London
is a Global City. With New York and Tokyo it is one of the top ranked
global cities of the world. At a lower level we probably have
Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Paris and a few others. Decisions, social,
cultural, political and, especially, economic taken in top global
cities are truly global in their effects. They house the real levers
of international power.
Having
a global city as its capital can bring massive economic benefits to a
country in terms of international trade and in attracting
international investment and events, and looking in particular at
London it is clear that the power of the global city contributes
massively to the economic growth and performance of the economy of
the United Kingdom. The City of London generates enormous wealth and
its contribution to the U.K.'s Gross National Product cannot be
overstated.
This
means that in national terms the U.K. can be seen as one of the
richest countries in the world despite its relative lack of
geographic area. It can, and does, demand a seat on the United
Nations security council and a variety of other world institutions.
Having a successful global city as its capital helps the U.K. punch
well above its weight in the world. The result of that is that the
U.K. has to fulfil a role in world events and that means becoming
involved on a regular basis in the internal affairs of other nations
as an international policeman or 'peacekeeper' or some other modern
type of colonialism in order to maintain its position as a global
power led by a global city.
The
real problem, however, of having a global city as the capital city of
the U.K. is that, although global cities reside geographically in the
countries that they lead, they exist more in another notional country
where the only relationships which matter are those relationships
with other global cities. Rather than being involved with other parts
of the country London has a stronger relationship with New York and
Tokyo than it has with Glasgow or Sheffield, Newcastle or Birmingham.
Trillions of Dollars are sent whizzing around the globe in
milliseconds between London, Tokyo and New York to generate wealth
for those cities, but very little of that wealth finds its way out of
those cities and into the real wealth creating areas of their
respective countries. They are like black holes sucking in wealth and
power of which practically none escapes further than the distance of
the daily commute to the institutions of wealth and power.
So
we end up with travesties like the London Olympics where billions of
pounds were raised from the whole country from taxation and lottery
funding and poured into the most affluent area of the country. The
billions of pounds of returns which we were led to expect, if it
eventually materialises will remain with the south east of the
country. It will not escape back into the economy of the whole U.K.
but it will be traded with New York and Tokyo to generate more wealth
for the global city.
Similarly,
the high speed rail project which is supposed to increase the flow of
wealth to the north will only serve to suck wealth and investment
into London, because given the choice, and if it is within easy
travelling distance, business in search of higher profits will not
re-locate out of a global city, it will re-locate to where the money
and the market is. The cities of Manchester and Birmingham are in
danger of becoming dormitories for workers who service the bee hive but can no
longer afford to live in London.
It
ends up in a situation where the south east of the country, in
relative affluence, have little or no real understanding of the
problems and situation of the other regions. They fail to see the
problem because they don't have the problem of poverty and
deprivation experienced by those unfortunate enough to live north of
the Watford Gap. London has 281,000 millionaires (and it's been said
that one in seventeen Londoners is a Dollar millionaire) while 34% of
Glasgow primary school children receive free school meals and that
tells its own story.
The
conclusion is reasonably clear. Scotland would not be deprived of the
wonderful economic benefits of the U.K. in the event of independence.
They receive very little of the benefit of the sparkling economic
performance of the economy of the south east at present and there is
no real reason to believe that the black hole of the global city of
London will surrender up any of its wealth any time in the near
future. That's not how global cities work. Global cities make nothing
but money. They trade currency back and forward between themselves
and believe that the value of their currency assets is the price the
last person paid for them. Until the bubble bursts and the last fool
in the chain has to come cap in hand to the rest of the country to
bail them out by increasing tax (but never on the rich) and cutting
benefits for the vulnerable they have created.
Global
cities are only good for themselves and other global cities. For the
rest of the country that they occupy geographically they are a curse.
A real economy can only be sustained in the long term by real people
producing real goods and services in the real world, not in the
cyber-world of the global city.
The
other regions of England can do little about it because as soon as
their representatives are elected into position they are absorbed
into the London Parliament and sucked into the black hole to become
part of the grand conspiracy. But Scotland can escape, so I'll take
my chance on government from Edinburgh.
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