What makes a great place to live? Answer: it’s not a shopping plaza | Simon Jenkins

Hipster watering holes in formerly run-down neighbourhoods are the new cathedralsThe best place to live in Britain today is Salisbury. So says the Sunday Times. The Office for National Statistics disagrees. It says the best place is Farnborough. No, says the Royal Mail, it is Winchester. The Provident says it is Worcester. The Halifax says it is Stornaway. And so it goes. This is listicle season, and not a magazine is without some daft “survey” of topographical superlatives. Each yea