It's open season on London from right-wing commentators writing from exile in Dubai or filling the pages of the Spectator. Even The Economist had an editorial on 'The price of public decay' which starts by talking about London.
Robert Jenrick staged his YouTube stunt at Stratford underground station, drawing attention to the number of young (mostly) men evading their fares.
The blame for all this is placed at the door of the mayor Sadiq Kahn whose religious affiliation is well known and presumably should be down the underground challenging fare evaders or cleaning graffiti on the Bakerloo Line.
I travelled across London twice last week and encountered no problems at all, just seeing the vibrant, cosmopolitan city I have always known. When I was growing up in the 1950s black and brown faces were far from unknown. Some were students, but my mother's best friends recruited Jamaican immigrants for their small factory and they stayed with them all their working lives.
My youngest (admittedly no spring chicken) tells me she is spending the weekend in the capital and is looking forward to the shows, the parks, the musuems and the river (which used to smell terribly in the summer in the 1950s).
Of course, the epidemic of smart phone thefts is a problem, but London is not the only city to suffer from global organised crime. Don't be put off enjoying what this world city has to offer.
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