Why are our media so London-centric?

[Lencoboy]

Haven't been posting for a while Lencoboy - have shut myself off from the news, commentary and general paranoia for a while to preserve my own sanity. Now am in lockdown-in-all-but-name London and twiddling my thumbs at the endlessness of all this nonsense.

Quite right what you said about Brum - it was hit as hard as London back in the spring .... and that high rate of positive tests in Brum and the surrounding commuter belt has never really fallen to really low levels - big conurbation with transit hub, airport and high population of multi-generational households ... not much different to London where the highest infection rates have been registered. But under-reported as always in favour of the sacred cow called London. Am so fed up with all this my teeth are starting to itch!!

Hope you're doing OK. D.

I'm doing fine, ta, still alive and well!

I can't say I really blame you for taking a break from all this Covid stuff for the past few weeks, as just like you, I am really sick to the back teeth of it all, and what seriously isn't helping is all the Covidiots still selfishly acting 'ard and blatantly disobeying the rules.

Really can't wait until the Oxford AZ vaccine and various others start being doled out en masse!

[NoraB]

It does seem that certain dog owners act as if they own certain public open spaces where they let their dogs loose off the leads and run around. I have been in situations where I have walked our dog on a lead onto such spaces and an 'unleashed' dog who was already there runs towards our 'leashed' dog, and the owner of the 'unleashed' dog getting indignant for seemingly invading their space!
Similar in effect to drivers who seem to think that they own the roads.

I only ever let my dog off the lead where there is open space and I have full view of her. Plus, she is excellent at recall. The Tom Hardy of the canine world could be giving her the wuff on and she would turn her back on him for a bit of bacon lol. It's about common sense and being respectful. The moment I see a leashed dog and a nervous looking owner, my girl is back on her lead, but it's great when she can chase around with other dogs with owners who understand dog behaviour. It's noisy but I stick my earbuds back in lol

And I hear you about drivers. Some people get behind a wheel and turn into dicks!

A typical media-fuelled 'pack mentality' thing, similar to the great 'hoodie' scare of the 2000s, and numerous scares about BAME persons over the years, all of which in turn often become self-fulfilling prophecies!

Great hoodie scare? What's this? Where was I? Why am I not aware of this?

[Lencoboy]

I only ever let my dog off the lead where there is open space and I have full view of her. Plus, she is excellent at recall. The Tom Hardy of the canine world could be giving her the wuff on and she would turn her back on him for a bit of bacon lol. It's about common sense and being respectful. The moment I see a leashed dog and a nervous looking owner, my girl is back on her lead, but it's great when she can chase around with other dogs with owners who understand dog behaviour. It's noisy but I stick my earbuds back in lol

And I hear you about drivers. Some people get behind a wheel and turn into dicks!



Great hoodie scare? What's this? Where was I? Why am I not aware of this?

Surely you must remember the big moral panic over 'chav' culture from approximately 2003 right up until the end of the noughties?

Chavs were often notorious for going around duffing people up and/or robbing them simply for kicks, even random strangers unprovoked, and listened to rap and rave music full blast.

Hoodies were one of the main garments worn by chavs, so were highly stigmatised, even when worn by respectable persons.

There was a notorious outright ban on the wearing of such garments in the Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent back in 2005.

[NoraB]

Surely you must remember the big moral panic over 'chav' culture from approximately 2003 right up until the end of the noughties?

Ah, yes. Chavs. Have the book somewhere. Wasn't Stoke listed as a Chav city? Which of course is outrageous!

Hoodies were one of the main garments worn by chavs, so were highly stigmatised, even when worn by respectable persons.

Had a few hoodies meself Len. Still do. They come in very handy for those 'bad hair days', no?

There was a notorious outright ban on the wearing of such garments in the Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent back in 2005.

Come to think of it, back then, I wore hoodies, Reebok trainers, England footie t shirts and Burberry perfume. ERMAGERD, I WAS A CHAVETTE!

[WiredIncorrectly]

Because of The City of London.

[Mr X]

Without saying which borough I am from, suffice it to say that we're a forgotten part of London until someone is murdered or something just as awful; I would say it's not 'London' that they are obsessed with, it's bad things. We have almost 1/7th of the UK population living here, we were first in the UK to see a Covid explosion and among the first to see the new variant. I think that's all it is.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Without saying which borough I am from, suffice it to say that we're a forgotten part of London until someone is murdered or something just as awful; I would say it's not 'London' that they are obsessed with, it's bad things. We have almost 1/7th of the UK population living here, we were first in the UK to see a Covid explosion and among the first to see the new variant. I think that's all it is.

That sounds like the rest of us then. Horrendous murder hits the news otherwise it's like we don't exist to the nationals.

So perhaps it's fairer to say things affecting certain affluent areas of London?

[Lencoboy]

That reminds me of a thread from 2019 in the GAD sub-section entitled 'London crime-fear of being killed', and someone from there spoke in said thread about murders and other violent incidents that occured in the Gtr London area even as late as the mid-90s that never even made their respective local news headlines, let alone the national news headlines, which obviously implies a lot of things still went on up and down the country as a whole in the past, but often under, or un-publicised.

Mind you, back then in the 90s it was mostly Gunchester and Shottingham that were singled out as the 'badlands' of England!

[WiredIncorrectly]

Did you know there are two London's in the UK? There is "London" and "The City of London".

[Lencoboy]

Did you know there are two London's in the UK? There is "London" and "The City of London".

Ah, the wider 'Greater London' conurbation and the 'City of London' (aka central London).

Here in the Midlands, it kind of makes sense that the 'county' comprising Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton has been known as 'West Midlands' since the early 70s.

Just imagine all the angst and indignation had said 'county' been named 'Greater Birmingham' or 'Birminghamshire' ('Birms' for short)?

Especially with Cov and Wolvo both being large cities in their own right.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Brum or Brummies in general, but any of the other metropolitan boroughs of the WM literally being part of Brum would seem blatantly incongruous.

Ditto for Lichfield, Tamworth and the borough of North Warwickshire.