The Most Beautiful Fog In All The World

Whether air pollution is up or down, they say that living in London is the equivalent of smoking two cigarettes a day. What they don't say is that living in London is the equivalent of being on twenty years of Prosac. It's the never-look-down attitude, millions of lives built upon shifting estuary sediment layers of denial. It's "of course we would have gone years ago but we've a small place in (small provincial spot anywhere in Europe) we get away a couple of times a year..." it's "honestly there is nothing to do outside of town", it's "frankly only the job that keeps me here..."

No. This is all tosh. London is a habit, a dangerous one. Money, endless churning ex-Empire self-aggrandisement, plus some bizarre belief in our own shit heap's superiority over others equals a refusal to countenance the awful truth: that London is extremely bad for your health, and we are all hooked.

Mind you, all those airborn particulates still make London fog the most beautiful fog in all the world.