Professor John Robertson OBA

The Herald’s report, above, three days ago, on the Europe’s Best Cities survey, notably forgets to tell us that Edinburgh and Glasgow feature above all other comparably sized, ‘smaller’ cities in the UK, other than the monstrous, incomparable London.

‘Best Cities’ is an almost pointless notion given the complexity of the characteristics that might make a city ‘Best’.

In this resonance/Ipsos survey, the first 17 are mostly very large capital cities with the horribly fragmented, ugly and polluted London, in first place. Interestingly, crime rates are not used.

Edinburgh comes in at 18th, above any other UK cities with the second best air quality of all and education as a ‘highlight.’

Glasgow comes in at 28, still above any other UK cities with, once more air quality and education as ‘highlights.’

Birmingham comes in at 30 based on nightlife and despite, I feel sure, poor air quality. Liverpool makes it at 32 and Manchester at 36, with no mention of their extremely high crime rates. Other English cities are all below 50th place.

Source: https://www.worldsbestcities.com/report-download/?r=N3JHSVh0aVNxb0RuZDVUcVdUcTcvZz09