We do not need more meddling from London

Anyone who has ever been to Brighton and Hove, whether it's for a few hours or a few decades, will know what I'm talking about.

But there's one thing that really drives me nuts.

I can cope with the late-night dwellers walking past my bedroom window at 3am talking, sometimes screaming, after having a bit too much to drink.

And I can cope with the messy streets that make you feel as though you live in a rubbish commune.

But the thing that really gets my goat is when someone calls it London-on-Sea.

Now, I'm not disputing the logic - after all the towns of Brighton and Hove did develop thanks to people fleeing the capital in either horse or steam drawn carriages.

It's just that I get fed up with everyone in London thinking that they own every part of the provinces.

They also think that all of us provincials look at those in the capital with green eyes and wonder at everything they do.

Let's be clear - we don't. And we're quite happy going about our business without any Cockney cockiness thank you very much.

You can spot someone that lives in London a mile off.

I think it's the way they walk.

The egos, the brashness and the competitive arrogance that seems to come with those that live within 15 miles of the square mile I've never envied.

For those reasons, I've always tried to avoid the place - until now.

Work has meant I've become reacquainted with London in recent weeks.

Keen to try and remain an open-minded provincial nobody, I thought I'd try and embrace the big smoke, rather than waft it away.

So while not turning overnight into an egotistical big mouth, I have started to embrace the things that make London great.

After a little muse, I must say I've discovered a few bits which I do admire and actually like, such as the history, the mix of people from all areas of the globe and the Evening Standard.

I started thinking, if I could take one thing I liked about London back to the south coast, what would it be?

It didn't take long to settle on the capital's public transport system.

Once you get off the lesser-spotted Southern fail services and on to an underground or red bus, everything seems OK.

Services are frequent and largely run on time, the air conditioning is at the right level, staff are friendly and there's plenty of doors to get off and on.

Plus there's a lovely unwritten code of conduct between passengers over things like personal space, where to stand and use of mobile phones.

In comparison, we have Southern Rail - whose parent firm Govia has managed to record a 30 per cent increase in profits while cancelling hundreds of services, causing far more to be delayed and creating a mob which Wat Tyler would struggle to control.

How much better things could be if we had a service even half as efficient as the one operating in the capital.

Many have simply had enough.

So imagine my surprise then when my ideal scenario was put down on paper as a semi-possible proposal - as newly-elected London mayor Sadiq Khan suggested that Transport for London could step in to and run the franchise.

He claims the senior managers at the local government organisation could do a miles better job than the private counterparts at Govia.

Many out there may be agreeing - after all, it could be seen as the first step towards the service going back into public ownership.

And there's no way the service could get any worse, is there?

I started to agree - but then the jibes about London-on-Sea came flooding back.

As nice as the idea is, Brighton and wider Sussex does not need any more meddling from city-types who think they know how to do things.

Trains with seats stripped out, ticketless payment and an unwritten code among tired commuters may be fine for everyone from the hardy elite of Hammersmith to the cool kids of Shoreditch.

But it does not solve the basic problems that commuters travelling two hours in each direction have to face.

The danger of absorbing the Southern franchise into TfL even for a short time is that the area from Brighton to Bedford is seen as being part of the wider London metropolis.

What Sussex needs is a transport system that's right for Sussex as a whole, not one imported from the capital.

After all, we're Brighton and Hove for a reason - not London-on-Sea, thank you very much.

"IT'S JUST not cricket", cried some last week when Bank of England chief Mark Carney compared Brexit to the quintessential English game.

The metaphor was based on the time it would take for two parties to jostle for position before implementing the decision taken by the UK public on June 23.

But, after Brexit secretary David Davis's performance in front of a Commons committee last week, Mr Carney's statements could easily have applied to other facets of the summer sport: most of the population do not know how it will work, while those that do tend to fall asleep during the important bits.

And we all know that when it's complete, the end result will be unsatisfactory to at least 48 per cent of those who took part.