on Britain

i have seen far more of the UK in my current job than i ever would have otherwise. i frequently end up going to highly random spots, simply because a client happens to have set up shop there, normally on some grim industrial park.
every time i find myself in one of these places that otherwise would have been off my radar, i have the feeling i am stepping out of the Britain i know and into the UK of my parent's imagination. My parents have spent little time here since the 1980s, and i guess their view of the place is frozen in that horrid Thatcher influenced moment in time. When we lived here back then, in Cambridge, there was one Indian take away reserved for special occasions, and even it wasnt great. The selection in the supermarkets was limited, and all other restaurants practically non existent. the food in general was uninspiring and wine could only be got in speciality shops- few pubs sold it. Many people were poor, and parts of the country struck my mother as Third worldish (the Scottish village my father grew up in didnt get indoor plumbing in most private homes until the 1980s)
Moving back to Britain in 2005, and living in London, i cant claim to have ever suffered any culinary shortage. I genuinely believe the food selection in both supermarkets and in restaurants is much better than in, say Paris, or really any other European city. My parents have staunchly refused to accept my findings, and i have spent years refuting their tales of a place that seems to exist only in their memories. but actually, they may have a point. stepping outside london reveals a country i feel foreign in, and one which does indeed seem to match their tales of 80s doom. I spent several days last week in Leeds, and several this week in Basingstoke, which is within commuting distance of London but feels like it is on a different planet. When my colleague and i headed off for Leeds, a guy from there recommended what was meant to be one of the best restaurants in the city. it was ok.....but no more than that, and certainly not given the 100 quid bill that came with the meal. that would be an ok meal by London prices, given the general price structures in the North, i would have expected a lot more than "ok" for that amount. I never had a horrid meal in Leeds (or in Manchester, Basingstoke or any of these places) but i have had a lot of over priced mediocrity, which i suppose is indeed the Britain my parents remember.