The Republic of London

[Mr Hyde]

moving there for new job in october, genuinely hope locals arent as stuck up as this thread suggests

More so, you will be too after a few years once you realise you're one of the top-dogs

[magma]

always had you down as a socialist, magma, always had you down.


if you get your own city you're getting renamed as FAGMA!!!!

I'm just playing socialism, you know I love you.

[magma]

moving there for new job in october, genuinely hope locals arent as stuck up as this thread suggests

You'll either get mugged or not appreciated.

[karmacazee]

Wales should go independent and declare itself a tax haven IMO. Slowly syphon off all the top players/secret accounts in London by offering competitive rates for criminal activity.

And then just put all the house prices up everywhere and charge 7 quid a pint everywhere. Win win.

[alphacat]

There's a cyclical nature to these trends toward de-consolidation, historically speaking.

For example, the city of Chicago is so radically different in so many ways from the rest of the state of Illinois that 100 years ago there was talk about Chicagoland becoming its own state; ironically, back then it was the farmers (who were the majority) trying to dissociate themselves from the canker sore of emerging industrialization... but when it was recently re-floated, it was the urban plutocrats trying to shed the weight of "backwards" agricultural regions.

But there's too much investment in shared infrastructure to make this happen easily or quickly: basically, there has to be an overwhelming incentive to re-incorporate as a new polity. Religion is one of the only ways to make the degree of social change happen that's needed in a short timeframe without being dependent on/hampered by other factors, and I don't see London turning to mass localized cultism anytime soon.

[HamCrescendo]

Shit, if we lose the scots AND the rest of england wont we be condemned to being run by the city and their pals forever?

Scary thought. Maybe we should have a republic within the republic? Our biggest export could be automated guillotines (or, as we call them in The Proper T'riffic Peoples Republic of Autonomous Unitary-Urbanist and Borderland London: slag-slicers )

[frank grimes jr.]

But there's too much investment in shared infrastructure to make this happen easily or quickly: basically, there has to be an overwhelming incentive to re-incorporate as a new polity. Religion is one of the only ways to make the degree of social change happen that's needed in a short timeframe without being dependent on/hampered by other factors, and I don't see London turning to mass localized cultism anytime soon.

Free milk, everybody wins.

[test_recordings]

Interesting idea, though probably wouldn't make a difference due to it gaining sovereign status in the middle of the EU where there's generally no restriction of movement. Depends if it kept access to the Thames or not; if it controlled the river mouth it'd also probably have access to EU waters.

Tokyo in Japan is actually already essentially a country in itself, but it's so expensive there that a significant amount of manufacturing, secondary industries and so on, are elsewhere so it doesn't drag on everything as a whole, I think.

[Mr Hyde]

Depends if it kept access to the Thames or not; if it controlled the river mouth it'd also probably have access to EU waters.

We'd need to get these badboys back into service:




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maunsell_Forts

.......they look like something off waterworld

one of them has been claimed as a nation itself 'sealand' http://www.sealandgov.org/

[hutyluty]

if scotland can become independent then so should yorkshire imo, or maybe just join them with the rest of the North (Manchester shouldn't be allowed though) . We generally seem to have more in common with the scots than londoners.

YRA YRA YRA!

Or maybe it should all be city states like in Greece, all the weak kids in Leeds could be thrown out into the snow at birth while London faffs about with philosophy, ethics and democracy and stuff.

[Lye_Form]

The irish wont be happy if London got independence before they did.

[hutyluty]

For some reason this all reminds me of these books I read as a kid:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predator_Cities

No UK anymore, just cities roaming around devouring each other for resources. Personally I wouldn't mind that future since London would clearly fuck everything else up.

i loved those books too. According to that link Peter Jackson has bought the film rights for them too which is kind of exciting

[Pedro Sánchez]

if scotland can become independent then so should yorkshire imo, or maybe just join them with the rest of the North (Manchester shouldn't be allowed though) .

London might as well be independent from the rest of the country, then we'll see how a city that only sells tourism and phantom financial services would survive without the rest of the country propping it up.

[wilson]

For some reason this all reminds me of these books I read as a kid:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predator_Cities

No UK anymore, just cities roaming around devouring each other for resources. Personally I wouldn't mind that future since London would clearly fuck everything else up.

i loved those books too. According to that link Peter Jackson has bought the film rights for them too which is kind of exciting

Damn, I didn't even see that. That is exciting. It would be very hard to fuck up too, such a cool concept.

[Ash]

moving there for new job in october, genuinely hope locals arent as stuck up as this thread suggests

Depends where you move to mate.

People down south and east are usually a lot more welcoming than those in west and the north.

[Mr Hyde]

The irish wont be happy if London got independence before they did.

Ireland has been inedpendent for nearly 100 years

[dubfordessert]

who actually gains from london's massively inflated property prices and financial services industry? cos it's not the mugs who make starbucks for bankers... more like the international wealthy who buy up property they don't even want to fucking live in and leave it empty as they watch prices rise.

property prices are inflated at least partly by the likelihood of profit or extracting rents i.e. the poor fuckers who will never own a property are the ones paying for london's property bubble. and the government is trying to inflate it even more by guaranteeing mortgages because people can't fucking afford them!

london should be razed to the ground tbqh

[magma]

who actually gains from london's massively inflated property prices and financial services industry? cos it's not the mugs who make starbucks for bankers... more like the international wealthy who buy up property they don't even want to fucking live in and leave it empty as they watch prices rise.

property prices are inflated at least partly by the likelihood of profit or extracting rents i.e. the poor fuckers who will never own a property are the ones paying for london's property bubble. and the government is trying to inflate it even more by guaranteeing mortgages because people can't fucking afford them!

london should be razed to the ground tbqh

Agree with a lot of that - London's wealth isn't shared between its occupants very effectively at all and the gap between the haves and have-nots appears to widen every month, especially over the last couple of years. The way the property market has been allowed to become an investment plaything for the super-rich over the last 3 decades whilst the poor throw all their money down the drain in rent is atrocious. That's happened across the whole country, but in London it's ridiculous - my girl and I both have pretty decent jobs and incomes yet we can't even aspire to buying a place between us we'd actually want to live in.

But, it is worth noting that as effective as they are at making cash for the already-rich, London-based financial services businesses contribute about 11% of the total tax revenue for the UK. For every ten patients seen by the NHS, banks pay for one of them.

They could pay for a lot more...

[Pedro Sánchez]

What's the average LHA in London? just out of interest.

[gwa]

i own a nice flat in south kensington so i disagree with your idea dub4pudding