Why is london slipping down the league table of worlds best cities?

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  • whackyracerwhackyracer Posts: 15,786
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    As usual the thread is hijacked by people that have never been and/or can't afford to live in London.
  • ThinWhitePukeThinWhitePuke Posts: 358
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    Wow, just wow... criminalising the homeless. I know we have the Vagrancy Act but that is something else. Well, enjoy the coalition while they are in power, I am sure they'll find a (kinder) way to remove the streets of the homeless towards the Olympics and the housing benefit reforms coming in should force the poor out of London and into ghettos where some people believe they belong, all rounded up and kept away from the middle and upper classes.

    This comes from the same person who in the Politics forum, went on record to suggest we should deny the unemployed the right to vote and abolish the minimum wage.

    You don't like people below you, do you?

    And I write this, as someone who has previously experienced the stigma and reality of being made homeless.

    It is not a question of not liking people below me it is a question of economic realities, London relies on tourism for a huge chunk of its income, retailers/restaurants/attractions/hotels etc employ hundreds of thousands of people in London to serve tourists so if tourists are put off London by drunks asleep in shop doorways, menacing homeless people demanding money for drugs etc they will leave London with a bad impression and tell their friends to avoid London so if it is a choice of tourists or homeless it really is no contest round up the homeless and take them off the streets to places they can't be seen.

    The olympics too is going to be a global advert for London and we need London looking nice and homeless smelly people are an eyesore.
  • Star_BrightStar_Bright Posts: 11,341
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    Three words: Too much immigration.

    Hmmm, quite a few people who have moved to London are from all over the UK, not just abroad. In fact, most of the people I have met in the past 4/5 years have been from other parts of England, and they have all come to live in London.
  • ThinWhitePukeThinWhitePuke Posts: 358
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    Three words: Too much immigration.

    Immigrants do the low paid jobs that the Brits don't want to do though like street cleaning, toilet cleaning, fast food serving, kitchen portering etc so we need a labour pool of immigrants simply because the jobs won't get done without them
  • Musicman103Musicman103 Posts: 2,238
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    Immigrants do the low paid jobs that the Brits don't want to do though like street cleaning, toilet cleaning, fast food serving, kitchen portering etc so we need a labour pool of immigrants simply because the jobs won't get done without them

    There are two sides to this argument.

    Immigrants do the low paid jobs and live 10 to a room in a BTL. After a while many of them go back home and convert their low pay into real currency back there.

    Whilst I dislike shirkers and idleness, I can also see that it's a huge waste of time to do low paid work in London because it doesn't pay a living wage! You really are better off on benefits. If we didn't have immigration, London would close.

    Immigration is convenient for the govt and the associated vested interests because it prevents them having to tackle the REAL issue. LONDON IS FAR TOO EXPENSIVE TO LIVE IN, Immigration just pulls the rug from the unskilled Brits - Work for peanuts or get stuffed.
  • cavallicavalli Posts: 18,738
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    As usual the thread is hijacked by people that have never been and/or can't afford to live in London.

    And you know this how? :confused:
  • Musicman103Musicman103 Posts: 2,238
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    As usual the thread is hijacked by people that have never been and/or can't afford to live in London.

    You're right, I can't afford to live in London

    but why does that make my comments invalid?
  • jrajra Posts: 48,325
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    The olympics too is going to be a global advert for London and we need London looking nice and homeless smelly people are an eyesore.

    You should work for the Samaritans.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 647
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    London does always have a dirty feeling to it. I don't really like crowds so London is not high on my cities to visit.

    I love cities like Vancouver, San Francisco and Lisbon. The are spacious and have the most incredible scenery. Running/cycling paths are also a massive plus. People seem to love living there and are proud of their cities. London does not feel friendly.

    For old cities Rome cannot be beaten. There is no mix of old and new its just old. So pretty at night.
  • netcurtainsnetcurtains Posts: 23,494
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    Maybe I'm hard to impress (and you wouldn't think so seeing as I live in Hull which is for the most part depressed and squalid) but London has always left me with a meh feeling whenever I've visited, I've never understood it's popularity. I did used to enjoy trawling all the second hand record shops though!
    I've never even visited Madam Tussauds which is a shame but the queues were always a ridiculous length and I just don't have the patience.
    I prefer smaller, cleaner, less populated, more aesthetically pleasing cities, like York, for example but that's just me, I've never really liked massive places where you have to use over crowded public transport to get from a to b, I prefer walking.
    It's all down to personal preferences isn't it, I'd rather live in a little village surrounded by fields without many people about, that's my idea of heaven. For those that live smack bang in the middle of London surrounded by people and buildings, a little village would be their idea of hell.
  • Speak-SoftlySpeak-Softly Posts: 24,737
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    As usual the thread is hijacked by people that have never been and/or can't afford to live in London.

    London is a wonderful city, but it's strengths are taken for granted.

    Lived there all my life until 1999 and saw it absorb pretty much everything that has been thrown at it. But for the last 20 years it's been asked to cope with too much.

    We moved because we felt it had lost it's soul. You had to "fight" all the time just to live.
    There just wasn't the same reasonableness around that I had grown up with or had lived with as an adult.
  • 2+2=52+2=5 Posts: 24,264
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    Andy2 wrote: »
    We went to London in 1993 and it was a great place. We went back last year and we couldn't believe how it had changed! Overcrowded and smelly in parts, and many of the shopping streets looked like something fron Delhi.
    Won't be going back.

    With an attitude like that, I don't think you'll be missed.
  • BirthdayGirlBirthdayGirl Posts: 64,256
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    As usual the thread is hijacked by people that have never been and/or can't afford to live in London.

    Exactly.

    People like myself have lived here all my life. If it was that bad, d'ya think I'd still be here?
  • HendersonHenderson Posts: 11,952
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    I like London as a city, some of the people let it down. they seem to have a superiority complex...
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,091
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    Problem is there's more than a few league tables endevouring (in a given year) to rank the supposed World's Best Cities via varying criteria.

    See, for example, these two: www.mercer.com/articles/quality-of-living-survey-report-2010 And this which expands on the former. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_most_livable_cities?wasRedirected=true

    And then there's this 'male specific' league table - http://uk.askmen.com/specials/top_29_cities/

    A further example comes from the Travel and Leisure Magazine www.travelandleisure.com/worldsbest/2010/cities

    A final example is this 'Best Place to Raise Kids' league table - http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/11/1117_best_places_to_raise_kids/1.htm
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 402
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    Perhaps London's infrastructure is becoming too old and antiquated. London's public transport network is astoundingly good compared to other cities in the UK (for obvious reasons), but it's not so good when compared to capitals in mainland Europe and Asia.
  • InkblotInkblot Posts: 26,889
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    There are two fairly obvious explanations for this.

    1. Other cities are improving faster than London.
    2. More people, and a wider spectrum of people, are more widely-travelled than in the past and London is a less exciting destination now.

    London is a more attractive place to live than when I arrived here thirty years ago. Back then, my local area had almost no restaurants (except Pizza Hut) and a very poor selection of shops (which were closed all day on Sundays and some even had early closing one day a week). Nowadays it's much more like part of a world-class city.

    But of course there are smaller, greener cities with better-integrated public transport, better-planned public spaces and more user-friendly facilities, and they are great places for those reasons. London is a great city despite being disorganised, unplanned and at times infuriating.
  • Julie68Julie68 Posts: 3,137
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    As usual the thread is hijacked by people that have never been and/or can't afford to live in London.

    I can't afford to live in London but I have visited it twice and that was two times too many.
    I love living up here in the North and will stay here.
    It's abit derigitory of you to say the comments from most people who have posted on here can't afford to live in London. Maybe some can and maybe some can't but London does not appeal to alot of people.
    I also agree with the poster who says it too much immigration. There are far too many immigrants in this country, we are a small island on the verge on bankrupcy.
    If unskilled British workers were offered a wage that was realistic and livable then I guarantee that the jobs, ie.. cleaners etc would be snapped up y the British and there would be no need for immigrant workers.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 10,311
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    If you visited other cities in europe or even went to cities in the US you'd realise how good we have it here in London. Our transport system though can irate me at times is second to none. And you get more for your money whilst in London,
    People always say that if you live in London, that any other city will seem cheaper to you but I always found Paris and Rome expensive. Having lunch in those cities averages to 13-14 Euros. I don't pay more than £5 in London.

    Berlin however is highly underrated imo.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 10,311
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    Julie68 wrote: »
    I can't afford to live in London but I have visited it twice and that was two times too many.
    I love living up here in the North and will stay here.
    It's abit derigitory of you to say the comments from most people who have posted on here can't afford to live in London. Maybe some can and maybe some can't but London does not appeal to alot of people.
    I also agree with the poster who says it too much immigration. There are far too many immigrants in this country, we are a small island on the verge on bankrupcy.
    If unskilled British workers were offered a wage that was realistic and livable then I guarantee that the jobs, ie.. cleaners etc would be snapped up y the British and there would be no need for immigrant workers.

    The "immigrants" you speak off are mainly EU citizen who will regardless always be able to freely reside in the UK and the jobs that they do get, why isn't it ok for a Brit apply for? Just face it, other EU immigrants are just more willing to work full time regardless of the job title.
  • -Sid--Sid- Posts: 29,365
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    Julie68 wrote: »
    There are far too many immigrants in this country, we are a small island on the verge on bankrupcy.If unskilled British workers were offered a wage that was realistic and livable then I guarantee that the jobs, ie.. cleaners etc would be snapped up y the British and there would be no need for immigrant workers.

    Are we? That sounds a bit melodramatic.

    London has always been very cosmopolitan. I can imagine it being a bit of a culture shock for folk who visit from other parts of the country. But as someone who has studied, worked and socialised for many years in the city, I quickly got used to it. I love the melting pot that London is.
  • GageGage Posts: 1,253
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    London is good for the 20-somethings who work or study and like to enjoy their weekends at a cocktail bar and plaster it all over facebook.

    London is not ideal if you are thinking of re-locating to start a family, the quality of living on a long term basis is poor.

    Your better off living in the surrounding counties such as Surrey, Berkshire, Middlesex, Hertfordshire (maybe Essex) that way you get to enjoy the greenery these counties offer yet still being a stone throw away from London.
  • ClearviewClearview Posts: 800
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    As usual the thread is hijacked by people that have never been and/or can't afford to live in London.

    Exactly. I live and work in London and do not recognise the pathetic hatred they spout about their capital city. Ignorance at its worst.
  • StarpussStarpuss Posts: 12,845
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    LucyKay18 wrote: »
    If you visited other cities in europe or even went to cities in the US you'd realise how good we have it here in London. Our transport system though can irate me at times is second to none. And you get more for your money whilst in London,
    People always say that if you live in London, that any other city will seem cheaper to you but I always found Paris and Rome expensive. Having lunch in those cities averages to 13-14 Euros. I don't pay more than £5 in London.

    Berlin however is highly underrated imo.

    It's the very fact that I have visited (and lived in) other cities that makes me say London is not that appealing. It always seems grubby to me.
  • annette kurtenannette kurten Posts: 39,543
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    Round them up each day anyone who is homeless, If there are no hostel places available for them London has thousands of disused warehouses they can be collected by the police or whoever and be shipped to these warehouses and then released the next day or alternatively put in police cells every night.

    Either way there should be zero tolerance of anyone sleeping rough, it damages the image of London

    sod it, let`s just burn them.
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