Maybe It's Because I'm A (South) Londoner

Well, possibly. I don't "love London so", but I do actually enjoy living here. Which seems to be unusual insomuch as you see so many people on TV doing the 'escape to the country' bit. Plus the general complaints about it being over-crowded, noisy, smelly and hideously expensive, obviously. But it is a quite special place.

If it wasn't located in England it would be splendid.

I've just got back from Newcastle, and while I do have a special place in my heart for the Great North (having being born and bred there) it is very *very* quiet up there. I don't think I could live there now, as I'd constantly be thinking that there'd been some kind of plague and everyone had died. Even apparently busy shopping centres are incredibly quiet.

It's like the people of the North don't like sharing their business and everyday lives with all and sundry like the people of London seem wont to do. No shouting, no yelling into a mobile phone, no playing music on a mobile on the tinny speaker. Nothing, but a hushed whisper. Quite delightful, but spooky. Like suddenly being transported into the Victorian era and discovering people used to be polite to each other.

Don't get me wrong, the people of the North are friendly. Just not pushy. If you engage one in conversation, they can - and will - chat with you for hours about whatever it is that you ask them about. Like London cabbies, but with more opportunity for interaction and less right wing politically.

Unless you happen to get them onto the subject of immigration.

Despite having a lower population of immigrants than pretty much anywhere else I've been in the country (as well as a long established - and fully assimilated - Chinese and Indian community) it seems as if every Geordie I've spoken to thinks there should be less immigration. And while the Great North is far less densely populated than a lot of other places (North Tyneside has a population roughly the same as Enfield borough) they think that the UK is full.

Perhaps it's a Northern thing: worrying about problems that don't affect you directly. Or perhaps it's a media thing; the national news pushing London based stories as being somehow representative of the whole country.

Whatever it is, I do find it slightly peculiar.