting to the rest of Europe. My Canadian uncle finds it amazing that we can hop on a plane and be in Spain in a couple of hours.

Cadbury's Dairy Milk.

NHS for emergencies (we've had some horrific experiences of more routine stuff)

Tap water you can drink.

And that's it from me.

shrugged you are absolutely right. DP's family live in Iran so we really appreciate being fortunate enough to live here. His family often say how pleased they are that DS was born here because he will have so many opportunities his cousins will never have and a much better quality of life. DP has been here 11 years now and to him it's home, he said he would never want to live anywhere else. Yes we have our problems but it's still an amazing country if you think about it. We have:

The NHS
Free education
Free speech
Freedom of the press
Freedom to choose and follow whichever religion we want
Freedom to travel the world
Less bribery and corruption than many countries
Greater gender equality than many countries
Mild climate with no earthquakes, volcanoes etc