Its difficult to say, because by far the biggest source of income for the UK is the financial services sector in the City of London, as there is almost no manufacturing industry left in the UK. (It was all sold off in the 80s and 90s to foreign investors, we barely export anything now).

The UK is very unique in the sense that there aren't any other decent-sized countries which revolve around their capital city to the extent that we do.

I mean, put it this way, our 2nd largest city (Manchester) is 1/8th the size of London. Says it all really.

For the UK to stay afloat its vital that a free movement of labour is possible in order for the major firms and corporations to be as internationally connected as possible with the best global talent at their disposal. In essence, London is the financial hub of the world and there appears to be large cross-party agreement that it must stay that way.

The unfortunate side-effect of this is that we must remain in the EU, giving us no control whatsoever over our borders and over the hundreds of thousands of Poles, Bulgarians, Romanians and other East-Europeans wishing to come here. Add to that the number of Pakistanis others from the subcontinent able to get their families here through arranged/cousin marriages and we're under an absolute deluge.

Immigration in the UK has happened on a massive and completely unprecedented scale. I think the parties would like to limit it if they can and can sort of understand why the natives are getting restless, but ultimately its just a part of the neoliberal globalist system of ruthless capitalism that London is at the heart of.

I honestly can't see a solution, which is why I chose not to vote today.

I think he said he could see a reason for less immigrants but the reasons are not simply because they are foreigners/immigrants.

Rasta
Do you feel like this affects your day to day life some how ?

Surely it's isn't the only problem in the UK, is the immigrant debate the only reason for not voting ?

Oh God not at all. I just actively dislike every single option available to me at the present time.

The isolated and disengaged LabCon Westminster bubble are just two sides of the same coin of the privileged OxBridge elite (although I'll always hate Labour that bit more for pretending to be otherwise). The Lib Dems are unprincipled political prostitutes willing to do anything for power and the greens are a bunch of scientifically ignorant communists. As for UKIP, whilst they might well be the only Eurosceptic party available, they are at the very least fuelled by (and at worst motivated by) racism and intolerance and actual dislike of foreigners for simply being foreign.

Very sad times I'm afraid; but very interesting to see where we are in 5-10-20 years as always.

Birmingham's your 2nd largest city. London's about 3.5 tines bigger.

You know that Rasta keeps his own set of facts. So don't be bringing that crap in here.

Greater Manchester is bigger than Greater Birmingham.

London (just London)'s population is around about 8 million people

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._by_population

Manchester and Brum are roughly 1 million.

Anyway, suppose you're right and I'm wrong, how does that affect anything that I've said?

You'd all gleefully love to prove me wrong for the sake of proving me wrong, yet not one of you seems able to do so re. the subject of immigration and politics (which by the way, you guys brought up on this thread).

Perhaps we should just move on.

Rasta, your use here of the word "gleefully" is questionable. What is it that you think "we all" are up to?

Oh I definitely think I'm personally disliked on here. I mean, yeah obviously no-one is going to come out and admit to it but there you have it.

Disappointing though, I mean I've certainly made an effort to communicate the reasons for my conclusions as palatably as I can. Alas the conclusions are unpleasant, so I, the messenger, am getting shot at. Disappointing but I guess I don't really blame anyone.

Why is it disappointing if you are personally disliked? Is this a popularity contest?
I'm an old. I love reading 2+2. Such stimulating, diverse intelligent conversations are hard to come by.

And the sarcastic humor? Second to nowhere else. If I have something I'd like to say, I say it. And I don't really give a rat's tiny hiney how it's received, unless I deliberately hurt someone's feelings. Personal dislike doesn't enter into the equation.

I'm willing to admit I dislike you.

For cities such as Paris, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Athens, Prague, Budapest, Bucharest, Tokyo, Seoul, Lisbon, Buenos Aires, Karachi, Manila, Tehran, Lagos, Cairo etc., how much less do their countries revolved around them than the UK revolves around London?

I've been thinking, Im not sure why I keep coming back here. I think it has to do with some heavy weights willing to engage you here, I also think your opinions are kind of run of the mill but with a twist which in combination with the first keeps it somewhat interesting. I dont really care for you but that has nothing to do with you, I probably only slightly 'care' about a handful of people here on 2+2. I dont really dislike you more then I dislike average people tbh.

Do your research about the political and economic power that the City of London holds in relation to the EU and US/Anglosphere as well as how important it is to the serious, serious money from Russia and the Arab world, as well as the fact that its quite so much larger than even our second city in terms of geography and population.

You might as well as me what makes Manchester United a 'bigger' football club than *and then reel off a list of football team from League 1/League 2*

Are you going to thank me for correcting you on your incorrect assertion that London is only 3.5 times bigger than Birmingham?

Why you so mad? I never claimed that Paris, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Athens, Prague, Budapest, Bucharest, Tokyo, Seoul, Lisbon, Buenos Aires, Karachi, Manila, Tehran, Lagos, Cairo etc., are similar to London with respect to how much their countries revolved around them. I simply asked if they are comparable.

This was my source for my London/Birmingham/Manchester post:



My apologies, London is 3.7 times bigger, not 3.5. 3.5 is like an internet meme though so I went with that, but thank you for correcting me.

That metropolitan area includes places within the M25, but well outside of London right the way to the likes of Watford, Woking, Southend and Reading. Those aren't in London.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=population+of+london

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=population+of+birmingham

Pipe down now. There's a good lad.

Well its always surprising and disappointing to find you're disliked no?

I'm very patient and polite with people and try and put across why I think what I think backed up with facts and sources. Trouble is that even when I do that people just seem to return with straw-men and frustration.

Gizmo's being fair at least in asking questions, although I don't think she's particularly keen on me either!

I guess what's disappointing is that I pretty clearly do no actual harm to anyone. I'm not, simply put, a morally bad person. That's more-or-less the main thing. If you're disliked because you're causing harm then its fair enough.

How much actual value can you place on someone's opinion of you on an internet forum?

I mean opinion of you, personally, not your opinions.

Sure, we all would like to think that our opinions offer something of value. I get that. But, how in the world can you get into a discussion about someone here not liking you, personally?

Is it your posting style? Is it your opinions? Is it the length of your comments?
This, like anything else, can be corrected. Or not, if you choose.

However, I personally think it's counterproductive to focus on being personally liked or disliked here, unless that is your priority.

Rasta,

IMO most people respond to you the way they do not because they dislike you, but because they find you amusing/entertaining to engage with in that manner. You're simply a young person who thinks he knows way more than he actually knows. A very common occurrence. And it's cute to see how confident and worked up you get about a variety of things you are generally pretty clueless about. That's all, it's not about disliking you.

Rasta, thanks for those links. Now that I understand the population dynamics of the UK I totally see why white men living in London have it so tough compared to anyone else.

Oh wait, I'm confused again. I just read that Birmingham is the largest city in the UK and Leeds is #2.

Well I'm willing to bet that I, more than most, am happy to be proven wrong, and frequently do all I can to argue my position so that should someone do so successfully, I can be corrected, gain knowledge and expand my wisdom.

This actually, has taken place on this forum several times. Whilst I might represent my points of view as best I can, I only do so to subject them to the withering crossfire of argument and counter-argument.

When no such counter-argument comes, but instead, a barrage of frustration at my asking a question, especially from people comfortable to admit that they personally dislike me and would surely love to prove me wrong for their own pleasure, it leaves me sceptical about whether a counter-argument is available to them.

Well I'm not really focused on it so much as surprised really.

I only hold my opinions until there's evidence that I'm wrong, in which case I change them at once. Until then, my opinions aren't something I can really change. I cannot, for instance, decide to believe that the moon is made of cheese or clouds from candyfloss. I'm helpless to disbelieve both.

The length of my comments seems like a strange thing to dislike. People are free to read as much or as little as they like.

I came here to hear good arguments against my opinions and have them challenged, but that seems difficult to find when emotions cloud people's judgement.

In other news I did another driving lesson on Thursday. The teacher is a bit of a tosser so I may get another one. No patience. Didn't seem to realise that I'm a beginner. Wanted to smack him in the face for half the time.

Little update; I've decided to run the London Marathon in 2016!

I've applied to run with Shelter, Samaritans and the RNIB so far, but will put a few more applications in as soon as I can.

The challenge will be raising the £2000 or so that is needed to take part. Basically you can either run by being lucky enough to be awarded a ballot entry, otherwise you have to be sponsored by a charity and raise their target amount of money to get a place.

The running part will be a doddle. My physical fitness is awesome and I'd be super confident of being absolutely fine in that regard.

The challenge will, of course, be raising the money. Plus I'd obviously need to get picked as I'm sure most big charities are oversubscribed.

I'd love to run for the RNIB in particular. Can't ****ing begin to imagine how horrible it would be to be blind or have a blind family member so its definitely a very worthy cause that I'd be massive on helping with.

Just heard from the Charity graduate scheme. I've not been invited to the assessment centre but I have been put on a waiting list.

There are 40 applications per place for a graduate scheme initially paying £16-18k in London.

Decided to decline the job offer after playing hardball for a £25k salary.

My boss was pretty pissed. Refused to go higher than £22k in return for me coming into work everyday whilst also doing a tonne more work.

After travel, that works out at like £200 extra a month for at least 8 days p/m coming into work as well as doing all my old colleague's duties. No deal.