Techrights

Things to Like About London

Posted by Roy Schestowitz on Feb 23, 2025,

updated Feb 23, 2025

London has attracted a lot of tech talent, but it also attracts some toxic people

OUR hosting (Gemini, Git, site etc.) is in London and we're very satisfied with uptime, speed etc. We're not lacking a share of criticism, but that may be the subject for some other time. All in all we've made a good choice in 2023 (that host is a sister company of one which has hosted my personal site for over 20 years!) and in 2023 when militants sent threats to this host it kindly told them to "f off" (except not in those words).

Sadly, London also has "guns for hire" or 'militias' in suits (maybe some of them work from home in their underwear). Those people are willing to take dangerous thugs as clients in order to intimidate journalists. That's probably not an issue with London per se. As people who have lived in England long enough know, people generally relocate to London when they're desperate for money (or power, fame and so on). So they might - on average - be more greedy and reckless (towards that goal of money-collecting). I too received a job offer in London (programmer) when I finished my B.Sc., but I turned it down and instead chose to stay in Manchester to advance my education. The money didn't seduce me. I was also cautioned by a friend (Professor David Baxter) that it would cost a fortune to live "down there". I asked about 10 informed and well educated people about it, made a long PDF with pros and cons, then decided London wasn't for me and probably will never be. I only ever 'lived' in London for a week at most. It was paid for by my Ph.D. grant.

In my experience, law firms in Manchester are more modest and honest. I spoke to many over the years, both electronically and in person. I've collaborated with some that charged very little and even offered free advice (pro bono, not just introductory parts). Our media lawyer is also originally from Manchester.

I've known many people who move to London. When asked why... it's almost always because of money, never mind if London costs a fortune to live in (even in its suburbs). Manchester is more than twice as cheap. It's worth noting that the Brit who 'invented' the Web didn't do that in Oxford but far away in Switzerland (CERN). Many people overwork themselves in London just to survive; stress levels may be too high for creative thinking or thinking outside the box (like doing experiments with hypertext).

So when I say "guns for hire" from London I don't mean to mock London but the "guns for hire" it has become a "magnet" to. Many aggressive people flock there for money, whereupon they surround themselves with other aggressive people, who gravitate towards one another and reaffirm this attitude of obsessive, chronic hoarding and morbid class consciousness. Many important or "powerful" people leave their original hometown and live near there, either at the centre of London or near to it*.

I still love Manchester, but I have respect for London. If it sometimes seem like we're 'harsh', it's not because we generalise. It's nothing personal either. We don't dislike people from London. There are other "Londons" around the world (many in Canada and the US). There are also London equivalents in Europe**.

We strongly believe London stands to gain from stronger regulation, e.g. its financial and legal "industries". As someone who worked for the Town Hall in London (our biggest client at various points) since 2013, I honestly hope it'll take that into consideration. I may get in touch with former colleagues who still work there and can pull strings. █

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• I met Theresa May when I was 18 and she still asked about me some years ago. I dislike her political party, but she was nowhere as bad as "Boris"; about a decade ago I met Tom Watson in person and he told me he read Techrights.

• * "London is like Amsterdam in that respect," psydroid argued. "I would never live in Amsterdam, but occasionally go there for events or to visit relatives, most of whom have already left over the years". And "the irony is that real Amsterdam people don't live in Amsterdam anymore," he added, "because they've all been driven out of the city by rising rent prices". Same in London... many commute to work for a very long time, at great expense (transit) just to lower the rent levels. psydroid said, "someone reached out to me for a 30k job in London when I was in the UK and I thought that was a joke, so I never responded [as] you can't even pay the rent with that kind of income".