London vs rest of Britain

[mister_tmg]

This article pretty much sums up my questions/thoughts:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10508673

 

Does anyone else think that perhaps in years to come, our country's cities might be a bit more balanced with London, as described? Ie. things would be spread more equally, and when residents of other countries think of us, they wouldn't just think of London. I'm aware that many tourists do visit other locations - in fact London doesn't top the lists I've seen lately, such as

http://news.ebookers.com/news/edinburgh-and-glasgow-among-top-5-tourist-cities-in-uk/129/

 

Even amongst our own residents, in fact, Edinburgh was last year voted the most desirable place to live in Britain:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8199815.stm

 

I personally think the UK ought to be more like the USA (yes, it is a much bigger country) or Spain etc, with at least two key cities. The main problem is with the media (which pretty much influences all our lives) being largely based there, and most important national events seem to happen in it.

 

Maybe the average person on the street doesn't care about any of it, but I think a lot of people who want to live in a big city or further their career feel pressurised to move to London. The way the rest of the country is largely ignored by the media probably makes a lot of young people feel left out. Sadly the larger proportion that live outside London is still thought of as 'the regions' or 'the provinces', inferring some kind of inferiority...

 

So, in 10, 20, 30 years or even more will, say, Manchester be on an even footing with London? Or Edinburgh? Maybe if Sheffield is redeveloped as CreativeSheffield indicates on their website, it could be up there (I have a great affection for this place, but it does have some catching up to do!). Thoughts...?

[Darth Vader]

We're about to have some new links with London, and I don't mean high speed trains, I mean an exodus of families dependent on benefits who, when the capping comes in, will no longer be able to afford to live in the south, never mind London. At least it will be even easier for the Condemned to ignore poverty, out of sight....

[alchresearch]

When there's a general overview of the weather on national TV or radio, the focus seems to be on London. They'll open with "We had a gorgeous day today" when its been sunny in London but not for the rest of the country.

[mister_tmg]

Maybe the move to BBC Salford will be a start...?

[HeadingNorth]

Perhaps we should have more than one world-class city .. the fact is, though, that we don't.

[Rupert_Baehr]

I feel sorry for people who have to live in London.

 

I went to London (as a destination, as opposed to 'passed through a traffic/travel bottleneck called London') in June 1996.

 

I remember it well. I was travelling to SE London to buy a bike. It was a warm day and on the way down, my car was filled with a vile acidic stench. On the way back, I got stuck in a traffic jam. The air condition got worse. I was (quite seriously) concerned because I was beginning to experience respiratory difficulties. Then I realised that there were people outside walking around in that stuff with no apparent ill effects.

 

I'm an air breather. - I couldn't do that.

 

Surely, the more people who choose to live there, the more tourists who go there, the more room elsewhere for people with more sense?

[truman]

The best view of London is the one in my rear view mirror...worked there for a while....never again.....

[Bulgarian]

So, in 10, 20, 30 years or even more will, say, Manchester be on an even footing with London? Or Edinburgh? Maybe if Sheffield is redeveloped as CreativeSheffield indicates on their website, it could be up there (I have a great affection for this place, but it does have some catching up to do!). Thoughts...?

 

It will never happen, London, is the capital, and has been for hundreds of years, more people live there than anywhere else, it's all those people that drive the city, you wont have the facilities London has without the huge number of people to use them. To have another city to rival it you'd need another 9+ million people living in another city, and we just don't have the population or space for that.

[mister_tmg]

I think it will happen, eventually. People will move to other places. Mainly, perhaps, due to university.

[ColinJ]

London will have a disproportionate influence UK life for as long as the UK exists, in the same way that Paris will continue to dominate French life. Both are huge cities with around 20% of the national population in their immediate area, both are several times larger than any other city in the country, both have been by far the pre-eminent city in all areas (government, finance, culture etc.) for centuries, both are disliked and resented by everyone else in the country. History has made them Alpha World Cities, and they are what they are. To imagine that London and Manchester or Birmingham will ever be seen in the same relation to each other as, say, Sydney/Melbourne, Rome/Milan or São Paolo/Rio de Janeiro is absurd, and it certainly ain't going to be brought about by millions of Londoners suddenly decamping en masse to provincial universities!