Sunday 21 September 2014

Now For The London Referendum








You wait years for a devolution then two come along at once.  This favourite saying about London buses has led to a suggested cure for the ailments of UK economic and internal policy.

Self Rule for London is proposed on the LSE web site by Tim Oliver, who has an interesting CV.  A long but clearly written article seeks to make the case for London going it more or less alone.

Some think that this has been the case for London for over three decades while the rest of us have been dragged along behind and made to pay for it.  In the late 19th and early 20th Century there was a time with more balance, now lost.

Around and adjacent to Europe there many districts that are now asking for more autonomy at least, some for major devolution and others separatist.  We have been here before and many times.

The two maps above are around 1200 years apart and between those dates, 117 and 1300, there were many other changes in the detail of the boundaries and borders and in the structures and governance of states.

Seven hundred years on from 1300 the same can be said again.  It is claimed to be due to elites, money, power and might.  Old and established ones begin to fail or lose sight of reality or fail to contain the endless striving of those with and seeking prime authority.

New men and groups seek to carve out their own patches.  However, economic historians have other ideas and so do the weather and climate people about root causes.

If I win a big one on the Euromillion Lottery and can interest enough willing partners, Independence For The Isle of Wight will not be far behind.

3 comments:

  1. Hmm...Isle of Wight....Hmm

    At my age, I would probably look for something a bit warmer and less disagreeable to my old bones. But it is a nice thought. If I win the Powerball here in the states, I will request an invitation.

    I am afraid I will have to insist on a royalty should such a thing come to pass....I am getting more and more disenchanted with the workings of democracy of late.

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  2. "If I win a big one on the Euromillion Lottery..."

    Buy your own island instead. That's what I'd do.

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  3. London the City State might have an interesting future. Would it be in the financial and trading mode of Venice, or perhaps via popular democracy, a slum forming part of the African or Indian diaspora, or even a regional capital for the Caliphate?

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