London bashing

[CruCru]

Recently there seems to have been a spate of London bashing from friends and acquaintances who live elsewhere. I'm surprised that people think it is okay to totally slate the place that someone else lives just because it happens to be the capital.

I think London is awesome, possibly the bright centre of the universe but wouldn't dream of telling someone how ghastly, say, Lancashire is (I have never been to Lancashire, I am sure it is very nice, it is just an example).

AIBU?

medievalgirl I think it but I don't say it to other people. I do see that might come across as a bit obnoxious .

I suppose my point is that if people don't like London and prefer somewhere else, that is fine. I think it is a shame if they make a point of telling me how horrid the place I live in is. I usually assume that if someone lives in, say, Lancashire it is because they prefer it to London.

Personally I think London is a great place to live if you have plenty of money but not such a great place to live if you don't. Over lunch on Sunday we had a "lively debate" about this. SIL insists on living in London in a one bedroom flat with two kids, no garden or outside space. Her DH commutes for nearly two hours in the morning OUT of London . Her nursery fees are twice what we paid outside of london (but jn another city). Reason is because "everyone knows its the best place to live". Really?

I love when people try to E.X.P.L.A.I.N. rural life to a London dweller
most of my London friends (including myself) moved to London to get AWAY from the boring rural life we'ld experienced for the first 18 years of our lives - WE GET IT and its not all country-living-ish, its more stiffling and clautraphobic than London in many cases. Open spaces - but closed minds! (and london has lots of open spaces anyways... most of the open spaces where I grew up were private property covered in toxic pesticides!)

Poopoo, I can't believe you just wrote that!

Once I've picked my jaw up from the floor, can I just stand up for all the non-homophobic, non-racist, non-expat people who don't like London. Please? This thread is a complaint about people criticising London, but that's one pretty big criticism of people who don't like London.

I live at the complete opposite end of the country to London, but I visit fairly regularly (I was there at the weekend) and I love the place, even when it's pissing rain.

YANBU, but I would say it's not limited to London. I get the "I would hate to live in a village, it must be shit having nothing to do" quite a lot. I love living where I do and there's plenty to do so fuck off.

Unless you've lived there you cant possibly have an opinion on it other than as a place to visit [which TBH doesnt count for much] yet people seem to think they do!

The way some people make a blanket statement about it too is rather silly, do they think its all the same? its a big and very diverse place you know.

My pet hate is those who have lived here and moved away, they can be the worst for slagging it off presumably to justify their decision.

I'm a Londoner through and through and I must admit I'm quite often a bit rude about non-London places, so I guess I'd better put up with some criticism of London in return!

Well that's me told.

I wouldn't want to live in London , but I'm not homophobic or racist

Do all Londoners think people who live elsewhere are like that ? . I mean I wouldn't want to generalise

I adore London. I have lived here for more than 30 years now and before I moved here my grandparents had a London flat and it always seemed so right to be in London. Live Zone 2, Putney so very very lucky.

What do I love: the river, red double deckers, the tube, Fortnums, St. James's Park, the theatres, the museums, black cabs, the buzz, being so close and yet so far from the Centre. Football crowds at Fulham and Chelsea at the weekend, Wimbledon Tennis, the Commons, fabulous shops and restaurants, walking through Kensington Gardens from Kensington High Street to Knightsbridge, the cosmopolitan environment, the Albert Hall, the Southbank, the London Eye.

What do I hate: the poverty and cheek by jowl nature of two entirely different world that can be only a street away and yet form part of a different and unknown universe. If I had no money, I think it could possible be a horrid, dangerous place that made me feel a failure and terribly wanting. The fact that public services are often so dire because the cost of living here is so high that it is difficult to attract the best staff for public sector money when they can have a better overall quality of life outside London.

I love London; I can't imagine living anywhere else now even though it isn't my home town.

My pet hate is people who move here and then slag it off all the time, but stay. I lived in Sydney for a while. It wasn't for me. I cut my secondment short and came home.

Personally I think London is a great place to live if you have plenty of money but not such a great place to live if you don't

Its the only place id want to be poor in! there is loads to do for free in london and transport is reasonably priced [free for children on the whole]

Plenty of choice for places to shop on a budget too.

Living out in the sticks with no money is utter crap [ive done it I know]

So Londoners can slag off rural life , but no one can slag off London?

i would love to visit london. never been so wouldn't comment about a place i have never been.

you shouldn't judge a book by its cover

And if all other arguments fail.....when you're tired of london, you're tired of life.
Tis true

Yanbu

I adore London...born and bred here, I'm immensely proud to be a londoner and can't ever imagine living elsewhere

It's an incredible city

"So Londoners can slag off rural life , but no one can slag off London?"

well that depends, Londoners who've moved from shit-kicking-nowhere can talk about their rural life experience with some conviction, as can people who've given london a proper chance and hated it.... but not the ones who've NEVER BEEN or went once to a concert in 1996

usualsuspect I would never slag off rural life. It would be as rude as slagging off London to me.

I'm sure some do London bash (SE bash?) Some of it is jealousy because rightly or wrongly others feel London gets the cake and everywhere else gets crumbs.

It's not just about the olymics. But they should have been held in the centre of Britain.......bit nearer me!

I

I find that Londoners tend to slag off rural life in a defensive action against rural dwellers slagging off 'dirty' London.

Well I love living in London and raising my family here. But I don't really care about other peoples' generalisations about it. Usually I just shrug because I know why I live here and why I like it so who cares about why someone else dislikes it!

It would be nice if people could acknowledge that other parts of the country are valuable too - all the fuss about BBC moving to SAlford and the poor staff who have to move to this desolate outpost.

Some of us are quite happy living outside London, or even in the North.

Its not all rural outside of London , there are other Cities and some of us quite like them too

OMG The North?

Leave MN immediately

I lived in London and there are some great things and some not so great things about it - which is why I don't live there anymore. But I have met some Londoners who are pretty rude about everywhere outside London and think you can't get a decent meal, etc anywhere outside of London.