Our crazy Big Apple - why I just love it

A report out today shows that thousands of the middle-classes are deserting the capital. But they should relish it, not flee to the country

Published in the Evening Standard 24 August 2006

Two weeks on holiday with the kids and certain refrains are stuck in my head. The entire back catalogue of the Wiggles for a start and, like plenty of parents, the repeated incantation, “Are we there yet?” But there’s one more line, offered by my five year old son, which has stayed with me. “When are we going back to England?”

Nothing unusual in that, you may think. Except that we WERE (ital) in
England – Cornwall, to be precise. Yet to my son, born and raised in
London, it looked and felt like a different country.

And he might not be wrong. New statistics out today are expected to show that London has grown almost into a state of its own. While many parts of the country are hollowing out, their population ageing and birth rate falling, today’s data are likely to confirm London’s place as the biggest city in western Europe.

Numbers are not all that set London apart. Yes, the clichés are true: walk on a country footpath and strangers say hello, something no one ever does on the Tube. And we really didn’t need to lock the door of our rented Cornish cottage at night.

But the biggest difference was visible on the faces we saw. Almost all of them were white.

London’s diversity is so established, it’s easy to forget how distinct this makes us from the rest of the country. One in three Londoners are non-white, yet the percentage falls to about 6% for the country as a whole. More striking still, while the country reels at Monday’s statistics showing the vast wave of immigration to Britain from Poland and the New Europe, London can reflect that, according to reliable estimates, 40% of its population was born outside the UK.

It’s not just the newcomers heading into London who are shaping this new terrain; it’s also the Londoners getting out. Underneath today’s figures is an intriguing trend. Yes, there’s a net inflow into London from the rest of the world of more than 100,000 people a year. But what’s realised less often is that there is a net OUTFLOW (ital) of 100,000 Londoners to the rest of the UK every year as well. Put simply, at that rate, in a decade’s time there will be a million more foreign-born Londoners – and close to a million fewer British-born ones, both black and white.

That last point is important. Some have assumed that this migration out of London is a ‘white flight’, with middle-class families in particular fleeing the capital for a less stressful life in the Home Counties. Others say it’s difficult to tell, since this movement of people is not tracked by ethnic origin. Indeed, they note that Londoners of Indian background are following the path earlier trod by London Jews: from the East End to Gants Hill to Golders Green to Mill Hill and eventually out of London altogether, to the likes of Elstree or Radlett in south Hertfordshire. In other words, it might be the affluent – of whatever colour – who are getting out.

In which case, the ethnic complexion of the countryside, especially near London, will slowly begin to change. But that does not alter the larger picture that’s emerging – of two nations, with London a different society from the rest of England, let alone the rest of the UK. London’s economy roars, generating more wealth than any other part of the nation. (Employment is rising in this city, while other parts of the UK struggle.)

And, all the while, London is becoming more international, more
cosmopolitan, sharing little of the homogeneity I saw these last two weeks in the Cornish countryside.

Does this matter? Is it, as some will feel instinctively, a cause for
alarm. There is a useful precedent. New York has long been a city with around 40% of its population born outside the US (though London may now have overtaken it to become the most cosmopolitan city on earth). It too is often lampooned as utterly alien from the country that surrounds it: plenty of New Yorkers speak of the rest of America as if it were another land, “flyover country” separating New York from the more familiar Los Angeles.

Yet there is no move to cut the Big Apple off the American tree. It
survives. Indeed, to the rest of the world, New York remains the symbol of the United States, from the Statue of Liberty to the Empire State Building (and, in a different context, the Twin Towers).

The new London taking shape before our eyes is surely beginning to perform a similar role for Britain. Different from the rest of the country, for sure, but also a vibrant, attractive version of it – one that lures people from all over the world.

That, admittedly, is the rosiest scenario. I embrace it – but, at the same time, I think we should do what we can to keep those Londoners who are here from wanting to leave. The 2005 figures showed 268,000 people moving out. Some of those will have left seeking a better quality of life, or simply better schools for their kids.

That’s the obvious priority for London’s masters: improve the schools and more of those middle-class families will stay here. And the evidence shows, the more such families are involved, the better those schools will become: a virtuous circle.

Indeed, that has been one of New Labour’s more enduring beliefs: that the well-being of our public realm depends on the middle class staying in. If that’s true of public services, it is surely true of a city like London. We don’t want to follow the lead of 1970s Detroit or Chicago, where the affluent fled, leaving the city to sink into crime and despair.

It shouldn’t be too hard to persuade those Londoners dreaming of a new life elsewhere. Sure, the streets are cleaner, the roads less congested and the views more beautiful. But the countryside is still for holidays. London is where you come for life.

Posted on August 24, 2006 11:32 AM

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