Just found this excellent forum (while looking for advice on how to report farmers for destroying public footpaths) and can, hopefully, add a few things to this discussion.
I returned from a week in the The Lake District a fortnight ago to discover 3 ticks on my dog and 2 on myself (shin and crook of knee). All were easily removed with an O'Tom device picked up from the the vet previously.
This inspired me to do a little research.
Tweezers or a special device (O'Tom) are the only methods that should be used.
Any technique that causes the tick to suffer or die (alcohol, oil, chemicals, heat) will also cause it to vomit the contents of it's stomach back into your body. That would hugely increase your chances of picking up Lymes Disease if the tick was a carrier.
Just to put it in perspective though, I believe that Lymes is generally carried by deer ticks. In the Lakes, most of the ticks are sheep ticks.
I suspect that the best method to avoid ticks is not to wear shorts.