Britain is now the most powerful nation on earth

oldskoo1

There is a balding second rate PR man rubbing his hands together right now.

As for London, I love it. It's a beautiful and interesting city. On the flip side, it has horrible parts like Oxford street. I hate these places. Sometimes i have sudden urges to barge through all these penguins hustling down the pavement. It's a horrible atmosphere.

But you can literally walk down a backstreet and find a little gem.

It's a wonderful city if you know where to avoid.

grizzly1911

kabayiri wrote: »

can London pick up the slack ?

It dosen't want to, it would prefer to cut them lose, along with a lot of other "baggage" of its own.

ruggedtoast

Generali wrote: »

I didn't think that was abusive. Apologies to any (including somethingcorporate) that felt abused.

London however is one of the greatest cities that the world has ever seen. She was the heart of a Great Empire and is still the first or second greatest city of international trade and of culture. That Hackney and Tulse Hill are crap holes are just one of those things. Thieves are attracted to London as much as great artists, writers and so on.

I'm not sure many artists or writers can afford to live in London anymore. You would have to be phenomenally successful by the standards of the art world to afford to live in London and rent a small studio now.

Of course there are still plenty around but they are mostly funded by mum and dad. Berlin has a much more exciting arts scene IMO as its populated by people who actually are artists, rather than Trust Fund Tabithas with pink hair and £400 ripped trousers and the like.

I would love to give living in Berlin a try if I were able. I would rather stick pins in my fingers than take my family back to London and the kind of life you can buy there on an average London salary.

oldskoo1

ruggedtoast wrote: »

I'm not sure many artists or writers can afford to live in London anymore. You would have to be phenomenally successful by the standards of the art world to afford to live in London and rent a small studio now.

Of course there are still plenty around but they are mostly funded by mum and dad. Berlin has a much more exciting arts scene IMO as its populated by people who actually are artists, rather than Trust Fund Tabithas with pink hair and £400 ripped trousers and the like.

I would love to give living in Berlin a try if I were able. I would rather stick pins in my fingers than take my family back to London and the kind of life you can buy there on an average London salary.

Yet some of the most creative artists, writers and designers come up with amazing self sustainable lifestyles without the need for positive regular cash flow.

These are the guys to watch out for.

GeorgeHowell

There is London as a place to live and then there is London as a place to visit. I would agree that to want to live there you need to be a townie by nature and have a few bob to your name.

As a place to visit London and its immediate environs is arguably unparalleled in the world for the quality, diversity, and extent of its historical, architectural, artistic, cultural, entertainment, sporting, food and beverage, retailing, and accommodation attractions. As I said before certainly only Paris, New York, and Tokyo are in the same league. I believe that this is a matter of fact rather than opinion. It has the reputation of not being a particularly warm or friendly city, but London 2012 helped to dispel that when apparently even Tube travellers could briefly meet each others eye without homicidal tendencies bubbling to the surface.

ruggedtoast

GeorgeHowell wrote: »

There is London as a place to live and then there is London as a place to visit. I would agree that to want to live there you need to be a townie by nature and have a few bob to your name.

As a place to visit London and its immediate environs is arguably unparalleled in the world for the quality, diversity, and extent of its historical, architectural, artistic, cultural, entertainment, sporting, food and beverage, retailing, and accommodation attractions. As I said before certainly only Paris, New York, and Tokyo are in the same league. I believe that this is a matter of fact rather than opinion. It has the reputation of not being a particularly warm or friendly city, but London 2012 helped to dispel that when apparently even Tube travellers could briefly meet each others eye without homicidal tendencies bubbling to the surface.

I agree if you're talking about Zone 1. Most of the rest of London is a succession of contiguous cruddy little towns that have been stitched together into some sort of Frankenstein's monster gestalt.

The arteries of this beast comprise of congested narrow streets and a creaking unreliable rail system that transports miserable looking corpuscles to their various tasks in the creatures sooty interior. Chavs, urbans, muggers and lost German tourists appear randomly, and apparently at will, in any and every location periodically.

Generali

leveller2911 wrote: »

There are still pockets of resistance......;)

One problem we face is a lack of distinct accent so when we travel around the country and people always seem to think Sussex/Kent people are from London.We can tell the difference straight away, If you make eye contact with a Londoner and say "Good morning" they look at you as though you have "issues".

If London is so Great why do so many Londoners retire to the Country,try and get elected onto every Council from Parish to County level and try and inflict their will on the the existing population. We suffer from this, they retire here and resist nealry all progress ,wanting the nearby "Historic Town" to stay in the 14th Century.Thats what they move here for and they want it to stay that way.

Generally speaking I think Londoners are insecure, If I had an Elephant they would have a box to fit it in.

Theres an old saying about Sussex people: You can pook and you can shove but Sussex folk won't be druv".

You may not like London but it is still one of the World's great cities and has been for centuries.

Thrugelmir

chewmylegoff wrote: »

most people's experience of london is walking down oxford street or seeing a murder on the news.

Or the high prices of everyday items, traffic, constant noise, pigeons to name few others...

Central London is great for a day out.

Live in Greater London. No thanks. Give me the open space of the countryside any day.

zagubov

GeorgeHowell wrote: »

I would say London, New York, Paris & they tell me Tokyo are out on their own as the 'Champions League'.

How many other cities could swallow up an Olympic & Paralympic Games, and make such a jolly fine job of it whilst hardly skipping a beat ?

Those in the provinces, and especially in the North of England and Scotland, who do nothing but denigrate London and the SE would do well to remove the chips from their shoulders, lose the sense of grievance and envy, the 'victim' mentality, and the sense of entitlement, get off their a***s and aim to be as positive, enterprising, resilient and self-reliant as many in London and the SE are. They would be better of as a result, and so would the country.

They did and do. Catch is, they have to follow their transplanted jobs in the brain drain to London to do it.

And that's why the Hamburgs, Munichs Colognes and Franfurts of Britain aren't doing so well.

I agree with allthesss. I’ve lived in London for over 25 years. I visit Glasgow and Manchester often and they feel more like a real city than London does. London’s got an interesting centre and the rest is a mess of merged villages that don’t join up properly. It’s an oversized city in an undersized country.


As regards the Olympics only being held in London, that says it all. Of course it‘s the only city that could hold them. It’s cannibalised all the Barcelonas , Antwerps, Melbournes, Montreals, Rios, Munichs.

I love London but I'm not deluded and I can happily question whether it’s good for the country or just itself, like a giant tail trying to wag a dog.

Graham_Devon

Each to their own I'd say. I've worked in London, and stayed there for a few weeks / days at a time. I hated it. Felt like constant hard work for the most simple tasks. Just driving a mile seemed to take forever and take constant utter concentration.

I've never felt quite so scared as I did once when my sat nav took me off down a place I really felt I shouldn't be. Suddenly thrown into, what seemed, a completely different (and alien) culture. This was, most likely I thought, my own misgivings....but later found out I was in a pretty dangerous area (Hayes? Edit....no, found it, Deptford, Hayes was where I had to go for a job).

But this is where the two worlds differ. To some, getting the tube etc is seen as the most practical solution, and much easier than others have it. To me, it felt like I was suddenly reliant on others in a way I've never felt before. Reliant on security for my well being, reliant on others to get me places, reliant on others to get me back out. I'm used to being reliant on myself, and I've never been able to lose that cloud of unease as I hit the M25. Claustrophobia I guess. Fine in most other cities though! Getting out and back on the M4 is like a breath of fresh air.

If you don't know "how london works", it's not that pleasureable a place to try and work in. The constant feeling of being "pushed along" when driving, on the tube....you are always aggrivating someone and the pace never stops, feels like you are just pedalling trying to keep up. Don't get that in any toher cities, and I think I've worked in every single major one.