2012 is not only the End of the World, it is also and more importantly the year of the Queen’s Jubilee and to a minor part of the Olympic Summer Games to be held in London. The End of the World doesn’t count as a reason to come to London; you might postpone that for another End of the World date. But for royalists and sport fanatics alike, the other two reasons might impel them to travel here. But reconsider; there are ten reasons why you shouldn’t inflict that experience on yourself.
Let’s start with my favorite pet enemy, the tube. Don’t expect it to bring you anywhere while you are here. The tube lines are almost permanently closed for ‘engineering works’. This basically means that outdated equipment is replaced by less outdated equipment very slowly; so slowly in fact that it is very outdated equipment by the time it is installed. While Paris takes a few months to upgrade its Metro to the most modern standard with no closures at all, London persists in Victorian times.
The tube is good for more than one reason. Should the tube e able to run, you may just bet on the tube workers striking to up their over generous salaries for the hundredth time. Add to this constant signal failures and trains breaking down, and complete overcrowding to the few trains that are running (late), and you arrive at four reasons for not coming here from the tube alone.
But transport is more than just the tube, there are trains, too, run by near bankrupt private companies investing in exec bonuses instead of materials, and due to be subjected to strikes just as much as the tube. And as the Olympic committee has demanded the right to drive official cars through the bus lanes, you might as well not take the buses either. Transport makes up half the reasons why you shouldn’t come here before I even mentioned the prices on public transport, which are outrageous to start off with, and plain ridiculous when compared to the service that isn’t provided.
Prices add the next reason. London is one of the most expensive cities in the world, and compared to what it has to offer, it is the most expensive city with miles to run for any other competitor. For the Olympics, you may expect prices to rise unreasonably. The local organizing committee promised Londoners that the Olympic Games would leave a tangible legacy; they probably meant that the prices will stay high ever after.
Add now the Mayor of Little Brain, Boris Johnson, to the picture. Like the bear, he constantly wonders where the honey has gone after he’s eaten it. He proposed saving money on Olympic venues as planned, proposed to, and approved by the International Olympic Committee. He wants to relocate certain events from the East to the West. Looking at my assessment of transport further up, you can imagine what that would mean to athletes. At the same time he proposes to build a completely useless tower as a landmark which will cost 12 million pounds at least. Whoever can find reason in that might tell me. In total, things are and will be in disarray.
There has been some press coverage over the unfairness in hiring of personnel for the Olympics. The press construed a case out of the fact that one third of employees are not British, but that the jobs should have gone to Brits. I was thinking at the time, and I am still thinking, that one third of working foreigners will not be able to make up the deficiency of two third non-working Brits. There are daily catastrophes looming in that set up.
If these ten reasons haven’t yet put you off coming, you might consider that London is a boring place. Like any rural village, it folds up its pavements at eight o’clock and goes to sleep. You might find some late running bus, but basically don’t expect any conveniences as they might be offered in the civilized parts of the world.
Further reading
Lausanne, World Capital of Sports
How to Make Your Own Predictions For The End of The World
St Botolph and a Head in a Glass Casket
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