Links with people who live differently are so crucial, many a Londoner agrees over a morning latte and a brioche. The shared noble thought is that by staying closely connected we can share skills and prevent dangerous rifts. We might even stop seeing strangers as quite so odd, with their funny food and accents.
Yet this argument goes a bit wobbly when it comes to southern attitudes to the north of England. Beyond the odd Google to see how big a house it might be possible to buy for the price of a lock-up in south London, many people living inside the M25 rarely contemplate moving. And that’s true even for those with family “up north”.
So when Channel 4 executives were told by government last week that the HQ for their publically supported broadcasting might have to shift up a latitude or two, their horror was pretty comic. A jumpy C4 statement said “a substantial relocation would be highly damaging”.
But should we be laughing at this fairly normal human instinct to want a life near to an endless supply of good food, entertainment, technical innovation and the best state schools? If government truly respects Britain’s fine provincial cities and our former industrial flagbearers, perhaps it should invest some more in their infrastructure – both cultural and otherwise, from transport to libraries. Instead, city councils are forced to choose between a future for school orchestras or social care.
Certainly, moving another major television network out of London, following on the BBC’s mini-migration to Salford, could be a start, especially if these new media centres are part of a concerted shifting of public resources to outside the capital.
In other European countries, the word “provincial” is not principally an insult. Development cash, combined with decentralised democracy, has created hubs for different kinds of commerce and manufacturing. So, in Germany, Hamburg is a media city, Frankfurt is for finance, and the government operates in Berlin.
Here, London hosts more or less all of these things.
Perhaps those of us who have heard tell of the glory days of Granada in Manchester, or remember the BBC’s Pebble Mill studio in Birmingham, should quickly get over our amusement at the idea of Channel 4’s commissioning editors biking in from Altrincham or Selly Oak, rather than Stoke Newington.
Although much television is already shot and produced outside London, the idea of broadcasting from outside the capital has sadly lost a bit of credibility recently, with former culture secretary Jeremy Hunt’s determined efforts to ignite new regional channels.
His initiative resulted in Norwich’s Mustard TV, in Notts TV and in Estuary TV in Grimsby, but none has set off fireworks so far.
Possibly the attitude this country needs to lose fastest, though, is a blinkered binary opposition between London and everywhere else.
The true debate should not now be over whether Channel 4, rightly described by the current culture secretary as a “precious public asset”, should stay in London. Instead, it should be where is that best “elsewhere” – Manchester, Birmingham, or, perhaps, Liverpool or Hull?
