Luton has been let down by everyone from the train companies to the council. I’ll act as a tourist guide starting with the station which looks decrepit at best, even though it’s located along one of the most expensive commuter routes, the station operator can’t be asked to fix the leaking roof instead putting traffic cones around Englands own impression on Niagara bloody falls. Then there’s the brand new lift which would be great if it didn’t bring you to the upper lever where there are yet more stairs to go down to get to your platform.
Moving on to the Galaxy centre, a massive spectacle with barely anyone or anything in it unless you count the massive Wetherspoons out of which I’ve had Danny Wellbeck shouted at me while walking home from work in the middle of the day, no doubt my tax money payed for that drunken slur though I’ve had much worse shouted at me in Luton.
By this time in the tour you’d have noticed the population black, white, Asian it doesn’t matter everyone looks like they’re trying to escape or given up hope on life itself. Those on drugs look happier than most, as they get to frequently escape the reality of this dismal town every time they get high. Then there’s the Polish. I have no problem with them being Polish or being here to be honest, they look healthier than many of the locals. It’s their lack of the most basic manners that absolutely baffles me. I don’t even have a problem with the Polish racism, because they’re just as rude to anyone who’s not Polish and probably some of their own at that. Luckily they’re not sponging off of my tax money as they have managed to take over Luton airport, which was one of the last beacons of employment for this town.
Then there’s the mall. It looks good on the outside needs work on the inside, the most basic of restaurants. Primark and Wilkinsons are among the biggest shops there, teenage mums with nowhere to go take up half the walking space. The post office is large with an electronic ticketing system to help manage all the benefit claimants in the most efficient way possible, not that you can blame them considering the council are frozen in a time warp, doing nothing to help create employment or innovation in the town.
Notice this entire tour will be on foot due to the ****, barely existent public transport network that can barely get you two miles from the city centre and all this from a town that wanted city status. Surprisingly there are nice decent people in Luton. However, even they have in some ways been infected by the Luton virus. As a decent, educated working young black man who has moved to this pit for university, instead of being treated like the decent human being that I am, I’m instead stereotyped by the half decent folk and often approached by the **** girls who for some odd reason, think I’m remotely interested in creating multiracial offspring with them to help them gain a council flat in Marsh Farm. A place where we’ll live happily ever after in ch4vdom, a reality I’d rather die than see come true.
To be fair there is one beacon of hope in the town which is the university (though they let just about anyone in to gain money from the fees), there’s at the least tutors spreading worthwhile knowledge and hopefully some of the more educated youth will be able to help enlighten the next generation of Lutonians.
