W10

So the fact that it's the coolest, most cosmopolitan, vibrant, multi-cultural city in the world with some of the best bars, restaurants, art galleries, museums and architecture on the planet is negated because its a huge city and there are a few dodgy types around?

I like your logic

Texas Brit

I'm with you W10; I think some of this is sour grapes, patting ourselves on the back, "aren't we all glad we moved away" stuff, meant to eliminate any lingering self-doubt about the move we've made.

I'm glad I moved over here, but I can't count the number of times I've wished of a weekend I could just hop on the Northern Line and wonder around central London for a few hours.

ladylisa

Agreed. I think its sad that so many people on these forums bash their homeland, and yes I've often wondered what their true motives are

If you look at the US expat forums for the UK, they are far more complimentary...go figure, and they live in the UK...cant be all bad

dugongs

The full press release is on the following link. What it actually shows is the population of London growing by 500k over the past 10 years.

http://www.hbosplc.com/media/include...ake_flight.doc

it appears the bulk of the population growth in london is due to international migration although anybody that lives there would not be surprised to hear that - the place is awash with foreigners. there is also a lot more international movement of the british population so not all this figure would be new migrants.

this movement to the suburbs is nothing new and this cycle of being born in the suburbs, go to uni, move to the city, meet partner, start a family and move back to the suburbs has been happening for generations.

i visit london regularly and do not see any more crime today than 5 or 10 years ago. there are undoubtedly a lot more people though so the crime numbers are up and the police are mostly useless nowadays only interested in chasing innocent motorists, changing speed cameras and investigating race crimes.

as for london being a dirty city that may be so but it is trying to do something. it no longer has the industrial polution of the 19th century. the congestion charge (possibly the only major city to introduce this) may be controversial but reducing cars is part of the solution. moves towards cleaner public transport. but the place is so vast and so busy it is not easy.

london/se is also the economic power house of the uk and yet per head of the population it has far less money to spend on public services. whilst scotland has record amounts of money to spend on a declining population to build dual carriageways all over virtually deserted lands, london continues to suffer. if london received its true share of income based on population it would be a far nicer place and scotland, wales, northern ireland, north of england would still be the same welfare dependent sadcases they are now.

i love london despite all it's faults and those awful foreigners (i married one). i have been to most major cities in the world and nothing comes close. london is the greatest city in the world and i just wish the rest of the uk would stop killing the golden goose.

Pants

"It sometimes occurs to me that Britain has far too much heritage than is good for them. Consider the numbers;445,000 listed buildings,12,000 medieval churches, 1,500,000 acres of common land, 120,000 miles of footpaths and public rights of way, 600,000 known sites of archaeological interest." Did you know that in a Yorkshire village there are more seventeeth century buildings than in the whole of North America?

All written by the lovely Bill Bryson who really does put UK on the map so to speak..!!I read this bit and was pretty amazed and thought how true we do take our heritage for granted.

I reckon Don works for the media....lol.

Nice posts W10, Texas brit, Lady lisa and Dugongs...

every place has its faults....its dirt, its druggies, etc etc.....the crazy stuff that no-one can control.

Anyway thats my 2 pennies worth on this gorgeous sunny UK morning....!!!

jugsy

I moved out of London 3 years ago. I loved living there but it had become too expensive for me to buy a house - that's the reason. Also I had a babay and didn't feel the schools in my area were very good.
I still love visiting London. The central areas are now VERY clean due to the Olympic bid and hopefully they will stay that way.
It's a huge cosmopolitan city therefore it has good and bad.

Fuzzyness

can you substantiate that?

W10

No that does happen - certainly not as much as before (pollution is being addressed at the moment)

But you could substitute the word "Londoners", for the residents of any big city in the world in his sentence.

Don

I can. Whenever I go to London for a day, then at the end of the day if you need to blow your nose, the snot comes out completely black with the pollution.

Any Londoner will agree with this. It might not apply if you travel in your car to the office and don't spend much time walking about, but if you travel by public transport and walk around a bit in the streets, shopping, sightseeing etc, it is true enough.

Good job I have got an efficient set of nostril hair to stop this stuff getting into my lungs.

Rather, good job I don't live in London.

Don

I never noticed the 'black snot' phenomenon anywhere else in the world, certainly not all the European capitals, New York, San Francisco, LA, AKL, Sydney etc.

emmals

not just citys......suburbs in the uk are also becoming increasingly 'dodgy'....crime has risen .....I live about 2 minutes away from the woods that was in the news last week a 5 year old tried to be hung by a 12 year old girl.......it's everywere

Don

This time round I have been away from the UK for eight years.

I really notice the changes now and how much it has got worse whenever I go back.

It's real - UK is becoming a nastier, unfriendlier, unpleasant place in some areas.

We are thinking of going back for a time - work, kids in English schools to speak perfect English etc, time for a change - but are very wary about choosing the right bit to live in.

Anything in Greater London is definitely out for various reasons but mainly social ones.

emmals

my parents noticed a huge difference when they came over last year....it had been 2 years since their last visit.....the amount of traffic on the roads.....the amount of new builds....every spare bit of rough soil is getting a house built on it.....
But there are such beautiful places too....only 5 or 10 minutes away from everywere.......I love Yorkshire...it is beautiful......but I need to experience other places too

80s Chick

I still live in London and I can't wait to leave. I've lived here for 30 years and it is unfriendly and unwelcoming (and the black snot thing is true as well, in central London in any case and especially when you travel on the underground). I'd gladly consider a move to another part of the UK rather than abroad, but our kids have no guarantee of decent secondary schools regardless of how long they've lived in any area (10 years in our case). That is a big factor in us moving away (as well as house prices). there is a real two tier system in education, if you can afford a house in the catchment area of a good school you're sorted so you need a certain level of income. I don't suppose that this is a particularly new phenomenon but people are becoming more aware and will move into areas close to the time when their child will need admission to secondary school thus pushing families like ours further away from the catchment area. It's become really cut-throat, every man for himself, and it's like that nationwide. I can see why there would be a bit of an exodus from London because this problem is fairly acute here.

Phyl

brutus

Northern Ireland is suffering for years and years of financial neglect from the UK, as our probably Scotland, wales and Northern England.

Don't forget how London lined its pockets with the massive industrial successes in earlier centuries of these regions.

What an insulting, blinkered and ridiculous view you have of the make up and wealth distribution in the UK.

There is life outside London y'know and its usually populated by open minded solid down to earth people.

B