A passionate Spanish defence of LONDON

I have spent a day or two looking over these interesting but sometimes really horribly bigoted and nationalistic forums and one thing really made me think. There is a small number of people who hate other nations/cities and some of these pick on London. Forgive me if this has been done before but I am new here and as a foreign resident of London I thought my perspective might be useful.

I am Spanish, 35, from Madrid and I moved to London to be with my English girlfriend. Sadly...that part didn't last :-( but I liked it here so I decided to stay. I spend nearly all of the year in London but also go back home to Madrid often. My work in London takes me all over Europe and sometimes other places. And now some random facts and opinions of mine that I hope will answer some of the very dumb and childish things that were said about London and England on these forums.

London is neither poor nor old. If London were a country it would be the 8th economy of the world! After Hamburg London has the best GDP per capita of all EU. Much of London IS old but mostly in a nice way. There are very many beautiful Victorian suburbs, some on the Thames. And please tell me which city in Europe can have what London has: more than TWENTY KILOMETERS of brand new, beautiful riverside districts of apartments, skyscrapers, coverted lofts. That's right. 20 km of north and south of the eastern part of the Thames. Totally ultra modern and lovely and still building. Many enormous skyscrapers being in construction now, and more planned. OF COURSE there are old and poor parts...some of the East End and some of the South...some dangerous areas and some poor parts. But most of London is regenerated and nice. I live in an old district full of nice houses, young people, everything fun and a spirit of the new.

Shopping here is without parallel in my opinion, except New York which is maybe even better. You can buy literally anything. Paris is elegant for shopping...but has nothing of the range of London.

I don't like to criticise other cities too much like people do here. Each European city is splendid or interesting in its own way. I love our Madrid of course....for the people and also the 'marcha' (the buzz/nightlife). But London has plently of marcha, just different. Paris is a lovely city...but...it is old and bourgeois and does not have the immense variety of London. Paris is splendid...but it's 'monumental'. It's too much like a museum for me to live. And it feels like the capital of France. London feels like the capital of the WORLD, not only England.

There is a spirit of enormous optimism in London. They have won the Olympics hosting of 2012 (of course in many ways I wanted Madrid to win :-((() and there is great construction, planning and so on. The sense of business and economy is huge. This is a city that rises and rises. Everywhere I look something new is happening, some idea, some new thing. The employment market is very good. Salaries are excellent and if London is so poor, why is it the city with more EU residents than any other?? Ask the many French, Belgians and Germans who work in my office. 120,000 French citizens live in London!

Madrid will always be my heart and my ultimate home. But London? London is magnificent and I think some very stupid and unfair things have been said about it. If it is so bad, why are so many of us HERE? Of course London has problems...which city does not?? The transport system is one of the world's originals, so some of it is old. The new parts of the tube by the way are totally beautiful, clean and modern...but other lines suck. The weather could be better...but it is never as bad as people think. May and June this year were non-stop sunny and warm. (Though it is raining today!)

For a young person with ideas and ambition, London is one of THE cities of the world. To say it is boring, poor and old? No, you don't have a right to an opinion if your opinion is not justified by FACTS and KNOWLEDGE. I think some people here say thes things because of the Olympics success, Iraq, the Euro and othjer political things. Maybe they remember some small 4 day trip they made in the 1980s. I am a European and I love ALL Europe...but sorry, London in the capital.>