The fate of these two, the arts and tourism, is inextricably bound together, and the more fully we recognise and acknowledge this fact, the more likely we areto secure the long-term future of both, and, with them, an economic and cultural future for our city.The arts in London are the flagship of a major national industry, a field of activity in which Britain excels That makes the Government’s policies all the more puzzling. The British Tourist Authority estimates that London absorbs more than 50 per cent of the £10bn a year foreign tourists spend in this country. They account for about 20 per cent of Oxford Street’s turnover, 25 per cent of all taxi fares and 40 per cent of all theatre tickets.Without tourists and visitors much of London’s diverse arts provision would cease to be viable. Slightly to its own surprise, London remains the greatest financial centre in the world.

It accounts for something approaching 50 per cent of the world’s foreign exchange market. And even after the huge “shake-out” of the recession, it’s been estimated that the number of people working in financial services in London is greater than the total population of Frankfurt – the city that is often held to be its rival for the title of “financial capital of Europe”.Another vital component of London’s economic strength is the tourist industry. Communication is the skill which we have developed above all others, and upon which we increasingly depend.Cities are about communication, and as soon as communication begins to break down – whether it’s the basic transport system or those less visible but more vital systems of communication between communities and generations – the city begins to come apart.To consider how we might make London a better city, let’s take a fresh look at some of its strengths. And they remain, as Tom Wolfe so graphically put it in Bonfire of the Vanities, the “irresistible destination of all those who insist on being where things are happening” Humans are social animals. Despite all the nightmares of urban dwellers – pollution, congestion, crime, high rents and the rest of it – we love our cities Aristotle was right. The millions packed into the slums of the developing world have moved there to “live (or, at least, to seek) a better life”.From the earliest urban communities of 5,000 years ago, cities have been the driving force of human affairs – economically, culturally and politically.

By the end of this century, more than 50 per cent of the world’s population will be living in cities and, in terms of size, London will be just one of the also-rans – dwarfed by giant sprawls of 20 and 25 million people scattered mostly across the poorest nations of the earth.
The simple truth is that if we don’t get it right for cities, we can forget the rest of the planet – there won’t be one worth living on Cities represent much more than just problems. At the beginning of the century, about 5 per cent ofthe world’s population lived in cities – and the greatest of them all was London. Men came to cities to live,” said Aristotle, “and stayed to live a better life.”

In the second half of the century we no longer view cities as the engines of civilisation but rather as some nightmare consequence, which threatens to engulf our planet in an environmental catastrophe. You could become the first sovereign of the House of Sutch.You would be a modern merry monarch for the millennium. You could certainly make a unique contribution to the State Opening of Parliament. If you don’t mind the ambiguity, wouldn’t you enjoy delivering the Screaming Queen’s Speech?.

It is impossible to imagine any of the Windsors in this role. You would look great in ermine robes, and nothing you could do or say would seem extraordinary in the House of Lords.You could become a Lord-in-Waiting – in waiting perhaps for the biggest job of all.The Labour Party has called for a “downsizing” of the monarchy and its transformation into a symbol of a classless society. I urge you to claim it and become, at last, a real Lord Sutch. It is healthier for them to expresss this through you rather than an extremist of Left or Right or a messianic billionaire: better a Monster Raving Loony with capital letters than a real monster raving loony without them.For all these reasons, Dudley West is the poorer without you. But perhaps at 54 you might think it time to pull down the curtain (or should it be coffin-lid?) on your election career.As Britain’s longest serving political leader, you are, by long-established convention, entitled to a life peerage on your retirement.

It takes a mature democaracy to tolerate joke candidates – and to recognise them as jokes, unlike the Americans with Ollie North.You have given voters a chance to underline their disenchantment with the mainstream political parties. Other candidates, please copy! You put two big changes in British life on to the map with your campaign for votes at 18 and the legalisation of pirate radio stations. (You also called for a cat licence, but we’re still waiting for that.) And at the Bootle by-election in 1990, you killed off the SDP and thereby left David Owen free to solve the problems of Bosnia.You are living proof that anyone at all can stand for our parliament, for any motive. No one has spent so much on getting into Parliament since the days of the “rotten boroughs”, when MPs actually paid for their seats.Since you first stood (for the National Teenage Party) at the “Profumo by-election” in 1963 at Stratford-on-Avon, you have never preached rancour or racism nor used deceit or double talk. In a purely financial sense, you have made a greater contribution to it than any other modern politician.