Other British Cities Need London Style Local Powers
City mayors need Boris-style powers
8 May 2012 By Peter Hetherington http://static.guim.co.uk/static/16ee...rdian/news.gif Read More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/20...y&type=article Metro Manchester Authority: http://www.agma.gov.uk/ Quote:
Boris Johnson with David Cameron at City Hall, London, following Johnson's re-election as the mayor of London. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/...d-Bori-006.jpg |
Sort of off topic, but is Boris Johnson the mayor of London the City or Greater London, and if so, where are its political boundaries?
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I'm fully in favour of all cities across the UK having their own mayor, however I think the approach taken to bring them in across the country was highly flawed.
Councillors resisted them, the scope was limited, positives weren't explained, and the average voter came under the belief that the roles were simply only to create a gravy conveyor belt for MP's. Quote:
Technically, and rather confusingly Greater London contains two cities: the City of London (2.90km2) which is the original Londinium settlement, and the City of Westminster (21.48km2). Since 1189 the City of London has had its own mayor, however with the creation of the Mayor of London role covering Greater London, this title is now referred to as the Lord Mayor or London. The Lord Mayor of London (currently David Wootton) is effectively a manager for the City of London Corporation who's jurisdiction is focused on the financially-focused Square Mile. |
More power to local governments? The governments that are more often than not elected on anti-development/change platforms?
No thanks. |
Britain and France are quite unique in the sense of the gap between the primary city and the others. I can't think of any other countries so dominated by their primary city.
There is a huge drop off between London and the secondary cities (is Manchester or Birmingham next on the list? Glasgow? In Canada, you never hear about secondary British cities unless for soccer or the Beatles [Liverpool]). Ditto for Paris and the secondaries (Lyon, Marseille, etc.) Whereas Italy (Milan, Rome, etc.), Germany (Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, etc.), Spain (Madrid, Barcelona), etc. (not to mention, USA, Canada, Australia, Russia, etc.) are much less concentrated. |
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Then there's Malaysia, Thailand, Philipines, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Argentina, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran there's quite a lot actually. Including smaller countries even more, every country in Scandinavia, Austria, nearly every country in Eastern Europe, Ireland, etc etc |
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So the other British Townships and Cities just have city councils that aren't elected then? Where they currently operate independently of the other city councils within the same county..
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If a city is unable to project its image, it is going to struggle in getting attention from central government, whether that be for more funding, greater control over city-wide expenditure or management of services. Let alone gain international recognition. Network West Midlands as an example of this situation, is an exceptionally poor relative of Transport for London. Take the respective bus networks; Birmingham (and the surrounding area) has 46 operators carrying 300mn passengers per annum, London in contrast has 14 operators carrying 2,289mn per annum. Bus services across London are pretty much indistinguishable operating on the same Oyster fares. Birmingham in contrast requires a special multi-operator pass, and there is no established uniform livery scheme. Granted, these are little issues taken on an individual basis, but together mount up to gross inefficiencies and wastage, are characteristics of a lack of joined-up thinking towards UK cities. Ultimately there needs to be a complete redrawing of the political maps for UK cities. The OT article which refers to a Greater Manchester is a step in the right direction, but this is still rather piecemeal and again lacks the framework to ensure that it doesn’t fall apart. Only with clearly defined areas can mayoral positions and 'city' assemblies (as is the case in London) be created. |
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