Sir, - One of the more ridiculous features of our recent economic growth has been the emergence of the idea that Dublin is, somehow, a sophisticated European city. I clung to this cosy notion until last week, when I had to visit London for a weekend to attend a meeting.
From the moment I stepped off the plane at Heathrow until I arrived in central London, I did not have to climb a single step: all heights were climbed with ramps or wide lifts. I do not have impaired mobility of any kind, but I became aware of how necessary these facilities would be if I was not so lucky.
Nevertheless, I was glad to be able to travel directly from the airport to my hotel for £2.50 - the Tube station was 100 metres from my hotel, on the direct line from Heathrow. I bought a £7.50 travelcard, with unlimited use of the Tube for two days. I was able to travel speedily and safely across London, on well-lit, clean trains, with never more than a five minute wait at any of the bright, well supervised, litter and graffiti-free stations. I need not comment about taxis and public transport in Dublin, the only European capital without an airport rail-link.
At no time was any shopworker, waiter, taxi-driver, policeman or station attendant rude, abrupt or indifferent, as so many of them are in Dublin. Every nightclub and bar doorman was polite, helpful and tactful - a far cry from the foulmouthed, facetious bullies who strut outside so many Dublin venues.
London works. It is a well-managed and tightly regulated melting-pot of 15 million people, of all types and races, able to live and work together in an atmosphere of relative tolerance.
When foreigners refrain from openly complaining about the poor standards of Dublin, they are only being polite - they are not so reserved back home, as I learnt from any Londoner who had been to Dublin. It is time for us to take a break from back-slapping, for every citizen of Dublin to stop whining about what the Government should do, and to tolerate nothing below the standards of service and urban management which befit a national capital. - Yours etc.,
Christian Morris, Howth, Co Dublin.