Today's discussion about the news
Comments
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Yep, surely a balanced economy is more sustainable. Also, I seem to remember a few people here were saying the Financial Services industry was going to move out of London because of Brexit.
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London has had, and continues to get far more investment than other parts of the country, over the last 30 years or so. Had there been less focus on London and a bit more on the provinciasl cities then the economy would be better balanced. There really is no need for many companies to still be based in London, other than pandering to egos.
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You always say that except it often isn't true.
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I just wanted to say thank you to people in London who look after us all. As a resident of one of the poorest parts of Europe, I don't know how we would manage without you.
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look on the bright side, things could be worse
my bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny0 -
they were correct, some of it did
my bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny0 -
I lived and worked in London for around 15 years. I was very fortunate, I lived centrally and was single with a bit of disposable income so I could go out to places and make the most of the cultural and social life on offer. If you are able to do that, I totally understand the attraction of living there.
The reality for most though is that unless you are very wealthy, you will live a pretty normal life there (nothing at all wrong with that I should add), but are paying significantly more to do so. I have lots of friends that live there, they do a 9-5 and spend the rest of their time at home or ferrying the kids around. This is what I don't understand, for your average non-Londoner who isn't mega wealthy, why endure a significantly higher cost of living to sustain a lifestyle you could have in any other city or major town in the UK? Hence the reason when it came to buy a house and settle down I chose to leave as the London advantage was no longer there.
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Isn't there more to ferry the kids to in London? For example, on Saturday, I ferried my kids to their second language school which only exists in London. On Sunday, I woke up, decided it looked a bit rainy, so ferried them to Wonderlabs at the Science museum. This was particularly cheap due to the low annual cost of going there. It was close call between this and host of other things.
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Depends what interests you. I don't have kids, but the weather was bad here so we went to buy a new TV. There were loads of kids at Currys who seemed happy enough. There are still some tractor shows going on as well, I expect.
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Why is it not true?
When trading exchanges ceased to be face to face the need to be close to the exchange was removed. with the advancement of technology there is even less need. There are many very successful financial services companies not based in London. There is no need for others to still be based there.
The same is true for any other trading exchange companies be that shipping, flowers, meat, or whatever.
The lawyers are only there because they feed off the other businesses that are there, the same for the recruitment consultants. Barristers are there because of the Old Bailey and the high courts, but that is again something that really doesn't need to be in London.
The big accountancy compnaies also don't need to be based in London.
The issue is they are scared to move even though their employees would have far better quality of life in other cities. If the BBC could move, why can't others?
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Because HS2 isn't finished yet. After that, they can all fuck off to Birmingham
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When I posted above about there being pros and cons to living in London, I intentionally didn't list any pros because I knew it would just end up with people declaring them to not exist and everything being available elsewhere. It looks like I then followed this up by making that mistake.
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No doubt there is plenty of interesting things on offer, but all my friends locally here in the Mids have a variety of sports, educational and cultural activities they take their kids to as well. Agree, probably not the breadth and depth that London has, but still more than enough.
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If you have an office in London, you could potentially employ any of 12m people. That's quite a lot more choice than in other areas of the country. Many law firms and accountancy firms do have offices outside London.
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I am certainly not being critical of people choosing to live or remain in London. It just interests me as to the reasons why people stay there, particularly when thinking of those who have the means and opportunity to live elsewhere and perhaps enjoy a better standard of living for their money.
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Brummies don't want them* 😉
*I am not from Birmingham
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As your question seems genuine, I'll give you my answers:
- Vastly more multi-cultural which makes race much less of an issue. This is important if your kids are mixed race and you like an easy life. It's also just quite nice in general.
- Much greater opportunity to engage in those cultures e.g. taking the kids to language school, participating in events from other countries
- I don't like cars or driving and find it thoroughly depressing the way many people outside London use cars to go everywhere. I much prefer walking and hate the big busy roads outside London.
- I don't particularly want to live anywhere bigger, so don't really desire a big house in the country
- I have access to many massive parks with the associated playgrounds, and if I wanted to go the countryside, I can take a train. Harder to access proper national parks though.
- If I escape the kids, I can watch top class sport, entertainment, theatre etc. with ease. Ditto museums, galleries whatever
- Food
- If I want a change all trains radiate from London, so going to Brighton, Margate, Stratford, Oxford etc. is all easy.
- If I want an international change there are a lot of flight routes out of London.
- I also like the history that you don't get in newer places.
There are probably more reasons that I have forgotten.
There are also negative aspects.
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There is nothing here I can't see any other City around the UK being able to provide. Also, the distance to the countryside is far less. I guess I have to grant you sport and museums.
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Mind you it's quite an atmosphere when Bath play Rugby at home, the stadium being so close to the City centre.
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There are a lot of big sporting events you can't see anywhere else in the UK. And connectivity to the rest of the UK and Europe is unparalleled.
You can't deny the appeal of a world city, even if it isnt for you personally. And it isn't, for me personally.
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Here's a map of French schools in the UK.
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This is why I avoided posting on this before. The response is always that everything is available even when it clearly isn't.
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That's a pretty niche "must have"
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Here's a map of schools who teach French in the UK.
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Sure, but it would be good enough for most given the pitfalls.
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For clarity, I listed availability of alternative language schools as a relevant plus for me and I was, somewhat predictably, told that I was in fact wrong and everything is available in other large cities. I therefore provided a graph of the most mainstream possible language to counter this. Imagine what the graph looks like for other languages that might actually be applicable for me.
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Cheers!
I can certainly see the value in all those things, and experienced much of it myself whilst living there. I think for me personally, I can access much of the same where I live now, albeit with less choice (I get 2 or 3 galleries/museums, not dozens for example). I think more space and a more sedate pace of life was more important to me and that (along with house prices) were the deciding factors.
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London is about 10x the population and size of any other UK city. Its a bit like saying there's more to do in California than there is in Rhode Island.
It's true.
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Yes, it is. I don't know why people argue to the contrary.
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I think I have a pretty sedate pace of life. A short commute and everything easily accessible really helps with that, but perhaps I am lucky.
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