Well, thoughts? I think you've answered your own question really. If you're studying in a country that makes you so deeply unhappy and depressed, it's probably not such a good idea. If you consider doing a PhD to be futile to your long term prospects, again, it's probably not such a good idea. If you think 'Hallmark-optimism' from what you perceive to be fake personalities with super huge ego's can be of any assistance, can it?
Yep, the weather is pretty grim in the UK. I should know. I live on top of a hill in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes, being depressed can alter the way you see and deal with things, so it might be an idea to consult your GP (physician) and see if there is anything he/she can do to help you. On top of that, when you're back in the UK, why not consider getting involved in some activities at your university. Tarring everyone with the same brush is a little bit unfair. There are very few people I have come across who are fake or excessively optimistic in the UK.
The job market is pretty grim for academia at the moment, but this is a world-wide problem. It won't be the same forever, though. I think you need to seriously question why you started a PhD? If it really is because you couldn't get a job, I think you may have created problems for yourself rather than found a solution. With a PhD, you really have to enjoy what you're doing to some extent because it's only going to get harder. Do you really want to try for a career in research and academia when you finish? Or do you see yourself working in industry (it's still possible with a humanities PhD)?
Provided you enjoy your work, all of the problems you perceive are solvent. Honestly, if you think that British people have super ego's and act fake, you just haven't spent enough time around them (doing fun, social things) - and that's why you need to get involved and try and enjoy yourself. Best wishes.

I wouldn't say that what you're doing makes you seem like an old codger. It's prudent financial action, more akin to a sensible Radio 4 listener. Martin Lewis and Alvin Hall would be so proud. Besides, living fast and dying young is so 1999. It's better to one day be a pensioner with a sound pension and your own home than a skint one relying on the state. I honestly believe that there's going to be a lot of young people in a very sticky situation financially (me included!) by the time they're old.

Talk about spitting your dummy out because you didn't get the degree classification you think you deserved. I think these people that threaten to sue need to remember that one of the main aims of doing a degree is to advance from a dependent to an independent learner. They can scream and shout about being paying customers all they like, but the fact of the matter is that you get out what you put in. I hope this court case isn't successful.

To overline a word in MS Word, this is how to do it:

1) Navigate your cursor to where you want to insert your overlined character or word.

2) Press CTRL + F9, which will insert a set of braces

3) Type in "EQ \x \to(P)" if you want to insert an overlined character above a P, otherwise replace P with your character or word.

4) Press Shift+F9 to get your character. Or, you can just re-highlight, right click and then select toggle fields.

Be careful putting the spaces in for the command. You have to get it just right, or you'll get Error! in place of your word and it won't work.

Participating in medical trials is a really good suggestion, I think. They pay really well and, despite what the media says, they're actually quite low risk. There's websites you can go to to register for them. However, before applying for possible recruitment to a trial you need to pay close attention to the inclusion and exclusion criteria as they can be very particular, as I once found out.

I think you're in quite a tough situation here, Keenbean. I've read some of your posts before on this supervisor of yours and I get the impression that's she's quite impetuous and has a problem maintaining her temper. I gather that's she's otherwise an excellent supervisor who has a really strong faith in your capabilities and what you can achieve. I think that's why she drives you so hard.
However, the more cynical side of me thinks that she's a ruthless career academic, focused intently on her own research output and that of her research team - that's how you become world-renowned I suppose. She doesn't like it when things go wrong or when she gets told something she doesn't want to hear because it messes with her own agenda plans. I think this is why she loses her temper with you and with the post-docs. Although she knows when she's gone over the top (she apologises), I don't think that she necessarily always has your best interests at heart. Of course, if you do exactly as she intends, you'll have some superb research at the end and she'll have another gold star for her own career. However, it all depends on you and whether you think you can handle her sometimes awkward attitude. It's almost catch-22 in a way.
I think that you could try talking to her about how you feel and how you occasionally feel as if she loses her temper, which upsets you. You could tell her about how incredibly overloaded you feel at times. Perhaps come to some kind of understanding about it (though she has a reputation)? But I can tell from your post that she's extremely ambitious with respect to your PhD. Like I said, this is a very difficult position to be in.
I'm actually in similar position with my own supervisor. She wants me to write a paper for publication while trying to finish off my PhD, because 'It'll be great to get a paper out on your work asap for our research team'. I really don't want to take on the extra work because I'm just trying to write up and get my PhD out of the way first. I already have no life because of all the hours I have to put into finishing, but what do you do? If I say no, she'll think I'm being awkward. If I say yes, she'll think I'm great until I go over the writing up deadline for my PhD. I lose either way. So, as with your situation, I don't think there's an easy answer. Sorry, I couldn't be more help.

With respect to whether someone goes on the dole or not, Sim, I suppose it's a question of how much work you need to on your PhD and how quickly you intend to finish. I want to just get the thing done and hand it in so I can hopefully then get a proper job. If I get a job, working 9 till 5, for 5 days a week, it's going to take longer than I want to finish (I'll be knackered). If I get part time, job say 16 hours, it'll work out about as much as being on the dole. It just makes more sense (for me anyway) to suffer the indignity of the dole for a few months while I wrap things up with my thesis.
I'm not sure if you're writing up or not. If you're not in your write-up year, I don't think you'd be able to go on the dole anyway because you'd be registered as a full time student (assuming your Phd is full time). Good luck with finding something.

I think it's more than that - £65. It's better than nothing while I try and write up.

Hi cornflower, it's quite a few hundred words. It's not the kind of thing I can just reference using my paper because it's supposed to pull the full chapter together. I just want to cut and paste it rather than have to completely re-write it in a different way. But, I suspect it's not really allowed.

I'm going to go on job seekers, I think, and try and survive on that until I've eventually written up and submitted. I'll look for work, but given where I live, I'm fairly certain that I'll never get a job.

Is it okay to plagiarise oneself? I'm writing a conclusion section for one of my chapters and I really can't be bothered to re-write something saying exactly the same thing as I've already written in a published paper. It's mine anyway, so I'd like to think I can do with it as I wish. Do you think that's okay, or is there some rule about ripping yourself off not allowed?

I tend to stay away from Ikea as I suspect it's full of weirdos, present and past company on this forum excluded. I mean, have you seen this advert for the place? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUup4-m_9JU&has_verified=1 Or this advert? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I5BGsK5ZAU

Hmm, I know very little about the funding situation for International PhD students who want to study in the EU. All I do know is that it's much harder for international PhD students to get funding form the EU. Manchester University has a good web page concerning your query that you may use as a starting point: http://www.mhs.manchester.ac.uk/postgraduate/research/funding/noneu/

I made zilch progress today, just realised some basic errors. I suppose it could be said that I knocked many stones out of my wall.