London Calling
But will the government listen?
A surprising flurry of optimistic posts about London and the UK tech scene flooded my timeline yesterday. The usual chorus of doomers seemed to have vanished entirely, replaced by an energy I haven’t seen in a long time.
As the father of a 16-year-old son, I’ve been worried about the future he’s inheriting. Years of economic stagnation and political missteps will do that. So it was good to have that challenged by this unexpected wave of enthusiasm.
Judging from what I’ve been reading on X, the consensus among the young tech groovers is clear. Quit the ridiculous censorship obsession, go all in on nuclear power to sort out energy, and then sit back and watch the economy recover.
I am under no illusions that they will actually do that. They’ll continue down the same frustrating road: endless attacks on privacy masked as safety measures, and crazy expensive energy prices that cripple households and businesses. The whole country feels it. It’s not just a shame, it’s maddening.
Despite the government’s worst efforts though, London seems to be thriving again. This time it’s AI driving it. Demis Hassabis keeping Google DeepMind rooted in London is a massive part of it, and that decision alone has kept a lot of talent in the city. But London has always had a lot going for it as a place to live and work, and it’s not surprising that people are talking about it as the place to be again. Now that the other AI giants are opening offices there, you could make a real case for London as the AI capital of the world.
My roots in London run deep. My mother was born there. As a child I was a dedicated “rail rider”. My dad used to take us down on the train from York every other weekend for the grand sum of 50p. Those trips were magic. If you look at the war memorial in King’s Cross Station today, you’ll see the names of several Blakes etched into the stone. Railway men from my dad’s side of the family who helped build the place.
After school I didn’t go to university. I went to work in a shoe shop at Affleck’s Palace in Manchester instead. A very different kind of cultural revolution.
After I finally got the whole “Madchester” thing out of my system, I moved to the Big Smoke and I’m glad I did. My arrival coincided with the birth of the internet and it was just an amazing place to be. After many adventures and missteps, I found myself in a web agency in Shoreditch, right in the engine room of the dot-com boom. Heady days. I can’t remember a lot of it, to be honest, but what I do remember will stay with me. Being young in London, feeling like you’re in the centre of the world, there is nothing quite like it.
Now it seems like that could be happening all over again with AI, and I really hope it is, for my son’s sake. If only the government would get out of the way instead of doing everything they can to wreck it before it even gets started.
