An Independent London? ( maybe with Home Counties?)

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As long as the home counties go as well, I'd be very happy with it. Whether it's actually a good idea or not is another thing entirely...

Reply 61

a729

Original post by Fullofsurprises

I assume OP just wants Boris to be his Master and Leader. A bit sad really when you consider what a vain, lazy nincompoop he is. Boris, not OP.

Loool not at all!

Boris is generally all right , he's certainly better than Ed Milliband!

Reply 62

a729

Original post by espial

London wouldn't have an extra 20 Billion. That is beyond insane, no offense. The people who would "get" the extra 20 Bil are those who would of otherwise paid that in tax (the vast majority of which are high earners, which probably isn't you or your family - although I could be wrong).

Not really. The government would just spend the tax in a different way

Reply 63

01Chris02

By that logic, why not just make every city an independent state then? How ridiculous. :P

Comparing London to Scotland is just... I can't even think of a word to describe how silly this is.

Your losing around 10% of gov income with your suggested taxation changes, wouldn't work very well.

Reply 64

Psyk

Original post by 01Chris02

Well London has a bigger population than Scotland. So that's one comparison that can be made.

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Reply 65

01Chris02

Original post by Psyk

Well London has a bigger population than Scotland. So that's one comparison that can be made.

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Scotland has political motive for wanting independence as it's a controlled territory (a historical country) within the UK.

London on the other hand is a city, albeit a big city.

The government of the country that it would want independence from is in London.

You can always make a comparison, that doesn't make it sensible though.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 66

a729

Original post by 01Chris02

Not every city has such a high GDP

Population of London is about the same as that of Wales and Scotland combined lol!

Arguably London could afford that

Reply 67

Hal.E.Lujah

You know, technically London is independent. William the conqueror gave left it as an independent state because he didn't have time to conquer it and it's been that way ever since.

Reply 68

01Chris02

Original post by a729

Not every city has such a high GDP

Population of London is about the same as that of Wales and Scotland combined lol!

Arguably London could afford that

What advantages would an independent London bring? Apart from the OP's suggested taxation changes?

I could see more cons than pros to be honest! Lol :smile:

Reply 69

a729

Original post by 01Chris02

It was just an idea.

Reply 70

MatureStudent36

Original post by 01Chris02

What advantages would an independent London bring? Apart from the OP's suggested taxation changes?

I could see more cons than pros to be honest! Lol :smile:

It still hasn't stopped the SNP.

I tend to find these arguments tend to arise during times of economic strife. It's people fighting over the scraps. Normally, people are happy to share, but when there's a shortage of food say, people act differently. This is what's happening now. People are just being selfish and looking after their own needs and not the needs of society........God I sound like a socialist, but I'm not.

Reply 71

MatureStudent36

Original post by 01Chris02

We are not a controlled territory. We are equal member. We're about as controlled as Yorkshire, Lancashire or Conrnwall. Please don't feed the CyberNats believe that we're somehow oppressed. (2 out of the last 3 PMs and Chancellors have been Scottish so hardly exactly oppressed.)

Reply 72

scrotgrot

Original post by billydisco

Seems a bit strange- youve got a HUGE number of benefit claimants in London because inner-city schools are renowned for being crap.

Hackney/peckham/seven sisters/brixton arent exactly full of amazingly-qualified people.

Don't worry, there are clearances from London happening as it is, removing them would be no barrier.

Reply 73

Rakas21

Perhaps a more interesting scenario would be to take all the main urban regions of England (West Midlands, Greater Manchester, South-West Yorkshire and others) and effectively devolve all economic spending to them (tax rates, transport and energy spending ect...). We'd sacrifice certain places no longer able to compete but these regions would attract more investment.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 74

MatureStudent36

Original post by Rakas21

Great idea, but all that happens there is the regions start competing against each other, and undercutting each othr to get the investment. They should be competing against foreign economies, not are own.

That was one of the reasons British Leyland didn't survive. It competed against different parts of British Leyland. End result it heamoraged money and failed.

Reply 75

Rakas21

Original post by MatureStudent36

As you'd still have central government, they can set the floor for things like tax in the same way that the EU does, you don't see every country with a 12.5% VAT rate even though they could.

Reply 76

MatureStudent36

Original post by Rakas21

As you'd still have central government, they can set the floor for things like tax in the same way that the EU does, you don't see every country with a 12.5% VAT rate even though they could.

I was being sarcastic when I said about great idea. It's actually a really bad idea.

Other countries set their corporate tax rate as part of a fine balancing act between promoting investment and raising enough capital to meet government expenditure. Most of our budget goes on Welfare. (Unemployement, Health care and pensions.) If it gets cut too low then we have problems meeting these.

We already have a pensions time bomb on our hands.

Other countries can lower their corporation tax as they don't enjoy the same degree of welfare and health spending, or requirements as we do.

Interstingly though, some of the stronger EU nations actually have the highest corporation tax.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 77

a729

Original post by Rakas21

As you'd still have central government, they can set the floor for things like tax in the same way that the EU does, you don't see every country with a 12.5% VAT rate even though they could.

The EU bans us from going lower than 15%

Reply 78

a729

Original post by scrotgrot

Don't worry, there are clearances from London happening as it is, removing them would be no barrier.

Don't exaggerate!

Reply 79

UnderPost

I think this could be a good thing for the rest of the UK.

Our whole economy has been geared towards London for the past decades and will continue to be. How are other cities meant to develop?

In other states in the world each city will have it's think e.g one has the financial district and another will be the home of their parliament/politicians.