Spinning the Belly Fluff of England's Omphalos

[steepholm]

I am already heartily sick of Radio 4's new season devoted to that sadly-neglected city, London. Today's offering is a debate chaired by Laurie Taylor to decide whether London is the "Greatest City on Earth." No other British, or even European, city need apply, apparently: the other contenders are New York, Istanbul and Mumbai.

The "London: Why It's So Wonderful and Different and How Everyone Who Lives Here Is More Interesting Than You" season runs for ten more self-congratulatory days. Come back Liverpool, European City of Culture, all is forgiven!

Comments

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Liverpool would win the fight.

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

Birmingham, Birmingham, Birmingham \o/

(more canals than Venice)

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

[Refer to my icon]

They did have one today called "London: Not All That Good Really". No, not quite, it was officially "There's More to Life Than London", but my title was the real one.

It is getting awfully dull, though.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Nice slogan - I love the touch of Sam Tyleresque paranoia about it, too!

I saw a nice description of Bristol yesterday, which I may adopt: "Bristol - where there's always something going on, but nothing ever happens." Now that's my kind of city.

[owlfish]

I learned from someone quoted in Restaurant magazine, as I browsed it over breakfast today, that Birmingham and Glasgow are suburbs of London.

Surely that means that if London is the Greatest City on Earth, its suburbs will have a share of its reflected glory?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I suppose that's true! Then we should forget Matthew 13.12 and embrace 15.27 in its stead!

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Interesting - Cicero similarly used to say that Sicily was a suburb of Rome. Only so that he could get people all hot under the collar about the way Verres was treating the place, but still. It says a lot about the extent of London's claims to megalopolitan status.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Think of it as London: Keeping the rest of the country free of Londoners.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Or as I explained at a meeting a few years ago when someone asked "Why do people keep going on about the danger of London flooding? That's a problem for Londoners" - "Of course we should worry! What if the Londoners all turn up here?"

[joyeuce]

You might be lucky and get the people-who-live-in-London-but-are-resolutely-not-Londoners!

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Of whom I was one, for eight years, so I'm happy to accept fellow-escapees.

[drasecretcampus.livejournal.com]

Tell that to the people who try to buy houses in Whitstable and even Hernia Bay! The DFLs are all over the place apparently. Amusingly the High Speed link has doubled their railfare and only shaved a few minutes off their journey. Long term residents have stuck to the old route. Mind you, the DFLs use 4x4 type vehicles more than trains, the better to negotiate those narrow streets beyond the A2.

[sheenaghpugh]

Ah... whenever I got to Paddington Station I'd see that large notice that says "Welcome to London" and I'd think, "indeed you are".

[drasecretcampus.livejournal.com]

Indeed. The only reason I should care, say, about the London local elections is whether the mayor wants to stick an airport in a nearby estuary. And yet it was all over the national news.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I understand they're going to follow it up with seasons on "Heterosexuals in History" and "European Males - a Closer Look".

[drasecretcampus.livejournal.com]

A related rant - sparked by the thought of editorial laziness - is how, much as I love the Guardian Review (and some weeks even read it), the my desk, my hero, my painting, book of the week, extract of the week, life in books, diary only seem to involve about half a dozen writers. Maybe a few more, but one of Amis, Lawson, Hughes, Callow, Warner, Barnes seem to be in each week.

I wonder if the London season is a counter to the American-ness of, whenever that season was. Am I misremembering that there was an American (ie USA) season? I wonder why they haven't save this for the Olympics? To give me something else to be pissed about in 2012? Can't wait to listen to deeF.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Ah, the perils of synecdoche! Perhaps they've become so used to hearing phrases such as "the response from London to the American announcement" that they've forgotten it's a figure of speech, and that a city is not equivalent to a 3,000x2,000-mile country with 50 times its population. In short, you may well be right.

EATING

[(Anonymous)]

DON'T EAT WITH YOUR MOUTH FULL!