The truth about London: why the right is wrong on this one

Above is a video delving deeper into the topic of why London is great and the right are wrong - think of this article as a taster. Please do watch the video and if you can, and while you’re there, like and subscribe to the channel, I would really appreciate it.

This whole thing was inspired by a Matt Goodwin post on X I saw over the weekend. He had taken a trip into London from the Home Counties (Kent, I think, but apologies if I’m wrong on that front) - and the resulting post was a rant about how London has changed and is awful these days. Pints are expensive, it’s too multicultural, the trains don’t run on time, it’s loud. Some of us could be forgiven for thinking, “Didn’t London always have those problems?” - but I think this points to a more serious problem than that.

I find the British right’s doing down of London to be a baffling choice. Surely the narrative they want to push is that everyone inside the M25 is insular, out of touch, too rich to understand what’s going on in the rest of the country - but they also want to push the idea that London is a third world hellhole at the same time? It can’t be both of those things at the same time, guys.

I think this is genuinely confusing. It’s like they can’t make their minds up about London. Other than to say it is a bunch of stuff it always was - crowded, busy, expensive, multiethnic. It has been those things for hundreds of years now. To some extent, that is kind of the point of London. Nothing much has really changed. Sure, we can go over some of the ways that London is worse than it was 25 years ago - I break that down in the video - but most of this comes down to one thing. And really, we all know what it is.

No, not racism. Sometimes that’s part of it, but only a little part. What it’s really about is simpler than that: London makes me feel old. You get these grumpy, aging gits who take the train in from Kent or Hertford or Essex, and they get to London and it’s full of busy city people whizzing around. The gits quickly find out that they have lost the pace for it out in the burbs. They once felt like London was for them - but they don’t any longer, so they reach for anything they cling onto, like the price of pints or how there are non-white faces around. Anything to avoid that agonising moment of self-realisation: I’m past it.

I love London. I don’t think London is any worse in most respects than it ever was - and in some ways, it is much better than it was. I can get Mexican food in London now. That was certainly not the case 25 years ago. In fact, the food choices generally are a lot better. I know some of you think I’ve gone too right-wing recently, so enjoy this one - here’s a topic I genuinely disagree with the right on, unreservedly. Oh, and Happy Independence Day (kidding).

Watch the video, I hope it’ll make you laugh when I make fun of Matt Goodwin.