To be a bit dismayed at the anti London sentiment I keep seeing here

[Tier4billion]

Not sure if it just happens to the threads I’m on, or if I’m being a bit sensitive - but reading on here at the moment you’d assume that the streets of London are something akin to scenes from 28 days later, and all of us are out throwing parties.

[quote Tier4billion]@SueEllenMishke it’s exactly the same here in London. We don’t all live by a tube. It takes me about 45 minutes to get to say kings cross and would involve a bus (or twenty minute walk) a train and a tube.[/quote]
The thing I notice most when I'm in London is the availability and frequency of public transport ... although it takes you 45 mins are the buses/trains regular?

That's my biggest issue - we're lucky if we have one bus/train per hour and they don't start early enough for commuters or run past 9pm.

Until very, very recently we didn't have Uber and it was difficult to get a taxi to take you to/from Manchester. I had to get a taxi to a town half way then get another one to complete the journey.... or pay £80. I live 12 miles from Manchester City centre. We can use Uber now but public transport isn't really a possibility.

@SueEllenMishke fair point. Busss fairly regular - trains more like every half an hour. Not in any way reliable though. There was a period a couple of years ago where I couldn’t get a train for about two weeks. That isn’t uncommon either.

Late nights etc fine though. - trains run until maybe midnight coming out of central London (not back in though I don’t think).

[quote cyclingmad]@sueellenmishke

Its not patronising when it's the truth. Did you know all those things? I know plenty of people met when I studied up in the Midlands didn't and dont now even when I speak to them so naw its not patronising.[/quote]
I knew some of it.

The line Northerners need to learn a few things! came across as very patronising.
You could have just made your points without making it sound like we all need educating.

@cyclingmad

Aa for free travel for school children in London you do realise Londonsrs pay for that right.

Tfl pre covid (as they have now had bailouts) was funded by the fares they collected, advertising revenue and other charges like congestion one. They had no government funding.

So if the decision is to use some of that money to offer free travel to children because that is part of the mayors policy than what is the complaint?

So its not the government paying London children to get free travel its the London commuters.

Surely you own areas can do the same.

Other areas can't do the same because they have far fewer "fare paying" adults etc due to not having the same brilliant public transport system as London.

I'm a Londoner. On the subject of HS2, I don't know anyone who thinks it was a good idea - total waste of money, as far as I am concerned. I always thought they would do better to spend the money on improving local transport links across the North between cities in the places where it is really needed.

Also, someone upthread mentioned the dangerous cladding not being removed and sorted out in the North - neither is it being done in London (it may have been done in a very few blocks at first but, as far as I can understand, it isn't happening now). Currently, people living in such blocks cannot sell their flats because of the cladding and are in financial difficulties as their hard worked for home is valueless as well as dangerous.

Londoners are the same as people anywhere else in the UK - some are horrible selfish pigs, some are lovely generous saints, some are average, some polite, some offensive, some criminal and some spend (waste) a lot of time looking at people around them and in other parts of the UK and feeling jealous/resentful. All life is here (and there and there too).

Also people acting like we're lucky to have been placed in T2 when cases were rising. Oh yeah lucky us! The govt wants us to die in the name of profit.

[quote Tier4billion]@SueEllenMishke fair point. Busss fairly regular - trains more like every half an hour. Not in any way reliable though. There was a period a couple of years ago where I couldn’t get a train for about two weeks. That isn’t uncommon either.

Late nights etc fine though. - trains run until maybe midnight coming out of central London (not back in though I don’t think).[/quote]
Living the dream!!
If we want a night out in Manchester ( literally 12miles away!!) it's often cheaper and less hassle to book a hotel room or go as a group and share the cost of a taxi.
In fact, I've paid less for a train ticket to London than the cost of a taxi from Manchester to home.

@cyclingmad great for London that it can bring more commuters in in a shorter time (not much shorter though from what I've read) but a bit shit for people who would rather work locally and can't because everything is so concentrated in London. Why not even it out a bit and distribute offices across other big UK cities instead of trying to funnel everyone into London?

@Randomtasks I think lots of bigger firms are moving North already, and imagine that will increase as we move towards more remote working.

Then you need to be speaking to your local MPs

London has a mayor who weighs in on the local transport strategy and TfL have to deliver it

You cannot blame londoners for that.

@SueEllenMishke god that made me feel nostalgic - remember nights out?

[quote Tier4billion]@SueEllenMishke god that made me feel nostalgic - remember nights out? [/quote]
I was just thinking that!!
I'm so desperate to go out and dance! As much as I love a living room disco it's just not the same!

London does have a fantastic tube and bus service. TfL does a good job overall I think. I think Londoners don’t appreciate this sometimes and think everywhere else in the U.K. is the same.
But car drivers do have to suffer ulez, congestion charges, high parking charges but maybe other areas have this issue too

I could literally picture the scene - getting ready, a quick drink beforehand then heading into town. Gosh I didn’t do it often but I do certainly miss it now we can’t!

We live in a flat and I have had a bathroom disco, a bedroom disco, kitchen and living room disco. We actually themed them differently (that’s what happens when your Christmas holiday was cancelled, and you’ve nowhere to go and no children to look after, and no neighbours in earshot as they’d buggered off)

We had
Indie Disco
Rave
Jazz Club
80’s.

I still would give my right arm to go out properly right now

Just the ritual of getting dressed up knowing you were leaving the house - I'll never take nights out for granted again!

It’s jealousy.

@Lookslikerainted

It’s jealousy.

Jealousy? In what way?

It's not Londoners per se

It's the London centricity of things: policies, news, etc etc. It can be intensely frustrating to live rurally and hear of yet more national policy being driven by something you've never experienced, whilst watching your local infrastructure disintegrate.

And yes, the London Exodus is real. I work with letting agents and a good proportion of the new builds being built, adding to the stress on local services, are being sold or let to people who don't work here. There are many other areas they come from and "Londoners" is something if a catch all description, but there are ever increasing swathes of our local area being turned into developments of large, expensive housing that serve it to turn our small market towns into islands surrounded by dormitory towns.

So not all Londoners, but all things London centric!

So not all Londoners, but all things London centric!

Yes, indeed. When we went round the Uni open days with our son, we asked about the "year in industry" placements, and all the Northern Unis we went to said most of the placements were in and around London, very few in the Uni city/area. That really hit home for us how all the "top" jobs are in London which is the cause of the brain drain away from the regions.

@Kazzyhoward

So not all Londoners, but all things London centric!

Yes, indeed. When we went round the Uni open days with our son, we asked about the "year in industry" placements, and all the Northern Unis we went to said most of the placements were in and around London, very few in the Uni city/area. That really hit home for us how all the "top" jobs are in London which is the cause of the brain drain away from the regions.

What subject was this? It's not the case for all jobs and placements and statistically not as many graduates move to London once they graduate as people think. There are a few subjects where placements are London centric but it's certainly not universal.

** the issues this causes for social mobility in some subjects is another debate entirely!!

@SmidgenofaPigeon that’s genius - think I may try that!

@CuriousaboutSamphirei do some work for two property investment firms - one in Manchester, one in Sheffield. The majority of those luxury apartments are sold to buyers overseas IME with the odd U.K. investor included.

@FestiveStrop

Please look around you Squash , it's not just some Londoners breaking the rules. I live in another UK city now and it's rife here too. Twats are everywhere.

On NYE, Brighton police issued 66 penalty notices. A friend who lives in the Kemptown area reckoned it should have been 660, if the amount of breaching restrictions round her way was anything to go by.

She said there were loads of parties, and crowds of people gathering along the seafront, none of the distancing.

Absolute wankers.

2 more points. Northerners by and large don't see Londoners as snobby and rich, riding around on gilded ponies - very far from it.

The issue isn't with people. It's with policy. It was seen very clearly with the whole tier system and the financial support for affected businesses. There was no money for the North until London was also affected, at which point suddenly the funding became available.

Just on the point raised of council tax, large swathes of London pay a far lower rate than other areas of the country, so you'll forgive me for not crying a river over paying a very small supplement within that lower amount to put into the central pot for road repairs.