England has an incomplete -hampton theme. We have Northampton,
Southampton, Littlehampton, Minchinhampton and a few others. We
could do so much better with a little planning and reorganisation of
local government, and provide thirty-three new local authorities
which would be much neater than
the current arrangement.
Draw a conceptual circle on a map of England whose circumference
passes through Northampton and Southampton. Divide this into
thirty-two sectors forty and one-half nautical miles long and almost
eight nautical miles wide, thereby creating a regular thirty-two sided
polygon. Define an area of the same shape in the centre of the
polygon such that it has the same area as one of the sectors. This gets
you thirty-two thin tapering quadrilaterals and one thirty-two sided
regular polygon with identical areas.
Name (i know, but this isn't all to the idea) each sector by compass
points, so there's Northampton, North-by-Northwesthampton, North-
Easthampton and so on, the centre polygon being called
Middlehampton. Cede the whole area from England proper with a
roughly circular border, interrupted here and there by the coastline
and call it Roseland. Middlehampton is the capital and each sector
along with the central district a rather narrow local authority.
Advantages of this arrangement:
It makes geography simpler - people know roughly where somewhere
is from its name and can navigate to something like the right area by
using a compass, with the slight problem that magnetic north is not
geographic north.
An area somewhere in Buckinghamshire (i think) becomes the capital,
thereby shifting the apparatus of government from a congested big
wen and freeing up that big wen for other purposes such as tourism
and other industries.
Many local authorities become mixed rural and urban areas,
encouraging them to balance the needs of both communities and also
providing a balance of left- and right-wing councils.
Everyone (except in Middlehampton) is under four nautical miles from
another local authority, meaning they will sometimes be able to vote
with their feet if they don't like what's going on.
A radial transport system can be built along great circles, which is
more efficient than the current arrangement and could be more easily
automated.
Meanwhile, Lancaster and York adopt the same systems with thirty-
three smaller areas centred on the cities concerned with the areas
again becoming separate countries referred to as Redroseland and
Whiteroseland respectively, the radius being defined as the halfway
point between the two cities. These are also separate nations, and the
advantages are the same. There would of course be some controversy
in the respective eastern and western parts of Redroseland and
Whiteroseland.
The remaining territories in the former England can do their own
thing. Maybe the bits left in the North can become part of Scotland,
the bits in the West Wales and Cornwall becomes independent.
The rest of the world will then find it easier to learn our geography and
local government in one easy lesson, just as the duodecimal system
would ease arithmetic and spelling reform would help with literacy.