London good or bad?

Detritus

I'm not sure... http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/may/13/london-bubble-too-big-say-britons

miss annie

Good. That is all.

NorthNineteen

Is the question whether London is good or bad, or whether the article is good or bad?<br><br>If the former, too much more queuing down the tunnel from Wells Terrace onto the southbound platforms will lead to me saying bad.<br>

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Idoru

London is flipping awesome, but I suspect Londoncentricity is bad for the country as a whole, and probably bad for London too. The second city discussion from a while back kind of touched on this, as did the TV programme about the UK's (lack of) second cities. I think it would probably be a very good thing for the UK if we were to invest in cities other than London. 

Sutent

London will be cleansed of all peasants soon. They can move to the other cities and make them better 

Ali

Edinburgh should be the second city of the UK at least  up until September

andy

Why is the rest of country failing?

NorthNineteen

London makes a massive net contribution to the economy of the UK.  I think more can be done and more sbhould be spent on infrastructure and investment outside of London - ideally subsidised by reducing social benefits.  I wish governance could focus on larger areas too - think how much more effecient a city region from Liverpool - Hull would be!<br><br>The negativity people from outside of London, especially as the article says further north is quite often staggering.  I was in Liverpool this weekend with my wife's family and they are so anti-London - they think everyone down here is multi-millionaires swanning about living the life of luxury but then in the same breath complain about the crime, the dirt and how no-one speaks English.<br>

Sutent

@n19 - what social benefits? The majority of benefits are on pensioners and to working people who dont get paid enough to survive.

Ali

<font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">you can see the numbers here as a % of total gov expenditure<br></font><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/year_spending_2014UKbt_13bc1n_4000#ukgs302</font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">pensions make up 21% of the total.</font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">If you add it all up  health, pensions and other stuff over 60s have approx 61% of the welfare budget, unemployed is about 3%  coalition policy is to increase this at the cost of younger people because old people get out and vote</font></div>

Detritus

So if we kill off all the old, the ill and the unemployed we should be ok?

Idoru

Well the planet is way overpopulated. Killing off a couple of billion would definitely help.

ADGS

Liverpool just complains about everything except the fucking Beatles, though. That's pretty much their identity.

Detritus

I agree with you there ADGS all they do is moan, I understand some of the reasons why as sadly I've been to Liverpool and it's more depressing than Manchester and that place is like a boil on the anus of humanity.

rainbow_carnage

@Idoru - That's just neo-Mathusian nonsense. The planet is not 'way overpopulated'. Some regions certainly are, but on the whole, the current global population is very much sustainable.<br><br>London is a net contributor to the UK economy. We have plenty of poverty on our doorstep, yet we subsidise the rest of the country. The North needs to stop whinging.<br>

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Ali

Free Scotlan fr<A href="http://jeffreyhill.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d417153ef0168e59c4426970c-popup">o</A>m England

NorthNineteen

They got call centres...  But there are many successful parts of the UK outside of London and huge areas that never had any of those industries you suggest.  Note those farmers who have modernised and consolidated have done very well.<br><br>I think some of the regions missed a huge opportunity for great control through de-volution, it amazed me there wasn't more support for it.  And now all regional governance has been removed which makes it even harder for the north to grow.<br>

Ali

The coalition also got rid of the regional development  agencies  -- private sector is supposed to fill he gap

kreuzkav

I'm amazed at the comments about London.  London is a bubble.  Financial services are a make believe world. The North was ridden of its manufacturing and they have every right to be angry. Trust me Stroud Green will be a shadow of itself soon.  Look at the awful development around the station, it's sucking the life out of the area.

miss annie

Massively in favour of Scottish independence @Ali. Sadly it is very unlikely, the No vote is running ahead.<div><br></div><div>You're quite right about farmers North Nineteen. I knew lots of them when I lived in Cheshire, and they rake in stacks of cash from Europe http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/01/farm-subsidies-blatant-transfer-of-cash-to-rich</div>;

NorthNineteen

London lost a huge amount of manufacturing too.  And the wider south east shares a lot of characterisitcs with the north.  Kent, Medway and East Sussex has a very similar economic profile to the North East with an almost identical population and GVA (basically average productivity per person)

kreuzkav

These areas are outside London.  It's amazing how London appropriates the outer regions of Kent or Essex when it sees fit. Some of these areas could be classified the South East or East but not London.

NorthNineteen

The regional agencies were massively inefficient as they had so little accountability - stronger input from political agencies would have helped.  Saying that, the regional agencies kept me busy at work for a long time!

kreuzkav

London to me is the postal code with a few exceptions like BR Bromely etc... but not East sussex.  It's not London.

kreuzkav

N19, what manufacturing industries exist within the London postal code.  Very few I imagine.  Please enlighten me?

kreuzkav

London is made up of financial services (bubble and take), service industry (take from the bubble and take) and education (take the people from the provinces to learn how to be but this could be done in East Anglia).  So what does London produce?  Max Clfford, spin,  load of costas.  <div><br></div><div>I'll be nice now.  It gives people a chance to be themselves but I do have a gripe at those who think London contributes more than it takes.  It's hot air.</div>

NorthNineteen

That's why I said wider south east.  But it's only bits of London that are booming.  Go to places like Bexley, the eastern half of Enfield, New Addington, Barking, Hounslow.  The loss of manufacturing was caused by ta multitude of reasons from the arrogance of governments to the ineffeciencies of unions - but it was not caused by the growth in professional services in London from the mid 80s.  If it hadn't been for that London would be in a very bleak place.

NorthNineteen

Very little industry remains in London.  But there used to be huge amounts.  Port related and heavy industry through much of East London, manufacturing in Enfield, Park Royal, Great Western Road etc.<div><br></div><div>London wasn't called the workshop of the world for nothing (though that is going back a bit).</div><div><br></div><div>There's a few bits of very specialist manufacturing remaining (things like Brompton, there's a major solar panel manufacturer in Bromley... there's a report with a whole load of case studies but I can't find it).  There's lots of food processing still in London, Tate&Lyle in Silvertown, McVities in Park Royal, Warburtons I think in Bromley.</div>

NorthNineteen

Financial services, professional services, education, media, tech are all huge sectors contributing hundreds of thousands of jobs each and billions to our economy.  Just because there aren't large loud factories in London doesn't mean the city doesn't produce anything! It's one of the largest city economies in the world.