This doesn't look good for Corby

[the science eel]

Do they ever do a poll of the best 100 places to live in England?

yes and WHITEHAVEN topped it

[JesusAndYourBush]

I only know of Corby because of it's trouser press and it turns out I was wrong anyway because the trouser press was invented by a guy called Peter Corby and has nothing to do with the town.

[gilbertharding]

And back to shitholes in general...

I remember being in a quite nice hotel in the Lake District biting my tongue listening to some old Golf Club bore at the next table in the bar telling someone that he came from Kent (where I also lived). Specifically, he came from Thanet. He was probably talking to a Cumbrian, and I imagine the lines of the conversation were that the local will have said 'Oh, the Garden of England, that must be nice,' because all I could hear from the cunt was him droning on about how it was mostly nice, yes, apart from everything North of the M2 which is shit. Which, whilst being true up to a point, was so obviously code for something else. Plus, he came from Thanet.

[Inspector Norse]

Grew up near Huddersfield and it's fine.
Certainly compared to, say, Oldham, which doesn't make the list but is a real "problem" area.

[shoulders]

Grew up near Huddersfield and it's fine.
Certainly compared to, say, Oldham, which doesn't make the list but is a real "problem" area.

Huddersfield is a quite peculiar choice, given all the so much more fucked up Northern towns to select. Nice parks, college, reasonably dramatic Industrial revolution era scenery, intact Victorian centre, nice municipal buildings and churches, well connected and affordable. It's not much more than OK, got its common problems... and I think I'd take living in Halifax over it, just, but wouldn't be close to a bottom 10 in the region let alone the country.

Anyway, this all hinges on their list having any merit whatsoever.

[Gurke and Hare]

Counterpoint to This Kind of Thing: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2022/jan/05/where-tourists-seldom-tread-six-great-british-places-not-in-the-guidebooks

Includes CaB's favourite north-west Wales town, and @jobotic should go and visit Warrington.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Problem with these polls is that many of the people casting judgment haven't been to many places in the uk

You been to Bargoed?
You been to Llangadog?
You been to pill?
You been to Llanbadarn?
You been to Levenshulme?

Then maybe you should fuckin pipe down

[PlanktonSideburns]

Do they ever do a poll of the best 100 places to live in England?

This I could get behind. The sort of person who fills in a form on a website clearly has axe to grind

[Ray Travez]

Me and my then girlfriend had half-bricks thrown at us in Levenshulme. That was years ago though, it's nicer now.

[MojoJojo]

Surely the preceding lie, the idea they would be able to legally work while their application was pending, which isn't true, would have been more important than where the jobs are.

Given that asylum claimants don't get much say in where they are placed what you're saying seems to endow them with a sense of autonomy and agency they basically don't normally possess on account of their status and how they are processed in the system.

Yes, I made the story up because I wanted to create the impression that asylum seekers have more autonomy than they do.

[shoulders]

Yes, I made the story up because I wanted to create the impression that asylum seekers have more autonomy than they do.

Didn't imply you'd made it up, but when the statements don't reflect the legal rights or capacity of asylum seekers it seems reasonable for me to ask questions and get my head around what the anecdote you shared actually means or intends to convey.

As asylum claimants normally can't work, have little to no say where they are placed   and have to wait months and often years for their claim to be processed (multiply that if the appeals process is required) it seems doubtful that asylum seekers decided in advance 'let's try Peterborough, there are jobs there' and have that level of leverage with the Home Office.

A refugee granted leave to remain in the UK after their claim might, providing they are lucky enough to have access to funds to be socially mobile enough to move from where they have been placed.

Not that it needs pointing out,  but asylum claimants are extremely stigmatised they are also among the most vulnerable groups in our society and have been trashed for decades with blanket demonising, often as a consequence of unverified heresay of a similar kind that feeds into people's prejudices, and what they'd prefer to believe about foreigners taking over our country. Polling shows that an alarming % don't know the difference in terminology between asylum seekers, refugee, immigrant, migrant etc let alone understand their differing legal status, while the government goes out of their way to ensure they'll never be taught.

So excuse me if I'm not just taking something that's patently false as read.

Maybe, from the most innocent interpretation, the person didn't mean asylum seeker and meant refugee with leave to remain in the UK. If so I strongly believe it isn't pedantic to draw that distinction but vital to ensuring we appreciate and understand the clear differences between the two.

[Blumf]

I only know of Corby because of it's trouser press and it turns out I was wrong anyway because the trouser press was invented by a guy called Peter Corby and has nothing to do with the town.

Does the town at least have a statue of a trouser press?

[PlanktonSideburns]

Me and my then girlfriend had half-bricks thrown at us in Levenshulme. That was years ago though, it's nicer now.

to be clear, i love levenshulme, one of the favourate places ive lived. that was a list of places of different qualities

[buzby]

To be fair to Corby it suffered from having a massive steelworks on its doorstep, and then having that steelworks closed down.

The site of the steelworks dump (where all those toxic chemicals that caused the birth deformities ended up) was bought in 1991 to build Rockingham Motor Speedway, an American-style tri-oval racing circuit with an infield road course that was intended to bring US Indycar and NASCAR racing to Europe. It opened in 2001 and held two Indycar races, the first in September 2001 (just after the September 11th attacks) and the second in September 2002. It was also used for the British Superbikes, Formula 3 and BTCC races until the end of the 2018 season, when after the owners went bankrupt the site was sold to become an automotive logistics facility (i.e. a place to store cars).

[shoulders]

Me and my then girlfriend had half-bricks thrown at us in Levenshulme. That was years ago though, it's nicer now.

They treated you nicely then, normally it's a full bricking and blood surprise.

[JesusAndYourBush]

Does the town at least have a statue of a trouser press?

I doubt it.  Maybe someone should become a kindof statue version of Banksy and erect one there.

I once saw a tv show where (for some reason) someone infiltrated the company by obtaining a job there and they had undercover cameras and revealed the almost cult-like behaviour with chants, handshakes, and a special Corby song that everyone had to participate in at the start or end (or both?) of every work day.

[Catalogue of ills]

I was once approached by three handy looking lads in Longsight, one of whom asked "Are you a stewdent cunt, like?"

I don't know if you have ever had to put as much accent as possible on a word as short as "no", but I strained every synapse to deliver it in as flat a Manc tone as possible. Seemed to do the trick anyway. Of course, I was a student cunt, like.

[idunnosomename]

Me and my then girlfriend had half-bricks thrown at us in Levenshulme. That was years ago though, it's nicer now.

quarter-bricks?

[king_tubby]

Good to see some tolerance for Huddersfield.

[boki]

Huddersfield is a quite peculiar choice, given all the so much more fucked up Northern towns to select. Nice parks, college, reasonably dramatic Industrial revolution era scenery, intact Victorian centre, nice municipal buildings and churches, well connected and affordable.

And they've still got a Wimpy. That always raises a place in my estimation.

[shoulders]

There's a butcher called Meat Purveyors opposite Arcade Beers too.

[Catalogue of ills]

There's a butcher called Meat Purveyors opposite Arcade Beers too.

Superior to Halifax's Meatus Pervs in every way.

[seepage]

My local one is called BJ Meats

[buttgammon]

My local one is called BJ Meats

Reminds me of the time my girlfriend had a review removed from Yelp because it referred to a bad takeaway as serving a "gangbang of meats".

[shoulders]

That's excellent

[Catalogue of ills]

Reminds me of the time my girlfriend had a review removed from Yelp because it referred to a bad takeaway as serving a "gangbang of meats".

This one, yeah?

[peteprodge]

I live relatively near to Corby.

It's pretty grim, like any town in England. The shopping precinct is dying, the pubs have seen better days and the council estates don't look welcoming. Same thing can be said of any town really.

Did get to perform some comedy at the Cube which was alright, I've ran (like, feet run, not car run) on that racetrack (as part of an organised race, I wasn't fleeing anyone) and their CEX is pretty decent.

You'll probably hear more Scottish accents in Corby than you would in Edinburgh or Glasgow. It's filled with Scots families who came down to work in steel. My town (Wellingborough) has the same thing going on, only it's Londoners - a huge influx of Cockneys came over in the 1960s.

[The Crumb]

Counterpoint to This Kind of Thing: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2022/jan/05/where-tourists-seldom-tread-six-great-british-places-not-in-the-guidebooks

Includes CaB's favourite north-west Wales town, and @jobotic should go and visit Warrington.

A worthy sentiment, but the guy seems like a condescending prick and the places he's trying to big up sound shit. In the case of Elephant and Castle I know the area quite well, and only someone with an incredible amount of spare time and money should consider it a holiday destination.

[imitationleather]

Me and my then girlfriend had half-bricks thrown at us in Levenshulme. That was years ago though, it's nicer now.

Unhalfbricking

[Kankurette]

I've never been bricked in Levenshulme. And Liverpool being a shithole is grossly exaggerated. Yes, it has its dodgy areas, all big cities do. So what.

Good to see some tolerance for Huddersfield.

It has the Parish, for one thing.