Cities are the new Countries

Friday 15th November

It has probably always been happening, but cities are fast becoming the new countries. Even in Ancient Greece we had city states.  Rome was a vast empire, all designed to service and glorify the city of Rome.  London, since the middle-ages had been the motor of the economy.  And now the cities of China and India are booming.  Singapore and Hong Kong are basically just city-states.

Huge numbers are sucked in from the countryside into China’s cities, where everyone is seeking their fortune.  Mumbai is doubling in size every few years.   And yet, especially as you get older more and more people dislike city living.  The rat-race, the urban jungle, the daily slog to get to your workplace, the noise, the pollution – are all negatives.  And yet more and more youngsters flock to them.  I was one too; I knew that Suffolk was just too small for me.  I carved the anonymity which London gave me, the egalitarianism, the feeling that anything might be possible.

And where will it all end?  Will we all end up living in bigger and bigger cities.  London is stlll expanding, especially to the East, and if the somewhat bizarre idea of Boris Island ever takes off, who knows how big it can get.  So much wealth is generated by London anyway that it is an unstoppable force.   And as cities grow, so does the population.  When I first came here there were 6 million, it is now over 8 and if everyone were properly counted could be nearly 10 million.  The frightening thing is that London is a baby among the cities of the Far East now.  They really are huge.   Welcome to the Brave New World.