What SLR digital camera should i go for?

Canon EOS 1000D is a good camera for your budget. It is a user friendly camera, easy to use and pictures out of it are good quality.

First of all, it is the skill and technique that play a far more important role than the hardware.

Second, you should visit one of your local camera shops' Used department to check out the inventories. Canon and Nikon are 2 brands that you should give priority. Other worthy brands are Pentax, Olympus, Sony/Minolta. Suggest models: Nikon FM/FM2 or Pentax K1000 etc.

Having said that, for under 300 pounds, you might have too many good choices to choose from. If possible, a 400 pounds range will give a much better choices.

You might like this one

Panasonic Lumix FZ45 14.1MP Digital Camera - Black (3.0 inch TFT LCD Display, LEICA DC Lens with 25mm Wide-angle and 24x Optical Zoom)

LUMIX Hybrid Super Zoom Digital Camera

25mm Wide-angle 24x Optical Zoom f/2.8-5.2 LEICA DC VARIO-ELMARIT Lens

HD Movie in AVCHD Lite with Creative Movie Mode

Intelligent Resolution Technology and 32x Intelligent Zoom

Intuitive manual operation for full creative control

3.0-inch 230,000-dot Intelligent LCD with Wide-viewing Angle

for that price point you can get nikon d5000 , just excellent camera , for it's price , i cannot recommend it enough .

may be you wait for some time you will be able to grab canon 1100d .

but i will say that you get d5000 from nikkon just great ..

i myself like that camera as hobbyist photographer .