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Gosh, Ricardo seems to have been getting a hard time on here, when he seems mostly to be a kind and intelligent chap (except when he's being reflexively anti-German). I actually think he has a point, but it's quite a subtle one – England in general and London in particular are incomparably cosmopolitan _statistically_, but at a deeper level it's far too easy to suggest it's one big happy multicultural family living together. In my experience the Polish immigrants tend to hang out disproportionately with other Poles, same issue with young French people I used to teach, ditto with people of different backgrounds and esp classes. This cosmopolitan and multicultural thing is very shallow and masks a deep conservatism in English/British society, which all the congratulatory back-slapping tends to hide.
On a wider note, London must be not so much the most overrated city in the world as the most overrated THING. When will the penny drop that it is the most unreal con? In the true sense, "confidence trick".
Abuse for me on this might be better on another thread, though I've hardly got the time ;-)
Oh and Pele, re Saturday – although you v Andorra should really be all about the performance, I'm v confident about Ireland right now too, even with the third-choice central defence (think they have injury issues as well). The Czechs and maybe the Slovakians might be a different matter. And as far as I know the match is in Stuttgart, like the third-place World Cup game against Portugal.
I shall have to resort to an appropriate hostelry to see it (this is where I would use the "ale" motif if I could access it...)
On a wider note, London must be not so much the most overrated city in the world as the most overrated THING. When will the penny drop that it is the most unreal con? In the true sense, "confidence trick".
Abuse for me on this might be better on another thread, though I've hardly got the time ;-)
Oh and Pele, re Saturday – although you v Andorra should really be all about the performance, I'm v confident about Ireland right now too, even with the third-choice central defence (think they have injury issues as well). The Czechs and maybe the Slovakians might be a different matter. And as far as I know the match is in Stuttgart, like the third-place World Cup game against Portugal.
I shall have to resort to an appropriate hostelry to see it (this is where I would use the "ale" motif if I could access it...)
