to think that some people don't realise that London isn't the only city?

[Undercovasanta]

I keep reading threads about busy roads, full schools, crime etc etc. The things all these threads have in common is that they are full of people saying 'oh I know all about busy roads too as I also live in London' or 'yes I live in London as well, so I know all about the problems with schools'.

It makes me just want to shout:
'WE HAVE BUSY ROADS TOO (and shit schools) AND WE DON'T EVEN LIVE IN LONDON!'

People in London do realise that those who live elsewhere have similar issues to them don't they? Or perhaps we just all live in little villages in thatched cottages?

I believe there are also places like Manchester, Birmingham etc who also have roads with cars on them etc.

There are other cities?

Oh well, if you say so, there must be. London is still god's own city though.

My family are from London - DH's are all German. At our wedding one of my friends (who doesn't know my extended family) asked my uncle if he was from Germany. He said 'nah'. 'Oh, so you're from England then?' replied my friend. My uncle said 'Naaaah! LUNDUN!'

I love London. Big, smelly, lovely London.

God's own city?

God obviously drew the short straw then.

"I love London. Big, smelly, lovely London."

Oh, me too.

• I have an unbearable urge to try to tell a great Linda Smith joke excuse me if I muck it up:

I'm from Greater London... You know, the edges!!!

Weird name for that area really...

You see if you think about it the further away from Central London you go (Covent Garden, Oxford Street, Trafalgar Square...) well the less great it becomes really...

do you have to be a Londoner to get that one?

Ha ha ha teafor

And that comes from someone who lives in SW16 and loves it

To the OP, yes of course us Londoners recognise that there is traffic and general busyness in other places, we live on a very overcrowded island after all...

But I think the difference is that when you live in London the traffic and general busyness is so all consuming and immediate. It's there, right at the top of your street, 24/7 and you literally cannot go anywhere by car, bus, tube or train without it being somewhat crowded at most times of day or night.

And don't get me started about shopping. When your closest major shopping centres are Westfield or Oxford Street, while that is absolutely brilliant, it is ALWAYS heaving.

There is very little respite from the overcrowded-ness in London. There IS elsewhere in the country, even if you live in a city, you can very quickly get out to somewhere less crowded to get a bit of breathing space. London is so vast it takes an hour just to get out.

having lived in other metropolitan cities in Scotland and england i can honestly say the complexity of transport,housing and social problems etcin london are non-comparable to other cities

Overcrowded island? You're kidding right? There are more sheep than people up here.

There is more to the UK than London.

ovwrcrowded?bits of scotland you are lucky to see anyone not called flossie or dolly for days

Overcrowded, yes. We are a small island and the latest ONS figures from October predict we will reach 70m by 2033. I know that many parts of Scotland and Wales are different (and thank goodness they are), but England is the most densely populated country in Europe and, I think, is in the top three most densely populated countries in the world.

Granted, much of the population is concentrated around London and the South East, which is why problems such as overcrowded transport, schools and hospitals bursting at the seams etc are so much worse here, but the rest of the country is certainly not immune and as more and more people choose to move out of the Greater London area (as I think some survey or other showed recently, could be wrong), then other parts of the country will increasingly suffer.

Oh thank the gods that we have places like Dartmoor, the Lakes, Lochs, mountains and beaches to escape to.