NORMAN MACRAE co-author of original article
YES
The idea for the original Economist article came from Alastair Burnet, but others of us contributed. Without the move, southern house prices and traffic congestion have outpaced those in the north even more than we had feared. Culture-setting industries have remained too south-England oriented-the media, investment banking (breeding anti-manufacturing bias), international airports and the rapidly failing Church of England. We lost an opportunity to build the world’s first serious capital city designed for the motor age and the knowledge industries. In 1962, there was hope that some fresh architectural visions might emerge. By 2002, all building projects with a political involvement (Dome, Scots parliament) seem blighted by huge cost overruns and incompetence. If the project for a new Elizabetha is revived, the initial building projects should be handed to Korean contractors who so quickly built their architecturally exciting World Cup 2002 football stadia at a fraction of Wembley Stadium’s cost and time delays.
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