Writing as a Frenchman living in the northwest, maybe I can give you a less biased view than some of the points above. Five years ago, no contest, I would have said Manchester as Liverpool looked to be going nowhere fast. Things have changed massively there though and I’ve been impressed with the recent changes in Liverpool, particularly the attitude. Having said that, the city centre does resemble a building site at the moment, it’ll probably be another 3-4 years before the regeneration reaches some sort of conclusion, in this respect Manchester is ahead of Liverpool. When I arrived in the UK 10 years ago, Manchester city centre looked like something out of Eastern Europe circa 1978. Not anymore, it looks cool these days. On the crime front, don’t believe all the anti-Liverpool stuff, my own crime related happenings in the UK have all been in Manchester, once having my car stolen and about five years ago, somebody decided to throw a brick into a crowd leaving a club and managed to fracture my cheekbone. Nice. I actually find Liverpool a friendlier place to be for a night out and a lot less aggressive than Manchester. The majority of people I speak to up here seem to feel the same way. If you really want my advice though, follow me and live in Chester, fantastic, historic city and you can be in either Liverpool or Manchester in under an hour!