AdamW said:
Not getting at you in particular not, but this generalising attitude regarding London really gets my goat!
London is large. Very large. Greater London is larger than some nation states in area, and larger than a LOT of nation states in population. So if you are going to generalise on the scale of "London", you might as well just say "England", or even "UK". A large fraction of London's population was not brought up in London, so any unfriendliness you might have encountered is just as likely to have been brought in as to be intrinsically "London". And perhaps you were just acting in a "foreign" way. When in London, do as the Londoners do.
London is as friendly as any other city, the people are great!
Every city has poo-holes. I suggest you go to Mosside and soak up the "friendly" atmosphere there. Or perhaps some of the pubs down by the docks in Newcastle "dressed however you like" in a pink fluffy suit with a sign saying "get it here".
You're just jealous.
Heh heh. Got you. I tried it with my regional accents post to get the Southerners at it.
I have extensively travelled all over the UK: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Irvine, Newcastle, Penrith, Blackpool, Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Boston, Skegness, Birmingham, the Black Country, Cardiff, North Wales, Newport, Gloucester, Devon, Cornwall, Sussex, Norwich, Belfast, Hertfordshire, Coventry, Rugby, Leicester, Stockport, Cambridge, Oxford, Nottingham, Stoke, Barnsley, Milton Keynes, York, Harrogate, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantyssiliogogogoch, Falkirk, Aberystwyth, Llandudno, it goes on and on, but never, NEVER have I experienced what I have in London: strangers deciding to urinate in front of you on the pavement, people shoving past you then looking back but not saying anything, no-one looking at you in the face, people not holding doors open for you, people not saying thank you when you hold doors open for them, people in shops being bad-mannered, the driving just being terrible, everyone rushing about not giving a fig about anyone else.
When I compare to what I have experienced elsewhere: people stopping and chatting if you wanted, people actually smiling, drivers asking you for directions, people saying 'please' and 'thank you'.
Why has this only happened to me in London? Why does the phrase "He's gone all London on us." exist? Why does a comic you read have a character called "Cockney Wan kah"? You can always tell when you are on the motorway and you are getting near London. I hated the South-East and the general rudeness of it all was one of the reasons why I moved from there. I saw an experiment on the TV where someone laid themselves on the floor pretending to be dead. Guess where it took the longest for someone to ask if he was OK? That's right: LONDON.
There is no way I will act like a Londoner: I was bought up with manners and to have common decency. I have spent a long time in Mosside, actually, my parents used to live there: it was OK, if you make an effort, the people are alright and yes, I have been to Newcastle Docks: some of the most friendliest people I have met - a little rough round the edges perhaps, but Geordies are fantastic.
I base my opinions purely on my experience, not on anything else. And the things I mentioned, good and bad, were not just once-offs. I also wondered at one point whether it was just me so before forming an opinion I observed others. It wasn't just me.
