Alphen, The Netherlands. 27 July.
Nineteenth century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli once described
London as the modern Babylon. Today, the
Games of the XXX Olympiad begin in London.
Over five weeks both the Olympic Games and the Paralympics will, to
employ one of the many Olympic cliches now in the starting blocks, shine the
light of the world on Britain’s capital city.
What London will it reveal?
In a sense it was entirely
appropriate that London was awarded the Olympics and not Britain. For a long-time now a settlement founded by
the Romans between AD 43 and 50 has been a city-state within a state. This old, great city now has a population of
over 9 million people, which according to the 2011 national census released
last week grew by some 800,000 over the past decade and probably many
more. Today, London contains over 20% of
the UK’s total population.
London’s economic and corporate
stats are simply stunning. London
contributes some 17% of Britain’s total GDP, with an economy roughly the size of
Sweden, Belgium and Russia. It is home
to the European headquarters of 35% of the world’s largest companies, many of
them Olympic sponsors. 65% of Fortune’s Global 500 companies base
their operation centres in London with more foreign banks represented than any
other world city. London is thus the very
symbol of globalisation – for good and ill.
Like many Britons my feelings for
London are profoundly ambiguous. Naturally,
I am proud of what this city has come to represent as a beacon of freedom
during war and a world power in its own right.
And yet much of its wealth was founded on oppression and its under-regulated
banks have done much to tarnish the reputation of London and done much damage
to the wider British economy.
And yet this is the paradox of London.
The British Government might pretend it
will act to tighten regulation over Mammon, but in reality it is Mammon which
runs the British Government. London’s
financial clout is far too important for a government desperate for tax
revenues in a depression.
This week it was announced that year-on-year the British economy had
shrunk by 0.7% by the end of Q2 2012. Thus,
the benighted banks will receive no more than a slapped wrist for their many
manipulations, the LIBOR scandal being but the latest and probably by no means
the last.
However, it is London’s
over-bearing political influence that is perhaps most
profound. London long ago subjugated
England and turned a green and pleasant land into a sometimes quaint, sometimes fractured
hinterland. The little countries on London's
periphery have retreated into the fantasies of faux self-government replete with myth and legend. Indeed, the Scots
pretence that they can gain pretend independence if they press the Braveheart
button will only reveal further the true power in the land - London. Scotland the Brave will forever be Scotland
the Broke without London.
Having vanquished the rest of
Britain a new battle is being fought by London and over London. On one side of the front-line stand those who
see London as the champion of free-market globalisation. Capitals flows are their weapons of choice,
their aim to make London as attractive as possible to as much foreign capital
as possible wheresoever its provenance and however ill-gotten a gain. Leading the assault on the City walls is the
European Commission at the head of a medieval assembly of European regulation
barons. At heart this struggle for
London is one between Anglo-Saxon-led free-marketeers and continental statists. It is a struggle that has already seen many continental free
market refugees arrive in London like latter-day Huguenots.
The struggle even takes a
physical form. The new high-speed rail
link through the Channel Tunnel to Paris, Brussels and shortly beyond is a
physical manifestation of attempts by continental Europeans to forever tie
London’s destiny and that of Britain to their own, which is unlikely to be a
happy one. And yet, even though that
great old River Thames which has for two millenia defined London flows to the
East it rises in the West. In this
age of electronic capital it is ultimately the West, South and far East where
London sees it destiny. Globalisation
will prevail. Yes, European markets matter but the greater the effort by Brussels to tether London the more likely it will break free. At this defining point in ‘Europe’s’
destiny one thing is clear, London is with them but not of them, to paraphrase
Churchill’s great dictum about Britain and Europe.
So, in a sense, the
Olympics and London are made for each other. For, if the Olympics these
days represents the place where global capital meets global sport, the London Olympics
represents the global capital that pays for Olympic sport.
Citius, Altius, Fortius!
Julian Lindley-French
