Are you from the UK/based here already, or will you be moving here from overseas? I ask because you might want to look into other aspects about the cities, aside from the cost of living, to identify which might be the most enjoyable for you to live in. For example, what the transport links are like to other places you might want to go to, or what the student communities there are like.

I imagine that the universities will be held in equally high regard. Both are close to the coast so I imagine you'd have close proximity to wind farms, but I don't know the sector well enough to be sure.

How are you defining 'quality and status' of the supervisor?

Be aware that the higher profile someone is, the less day to day help they will probably be able to give you. I think the extent and availability of good quality supervision can be a major determinant in PhD success.

80-100,000 words is the typical limit. It's odd that your institution has only just brought one in. Unfortunately it sounds as though you are stuck with what you have - I don't think you can remove stuff post-viva unless your examiners ask you to.

Length will vary according to subject area - one can write a far shorter maths thesis than a history one, for example. Here's an analysis of average thesis length by subject area, from a US university:

Yeah that does sound dodgy then. Oh dear. :(

Part 2:
...so my introductory chapter (written near the end, at speed) is lean to say the least.

On top of the list of errors and omissions that I can come up with without even looking at the document, I feel very vulnerable going into the viva. Looking at sample viva questions, such as "Why did you do such and such? What would you do differently...?" my knee-jerk answers are somewhat on the bitter and cynical side. Though I felt incredibly relieved to hand the thesis in, I am not proud of it in any way. The work in each results chapter is defensible in its own right, but harder to defend as a whole (e.g. I took different approaches to particular things in different chapters, partly to keep collaborators happy). Essentially, if I walked into the room and my examiners said: "Your thesis is rubbish" I'd probably shrug and say "You're probably right" rather than putting up a fight.

I don't have much time available between now and the viva to prepare. Does anyone have any words of wisdom as to what I should do? Particularly with regard to how to look more positively at it. Someone pointed out to me that "You don't have to like your thesis, you just have to live with it." At the moment I'm not even feeling that - how do I talk myself around to a position where I can at least live with it?

Part 1: So... I have my viva looming and I've done very little prep to date. Partly through procrastination, partly through the fact I work full time in a non-uni based job. But mostly because I just cannot bring myself to look at my thesis or think about my work.

Brief context: through the course of my PhD I had a number of internal supervisors and advisors, as well as external collaborators to whom I was accountable but who had no buy-in to my PhD. There was no single person who had an active advisory role for the entire period - it was all a bit piecemeal. I submitted a thesis on the last permissible day, knowing it was flawed, only having received feedback from one of my supervisors who joined the process 2/3rds of the way through and who is only a few years post-PhD himself. As far as I know my primary supervisor hasn't read it, or even the penultimate draft (which he did receive). It's over a year since I last had a proper conversation with my primary supervisor about my work.

My thesis was supposed to be on topic X in disease Y. I did a lot of reading about topic X, both broadly and in the context of disease Y. I know that literature very well. I did a lot of analytic work on it.... most of which did not end up in my thesis. This is because I never totally finished most of it as I spent large chunks of time working on various projects with external collaborators that my supervisor presented to me as opportunities. They were indeed opportunities, and I learnt a lot, but apart from all being in disease Y they do not hang together seamlessly as a body of work. It took a lot of effort to cobble together a post-hoc narrative around the work I did finish and include, and I realised very late on that my knowledge of the literature did not fully overlap with this narrative...

If they have used your email address to identify your twitter account, that seems an inappropriate cross-platform use of your data. Even if it's written into the T&Cs as permissible, it has an 'ick' factor, much in the same way that Facebook follows your browsing habits around the web even when you're ostensibly logged off.

Is there any alternative explanation e.g. had you tweeted something with, say a #PhDchat hashtag, or something else that they may have coincidentally picked up on?

Can the moderators clarify how the forum uses our personal data?

Double post deleted

Just a note of caution - are these conferences that you recognise/know to be legitimate? There can be some slightly random events that 'cold-call' people with publications on a particular topic, which are not always the best conferences in your field. So make sure they are worth attending by checking with other people in your department before you commit yourself!

Firstly, do you get a payslip?

Secondly, do you work the same (or approximately the same) number of hours every week/month? If not it will be hard to calculate your monthly wage as it will be very variable.

Assuming you work roughly the same number of hours each week, you can multiply your pre-tax weekly income by 52 to get an annual income and then use something like this:
http://www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/salary.php

to calculate your pre and post tax income.

Writing up as you go can be a good thing. However, some unis will not let you submit before a particular time point e.g. 2.5 years. Unless things have gone exceptionally well you may not have enough data/material for full thesis at this point. I suggest seeking advice from a postgrad tutor in your department/faculty.

Have you discussed these issues with your supervisor or a postgraduate advisor in your faculty?

You need to give specific details if you expect anyone to help. Measuring impact of what? With what?

This is worth considering.

Sometimes it can be in a negative way - nepotism, old boy's clubs etc. But not necessarily. There are many valid ways in which a known candidate is preferable to an unknown. Regardless of qualifications and prizes, if an undergrad has already done a project in a group and proved him/herself capable then they are likely to be favoured over a complete unknown. You only have the 15-30 minutes of the interview to prove yourself; they may have had several weeks. A PhD is (in theory at least) a big investment from both sides, so it's safer to choose a candidate whose strengths and weaknesses are well known.

Something that will stand you in good stead when you do start a PhD is networking. I don't mean schmoozing (which a lot of people negatively interpret networking to be), I mean getting to know people in your field, and them getting to know that you exist and what you do. It's harder to do that pre-PhD but at the very least if you see an advertised PhD that you really like I would send an email to the supervisor prior to applying. It can be on the pretext of asking for further clarification on the role, but it is also an excuse to introduce yourself and lay the foundation for the interaction you will have in the interview.

Maybe the ex poly thing is a factor, but maybe it isn't. It's best not to get too hung up on it though as it might negatively affect how you approach future interviews.

Cultural norms may vary but I would feel very uncomfortable if someone did this to me, particularly in a professional environment, unless they were a close friend. I suggest you just try to re-establish a normal and professional working relationship asap. Perhaps put a certain amount of physical distance between yourself and her when talking to her so that it is clear that you do not intend to cross boundaries again.