London voted third most expensive City in the world

Yesterday's press carried reports of a survey that placed London as the world's third most expensive city. A study comparing living costs such as housing, transport, food and entertainment for ex-pats in 143 citiies put London behind Moscow and Tokyo. Asuncion in Parguay was voted the cheapest.

Last year, London was second costliest - so does this indicate that life here is getting cheaper or that the other cities are catching up?

With the prospect of striking taxi drivers, further hikes in the Congestion Charge, higher fares on public transport in addition to the economy's raging inflation it makes a mockery of the pressures on the average Londoner caused by the credit crunch, the house price crash and the threat of redundancy from all those global financial institutions.

Are we going to stay at home and mope? No! We are much more imaginative than that. We can all set out to enjoy the vast amount of free "entertainment" available - whether this is outdoor pursuits in parks and open spaces and beside the mighty Thames, at our gloriously free museums and galleries or taking advantage of the incredible arts and music programmes put on by the teams at our local authorities. It might be expensive here, but if you know where to look there is plenty for free.

:party: