One thing that is I have found so incredibly striking about the Brexit referendum is how disconnected the City of London has become from the rest of England:

It’s the same thing in the US as well (which I wrote about here), where the US is basically a red/Republican country, but it’s politics are often ultimately determined by the Democratic blue spots in the big US cities. It doesn’t seem to be random: large cities tend to be liberal, where the rest of a country is not. And there is a growing divide: where we almost seem to be returning to a society of City-States, like it was in the world of Ancient Greece.

So here’s a history of urbanisation youtube clip, from the talented people at metrocosm.com.

And for more on cities, and the strange disconnect between nation and city, here are some older posts:

• The Rise of City-States
• The GDP of City-States
• Cities Gone Feral
• Cities of Segregation
• Speaking of Commodities… Urban Growth Rate Per Hour

Rolling Alpha posts about finance, economics, and sometimes stuff that is only quite loosely related. Follow me on Twitter @RollingAlpha, or like my page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rollingalpha. Or both.