{"id":197047,"date":"2025-06-19T11:48:20","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T11:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/197047\/"},"modified":"2025-06-19T11:48:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T11:48:20","slug":"london-is-rediscovering-blitz-spirit-to-resist-doomsayer-rachel-reeves-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/197047\/","title":{"rendered":"London is rediscovering Blitz spirit to resist doomsayer Rachel Reeves | UK | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was in London as the sun shone on Lords this weekend, and after the South Africans dispatched the Aussies, I strolled around St John\u2019s Wood, down into Regent\u2019s Park and from thence into town. It was a little while since I\u2019d been in London<\/a> as a tourist rather than a working stiff, and all I\u2019d been aware of in recent months was Rachel Reeves<\/a>\u2019 unerring ability to talk down Britain and its capital city.<\/p>\n

But my urban amble reminded me, with stark clarity, why it\u2019s good to step away from the noise sometimes – because if London is a city in decline I am an orangutan\u2019s uncle. It felt more like a city at ease with itself, displaying a quiet but very definite self-confidence and resilience.<\/p>\n

And yes, I know, with Starmer and Reeves and Khan in charge Londoners and the gazillions of visitors are surely going to need this latter-day Blitz spirit. But it is there in spades.<\/p>\n

Just look at the plaudits: In recent months CNNTraveller voted London best city, TripAdvisor named it world’s top destination, IPSOS called our capital \u201cthe world\u2019s best city\u201d – a title it has held for 10 consecutive years.<\/p>\n

Ipsos said London\u2019s \u201cresilient spirit and unmatched global appeal\u201d meant it was a magnet for global money and ambitious young people, despite \u201cthe complexities of a post-Brexit<\/a> era, geopolitical uncertainties and economic challenges\u201d.<\/p>\n

And yes, Brexit<\/a> or no Brexit<\/a>, London remains the most desirable city in the world for high-skilled overseas workers, beating New York, Berlin and Barcelona to take top spot.<\/p>\n

London is even the most lustful and sexually active city \u2026 although it\u2019s also in pole position for unfaithfulness based on figures from secret affairs website Illicit Encounters!<\/p>\n

A key barometer of the economic health of a city is apparently the number of restaurants per capita. And London saw almost 300 high class eateries open their doors in 2024, up from 253 in 2023, and 234 in 2022.<\/p>\n

Now, adding to that list, a chap called Petros Stathis, who I interviewed recently, is about to open not one but two new exclusive luxury bars and restaurants.<\/p>\n

The Greece-born global food and beverage entrepreneur is in love with London and Britain, in a way far too many actual British people seem to have forgotten how to be.<\/p>\n

His not inconsiderable empire-building (through ADMO – his joint venture with Dubai\u2019s Alpha Dhabi group, and in turn its partnership Alphamind) already includes a portfolio of A-list high-end establishments in the British capital: Soho\u2019s celebrity hangout Sucre, Knightsbridge\u2019s rooftop Japanese eatery Clap, and the Lebanese Em Sherif, founded by MICHELIN Young Chef Award winner Yasmina Hayek (and located in Harrods, of course).<\/p>\n

But \u201cKing of Luxury\u201d Stathis (and you can thank Rolling Stone for that moniker!) is now back for more. In late summer he is opening London\u2019s first C\u00c9 LA VI, the roof top bar, club, and restaurant that started on the hanging-gardens-of-Babylon-esque roof of the Marina Bay Sands Towers in Singapore, before branching out to Tokyo and Dubai.<\/p>\n

C\u00c9 LA VI will arrive in Paddington Square, while a branch of NAMMOS \u2013 Stathis\u2019 Mykonos and Dubai-based Mediterranean restaurants (with the latter branch holding the title of the highest earning eatery in the world) will open its doors near to Berkeley Square in 2026.<\/p>\n

It’s enough to make Rachel Reeves<\/a> reach for the smelling salts and it’s a ringing endorsement of London and the UK \u2013 er, from a Greek bloke.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s something our miserabilist political class could learn a thing or two about. Just a little bit of confidence and self-awareness would do it. It might help if they could just read the research and copy what entrepreneurs and aesthetes like Stathis can see in our country and its capital. We\u2019d all be a whole lot better for it.<\/p>\n

As Petros Stathis said: \u201cI know some people think London is in a bit of a funk right now but in reality this is a city which has never been out of fashion – and never will be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I was in London as the sun shone on Lords this weekend, and after the South Africans dispatched…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,79948,79947,79949,79950,619,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-197047","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-london-resilience","13":"tag-london-stays","14":"tag-petros-stathis","15":"tag-post-brexit-era","16":"tag-rachel-reeves","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114709876363096435","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}