Space.
Boris Johnson, the Mayor Of London, is my favourite politician.
OK, he’s a Tory, which means I should hate him on principle, but he has two redeeming features. Firstly, his scruffy, foppish demeanour and overstated, plummy, upper-crust accent is a parody of a politician, more like a character who should be appearing on “Little Britain”, and I think we need more people like that in politics. Politics should have more colourful characters instead of old, anonymous grey men. Secondly, and utterly out of character for a Tory, he actually has the ability to speak the truth.
This post on his official blog got me thinking. The last four paragraphs, in particular. To quote the man himself:
“The other day I was using a borrowed car and a demented German satnav took me out of Manchester. We went through Stockport and Stalybridge and at a place called Tintwistle we picked up the A628 and suddenly the road was flying over the moors, the Pennines, and I had a sensation of driving over the vast spine of England, and I thought, stone me, look at all this room.”
I myself have been guilty of seeing the UK as completely London-centric, forgetting about all the wonderful places in its more far-flung areas. Now, one of the reasons I actually like being in the US is all down to the amount of space - there’s plenty of that in the UK too if you know where to look. In the little town of Tintwistle that he mentioned, you can buy a lovely, stone-built 3-bedroom house for £95,000. Or rent one for £400 a month. You’re in easy commuting distance of Manchester, have the awe-inspiring views and scenery of the Pennines on your doorstep, and the lower cost of living of life “oop north”.
If Manchester had more wine bars and branches of Starbucks, the London-Manchester GNER train would be full of ex-Londoners seeking escape, I’m sure of it.
