bigideas

On 9 June 2008, four Big Ideas regulars — Danny Birchall, Rich Cochrane, Nathan Charlton and Robert Kingham — gathered at the Crosse Keys pub in the ancient City of London to discuss London Nationalism.

Does it make sense to talk about a city expressing a “nationalism” over and above its supposed “identity”? Are nationalisms always exclusive and xenophobic? What would London look like as a more devolved city state, and what does the recent change in executive mayor say about how we might choose to be governed? How might it reinvent its identity as a national one? And is any of this a good idea?

In an eventful discussion, we touch on all these subjects and more. Watch out for the bit where Danny gets onto Scottish independence and starts channelling Edward I. If you haven’t been to one of our live events, our podcasts give a bit of a feel for what they’re like, although of course there are fewer of us and they’re slightly more organised.

You can subscribe to our podcasts via our RSS feed or just download this one as an MP3 file. Enjoy!

The image of the inside of the London assembly building is courtesy of leithcote.