Why is everyone hating on London

[greenwichvillage]

Recently a lot posts I read on social media is about how much people hate London. Its has been called all sorts of names - cesspit, dirty, crime ridden and the foreigners have taken over. They don't recognise London anymore and they are glad they have moved to whiter areas with cheaper housing.

For context, I have lived here all my life, lived in North West London and now live in Southwest London. I admit there are parts of London that have deteriorated, equally there part parts of London that are really nice. Yes it is expensive to live in and properties are expensive but that does not make it a cesspit.

I love living where I am and I love all that London has to offer. I'm not English but I am British and I'm not white and I feel really safe here in London. Yes there are problems with crime, but there is crime everywhere.

I have been to other areas in the UK and really none of it appeals to me, I have been to beautiful country side and small towns and cities and tbh I would get bored after two days there. But I would never go as far as insulting it which people seem to do quite a lot with London.

I think Farage/ Reform and Tommy have a lot to answer for.

It's ridiculous to try and compare carnival to Glastonbury festival though. For starters when you go to Glastonbury you need to buy a ticket (which in itself rules out a lot of people because of the cost) and then you need to get that ticket checked at the gates. Which is a pretty good time to have security turn away anyone with weapons. There are no gates to carnival, you just rock up and join the crowds and ANYONE can come along. Sure there are police but they're not checking people on their way in (and I agree that the Met are a disgrace anyway)

To be clear the reason they're not checking anyone "on their way in" is because there isn't a "way in".

People take knives to protect themselves. They shouldn’t, but they do because they feel at risk, and many have had friends injured in gang related violence. It doesn’t exist in the West Country, because there isn’t much gang activity in the West Country.

Plus the cost of Glastonbury is a good way of ’sieving out’ the most deprived people in the country, who also happen to be the people living in the sort of social chaos that breeds violence.

What a nonsensical comparison

So we agree. Life in the West Country is peaceful, life in London you may need a knife to protect yourself from being stabbed.

This is why I avoid London unless it's Heathrow airport

Or alternatively, if you're not caught up in gang related activity life is more likely to be peaceful, but if you are - regardless of your location - you may feel your safety is sufficiently under threat to carry a knife?

Is that helpful? As another example, I live in London and like most people have no experience whatsoever of either being in a gang or carrying a knife. Did it occur to you that the things which make the news do so because they're outwith the norm and therefore considered worth reporting on?

So you think 9 million population of london carry knives? What a narrow minded way to view the world

Yes - it’s an urban environment. If you’re not cut out for cities, it’s absolutely right that you should stay away from them, just like people should stay out of the country if they can’t cope with having to drive everywhere, can’t cope living somewhere where job opportunities are scarce and work is poorly paid, and where there’s fuck all to do at night, which means your kids scarper as soon as they reach adulthood.

Personally I would ban Notting Hill carnival - poor track record on peaceful celebrations and created colossal amounts of mess in a residential area and has been like that for very many years, my H was working in Ladbroke Grove area in mid 90s and it was a rat fest and nicking bonanza even then at carnival time - I would say the same by the way if it was a celebration of ‘any’ colour, creed or religion that had such a record .

@Whammyyammy

So we agree. Life in the West Country is peaceful, life in London you may need a knife to protect yourself from being stabbed.

What ridiculous hyperbole. I've lived in London for 30 years and have never had any contact whatsoever with knife crime.

Knife crime affects very young men, it doesn't impact at all outside a very small demographic. It's a tragedy and horrendous if you're impacted but has absolutely no effect whatsoever on people outside that demographic.

The vast vast majority of Londoners aren't affected by knife crime, let alone visitors.

I've been to (and lived in) some really dangerous cities where there are no go areas for non locals. Nothing in London, even in the shadiest parts, comes close to this. I honestly think positioning it as some hell hole where people have to constantly protect themselves against knife crime is irresponsible.

Nothing to do with the man’s colour of skin. It’s what he’s done that’s the issue .

Certain sectors have definitely used racist slurs against him

Utterly ridiculous.

Ordinary no -gang involved Londoners do not carry knives (or anything) to protect themselves. And London does not have the highest incidence of violent crime per capita.

Millions (many millions!) of Londoners and even more millions of visitors go about their business in peace and safety.

Fine to stay away if London and its attractions are not your thing, but to stay away for fear: your loss

Its like saying the countryside is to be avoided because of marauding cows

I suspect you don’t know London that well. It is very large, there are lots of people and lots of boroughs. Some much safer than others of course. And within each borough some parts will be nicer than others. Like everywhere I guess.

One thing we don’t seem to have in my area so much is the loitering in town centres. Because there is no real ‘deserted’ town centre for bored young people to gather in at night. I have definitely seen that in other places outside of London.

I have lived in London for 35 years and never once been tempted to go to the Notting Hill carnival. It’s perfectly easy to avoid it!

anyway, it’s good you’re living somewhere that you are happy, that is all any of us can ask for. Including us Londoners!

I know someone in the north west who obsessively posts Bad Khan stuff on her social media, although as far as I know she's never been down south. It's just content she's copy-pasted from far-right accounts.

The fear of crime in London some people have is ridiculous. It's far bigger than other UK cities - bigger than some countries. Of course you're going to hear about crime. I'm from a small town, and felt perfectly safe traveling around London.

People like that annoy me, moaning, complaining and talking about a place that they have never ever stepped foot in or experienced.

I refuse to engage with such people.

Same with people who met a small amount of a group and decide the entire group is bad because they had one or a few bad experiences.

Yup, everyone on the 8.10am from Orpington to Victoria is packing a blade for protection on their way to their boring office jobs. You have to literally fight your way to the falafel place at lunchtime. Pistols at dawn outside Pret.

@MrsVino

You clearly haven’t looked at the comments about him on social media. He’s been targeted with thousands of Islamophobic slurs and threats on social media. A sitting Tory MP made a speech where he accused Sadiq Khan of being under the control of Islamists.

"The number of Islamophobic posts aimed at Sadiq Khan has more than doubled in a year, according to fresh analysis that suggests the London mayor remains a lightning rod for racist abuse.
Almost 28,000 social media posts referring to Khan included a key Islamophobic phrase last year, a huge increase on the 12,000 sent a year earlier and a more than eight-fold increase from 2022, according to the analysis commissioned by the Greater London authority (GLA)."

What has he done? I asked this earlier and didn’t get a response.

There are Londoners who take issue with the Mayor’s policies (conveniently ignoring the fact that ULEZ was a Boris idea and invention that Khan implemented)…, but the barrage of racist, xenophobic, anti-Muslim vitriol that floods social media comes from people all over the country who probably couldn’t even tell you the name of the London governing structure that the Mayor heads up. All driven by Farage’s mob and the far right.

This is the ‘hating on’ phenomenon that the OP references.

It is naive to be an apologist for this. Unless what you want is Farage in charge.

Implemented the ULEZ. And then extended it.

A Boris Johnson initiative.

And also replicated in many other cities.

It's right-wing propaganda. A lot of it is coming from America/ Trump supporters. It's probably because we have a Muslim mayor. I went to London recently, having not been for some time, and actually thought it seemed a lot better than before. I'd actually like to live there now and I've never wanted to before.

The Far Right / Reform / Faragers are whipping up xenophobia and using the racist tendencies of their supporters and would be supporters to use the small boats issue to attack Starmer. The Muslim Mayor gets drawn in as a useful target.

Look at the Facebook comments under any tabloid news story about the RNLI rescuing some clueless holidaymakers cut off on a sandbank. Straight away they are attacked as a taxi service for ‘Starmer friends’ or Khan’s relatives and other nauseating vitriol. Worse on TwitterX.