Exodus from London? I just couldn't live anywhere else

The UK is experiencing the biggest exodus of Britons for a hundred years. Some 385,000 people emigrated last year, many of them from London, with Australia, New Zealand and Spain topping the list of most popular destinations. Some doom-mongers regarded these figures as evidence that Britain has gone to the dogs and that people can't leave the country or the capital fast enough.

But if Australia's so much better, why do one million Australians - five per cent of the population - live outside of Australia? As many as 200,000 Australians expats opt for a life in London rather than in their own country.

Nowhere else on earth has the energy, creativity and sense of possibility that London has. Sure, very few people ever hit the big time in this city, but anyone with dreams of living an interesting life and making something of themselves will visit this town at some point in their lives, adding to the city's electric atmosphere.

Whether you want to write novels, sell samosas or become the hottest drag queen since Ru Paul, nowhere else offers you the scope and freedom to explore your personality and ambitions as London does. It is the most tolerant, open-minded and accepting city on earth.

Yes, I know New York is a great metropolis. But it's nowhere near as cosmopolitan as London. It's a city of ghettos, determined by class and race. A black friend of my mine recalled being patronisingly congratulated by a New Yorker for holding hands with his white girlfriend on the subway. Compared with London, in many ways the Big Apple is still Hicksville.

The demographics and housing situation in the capital force rich, poor, black, brown and white to live cheek-by-jowel. In east London, you find gay fashion-addicted hipster couples, burka-clad Bangladeshis and middle-aged media types living in the same streets. They might not be the best of friends; but watching people who look very different from you bringing home their shopping and taking their kids to school humanises them, and makes rabid bigotry absurd.

People lament the anonymity and loneliness of life in London, but that is precisely what makes this city unique. You can be whatever you want here - no one cares. Free from the stifling prejudices of curtain-twitching busybodies, London is a city where you can try to become the person you always dreamed of being. No one is too outrageous (trust me, I've tried pretty hard).

Though born and raised here, I never feel like I truly know this city.

It moves with the times too fast for anyone to grasp. Its neighbourhoods change colour and culture every few years, absorbing people and influences from around the world. Londoners are probably the most globally aware people in the world.

I know that the property ladder, problems finding good schools and the stress of city life do drive rational people to forsake the capital. But I don't feel a shred of envy for their new lives. Nowhere else could keep me as interested in life as London does. And that's why you won't find me living anywhere else.