London, one of the most well-known and most
visited cities in the world, filled with icons
of British history and culture, a world-class
city that’s like an oasis of good food in…
well, Britain, and the largest city in the
European Union… yeah about that…
3.5 years ago the UK narrowly voted to leave
the EU, which many a Londoner probably didn‘t
exactly like the sound of, and so in a last-ditch
effort, some in the capital have looked to
the success story that is Singapore, and toyed
the possibility of splitting off from the
UK.
Would it be possible?
What would it be like?
And most importantly, what would it need?
So…
Brexit, whatever you personally feel about
it, it has happened, the United Kingdom is
no longer in the European Union, which is
having huge effects on the area.
This all started seemingly 900 years ago when
a referendum was conducted on whether or not
the UK should remain in the EU.
Campaigns were run with not-so-reliable information
from both camps, but in the end the leave
camp won with 51.9% of the national vote.
A map of the outcome of the referendum however
reveals that the vote wasn’t completely
even geographically, with Wales and England
mostly voting to leave, and Scotland and Northern
Ireland to remain.
In the wake of this, many a politician called
for follow-up referendums on Scotland and
perhaps even Northern Ireland gaining independence.
The latter result however was also the case
with London, leading many to suggest-- as
crazy as it sounds-- that London also leave
the United Kingdom and form its own country.
So for the sake of curiosity, how would this
whole thing work if it did come true?
So first, where is London?
If we’re going to try to make a new country
after all, we should at least agree on where
the borders should be.
The most common way of determining which parts
of the English Southeast are and are not part
of London is with the borough boundary, though
there are a few other ways to determine whether
or not you’re in London, check out this
video from Londonist for more information
on that.
We’re not going to care about postal codes
or the M25 though, since people already generally
agree that this here is London.
So London’s a city-state separate from the
rest of England and presumably still in the
EU, meaning that border checks would likely
be installed, which would not go well amongst
everyone living along the borders between
London and the adjacent counties.
This would also affect far-flung stations
on the Metropolitan Line as well as Crossrail/Elizabeth
Line, and everyone else who commutes from
outside London, but border checks ensure maximum
Brexit for the rest of the UK.
Of course, that country would be facing quite
a bigger dilemma: its goddamn capital is gone!
This means that the United Kingdom would almost
certainly need a new capital city and government
institutions would have to be moved to the
new capital, possibly including the royal
family.
London has also been such an important city
in British history that it would be hard to
think of a good replacement for a capital.
Manchester?
Birmingham?
York?
This also brings us to the issue of the City
of London, no not the city of London, the
city of the City of London, the tiny little
city enclaved right within central London.
It is a separate entity from London as a whole,
so would it come along for the ride?
And if it remains part of the UK, how would
that work?
The City is an important financial center
within the important financial hub that is
London, and its small and enclaved status
would make it incredibly inconvenient for
it to not be in the same country as London
itself, although that sort of scenario isn’t
exactly unheard of.
On a related note however, transport probably
wouldn‘t be too much of an issue.
London has plenty of ports and access to the
sea via the Thames, which most likely wouldn‘t
be restricted, as this is the same way Switzerland,
Austria, Hungary, and Serbia have access to
the sea.
Air travel might be a bit cramped though,
London currently has six airports with only
Heathrow and City being within London itself.
London City Airport is a small airport normally
for business travelers and Heathrow is near
capacity, so something would have to be figured
out.
Trains to and from mainland Europe could be
figured out, but regional trains would naturally
be quite a pain.
Overall I can sort of imagine this scenario
being almost more Hong Kong than Singapore,
which is often considered part of the Pearl
River Delta region despite the border checks
and separate immigration policies.
That‘s at least keeping in mind immigration,
because if London were to gain independence
from the UK, obviously it would also have
different laws, would it use a separate currency
or other little things like that?
Maybe London could enter some sort of weird
agreement where it remains part of the UK
and the EU, but perhaps more importantly,
assuming this whole thing even could work
with all the problems we set forward, would
an independent London even be part of the
EU?
Brexit is the first ever instance of a country
leaving the EU and no new countries have split
off from an EU country, so we really don‘t
know.
It‘s likely to have some difficulties, after
all this would also send a message to Catalonia
or the Basque Country or Flanders.
Ultimately London becoming a new country would
be a weird thing to happen, but not exactly
the weirdest thing to happen in world history.
Of course anyone who knows anything about
London knows that it has a long and storied
past, as does the UK as a whole.
If you want a peek at a particular part of
its history, might I recommend the documentary
Tea Wars, which you can watch on this week’s
sponsor CuriosityStream.
If you know me at all, you’ll know that
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Thank you as always for watching, and I hope
I treated this topic with the sensitivity
it deserves.
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