£26,000 Benefit Cap

[lost]

This country really doesn't help its self though, I was watching points of view this morning and there was a feature on how much of a disgrace it was that the BBC was moving to Salford. Apparently flight firms are putting on extra flights from London to Manchester so people can stay in London and commute. If you want to cram everything into London its no wonder everyone wants to live there and so rents are extortionate.

[russycarps]

london's a miles better place to live than manchester though. I'm not surprised people would rather commute than live up there

I've lived all over the country and if you like culture, the arts, good food, music - if you dont live in london you will forever wish you did.

Granted when I get older I'll move away to a little place on the seaside perhaps, but for anyone in their prime, london is the only place to be

[russycarps]

I fucking hate London... Its an awful place to live and work.... Give me Manchester / Liverpool over that shit hole any day...

[russycarps]

Your so full of shit

London is cesspit of w*nkers... Suits you down to the ground clearly

Edited April 30, 2012 by russycarps

[russycarps]

You said I didn't like culture, the arts, good food or music...

You are talking shit...

And you can get all that around Manchester... No problem...

[russycarps]

Culture - Manchester has its own culture to be sampled...

The arts - bit of a generic thing but Manchester has the Opera House, The Palace Theatre, The Lowry, Imperial War Museum (if you ever go to the Manchester one you will see why it easily comes under art) plus others...

Good Food - Manchester and the surrounding area has massive quantity of good food places from good honest food to Michelin star places.

Music - MEN, Apollo, Manchester Central, Academy, Warehouse Project etc etc

London has fuck all you can't find in Manchester. It really has nothing. If you watch Phantom of the Opera in London or Manchester you are watching the same thing. For example...

I love London to visit, for a couple of days, but to live work and play... You can keep it... You don't even have fucking Gravy... Weirdos...

[kaosmark2]

Personally, I find Northern cities friendlier than Southern cities.

And I reckon all of the big cities have enough to keep anyone interested. London's the biggest and best of them sure, but because it's so huge you can't often live walking distance from it.

And people in London are unbearably arrogant about it being the best city.

[russycarps]

Personally, I find Northern cities friendlier than Southern cities.

And I reckon all of the big cities have enough to keep anyone interested. London's the biggest and best of them sure, but because it's so huge you can't often live walking distance from it.

And people in London are unbearably arrogant about it being the best city.

[Rufus Gwertigan]

I reckon most of the people who live in london arent actually from london!

[lost]

And people in London are unbearably arrogant about it being the best city.

[kaosmark2]

Thursdays question time from Romford had one of those few occasions when the whole audience and all the pannel agreed that asking anyone to live outside London was completely disgusting. The hard left lady who sends her kids to private school because West Indian mums care more about their kids than the other races was particularly disparaging about Stoke.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

London's alright as are the Londoners I've met. Same as any city, you'll get all sorts of people from those who are nice to those who are w*nkers. In terms of entertainment, culture, food etc there's no way anywhere else in the UK can compete with it. Yes, there may be museums, restaurants, theatres etc elsewhere but no way near as many as London has to offer. The place is packed with things to do pretty much 24 hours a day. Whereas in Birmingham I'd have to go to an all night supermarket if I wanted something to do at about 3am in the morning.

All that said, I'd never live in London. I'd like to do about a week there though taking in some of the sites (except Madame Tussauds - for reasons which I'm sure are obvious).

[LondonTom]

All that said, I'd never live in London. I'd like to do about a week there though taking in some of the sites (except Madame Tussauds - for reasons which I'm sure are obvious).

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

Are you trying to imply that somehow paying 30 quid to make a funny face behind some celebrity waxworks isn't it worth it?..(I think i might be missing something here and its one of the most packed out attractions constantly!

[Ed209]

Madamme Tusaudes is a fricking joke. What is the point?

My top 5 London tourist attractions (major ones I'm talking, on the whole I hate them, so much more to london than that, and they are all horribly expensive), but in no particular order for me they are

Tower of London, British Museum, Tate Modern, Natural History/The Darwin Centre and St Pauls Cathedral ... but why go to London? You can find all of these in Manchester, Barry can tell you where they are.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

Madamme Tusaudes is a fricking joke. What is the point?

My top 5 London tourist attractions (major ones I'm talking, on the whole I hate them, so much more to london than that, and they are all horribly expensive), but in no particular order for me they are

Tower of London, British Museum, Tate Modern, Natural History/The Darwin Centre and St Pauls Cathedral ... but why go to London? You can find all of these in Manchester, Barry can tell you where they are.

[LondonTom]

Is that how much it would cost to be bored sh*tless by looking at wax! I bet you're not even allowed to rub yourself up and down your favourite wax figure for that either.

[Ed209]

I want to go to the Tate Modern so much. I have even gone as far as buying the train tickets to get down to London to go there for the day, only for apathy to hit me at the last moment and for me to decide not to bother going. I must get over that little hurdle. I thought a few of those in your top 5 were free!

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

Yup my bad. you're right of course. Tate, British Museum and Nat Hist are all free (Darwin Centre is a new bit, not sure if its free, or come to think of it if it's even open to the public all year round - its amazing though, got a freebee when I worked at Imperial College). Tower of London is expensive but really cool, and St Pauls you have to pay for, unless you're crafty and time your visit with an act of worship, which is definitely the best time to go because not only do they not charge, but its also at its most peaceful.

Of course paying is no bad thing as its an incredible building that costs a fortune to maintain.

[russycarps]

Stoke is an absolute shithole though

Personally, while I love visiting London and going on nights out there, the prospect of living there just doesn't appeal. At all. I like walking places.

Edited May 1, 2012 by russycarps

[kaosmark2]

If you like walking places, then I think you would in fact love living in london (unless you mean hiking across lake district-type landscapes)

You can walk everywhere in london, just most people dont bother or dont realise actually how close everything is. People think you HAVE to get the tube, even if you are travelling only one or two stops. Walking rather than taking the tube in london is one of my most favourite things to do. You find allsorts of stuff you would never have known existed. I work in the City and the walk to the west end is a really nice one, either along the river or through the back streets where you bump into allsorts of lovely old buildings, seeing those little plaques where people were born etc, things that just arent on the tourists maps. It only takes about 40minutes too, if that.

Its the same with any large city though, All the places I've been to I always find it much more fun to walk everywhere than take public transport, be in london, paris, rome, tokyo or whatever.

You speak to the average person in london though and they wouldnt dream of even walking from somewhere like holborn to oxford street, or london bridge to bank (these are 10minute walks!).

The downside of this though is that you will die of lung cancer within 2 years

[russycarps]

Oh, I walk quite a lot when I visit London. The main thing is that I'd have to travel to get into London from where I live. That really puts me off. I don't mind commuting to work, I just hate commuting to live.

[kaosmark2]

indeed. my brother commutes from his home in the country to central london, and it's a 2 hour commute. I cant comprehend how horrific that must be. Thankfully mine is a pleasant 10mins overland journey and involves no tubes at all. The london underground in rush hour is pure hell on earth

[abdoujaparov]

indeed. my brother commutes from his home in the country to central london, and it's a 2 hour commute. I cant comprehend how horrific that must be. Thankfully mine is a pleasant 10mins overland journey and involves no tubes at all. The london underground in rush hour is pure hell on earth

[lost]

I've a friend who does Leeds to London each day. That's another issue the rest of us have, if you work in a specialized area and loose your job, outside of London and the south east you have to be very lucky to find similar close by and either take on a horrific commute or move. His house is worth less than he bought it for and so does the former