Do you remember that great song by Katie Melua 6 years ago about there being nine million bicycles in Beijing? As a frequent visitor to that city, I am at a complete loss as to where they all are now (or even were then, come to that), given the number of cars on the road, which have been increasing by a frighteningly high number every day. Certainly until the end of last year, new car registrations in Beijing alone were running easily at 10,000 a week on average. And given that some of them would have belonged to new drivers, I guess the driving test bureaus were being kept busy approving new licenses! I don't mean to be critical, especially given the falling standards of driving in Hong Kong and Britain, to name but two, but driving and road discipline in Beijing is neither good nor enforced. Perhaps being subjected to the most enormous traffic jams is a bit of a blessing. Anyway, the authorities are keen to restrict the new registration levels for the city, which will fall to only 240,000 new registrations this year - give or take a thriving trade in fake licence plates!
But there we go. An example of what improving living standards and increased wealth can do to a country. It encourages you to give up the trusty, non-polluting, health inducing bicycle (well, so long as someone does not bump into you), and replace it with a gas guzzling polluting monster that doesn't actually seem to get you from A to B much faster. (Oh! And judging by some of the pictures I have seen of bicycles in China, the cars don't necessarily carry as many people).
And with that as background it was with a sense of some amusement that an article in the London Evening Standard newspaper, forwarded to me by a friend earlier this month, caught my eye. It was about the growth of bicycle use in London.
The author of the piece, Ross Lydall, an astute observer of the London scene was pointing out that those “bankers in the City” (not a misspelling - either word!) are now refusing to change firms unless they are able to secure a parking space for their - yes - their bicycles. The well-heeled Savile Row suited financial community, having pedalled rapidly through the streets of London (sounds like a new verse to an old song) and parked their bikes more securely than a junk bond, then want showers and locker spaces. No bike space, no shower, no locker – no move!
Now I am sure the pedallers in Beijing in days gone by were not nearly so demanding. In fact securing your bicycle was almost an insult, as it then prevented someone else from using it that needed to get from X to Y, while you scouted around to find another similarly unlocked bike to continue your own journey. No “material possessions” stuff there.
But here we are, in what has arguably been the most successful financial centre in the world (until someone in the Government came up with the brilliant idea of driving business away through the imposition of stifling taxes - and yes, I know the bankers sort of brought it on themselves), increasing the use of cycling so dramatically, to the extent that it is said more bicycles cross central London bridges in the morning than cars.
I do applaud the change in lifestyle that brings a leaner, healthier worker to their offices in London, and hope this is a trend that will continue to grow, but you can't help wondering that if the rise of Beijing (and Shanghai of course) is demonstrated by the abandonment of the bicycle and the adoption of the car, what does the reverse mean for London in the short to medium term?
Perhaps the London cyclists will in time adopt a rather shapeless "uniform" for cycling made of a durable grey or brown material to provide them with protection from all weather conditions, and which has a high Chinese collar. And then, when they realise that the world has overtaken them as a financial centre, they will demonstrate their resurgence by returning to their cars - if there's any oil left to run them by then - but that, as they say, is another story!
Actually I didn't think I was talking about tax.
As for your question, I am afraid that is something you will have to ask someone from HSBC, although I have no idea what sort of answer you will receive.
Posted by: David Eldon | 27 February 2011 at 00:23
Talkng of tax . . . how much does HSBC Holdings plc in London pay in UK corporation tax? More than Barclays Bank's 1%? Probably not. After all, since 2002 HSBC has been operating a huge tax avoidance scheme (through HSBC Asia Holdings BV) that has so far cost the British tax payer 2 billion pounds.
Posted by: We are all Egyptians | 26 February 2011 at 22:56