London is HORRIBLE

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll be honest, I’m sort of enjoying the dopes who are so insecure they’ve been mesmerized by London and assume it’s intrinsically superior. The accents!!

Probably the only time you ever left the US.

The food is objectively trash. Yes, there are a handful of good restaurants; no sh&t, it’s a global financial center with 10 million people. But many, many “nice” restaurants serve bland, boiled produce. Beans (plain) are a breakfast staple. The leading condiment by a good margin is mayonnaise. Get the hell out of here with London being a food Mecca.

NHS is trash. Granted I’m rich, but US health care and even godawful US medical insurance are models of innovation and efficiency by comparison.

Immigration has gotten to a level that is gross and dangerous. (We’re catching up on this one, admittedly.)

The tube is OK as far as public transportation goes—it’s insanely crowded and hot as hell, but you can get anywhere. But here’s the rub: I don’t want to take public transportation. And driving (or being driven) is an absolute nightmare.

Buildings and hotel rooms and offices and restrooms have all manner of outdated (but affixed!) gadgetry, plugs that don’t work, visible piping, doors and lifts and carpets that haven’t been replaced in decades, the paint on buildings is cracked, garden walls and sidewalks in varying stages of disrepair. You’ll just be walking down the street and here’s a defunct valve sticking out of the wall with signage from pre-WW2. Ho-hum.

Guess that’s “chic”?

I love a lot of things about the USA too, and of course it is perfectly okay to have preferences and to like some things more than others or even to hate London, but, as a Londoner, I really think you’ve just not experienced London properly.

I’m not sure from the PP’s post that they’ve been to London at all. For one they think mayonnaise is the leading condiment and not brown sauce.

[Anonymous]

How would they know? You can take a girl out of Bradford but…

[Anonymous]

I’ve posted before on here but I was born and raised in DC. I stake out very hard to defend positions praising DC over most any east coast metro area, particularly NYC. But to say that even the best year in DC restaurants is even *close* to the level of any year in London dining for the past 2 decades is absurd. They’re not even in the same league. It’s like saying the 1999 DC United squad could beat literally any team in the Premier League. It’s just foolishness.

There are undoubtedly social/political problems in the UK. But they’re not that different from the ones in the U.S. and really most of Western Europe. Farmers are driving their tractors around and lighting shit on fire in Rotterdam, Brussels, and Paris.

But London is a top notch global city. Their parks aren’t trash, I don’t even understand that one. The transit system both in London and the train system throughout the country is unbelievable. London and DC just don’t compare. DC is more like Edinburgh (another great city - but we beat them on restaurant scene in a big way) and London is NYC.

I’d love for the London haters, especially those who think *DC* is convincingly superior, to tell me one other city in the world, not in the U.S., that is better than London. I’m not saying London is the best - I just want to know what your frame of reference is.

[Anonymous]

Wow. This post is next level crazy. London is beautiful and the people are nice. I can’t imagine how or why this post made itnpadt tge initial rant.

[Anonymous]

Op, sounds like you don’t have any friends there. I can relate. I’ve lived all over the world and had very different experiences in each city. The cities I loved, I had a great social life. The one city I really struggled (Seattle of all places) I just hated so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a complex relationship with London. I lived there in the 1990s and a again for a few years in the early 2000s and loved it. These days it's changed so much, some for the better and others in just different ways. The mass migration means it's really no longer a British city it was 30 years ago. The demographic changes are staggering and I don't think I've see any other place undergo the same scale of population changes. So the neighborhoods I once loved aren't the same any more, they're either colonized by the very rich and boring, like Mayfair and Kensington, or well, just not British any more.

On the other hand, it is safer and cleaner. Massive gentrification has cleaned up large parts of London but it's also meant London is extremely unaffordable.

It's always been very expensive. And it's always been a widely criticized city for lack of charm. But the museums are still excellent, if a bit woke these days. The shopping can be great. Dining out is more expensive than it's worth it but my friends still in London are excellent cooks and have access to excellent ingredients.

I don't have much of a desire to revisit London for longer than a day or two to see old friends before going elsewhere. London is the one place that makes me feel "no country for old men." But I readily recognize that for others it's still a thriving and fascinating city.

in what universe is london 'widely criticized for lack of charm'???
it is one of the most charming big cities there is.
i could understand if you said frankfurt/ dresden/ riyadh/ lagos/ akron/ birmingham/ indianapolis or the entirety of new jersey. but LONDON is widely criticized for lack of charm? plz

It's not the prettiest city. There's no shortage of travel accounts of the lack of charm or poor food or pollution in London going back centuries. Even John Adams complained about the food in London in the 18th century.

oh well if john adams complained about the food in the 18th century then we should certainly assume that nothing has changed 300 years later. that tracks.

I don’t think London has discovered salt or seasoning for their food in those 300 years. So yup, it tracks!

and your creds for saying that are....?
have you even been to london? or are you op? bc if op then you lost your taste credibility a while back in this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I LOVE London. Chic, great shopping, great fun vibe. People are mean as sh*t in a very polite way. It's actually kind of weird. British food is disgusting, but there are so many other options! Love the place. Would move in a minute.

Eat Indian subcontinent food there. That is the only decent and affordable food there.

BTW - England became a developed nation because of how they looted 45 trillion dollars worth of materials from India during their colonial rule.

Without India to loot, they have become a shithole country. A small country of shopkeepers. And the poverty there is another level now. Unwashed brits with yellow teeth, unwashed clothes and dirty fingernails, unable to afford air-conditioning and eating baked beans from a can.

Let me guess, you watched a YouTube video. The 45 trillion figure floating around on social media (what a joke) is based on England displacing the Indian textile industry, because England mechanized and India could no longer compete with handlooms. They did not take 45 trillion dollars worth of goods. Nor is outcompeting a country "stealing" from them.

Are you actually saying that Britain did not steal from India?! Because that is pretty well documented.

Yawn

So you agree, the British Imperialists were bullies.

American imported, kept and fought over the right to retain MILLIONS of slaves.
not just exploited a country from an economic pov (which they ALSO DO)
but kept, as a matter of course, slaves in their domestic country, based on race.
so winning any ethical argument on this basis is unlikely in the next several hundred years. GL tho - nice try.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I LOVE London. Chic, great shopping, great fun vibe. People are mean as sh*t in a very polite way. It's actually kind of weird. British food is disgusting, but there are so many other options! Love the place. Would move in a minute.

Eat Indian subcontinent food there. That is the only decent and affordable food there.

BTW - England became a developed nation because of how they looted 45 trillion dollars worth of materials from India during their colonial rule.

Without India to loot, they have become a shithole country. A small country of shopkeepers. And the poverty there is another level now. Unwashed brits with yellow teeth, unwashed clothes and dirty fingernails, unable to afford air-conditioning and eating baked beans from a can.

Let me guess, you watched a YouTube video. The 45 trillion figure floating around on social media (what a joke) is based on England displacing the Indian textile industry, because England mechanized and India could no longer compete with handlooms. They did not take 45 trillion dollars worth of goods. Nor is outcompeting a country "stealing" from them.

Are you actually saying that Britain did not steal from India?! Because that is pretty well documented.

Yawn

So you agree, the British Imperialists were bullies.

American imported, kept and fought over the right to retain MILLIONS of slaves.
not just exploited a country from an economic pov (which they ALSO DO)
but kept, as a matter of course, slaves in their domestic country, based on race.
so winning any ethical argument on this basis is unlikely in the next several hundred years. GL tho - nice try.

The British, Dutch, Portuguese had nothing to do with the slave trade though, right?

You seem to think America invented the transatlantic slave trade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I LOVE London. Chic, great shopping, great fun vibe. People are mean as sh*t in a very polite way. It's actually kind of weird. British food is disgusting, but there are so many other options! Love the place. Would move in a minute.

Eat Indian subcontinent food there. That is the only decent and affordable food there.

BTW - England became a developed nation because of how they looted 45 trillion dollars worth of materials from India during their colonial rule.

Without India to loot, they have become a shithole country. A small country of shopkeepers. And the poverty there is another level now. Unwashed brits with yellow teeth, unwashed clothes and dirty fingernails, unable to afford air-conditioning and eating baked beans from a can.

Let me guess, you watched a YouTube video. The 45 trillion figure floating around on social media (what a joke) is based on England displacing the Indian textile industry, because England mechanized and India could no longer compete with handlooms. They did not take 45 trillion dollars worth of goods. Nor is outcompeting a country "stealing" from them.

Are you actually saying that Britain did not steal from India?! Because that is pretty well documented.

Yawn

So you agree, the British Imperialists were bullies.

American imported, kept and fought over the right to retain MILLIONS of slaves.
not just exploited a country from an economic pov (which they ALSO DO)
but kept, as a matter of course, slaves in their domestic country, based on race.
so winning any ethical argument on this basis is unlikely in the next several hundred years. GL tho - nice try.

Ummmm, we abolished slavery within 90 years of forming a bran new nation.
And yes we had to UNWIND what the British INITiATED in 1555 and had continued for nearly 300 YEARS.
The perpetual problem with the UK is, it can’t seem to OWN IT about anything they’ve done. This entire thread is testimony to that. But sure, keep rewriting your history. Better yet, leave it out of the schooling altogether so the next generation and the next one after is increasingly more ignorant than the one prior.
I mean, look, we have you as a specimen don’t we?

[Anonymous]

Please go find Kate.

[Anonymous]

It's getting all War of 1812 up in here!

[Anonymous]

https://images.app.goo.gl/Ld5HCCH2g7L5aBFYA

[Anonymous]

“Londoners baffled by unusual cow in Mayfair”

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/cows-faeces-farming-livestock-energy-29793913

So much happening in London.

[Anonymous]

Food is bad? There’s your usual then.

[Anonymous]

Try The Cow in Mayfair