Credit: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

The United Kingdom is one of the most centralised nations in the developed world. Our politics, economy, culture, media and tourism are overwhelmingly concentrated in the capital, London. As a result, the rest of the nation is overlooked – on the global stage, and by our own elites. But what if we did something radical? What if we followed the example of Myanmar or Kazakhstan or, most recently, Indonesia, and relocated our capital? We asked various contributors to cast their eyes over the vast swathes of the UK that feel worlds apart from London – and nominate a city to capitalise.
Like a badly loaded barge, national life is made lopsided by London’s dominance. It affects the way others see us and the way we see ourselves; everything that matters seems to happen in London, an illusion fostered by the overwhelming concentration of the national and international media in the city. Despite the well-meaning attempts of that same media sometimes to include ‘the provinces’ in their output (how often, for instance, in the current Brexit debate have you heard a ‘vox pop’ illustrating Leave sentiment from some neglected quarter?), the end result often reeks of metropolitan condescension.
Britain has, to coin a new meaning for the word, a very severe case of ‘Capitalism’: a complaint which magnifies London’s importance whilst diminishing everywhere else. It would be a salutary corrective if some other city were given the chance to shine, and I have just the place in mind.
An Oxford-educated Scotsman I once knew sneeringly dubbed Bristol ‘the Birmingham of the West’ after I had confided my affection for the place. Unwittingly perhaps, he had doubly offended me, for I have lived in both Bristol and Birmingham and found much to admire in each of them. But I do think that in one sense at least, he spoke a truth. For Bristol is – like Brum – a hard-working, feet-on-the-ground sort of place which goes about its business without too much fuss. But which, as a result, consistently punches below its weight.
Unlike say Liverpool or Newcastle, Bristol lacks definition in the national imagination. This is partly to do, I think, with the national obsession with football. Though Bristol has in Rovers and City two well-established sides, they both haunt the lower divisions and have never thrived in the modern era. And this matters in terms of national visibility. Imagine Liverpool or Manchester without their football clubs: each would be much-reduced and would count for less on the national stage. And yet Bristol is, by many other measures, a much more successful city than any of its northern sisters. Economically, at least, Bristol puts its rivals in the shade.
The Bristol city-region (which includes three other councils – North Somerset, South Gloucestershire and Bath, and North East Somerset) has, by far, the highest productivity of any big conurbation outside London. Household incomes are correspondingly the highest outside the capital. On a measure commonly used by economists – gross value added – Bristol comes top of the so-called ‘core cities’ league. What all this adds up to is a thriving regional economy based on an enviable mix of industries.
Bristol’s long and successful tradition in aerospace (Concorde first flew from the runway at Filton, in the North of the city) showcases its precision-engineering prowess, but the city also has a thriving financial services sector and a growing reputation in the creative industries: it is home to Aardman Animations – the creators of Wallace and Grommet – and that success has initiated a cluster-effect. There’s a real buzz down in the imaginatively restored city docklands, which have come back to life in recent decades and where many of these creatives work.
But the case for Bristol does not rest on the grey substrate of economics alone. There is also its matchless topography – the sheer beauty of the place. If on a sunny day you walk from the centre of Clifton – along, say, Royal York Crescent (the longest symmetrical crescent in Europe) – up through Clifton village to Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s suspension bridge, there is delight at every corner. The views across the city, the solid dignity of the buildings and the swooping grandeur of the Avon Gorge lift the heart.
The gorge is a natural wonder and very few cities can boast such a wild treasure in their midst. Amongst British cities only Edinburgh, with Arthur’s seat rising gaunt and untrammelled, can really compete. A few months ago I took that very walk, extending it down through the dense woods that cloak the steep sides of the gorge, and was reminded just how special a place this is.
Since 1952, the gorge has been designated as a site of special scientific interest and it enjoys a unique micro-climate, which makes it home to an unusual variety of plants and animals. In its sheltered crannies, botanical rarities with wonderful names like Spiked Speedwell, Autumn Squill, Honewort and Bristol Rock Cress thrive whilst Peregrine Falcons soar in the air above.
As you descend to the muddy waters of the Avon and approach the old heart of Bristol’s port, there are reminders everywhere of the city’s nautical heritage. For Bristol has played a central role in Britain’s long history of exploration and naval endeavour. It was from here in 1497 that the Italian navigator and adventurer John Cabot set sail under warrant from Henry VII and, in a remarkable feat of seamanship, sailed with 20 crew in the 50 ton Matthew right across the Atlantic, making landfall probably in Newfoundland.
The sea and the trade it carried have long been at the heart of Bristol’s prosperity. In the mid-eighteenth century Bristol was the centre of the slave trade and grew rich on the profits of that cruel commerce. Correct modern sensibilities deplore the fact of the trade and in Bristol, as elsewhere, attempts are underway to expiate the sins of our fathers in a flurry of fatuous gestures. For instance The Colston Hall is being renamed, because the merchant Edward Colston was involved in the trade.
However, Colston’s case illustrates the absurdities of airbrushing history in this way: for he was also a great philanthropist who devoted part of his wealth towards – among other things – educating girls in the city. History tends to be more complicated than the protagonists in this debate allow. But as Louise Mitchell, the chief executive of the Colston Hall, so tellingly puts it:
“It’s very important to us as a progressive forward-looking arts organisation, that we include everybody and people felt uncomfortable entering the building because of the perception that it had in some way profited from the slave trade.”
As it happens the Colston Hall was actually named after the street in which it stands – Colston Street – but mere facts count for little in such overheated controversies.
Given that Bristol also profited greatly from tobacco (the Wills family – great benefactors to the university – made their money from the deadly weed) it might seem that its historic prosperity is mainly rooted in trades now deemed dubious. But that should not be allowed to cloud the issue. Bristol’s long and illustrious history as an entrepot is woven into the wider history of the nation.
Though fashionable opinion may now deplore some historic aspects of the city’s commercial vigour, there is no denying that it exemplifies a particular kind of English entrepreneurial-ism that makes it well-suited to be a new capital city. The phrase ‘ship-shape and Bristol fashion’ supposedly derives from the particular robustness that sailing ships needed to withstand the rise and fall of the Avon’s tide; I can think of no phrase that better sums up the qualities our new capital would need.
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SubscribeMichael Saylor, the world’s greatest pusher of Bit Coin, is the one who really needs a look. He is the ultimate ‘Whale’, tells people to put every penny into it, borrow and invest in it.
Bit Coin is the ultimate sign of the economic times are surpassing ‘Irrational Exuberance’ to become Irrational Psychosis.
Think about money – basically someone produces more than they consume, and the result is wealth. You cut hair, make bicycles, do law or be a doctor… You produce valuable goods and services, and the excess profits you make are ‘Growth’ and wealth. But this is not how the economy works now – it is all finance, smoke and mirrors and insider knowledge and manipulation.
An administrator makes $50,000 p/a, as does his wife. In California (or London, Melbourne) In 2008 they bought a house for $250,000 – now it is worth $2.25 Million. They created nothing – they have 19 times their annual wage, and made no goods and services – this is not prosperity, this is not healthy economy, it is bad money, economically speaking. This is the entire premise of Bit Coin and crypto.
That no goods and services are made, nothing created, improved, Just speculation has driven the price of this thing higher and higher. This is not an economy, this in fact devalues all the money in the system. Crypto is now $$ 3 Trillion! That three Trillion made no goods, instead it enabled 3 $ Trillion to be created in valuation, out of air. These whales bought bit coin at $10. each , fourteen years ago, and it has risen to $56,000 a coin. And still it is NOTHING, it is a Fagazi, smoke…. but the 3 $ Trillion additional devalues the rest of money as it increased money supply wile not increasing goods.
this is Ponzie, ” South Sea Bubble”, the speculation mania that ruined many British investors in 1720″., Tulip Mania…. but has not popped yet…. it is bad money, and that is not good….
Musk, Saylor, Martin Lewis et al will inevitably become prey, mainly because they’ve been such successful predators. They will hunt him with thinbles, they will hunt him with care, they’ll threaten his life with a Tesla share. As far as blockchain and crypto goes i think it has a future – but only as fiat money. It’ll be interesting to see how the e-Krona fares, also Ozzy Osborne’s NFT bat coin is a classic naked Emporer moment which i think Ozzy himself realises, the Bat Coin could well be the source of crypto- covid which brings the whole thing down.
I think you’ll find the Martin Lewis reference is unfair. His name is being used by Bitcoin scammers because he has a justifiably trusted brand.
Bitcoin bad. blockchain good ?
IMHO
Blockchain math has many good uses and will survive. Coin trust relies on that math, would not be possible without the math. Fortunes embedded in a tangible crypto-key? Lose that and the fortune with it.
Add to that the sum of borrowing against the $3T in “assets” and bubble grows even larger.
The bad man made me do it….
Now I’m a Mum and the patriarchy is coming for me, solely because I’m a woman and a mum.
EH had no new technology–it was ALL fraud from the beginning. The formula for Coke is a trade secret, but if Pepsi buys Coke by the lorryload and puts it in Pepsi cans and bottles, that is not a competitive product, that is fraud!
The press found the media darling, the GirlBoss too good to check. Epic failure! Come on Liz, let’s hear your real voice–and I mean that literally!
She SAYS she has produced a miniaturised version of herself .Any proof ?
Noticeably, it is women who are being taken in to a greater extent than men. Why is that? It often seems like every middle class home contains its gullible matron, taken in by the most transparent rubbish, and trying to enforce it on the rest of the family.
And leaving aside some muscle building pundits, the whole influencer business seems to be largely inhabited by females, in some sort of circular conspiracy to dupe each other.
What is going on?
I do think women have more of a natural instinct to be sociable and fit in with the crowd. So when something seems to be the “it” thing/person/activity/whatever, there will be more women who flock to it simply because it’s popular. Not that men are totally immune or anything, I just think the instinct is stronger in women.
I think music is one of the best examples. How many women listen to a pop star simply because the industry and media are pushing them as a star? How many of these pop stars have songs that are memorable or, for that matter, distinguishable from what a dozen others are putting out? (seriously, my gym for some reason plays them most days. If they didn’t put the names on the TV screen I wouldn’t realize they were changing artists nor songs) And once the star is no longer an “it” star, a lot of women will no longer listen to their stuff, not even the songs they used to claim to love.
It was never the music, it was the identity and sense of belonging.
It’s interesting. Unless we have an axe to grind, I think most of us would say that there is a distinct female psychology (or at least tendency) with its own risks and pitfalls. And yet, at the same time we are in denial about the negative aspects of this – while asserting positive aspects and emphasising negative aspects of male psychology.
Anecdotal, but I would say that conformity, gullibility and some particularly vicious forms of intrasexual competition are aspects. Women are more sociable – but that sociability seems to be cut through with a fair bit of selective meanness.
I tend to agree, but surely music is an exception to your thesis, not the best example. It seems to me it’s mainly young men who both perpetrate and fall for the tribal music obsession. I offer High Fidelity in evidence.
The same thing as in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.
Now do Elon Musk, who’s scammed the world into believing Tesla cars are his invention, that it’s been a viable business without taxpayer money and that it’s a green solution (the real green solution to ICE cars is no cars). Let’s not forget his solar roof tile, car tunnel and vacuum tunnel snake oil either.
X.com and those reusable rockets were pure fiction too.
X.com wasn’t a fiction, though it didn’t amount to much.
Elon Musk being responsible for Paypal’s success is of course Tolkeinesque level of mythopoeia.
Reusable rockets… nice trick paid for by government contracts. Although McDonnell Douglas had already done that in the 90s so… the least he could have done is used the last 10 years to make it a feasible commercial technology, unless of course, the physics and economics don’t stack up and he’s bilking investors.
Elon Musk will certainly hope he’ll be on Mars when he becomes the face of the economic crash.
I’m sorry things haven’t worked out for you.
Amen, Elon Musk is the next Elizabeth Holmes. I’ve got my popcorn out for when that plane goes down from engine failure, pilot error and fire on board.
“We can ignore reality, but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” — Ayn Rand
I feels to me these days Western society is in a state of mass hysteria in denying reality because it’d be a more equitable world that way.
If an individual denies reality, say, goes mad, then others around them can help such a person, sustain them if needed.
If an entire population goes mad, what happens then?
Great article – and reflects exactly the thoughts I had about Holmes when I watched a documentary about her a while back: people will believe what they want to believe and fling the doors wide open to the con artists who will ride the wave of whatever narrative is on the wish list.
With regard to Gwyneth Paltrow, I have to repost Julie Burchill’s brilliant article “Put it away, love” – just so funny: https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/03/02/put-it-away-love/
Thanks for the link to the Julie Burchill article| just priceless!
There are so many gems in that article, but I thought the black and white minstrels one stood out
Thanks
I enjoyed this irreverent link immensely. Interestingly I followed the link to the ‘Vagina Museum’ only to be notified that the vagina museum is temporarily closed while they move to a new location. Maybe the liquor licence hasn’t worked out for them.
I think I remember a male US talk show host ordering one of Gwynnie’s ‘This Smells Like My Vagina’ candles last year. I don’t think he was convinced, but then again, he is gay.
Yes, I am seeing this on multipe fronts. People hyping and scaremongering with little understanding. Whether virtual reality, blockchain, AI, EVs, hyperloop, few people are asking basical questions about feasibility. I think in certain business areas has become socially unacceptable to be pessimistic.
A fine piece. I would add only that Theranos reacted with fury and rottweiler lawyers to anyone who dared to ask an awkward question. That’s a flapping red flag.
As did Robert Maxwell, infamously.
Those who put Kamala Harris into office were also buying a dream.
As an engineer, I’m surprised how gulllible people are when presented with supposed ‘Gee Wizz’ technology. Asking the critical questions perhaps gets ignored when someone else is paying.
A good example is the couple here who sold their fake bomb detectors around the world: Married couple guilty of making fake bomb detectors in garden shed they claimed ‘could find Madeline McCann’
They made £80m from that scam, selling plastic boxes with telescopic ariels.
Recall that Holmes erected huge legal barriers to anyone discovering the scam, including her workers. The promising beginning failing as research stalled. Her crime was never being truthful as the scheme collapsed. She was a victim (maybe) of her own hubris and press.
There is a general collapse of accounting visibility that is a part of the new ‘startup’ economy. I suspect it is going to come back after a disaster.
I am a software engineer and at least part of this stems from the fact people don’t understand the basic technology around them. It isn’t that hard to understand how a car works, how the electricty is wired in one’s house, how basic electronic works or with some more effort even the basics of how a computer works. It doesn’t require that much effort or education – probably only a good secondary eduction and/or appreticeship – would provide in order to understand how these things work.
Instead I have had to endure managers and other people throughout my career babbling on about buzzwords and technologies they have no idea about and seem to believe are the solutions to their problems, when it reality they are nothing of the sort. Some basic level of technical and scientfiic knowhow would make these scams less likely.
Note how in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centiry investment scams in the UK were all about houses in Flordia, mysterious South Sea Islands, recently discovered colonial territory like the Mississippi bubble or (in the London stock market) railways being constructed in South America. These scams thrive on ignorance.
The latest snake oil is the ‘NoCode’ fad peddled to the clueless managerial class i.e. mostly arts graduates with no managerial qualifications. What they don’t realise is that the coding bit is simple, deciding what you want to do with the code is the tricky bit!
Great article thanks
Maybe a little mercy and sympathy for a great inspiring lady is warranted. I mean that. Elizabeth Holmes, I pray you get no time in jail. As for the people who may have lost money, they were buying a dream and they go it. I am sure their attorneys and accountants will help all of them even Henry so they come out all right.
This is truly a despicable comment! A “great inspiring lady?” Did you think Bernie Madoff a great inspiring investor?
You claim to be an attorney, yet show profound ignorance of the law. It’s OK to be a complete fraudster and lie to investors over and over and over because people were “buying a dream?” How will these investors come out all right? Hundreds of millions of investors $ were fleeced–is there a magic wand that you can wave and make them “come out all right?” Pathetic, especially for an attorney.
EH is not a great lady, a horrible person, and I hope she rots in prison for a very long time. Let’s hope the prosecutors are “lawyers for life” and EH gets life!
As the article so truly says, con artists have been with us forever. If only Elizabeth had stuck to hawking something like Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir she wouldn’t be facing years in the slammer.
https://youtu.be/4jAvUNwaXyE
Or candles that smell like her punani!
“If Elizabeth Holmes hadn’t existed, we would have had to invent her — and in some ways, we did.” Unlike Spanx, Holmes high tech wonder failed despite an awful lot of other people’s money (not hers). Her stellar ability to act makes her one of the best conwomen in history. As a sociopath she ranks well with the train of money death behind her, at least not people except for bruised egos.
Vanity Fair for the Digital Age.
Do not pass go, go directly to jail.
Several years ago I was asked by investors for the opinion about her technology. My answer was: this technology is badly needed but we don’t know if it exists. Without independent side by side comparison etc this is just writing on the paper and paper is very patient.
Entertaining, but the same kind pf hustle that Elizabeth Holmes represents. Nearly all grifters have beauty, charm and lying skills. Hilary lacked beauty and charm, but was a consummate liar. Her husband could lie with the best but only had the looks and charm to attract women and men who were attracted to men. Nixon was like Hilary, all liar and no looks or charm. The successful liar is one who can fool nearly everyone. That was Holmes lacked, she could only convince other liars and manipulators.
The one great weakness of grifters is their gullibility, especially towards their own lies. Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Chaves, Castro, both Roosevelts, virtually all politicians and great men and women in every field, especially in acting, have that weakness in abundance. Another is deep-seated pathology particularly toward their victims.
She has invented a patent jail avoidance device , a miniaturised version of herself . Allegedly