The header picture is of the London Eye in the early evening of Friday 20th November 2009, A flight, as the promoters call it, is well worth it despite the expense!
A visit to London this last weekend, reminded me of a discussion, with a business friend, I had years ago about the economy being centric to the south east, London in particular. There is a tremendous bias to London and the south east which is seriously detrimental to the rest of the UK, you may think I’m stating the obvious, and perhaps I am, but my point here is that our political elite ensconced in the capital are surrounded by the comforts of this major metropolis, to the detriment of the rest of us. Let us suppose that the parliament was established in Wigan, or Bury, or Barnsley; [no disrespect to these places, but they cannot compete with Bayswater and Mayfair] could you find a decent restaurant almost at intervals of 100 paces, which is certainly the case in much of the west end. Then you have the tourists, adding to the economic coffers at a rate which can only be described as prodigious. The tube is endlessly cramped and taxis are as ever, very welcome, but an expensive mode of travel. Very different from much of the rest of the UK, with the odd exception, like south of Manchester, the Wetherby Triangle and other small outcrops of wealth.
The West End of London is awash, there are streets with cars parked in every available space, which alternate between Mercedes Benz, BMW, and Range Rover, with the occasional Maserati thrown in for good measure. How different is this from parts of Yorkshire where leaving anything outside on the street would be removed, or stolen actually; unless it is domestic rubbish, which you had hoped the council would remove; [pardon for my political jibe at the Leeds City Council, we have waited over a month for some kind of service, but alas nothing has transpired, we have a miniature Eiger built of cardboard and flattened tins supported by wheelie bins].
So what is to be done of this imbalance, surely we should make representation to our prospective MP’s to take a more pro-active approach to changing the divide, rather than letting them luxuriate in the wealth of offerings in London, and returning up north to make a token visit, offering placebo’s to the natives. We need some serious industry, where we can again compete with the rest of the world, this would be money better spent than propping up failed banks.