GUEST COMMENT: London is one of the worst places in the world for expats, so if I'm sick of it how do my foreign colleagues feel?

I'm a Londoner born and bred. I was born here, went to university here, and worked here throughout my career. All my close family live within a two hour drive from where I live in Zone One.

I'm the guy you depend on when the office party gets thrown out of the restaurant for being too drunk, who knows a drinking spot that's open until 3 a.m. I'm the one who translates what the taxi driver says - I'm not fluent in Cockney, but I get by. It's on a par with my French; good enough to calm him down when the Polish secretary throws up out of his window.

I've always enjoyed the home advantage. I've indulged in schadenfreude at the sight of continental colleagues heading out on Friday afternoons for flights home and reappearing on Monday mornings with bags under their eyes.

Prices were always exorbitantly high in London and public services were never great value for money. Restaurants were always over-priced and service was exceptionally poor. Taxis cost a bomb and disproportionate amount of the population was estate agents. However, I tolerated it.

I loved London.

Recently, however, the City I embraced enthusiastically has developed a nasty case of halitosis. The political climate has changed so much in the last 18 months that I'm not so sure I'm willing to stick around. And if I, with all my reasons to stay here, feel that way, I'm amazed my international co-workers haven't left a long time ago.

This is particularly the case in light of a new survey on expat lifestyles from HSBC. The bank found the UK is one of the worst places to be as an expat, with only Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands considered less desirable.

By comparison, Asian financial centres ranked well for their standard of living.

In my own experience, Hong Kong is always a good option - an Anglophile city with British street names, decent weather and great food. New York has always felt like home away from home for me and English accents get grudging respect from the locals for some reason. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are wild cards: if the old men in charge and their highly paid management consultants can work through their leverage problems and forget about building indoor ski slopes for long enough then the U.A.E. could position itself as an unparalleled Asian trade hub.

The fact is there's very little keeping me here. And when even the Brits leave, it's a dire sign indeed for the health of the City.