Choice of alternates
How many people would pick an alternate which is near the destination, and how many would pick one which is a long way away?
Let's say you are doing a training flight from Shoreham to Bournemouth, some approaches at Bournemouth, and then flying back to Shoreham.
How many would pick Southampton as alternate (given it has the same wx as Bournemouth and has the same sort of ILS) rather than pick e.g. Lydd or Southend (which are likely to have different wx)?
The advantage of Southampton is that you can get a single train back to Shoreham, which you cannot do from any of the other places that have an ILS.
I tend to think of this as having a "crash alternate" (where a crash has closed the runway) and for that a nearby airport is fine, and a "weather alternate" (which obviously needs to be more distant).