Idler's Crap Towns
Not widely publicised by the Visit Britain website though anyone who has lived in the UK for a certain amount of time can tell you; there are no shortage of places to live in this country that are plain and simply .......crap.
Idler's Crap Towns list has been around for about three years now, the clever fellows at the Idler magazine have made a killing with their '50 worst places to live' in the UK publication, using contributions from the general public, ideal coffee table or sitting on the throne reading material. Given that I am a Yorkshireman 'why buy't book when you can read it all ont internet for nowt' is the stance taken.
There does not seem to be any correlation between crappiness and levels of prosperity indeed many of the crappest towns listed are full employment high GDP per capita commuter towns like High Wycombe, St Albans, and Welwyn Garden City.
My favourite of all the descriptions is that of Islington in North London the contributor observes that; 'Nowhere else in the world can you come across so many people in their 30’s dressed as teenagers and listening to their ‘technical’ music' This hits the nail right on the head, inner city London dwellers just do not grow old gracefully.
The observant fellow goes on to introduce a new sociological concept of 'downward aspirant social mobility' where the Islingtonites; 'Jacks and Chloes and their 'mates' go to Arsenal, they eat pie & chips and speak in half-words though this is short lived as they go on to the next staging post in the middle-class diaspora (Hampstead probably) and return to their natural foods, accents, dress-codes'. I don't know who Andrew Baille is but his satirisation of Islington is spot on, indeed it was an inspiration for this blog.
Other crap towns contributions close to home are London, which takes a real hammering. Predictably the Crapital is then vigorously defended by its delusional natives 'whose narrow minded idiocy that comes from never EVER leaving your home town'. I actually share a postcode with Sutton; 'If the Daily Mail were a town, it would be Sutton. The entire place reeks of intolerance, sexual repression and aspirational interior decoration'. And I'm only a tram ride away from Croydon 'Full of mockney wankers and Wetherspoon pubs'.
I'm actually a big fan of a few of the nominated towns, Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester and Whitby come in for a slating though fair enough if your gonna give it out have to be able to take it in, and the criticisms aren't really that funny or relevant. Though suprisingly Sheffield has been immune to all the Idler inspired mud slinging and does not make it into the hundreds of towns listed, I actually find this a bit dissapointing probably on the basis of 'better to be talked about badly than not talked about at all' someone famous once said this I think, does anybody know who it was?
I think I will forward my letter sent to Majestic Wine Warehouses to the Idler for their Crap Jobs section.
Idler's Crap Towns list has been around for about three years now, the clever fellows at the Idler magazine have made a killing with their '50 worst places to live' in the UK publication, using contributions from the general public, ideal coffee table or sitting on the throne reading material. Given that I am a Yorkshireman 'why buy't book when you can read it all ont internet for nowt' is the stance taken.
There does not seem to be any correlation between crappiness and levels of prosperity indeed many of the crappest towns listed are full employment high GDP per capita commuter towns like High Wycombe, St Albans, and Welwyn Garden City.
My favourite of all the descriptions is that of Islington in North London the contributor observes that; 'Nowhere else in the world can you come across so many people in their 30’s dressed as teenagers and listening to their ‘technical’ music' This hits the nail right on the head, inner city London dwellers just do not grow old gracefully.
The observant fellow goes on to introduce a new sociological concept of 'downward aspirant social mobility' where the Islingtonites; 'Jacks and Chloes and their 'mates' go to Arsenal, they eat pie & chips and speak in half-words though this is short lived as they go on to the next staging post in the middle-class diaspora (Hampstead probably) and return to their natural foods, accents, dress-codes'. I don't know who Andrew Baille is but his satirisation of Islington is spot on, indeed it was an inspiration for this blog.
Other crap towns contributions close to home are London, which takes a real hammering. Predictably the Crapital is then vigorously defended by its delusional natives 'whose narrow minded idiocy that comes from never EVER leaving your home town'. I actually share a postcode with Sutton; 'If the Daily Mail were a town, it would be Sutton. The entire place reeks of intolerance, sexual repression and aspirational interior decoration'. And I'm only a tram ride away from Croydon 'Full of mockney wankers and Wetherspoon pubs'.
I'm actually a big fan of a few of the nominated towns, Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester and Whitby come in for a slating though fair enough if your gonna give it out have to be able to take it in, and the criticisms aren't really that funny or relevant. Though suprisingly Sheffield has been immune to all the Idler inspired mud slinging and does not make it into the hundreds of towns listed, I actually find this a bit dissapointing probably on the basis of 'better to be talked about badly than not talked about at all' someone famous once said this I think, does anybody know who it was?
I think I will forward my letter sent to Majestic Wine Warehouses to the Idler for their Crap Jobs section.
posted by Matt at 1:06 PM
1 Comments:
It was Oscar Wilde who said something along the lines of 'The one thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about'
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