Towards the end of last year, Sadiq Khan gave a speech at the London Conference emphasising the capital’s need to make common cause with other cities and regions. London, the mayor reminded his audience, is “an English and a British city”.
In one sense, the statement was banal. But Khan’s remark was also oddly striking. London has its champions and its detractors, but both sides tend to agree that the capital is a quintessentially global city – one that has become increasingly detached from its home nation. I recently put the concept of London as an English city to a leading historian of the capital. He was dismissive: “London has become so cosmopolitan it can hardly claim to be English. It’s places like Birmingham and Manchester that continue to beat with an English heart.”
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