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Reader views (39)

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In my opinion London and New York between them have caused the GFC. Its only going to take a couple of years and the biggest banks and exchanges will be in the east. The likes of Shanghai, Hong Kong to a certain extent and in India. New York and London better get off their high horses and start planning for the future because the competition is going to be tough. Things are going to change, the world's biggest banks are going to be in developing countries and everybody in New York(USA) or even London(UK) will want to do business in China or India. Bigger populations therefore bigger markets, so all in all forget New York or London they had their turn and between them they really stuffed it up. Congrats.

- Mitch Oz, Sydney NSW

London is the most affected EU Capital by the economic downturn, and the decline of the UK Pound is terrible.

It's time for us to join Euro!
If You Can’t beat your competitors, join them!!!

- Steve, London

London never was the financial capital of the world. It was government spin peddled by New Labour. It has always been New York.

- Matt, Leeds UK

Nigel, am with you.
I would like to add:- only people who work in the City can understand the City. I worked there and I loved it!

- Caterina Indolenti, London and Milan

The sooner it happens the better, the status of London as global financial capital that is. Too long has London been dominate the world's financial affairs. How on earth some beardless twit in Threadneedle Street decides on what a peso or a mark or a rouble is worth against the pound is just plain stupid. A country's monetary value should be worth what ever the seller is willing to accept and what the buyer is willing to pay, instead of some arbitrary value set by someone in an office in London.

- Len, Perth, Australia

Surcharge all politicians for any losses they make through their corrupt policies. Only then will we get real decisions based upon sound fundementals of economics and common sense. Being unaccountable for their decisions makes them a breed apart. As this is the case and they manipulate the law to suit themselves make them pay for the damage they do. If we did this then no one would want to be in a corrupt, out of control government as they would risk the millions made whilst in office, peddling their life stories etc. Only then will we stand a chance of getting "honourable" people in government with strong moral fibre instead of the minor celebrities that we have now. Labour voters have ruined the Country and only have themselves to blame. Brown's policies are built on sand and should be buried with him in Afghanistan.

- Nigel, Epsom, England

Quite frankly, any report which based its findings on what 100 financial industry executives had to say isn't worth the paper it's printed on! These are the people who got us into this mess - what credibility (or right) do they have left to make proclamations on what is good for London? The sooner we stop being the financial capital of the world and go back to being a normal city (with normal house prices!) and stop obsessing about what the super rich want, the better. A poorer London would be a happier London.

- Callum, London

It should be renamed "The Financial Fools Capital of the World". I've had enough of these bankers and brokers - we need manufacturing not liars and cheats and greed.

- Frederick, London UK

200 years ago Cobbett called London the 'Great Wen', ie a cancer sucking life out of the rest of the country. Some things don't change; it's a bit rich talking about the taxes the City brings in when our taxes are being used to bail out these prodigal chancers. Also bear in mind the brain-drain that's taken place over the last forty years, pulling talented people away from useful work into nebulous and parasitic occupations. The number of lawyers has quadrupled in thirty years! And people wonder why the quality of teachers has gone down.
It's also very shortsighted to put all your bets on one horse: a 1930's headline could have said: 'Jarrow is in danger of losing its status as world ship-building capital, &C'. You can do insurance anywhere in the long run.

- Mdj, Leyton, london

The more we lean towards being a part of Europe the weaker we'll become generally. We are about to go from a strong world leader to a puppet nation and all because of what the minority believe is progress.

very sad years ahead...

- Richard Irwin, London

My, how some of you Brits have a chip on your shoulder.

- Phil, Washington DC USA

Ah, you unbelievably naive Brits. Your City is a pawn in a bigger game. If it makes you happy to call yourselves the "Financial Capital of the World" you are more than welcome to the title, it actually means nothing. Ever heard of Sarbanes/Oxley? The passing of that Bill by the US Congress led to the major US investment banks setting up their immoral ops in your City. Gordon Brown (Tony Blair as well) saw an opportunity to further prostitute your country to American Corporations and immediately bent over to accommodate them. The US banks were packaging many of their sub prime debts for resale in your City, it was the easiest way to bypass the scrutiny of SOX. Be proud Brits for you are about to choke on your unfounded nationalistic pride.

- Jeff, Boulder CO USA

This is just one of many reports that confirms what people living and working all know about the strains on transport infrastructure. The time it takes to deliver improvements takes years but hopefully the projects already proposed can now be agreed and delivered.

The priortising of the planned Thames Gateway Bridge, Greenwich Waterfront Transit and DLR extension to Dagenham Docks would be a good start.

I also agree there is no excuse for dirty tubes and stations. London is still the 'dirty man' of Europe, North Greenwich station is a disgrace.

- Damien Vaugh, Greenwich Millennium Village

I agree, there's not much competition to be worried about. Still, I'm relieved Boris J isn't being complacent. London's position as a financial center is crucial to its economy, and to the UK economy, and no matter how much the City-bashers would love to see the financial services industry implode, just see how much your houses are worth, how small businesses suffer if we lose pole position on the world financial front. See how much you taxes rise if the government doesn't get City receipts.

- Alf Martin, London, UK

Those managing London should have identified what was needed to keep London ahead of other cities some twenty years ago. These include better roads, widening the North and South Circular, north south underground roads thereby missing the traffic of the West End.

The Tube network began 150 years ago to serve the London of its day with only slight additions to date. As most of the population has moved to the outskirts of London an outer circle line linking the various existing lines would ease congestion on the tube and traffic (the north circular in particular)

All the previous mayor could think of was preventing people driving, that is not the answer; London needs to be a world class city, to do that requires the ability to attract money coming to the capital and offering excellent clean transport facilities (it can be done on te Jubilee Line) and wider roads with faster moving traffic.

Those in positions to make changes appear to have thought of short term costs and forcing an ever expanding and evolving population to deal with the exisiting facilities.

- Julian Lloyd, London

It is a real shame that nationalisations, overtaxation and other government mismanagement has destroyed another proud British industry. Crash Gordon go away!

- Jacqueline, Hampstead, London

Absolutey agree with you Paul Hopkins (London, UK) Also in this country we always get the worst of the US culture - why?



Sorry Phil of the USA, you may think that you are number one in everything but you aren't, did you know there are more American banks in London than in New York? That more Euro's are dealt with in London than every city in Europe combined? That London deals with more dollars than New York. I know it must break your heart to hear that. The only thing that the USA is number one at is getting the world into the mess that it is currently in.

- Susanne, Buckingham, UK

Seems like its only been about 6 months since London declared itself the financial world capital. Sort of curious how this new crisis includes several mentions of Heathrow... great timing

- Trunk, US

The sooner all of these failed financial wizards who brought the economy to the brink of collapse clear off the better. Let them go and extract exorbitant bonuses from somebody else. Good riddance.

- Mick, London, England

London trades more foreign exchange every day than New York and Tokyo combined for the terribly simple reason that its mid time zone. Even twit brain Gordon cannot wreck that. What Brown has done though is make London a far more hostile tax environment for hedge fund managers who quire frankly way to smart to be fleeced by the Nu Labor leeches so they are scattering to the our corners of the globe. New York for all its arrogance has a crippling rate of tax for anyone who works there and has to contend with an equally crappy infrastructure [you need an SUV to drive on the roads they are so bad], and SARBOX is still in place. Right now there are few IPO's and equity offerings but just wait until 2009 and lets see just how much reconstruction equity issuance will take place to start clearing up the mess of both corporate USA and UK. Does anyone seriously think the muppets in Frankfurt or Paris have the skills or investors to take this on? They could not compete in the good times and they certainly won't next year. Everyone is obsessed with the plight of the pound vs the euro, just wait until the worms start to crawl out of the euro zone!@ There are banks there right now that are 100% wiped out if they start marking their loan books to market. Wiped out 100%! Hundreds of them, what price the euro then....watch this space and hold on to your sterling. The tide will turn and things are going to get very ugly in Europe. Riots in Greece are an early warning sign.

- James Ritchie, new malden, surrey

Sorry Phil of the USA, you may think that you are number one in everything but you aren't, did you know there are more American banks in London than in New York? That more Euro's are dealt with in London than every city in Europe combined? That London deals with more dollars than New York. I know it must break your heart to hear that. The only thing that the USA is number one at is getting the world into the mess that it is currently in.

- Paul Hopkins, London, England

London was the worlds financial capital and where did it get us???? Over reliance on a smoke and mirror, debt driven, house price inflation reliant economy which has now evaporated. More incentives to keep this alive??!!!!

- Marke, Houston, Texas

London - the global financial capital? Since when? It could be argued that London isn't and hasn't been the finacial capital for quite some time.

- Phil, Washington DC USA

Don - perhaps london is not such an attractive city anymore because we have lost our cultural idendity by trying to accomodate and panda to all and sundry who come to our shores instead of looking after those who are already here. Oh I forgot this makes me a racist as well.

- Don, london

Well it was never going to last forever as world leader was it?

- P I Staker, London

So the biggest complaint of all is the state of Heathrow Airport, since you Boris are so against the expansion of Heathrow Airport how are you going to stop big Businesses pulling out of London? And when this happens believe me London will truly die and with it this country

- Paul Hopkins, London, England

Fred Dibnah was right after all - sell off all your assets stop manufacturing - stock shelves - sell insurance - loads of numbty's wandering around with wheely bags for laptops going to meetings - end result game over

- Eddie Oriordan, wisbech

- Don, North London

The reason we USED to attract investment, is not because we've got too many Muslims in London, it was because of our economy at the time, the strength of sterling and good independent interest rates.

The Muslims are still there and funnily enough investors are pulling out whole scale. Explain that one?

- Frank, Home Counties, England

This was yet another platform which our deceiftul govt promised to deliver - education, education education - another failed promise from a failed govt. Short termism by labour is yet again costing us dear - both financially and the poor standards of education. If you borrow and get in debt apparently, if you are govt, you just borrow more - disgraceful.

- Iain, Islington

This is just one of many reports that confirms what people living and working all know about the strains on transport infrastructure. The time it takes to deliver improvements takes years but hopefully the projects already proposed can now be agreed and delivered.

The priortising of the planned Thames Gateway Bridge, Greenwich Waterfront Transit and DLR extension to Dagenham Docks would be a good start.

I also agree there is no excuse for dirty tubes and stations. London is still the 'dirty man' of Europe, North Greenwich station is a disgrace.

- Damien Vaugh, Greenwich, London.

The city helped fuel the mess we are all in now and a lot of the city workers who earn big money need work permits anyway so no surprise that they are fleeing to the middle & far east. London was doomed by its own greed. Labour did what they do best (nothing substantial). All the infrastructure in the world will make no difference whatsoever.

- P, London, England

The City is also suffering from a lack of high-quality mathematics, finance and IT graduates to meet the financial services industry's demands? You must be joking, the city is currently awash with highly skilled and experienced investment bank workers who cant even get to interview stage because there are so many competing for so few jobs. If anything I feel sorry for the kids about to graduate who now have no industry to move into.

- Rachelle, London

Krysia Kelly - yes thats it, London's attractiveness as a financial centre is suffering because your racist nephew doesnt like muslims..!?

What planet are you from? The cultural diversity of London is a one of the reasons that we have attracted so much inward investment as a modern, cosmopolitan capital city. If your nephew is incapable of dealing with people being from different backgrounds, his future job prospects are fairly bleak anyhow.

- Don, North London

You would think that with credit risk of UK Government debt rated as twice that of Macky D's the market has already made up its mind whether or not it considers London to be the financial centre of the world which is a pity because it is the greatest place to live and work.

- Wallytrader, London

How can one call London the financial capital, when poverty and rubish is visible all over the place.
Where in Europe, can a restaurant/cafe outlet doesn't have toilette facilities for its clients?
Add to the list: poor public transport, fictional economy, and brain washing media.
But at the foremost, poor education at all levels.

- Lauren, London Uk

You say the City is suffering from a lack of high quality
Mathematics, Finance and IT graduates but I think the reason behind this is because, as an example, my nephew is taking a degree in Maths and Finance at London Uiversity and is finding it difficult because he cannot understand the tutor who is from Pakistan. The lessons are also interrupted three times daily so that the large percentage of students can pray to Mecca.He wishes now that he had chosen a university outside London that might cater for the indigenous population because he feels that he is not being given any opportunity to excel at his chosen subject.

- Krysia Kelly, London

Socialism at it's best.

Labours 101 on how to destroy a country.

- Frank, Home Counties, England

Let's get rid of silly Crash Gordon and his tax machine and that would be a good start.

- Jacqueline, Hampstead, London

lets face facts we are heading towards economic armagedon and there is nothing Brown, me or you can do to stop it. Following this we will all be on the bread line and defending our homes and gardens from the hordes of scavengers that will follow. I would like to say I am sorry but I am not because what we currently have only serves a few people and not the masses and that most of us are so preoccupied by our little world and selfishness that we are bloody miserable. The sooner the wheels do come off the sooner we can get back to a proper way of life.

- Fly, london

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