What cities owe the provinces

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A friend calls it, with some distaste, the “ring of fire.” It refers to the counties that surround London and have a strained relationship with the place. They are everything the capital is not: conservative, if not conservative, full of families, car-oriented, perhaps not exactly full of cultural treasures. While the street talk is far from homogeneous – many an Asian household moves there – it is not the all-language serenade that it is on the M25.

The dispute between the two worlds goes like this. People in the counties can’t believe that city dwellers pay a premium to live in a chaos of cramped apartments and phone theft. We, in turn, see them as fools who could order a Sauvignon Blanc at any moment is not Dagueneau. Most big cities have an equivalent hinterland: the San Fernando Valley, the crush of bridges and tunnels and so on. If relations with the commuter fringe are so strained, imagine the contrast between the cities and the nation’s deep interior. Except we don’t have to imagine it. Brexit and the election of Donald Trump have made it clear what the core countries think of us.

However, we cannot do without them. I don’t mean anything woo-woo here, but rather something about the value of human differences and learning from each other. What I mean literally is that big cities wouldn’t function as an economic venture without a lot of slightly conservative voters in the rest of the country. What does a global city need? Competitive (although not necessarily super cheap) taxes. Non-burdensome regulation. A business friendly atmosphere. How do they vote? Left.

The politics of an independent London or New York would never work. The demos need to be balanced with a tougher conservatism

In 2019, it was the Home Counties and post-industrial regions that averted a Jeremy Corbyn prime ministership with all the consequences that would have brought for the city. London, including much of wealthy London, voted for him. A decade ago, Paris found itself in a phase of ossified cuisine and entrepreneurial paralysis. Its current momentum, finance and technology boom are at least partly due to the reversal of the costs of the François Hollande era for business. Who did Paris vote for in 2012? Hollande.

Essentially, the provinces are saving the metropolis from its self-destructive politics. They are also slowing it down in some ways: by supporting Brexit, by opposing immigration. But the compromise is worth it. Cities can withstand these harassments in a way that they could not withstand perpetual one-party rule, as some Californians may attest. The prevailing climate in which urban life thrives is a mix of progressive ideas (liberal immigration rules, infrastructure spending) and conservative ideas (market incentives, toughness on crime). To the extent that major cities have this balance, it is increasingly because the second half is provided by the larger nation.

In other words, why are there so few city-states? As a form of government, it has a centuries-long tradition as the nation state. A larger proportion of humanity lives in cities today than in the time of the Medici in Florence or in Hanseatic Hamburg. Since the cities subsidize the interior of the country, a casus belli is imminent. However, beyond Monaco and Singapore, the list of sovereign cities in the modern world is growing thinner. And the call for further secession from their countries is almost zero.

Admittedly, the national feeling runs deeper than the feeling of the liberals, as I will acknowledge. And defense relies on size. (Monaco has to rely on France for much of that.) But I wonder if another catch is that the politics of an independent London or New York would never work. The Demos must be balanced with an even harsher conservatism, at least if the current business model of these places is to survive. This is more true today than it was back when there were many right-of-center voters in cities, before the partisan “sorting” of people into like-minded communities.

So yes, on an evening when the city begins to light up, thoughts naturally turn to secession. There may be visa checks on the M25. There could be universal conscription to defend our republic of 9 million people. And imagine the budget surplus. But then I meet another rental price enthusiast with a book by Yanis Varoufakis on the shelf and I’m surprised. Since the construction of the Elizabeth Line, snobbery about the Ring of Fire has taken on a new edge. The reason for this is that it attracts too many overdressed misfits for a night at Hakkasan or wherever. But they don’t just have the right to be here. They were the city’s chief guardians when London’s own judgment was overturned.

Send Janan an email at [email protected]

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