One for the Fashists out there, undergrounds of the world quiz
I think you've posted the wrong link, old boy.
http://www.citymetric.com/transport/game-can-you-identify-ci ty-its-metro-logo-1484
I read the one about rail-time distances and was all ready to counter your whining about Londoncentricity when I realised you had intended to draw our attention to a different article. How I laughed!
I like that website though. Did you see the piece a while back about how the London property market could be a haven for money-laundering?
Ah yes, there you go. Wrong article but glad you found it helped
That said, I dont "whine" about "Londoncentricity" (or as we called them back in the day, The Leccy Board) I am merely pointing out that a balanced, diverse and proportional economy is a strong one.
It's madness to base the entire economy on the twin headed beast that is London's property prices and its financial services industry.
I think only the other day some sort of research body pointed out that London's overheated property market is actually costing the country money now. You're a pretty good example of that whole business too, if you dont mind me saying.
No, I agree with you tbh, that the economy should be spread out.
What I was about to say was that it's no surprise that Plymouth, Norwich and Inverness are railistically remote, as nobody really wants to go there, and it would be more disturbing if massive investment was made to make them transport hubs.
Apparently market forces will eventually eventually distribute the economy in a more geographically sane way though. Don't hold your breath.
Perhaps it will happen when London collapses under the weight of all the people trying to live there. Of course it is well known that London's growth and strength has always been about people being attracted to it from far and wide but I doubt it was ever so that 38% of Londoners were not born in the United Kingdom.
Well yes, they are all quide liderally the end of the line
It's quite amusing that the people who crow most about the supremacy of market forces have had to go cap in hand to the public sector for bailouts in the last decade or so, less so that we've ended up carrying the can for their misguided profligacy, even less so that we appear to have not positioned ourselves to reap any of the dividends from that investment.
Say what you like about the victorians but they did do infrastructure exceptionally well. If only we could inherit the good parts of their spirit rather than the mean spirited, conservative and narrow ideas of virtue though.
I think they were being cautious in their accusations
while making it clear that it is certainly happening. Basically in the countries with fewer liberties the guvmint can just seize the criminals' assets at will. Whereas here you can practically turn your suitcases full of cash into property with no questions asked.
I watched Cocaine Cowboys the other day. A brilliant documentary about how the Medellin cartel
imported drugs to Miami in the 70s and 80s
in 1979 the Federal Reserve’s Miami branch reported a $5 billion cash surplus -- more than the country’s other Federal Reserve banks combined
Wasnt that HSBC's speciality?
At the time the government's enterprise tzar (just think about those two words together for a minute) was the grand fromage no less.
I suspect that one of the reasons they did infrastructure so well was that
it was easier to just bulldoze everyone out of the way back then. Not just poor people either, although it was usually them. The line out of St Pancras in and around 1860 required the demolition of swathes of recently-built and fairly large houses on the Christ Church estate - Caversham Road, Islip Street, Gaisford Street.
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5485427,-0.1389631,17z
"Could be".