Well on my TD Sport I had Goodyear Eagle NCT5's, they were grippy in the dry and a slightly soft compound, they didn't wear quickly but gripped well in corners. That said the back end let go a couple of times on roundabouts and I got a puncture in a rear from a broken key blade (that could've been coincidence though). The sidewalls were quite thin but I never got any sidewall scrubbing, cracks or bulges.
I've also had a set of Uniroyal RainSport2's which get excellent reviews in the wet and dry, they had a good tread pattern and stood up well to hard use, very difficult to spin the fronts in the dry, had good feedback and braking performance.
Now currently rolling on a set of Avon ZV5's, these are wearing really well have done ~15000 miles and they're barely halfway through (and I corner and brake hard), though I have swapped the fronts to back for more even wear. I chose these because they got good reviews online, they're comfortable, grippy and low noise and the performance in the wet is very good. Kept me on the road this winter during the snow. My only gripe is under extremely hard braking in the wet (and sometimes when dry) they are reasonably easy to lock up, I think this is because they have quite large parallel water drain channels in the tread. Good cornering and chunky tread above the sidewalls on the outer edges.
Check out
http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/ this is a really good place to look for info and I have used this the past times I have bought tyres
Edit: I did slide forwards into a traffic island on ice in the Goodyear Eagles and I wasn't going fast at all, that saw the end of my time with the Sport after I had it repaired
might just swap to me michelin winter/backup wheels to get me through this MOT and then get some new tyres when I get paid 
