Hey Keith, if the UK is too overcrowded to cope, why not deport all those pesky foreign nurses and doctors? The collapse of the health system would soon lead to a population decline. We used to have the black death and the plague to keep the population in check - with a bit of judicious health worker related expulsion activity, maybe we could have a return to those good old days.

Maybe because I live in the north of England, (rather than the overrated south east, whose citizens often seem to think that their preoccupations and bugbears should be shared by those of us living elsewhere in the country), I don't get the sense I live somewhere that overcrowded. Sure, Manchester is a big, busy city, but you don't expect cities to be tranquil oases. Look what surrounds us, though - the Peaks, the Dales, the Moors, the Lakes, North Wales - hardly spoiled by overcrowding.