London’s resilience is a lesson to policymakers everywhere

In 2012 London could claim to be the world’s . The Olympics had given it a showcase. Despite the financial crisis, globalisation was still just about in vogue and cosmopolitan London was its emblem. Since then, it has been hit by a series of blows. Brexit signalled that Britain was turning inwards and made its capital a less attractive place for . Covid-19 raised big questions for cities everywhere; workers in central London are on average for just 2.3 days per week. Over the past decade some of the most powerful currents in Western politics—anti-globalisation, fear of immigration, the fetishisation of manufacturing—have turned against London.London has had rough spells before: a long one after the Romans left, and another in the early 18th century when its population stagnated because of mass addiction to gin. By the end of the 1980s the city’s population had fallen from a pre-war peak of 8.6m to just 6.7m. The blows of the past decade might seem like another turning-point.