Overcrowded London

I suppose I should not really have been that surprised given that I have now lived in London more than half my life, but I was still amazed at the queues as passport control at Heathrow last week. It took about half an hour to get through the UK/EU section, but what really shocked was the length of the queues for non-EU citizens. My guess is that it would have taken people a couple of hours to get through given the number of people and the snail-like pace it was moving at.

It was a reminder that London is a magnet for people, not just within the UK, but all over the world. The multi-cultural nature of living in London is absolutely fantastic (and one of the reasons why I love London), however, the downside of the city being such a hub is that its infrastructure is put under huge pressure, which can make it very unpleasant for locals and visitors alike. Seeing those huge long queues did make me wonder what it will be like when the world descends on London for the Olympics next year.

Incidentally I was returning from a lovely week in Spain and flying back from the (particularly in contrast to Heathrow) magnificently spacious Madrid Barajas airport. Oh to have such space in London! The problem for us is that London and the south-east of England are just so over-populated that we will never be able to build airports and railway stations big enough to accomodate the number of people passing through them.

I wonder if the UK government could do more to move institutions out of London to ease this overcrowding problem. One of the main reasons for moving to or near London is the sheer number of (well-paid) job opportunities there are in London. If institutions did move to other parts of the UK it would take the pressure off London and also help stimulate the local economies of those areas (which always struggle in comparison to London). BBC Sport's move to Salford is an example of the kind of move I have in mind. I know asking people to move is difficult, so it would have to be a gradual process, but I do think it could be a win-win situation.