<< Un-Welcome To London >>

Every year people from all over the world flock in their thousands to see the sights and experience the atmosphere of the glitzy, fashion-conscious, cool, sophisticated, chic, centre of all which is hip and happening. Yes, the City of London! But for all those of you who are thinking of booking that dream tour of the gold-paved cosmopolitan capital of Europe, think again. For the tourist has been deemed a terrorist threat and the London Police are going out of their way to make sure you do not have a nice time. There is no finer example of this paranoia, than the ever increasing number of people being verbally intimidated by security guards and police officers on duty in the capital. What is the reason for this harassment? For doing nothing more than taking a nice snap-shot of their visit to bendy-bus land. Yes if you are one of those shady characters who enjoys nothing more than taking a trip and recording the happy times by taking photographs, which you will stick into a big album or make a video postcard with, then think again.

People are now being told NOT to take photographs in London, for fear that they may be gathering information for a terrorist attack. In some cases the victim of this harassment is told to hand the camera over to the official, or they are forced to delete the 'offending' pictures. There have been more and more documented cases of people being made to feel like criminals, when all they are doing is taking a picture to send to Auntie Freda! I would have guessed, like many others, that if someone wanted to get a lay of the land in Laaaandan, then all they need do is click on 'Google Street View'. Lots of nice shots from both the sky and the ground. Maybe instead of picking on the public we should arrest the owners of Google?

This situation has affected me personally and my work has suffered. I was planning to do some video filming in London for a future lesson, but after various enquiries I found that I would not be allowed to film in most parts of the capital. This seems almost unbelievable as I'm a British citizen and will be using the camera for legitimate purposes. Of course there is another side to this story. Yes you have guessed it...Money! You can get permission to film in some places but you may find yourself having to hand over cash for that privilege. Still want to visit London? The UK is a big place and I can assure you that there are far better places to see here than the smelly, fume-filled 'Smoke' (A slang word for London).

The problem with cities like London is that they are born from an image, which is often given through the media and movies as a friendly, chic, sophisticated metropolis. Of course after you have paid for the flight and the over-priced hotel accommodation and been cheated by the cab drivers, and had to fight off aggressive 'big issue' sellers and the abusive drunk...well it is all a little too late to complain. So the new threat of being accused of working for Bin Laden can be added to the list of merry moments which can only come from spending time in one of the most unfriendly, pretentious, impersonal, over-rated cities on this planet.

Welcome to London - Enjoy your stay !!

(Misterduncan) .......................................................................