Hurrah, 'Health, wealth and happiness.' Except for viewers in Scotland

In this period of goodwill to all men and excessive festive overindulgence it's heartening to see that Aberdeenshire has been chosen as the locale with the best quality of life in all of Scotland.

The Scottish media are quoting this 'fact' from the Bank of Scotland's annual Quality of Life survey which is compiled by the banks Housing economist, Nitesh Patel. Down South where the leafy suburbia of Embridge was chosen as the bestest place to live in the whole of the United Kingdom, for the third year running, the media of course refer to Mr Patel as Housing Economist at the Halifax, for some reason the two banks are entirely seperate entities in the public mind, down there, darned if I can figure out why.

Naturally, I was as giddy as he Tartan Overlords milliner  that Aberdeenshire placed so high as to come top of the poll. What's that you say? Aberdeenshire came top of only the thirty-two Scottish authorities. Oh well surely the best place to live in Scotland must have placed quite high in the UK table...Ahh I see Aberdeenshire placed 178th -- ahh that'll be a drop of 25 places from dizzy heights of last years 153rd. Fear not, I'm not forgetting Wales. Monmouthshire came in at a nose bleed inducing 189th.

So that means there are 177 places in England that have a better quality of life than the best place in Scotland. Not to worry, Mr Patel informs us that Scotland benefits from good ratings on the environment, low population density and the absolute clincher for me...low levels of traffic. 

Southernville does remarkably well on such indicators as health, weather, employment levels and average income. The average weekly wage in Elmbridge is £1018. Yes, that's a weekly wage of One Thousand and Eighteen Pounds per week...

I'm quite sure the good people of Embridge deserve this level of remuneration. Stockbrokers and professional footballers, after all are only people who deserve to enjoy to enjoy the fruits of their labour...Although it must be a living hell having to put up with a slightly higher density of population and terrible traffic jams.


Overall, this lovely annual survey convinces me that it's becoming as rare as a smile on Iain Gray's coupon, to find any reason for the continuation of this forced marriage of a Union.

So, to readers in Scotia, where did your local authority place in this survey?