And Livingstone is a New Man too.
The pluralistic inclusive perspectives are indeed almost essential now for European cities. They go hand in hand with urban-regional development thinking which is partly about rational use of finance capital and partly about social planning over an area of at least 100 km. The idiom is one that completely assumes finance capitalists are essential partners, but that it works better in the context of socially holistic socio-economic coordination.
It is interesting that the fall of the CDU in Berlin has been precipitated by a financial scandal in which petty speculative capital gambled on a boom in building developments, that foundered.
By contrast finance capital at its most rational is prepared to work with left of centre people, whose backround is perhaps only in education or local government, because gigantic financial corporations have to have relatively stable internal structures not totally disimilar to a local authority.
It is a mark of the extreme socialisation of capital that is already far advanced, and advances further with every step of finance capital.
I make these comments not to temper Nathan's but to put them in context. Like him, I believe it is essential to look for areas of opportunity and political hope. This may then get attacked as tailism.
I agree with the opportunities he points to, but I would say they are best exploited if we are openly conscious about the compromises they entail, so that progressive people do not become disillusioned in due course, or on the other hand fail to maintain their vigilance.
Meanwhile, why should we be ashamed to celebrate?
Chris Burford
London