Culturologist thoughts…

As I travel around London via public transport or driving a car or cycling I’m amused and bemused at the culture we’ve developed which exist differently within the M25 compared to the rest of the UK!

In London cyclists rule the roads – not buses or cars or vans but bikes,mainly ridden by millennials but not exclusively, as is their convenient and chosen form of transportation.

My wonderings cause me to question their cycling proficiency, or lack of proficiency.

If I remember rightly when working as a special needs teaching assistant in an inner London Junior school all the children were taken through the cycling proficiency test in the nineties .Did it end at some

point with those born in the late eighties and nineties or noughties?

The lack or road sense and blatant disregard for road etiquette and Highway Code and the fact that bikes are untraceable so camera flouting is not a threat to the cyclist,is prevalent.

Even so there is at least one bike death a week in London ! It would make you think that they would take less risks.

Inevitable if you try to sandwich your self silently between a double decker bus and an articulated lorry you will get squashed.

Who will be prosecuted ?

The driver of the vehicle not the cyclist !

This seems unreasonable and rather alarming to me as a car driver on Londons roads.

Another observation …vegansism, vaping and craft beers….

Also adopted mainly by the millennials and the liberal Londoners, who queue outside the Temple of Seitan in Hackney for their vegan equivalent of fried chicken !

Positioned next door to a halal meat centre and a greasy spoon cafe, the Temple has many adherents who pay handsomely and willingly to consume their meal consisting of gluey, gluten textured meat substitute in a bun with salad of course .

The said same crew can be found BBQing until the early weekend hours on London Fields without a thought for all the cans, bottles,plastic bags and general litter they have deposited and abandoned on the fields where animals and wild life can harm themselves, and is only removed when the refuse collectors arrive next morning or a day later.

Did they ever watch Blue Peter or Blue Planet ?

You would imagine that a non meat eating, cycling riding generation would recognise their hypocrisy in being litter louts but alas not!

So we still have to go around picking up after them, acquiescing to their road rage so as to not drive over them, squeeze around them on crowded pavements outside craft beer shops or vaping lounges as they are standing on pavements swinging bottles of craft whilst vaping !

Then we have the …

Phone zombies

I’ve got my headphones on looking at my phone so I can’t see or hear you perhaps now is a good time to cross the road or walk into the woman pushing a buggy on the pavement !

If I’m on a train I can’t see you and I don’t have to give up my seat to you because I’m transported into my own lickle world and dont care about my responsibility as a fellow traveller.

TFL can issues badges for those needing a seat and they put new signs up for a priority seat but most travellers feel their need is greater than the woman or man twice their age standing with three shopping bags or the pregnant lady too polite to ask for a seat

My analysis of this as a culturologist is have we produced a selfish and insular generation somewhat incapable Of being empathic, caring or communicative?

Reluctant to develop community except online living and existing through social

Media and then waking up to find themselves incapable of developing a long lasting sustained relationship .

It’s not all about millenials shaping the cultural shifts (I’m not against millennials my three kids are part of that demographic),but many other influences as people move,develop, regress or remain stationary!

Religion or lack of, race, belonging, activities, belief systems and laws all shape our culture , economics being the one gigantic element of change either up Or down

As housing stock becomes less available and more costly,buyers flock to

Places they would never have imagined living in previously,it’s called gentrification.

The neighbourhoods one grew up in have now become exclusive and unaffordable so new areas have to be found and suddenly a rundown,poorer area becomes the new trendy place to be !

This subsequently breaks down communities as families can’t live near one another and new neighbours only stay for abshort while until they gain some equity in their property and move on to the next up and coming place.

Whilst council estates are demolished to make way for ‘affordable homes’ and fewer social housing units are re built the social cleansing of London is driving out the poor, the immigrant further into poor quality housing, insecure and unaffordable rentals. Many families are living in temporary accommodation in cramped and unhygienic situations as they wait to be re-housed at some point in the future.

The governments response and the Mayors response is to build more affordable homes but what is affordable to them is not affordable to normal working people who just long to gain a foothold in the property market but are maybe in zero hours contracts or working the ‘gig’ economy driving for uber or cycling for uber eats or the like.

Then there are the people Sleeping rough there are more rough sleepers now than ever before and charities can’t keep up with the demands.

Begging is illegal but many homeless beg regularly lying down outside railway stations or actually board trains and make their way along the carriages begging. I met a guy called Jason recently in the overground train twice, he’s polite and humble in his approach and all he wants is the money for a room in a Hostel for the night and the standard fee is £30 , you can’t be ‘high’ Or drunk or else you can’t get in .

As I drive through and around London, walk and take public transport I see disparity all around me.

From the mansions of Highgate to the almost demolished flats in Hackney,the rich seem to get richer and the poor poorer and struggle for simple things we take for granted in a 1st world country!

I do believe that we are now the money laundering capital of the world and encourage the use of off shore accounts , HM the Queen leads by example she also owns property that Wonga the payday loan company rent from her and charge people thousands of per cent in interest.

Russians, Nigerians,Chinese all new money buying up the West End and other surrounding areas making central London exclusively for the foreign non – domicile rich.

Service workers

The service workers who service the city, west end and tourist areas have to live in overpriced rented rooms in overcrowded houses or flats in zones two, three ,four and beyond adding cost and time to their day by travelling on a overcrowded transport system .

After Brexit many of these workers will leave or not be replaced , so we maybe looking at a service collapse , no baristas , waiters, chambermaids, cleaners, hairdressers, beauticians etc only when it hits home to the fortunate or the government ministers or when Mrs May can’t get her two hours a day cleaner for her Sonning home or for number 10, then and only then will there be a wake up call and maybe the bankers , investors, developers, planners and councils will see what an unmanageable monster they have created.

Brexit

I read that Brexit will affect everyone outside of London far worse and food prices will rise and other goods The people that voted leave will be the people who get stung, they didn’t see that coming their way sadly.

Winners and losers, up the ladder down the ladder.

I’ve played snakes and ladders and sometime my life has been like that game just getting ahead to find that I’ve slipped down the snake and I have to start further back than previously!

Is that you or someone you know?

Or maybe you are at the top Of the tree looking down on all the sliders and have no empathy or imagination for what it’s like if your stocks failed or your business collapsed or if your credit card maxed out or your landlord evicted you and you have no deposit for another property or enough income to cover the rent …. the list is endless….

My point being that we can all spare a thought for those on the pile or those up against a wall because we don’t know how they got there or God forbid it could be you !

And as for the millenial cycling vapists, let them enjoy themselves while they can , hopefully they will be able to climb that ladder and take some folks with them as they do!

Craft beer and vape no I’m more earl grey and cake ta!

From one pearl to another

Mags xx