On 26/07/2018 09:09, michael adams wrote:
"Robin" wrote in message
...

And as a London resident I'd find it hard to explain to people outside London why
central government should give TfL more of their taxes to subsidise travel in London
while Londoners' enjoy a fares freeze.

Well you could start by pointing out that London, followed by the South
East, and to a very small degree the East of England are the only
areas of the UK which actually make a positive contribution to the
UK economy

As the graph, half down this abstract from the ONS shows

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/gover...2015to2016#toc
Country and regional public sector finances: Financial year ending March 2016


In short London contributes around 28 billion, The South East around 15
billion and the East of England around 2 billion. The North West of
England on the other hand produced a 22 billion deficit,
Yorkshire around a 14 million deficit, and Scotland around a
15 billion deficit.


You seem there to be equating net fiscal contribution with contribution
to the UK economy. I thought one usually looked at total public
spending as a proportion of a region's GDP (or more probably GVA).
Otherwise workers who receive, say, £3,000 p.a. net more in benefits and
public services than they pay in taxes, duties etc score as a "net loss"
to the economy, even if they are responsible for a net positive £10,000
p.a. contribution to GVA/GDP.


--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid