In reply to Philip:
I think binoculars are a bit like tripods - you mess around buying cheap ones, waste your money, before finally stumping up for a decent pair and never regretting it. I went through had a few pairs of ~£100 bins that all lost alignment after a couple of knocks - even slightly cross-eyed is very tiring to use. Image quality tends not to be obvious on a quick glance but becomes very obvious with regular use. Try to spend some time in a decent shop and see which you prefer.
There seem to be a only a couple of price brackets with 'cheap' going up to about £200, then 'decent' £600 plus (Zeiss, Leica, Swarovski), with not much in between unfortunately. Brands in the middle ground to look at are Nikon, Vortex, Minox etc, plus look for reviews on the birding sites. My main piece of advice would be to buy second-hand - decent optics are made to last. I'd either shop very carefully if you buy new, or scour ebay for a slightly used better quality pair. I got a pair of ex-display Minox 8x33HG off ebay for £350 - had to swallow hard at the time but money well spent - pleasure to use and 30 year guarantee.