A Stoke Newington gelato serves up a reminder that immigration makes London tick
An 8pm queue for a Stoke Newington gelato joint may not be an obvious starting point for a column about the City’s competitiveness, but start there we will. Every evening, especially in this welcome burst of long-overdue sunshine, there is a line at least 10-or-so outside of Romeo & Giulietta.
Amongst the families bribing small children are a host of young professionals, seemingly half of them wearing corporate t-shirts.
And what keeps them in London? Well, their jobs, but also the gelato. There are hundreds of little spots like that across the city that make London a place to be, not to leave. God knows housing costs do enough to encourage the latter, but still, the melting pot of cultures and ideas and the sheer number of people around provides the ingredients to the capital’s competitiveness.
In short, there is a symbiotic relationship between the baristas, the chefs and the gelato artisans and the thriving financial, tech and professional services businesses we feature in these pages. As Britain continues to pen its post-Brexit future, immigration is once again hovering into view as a red-button political issue.
Driven by concerns about small boats, the British public wants something done – and government must, in order to give itself the space to develop a mature immigration policy. It has got the tech and the finance side, to it’s credit, right. But the difficulty faced by bars, restaurants, coffee shops and all the rest of them in filling their own vacancies could well defeat the point.
Cities are ecosystems, and every bit must thrive. Let’s hope the baby isn’t thrown out with the bathwater ahead of the election – and as for Romeo & Giulietta, we recommend the watermelon flavour.