[conspire] In a city that's not a city

[Rick Moen]

Deirdre and I are in London again, this time for Dysprosium, the 66th[1]
annual Eastercon, http://www.dysprosium.org.uk/.  This means we're of
course in the city of London, except that London isn't a city, and is
not to be confused with the City of London.

I hope that clarifies things.

Dysprosium is held today through Monday at the Park Inn, on the historic
Bath Road (A4) just outside London Heathrow Airport.  Heathrow is on the
site of a former small agricultural hamlet buldozed in 1944 to build
Great West Aerodrome, later renamed London Heathrow.  

Where's that?  It's in Hillingdon Borough, the westernmost of the 33
entities that comprise Greater London.  Those entities are 31 boroughs
and two cities, the City of London and the City of Westminster.  What's
a city, you ask?  Ah, thank you.  A city is a settlement recognised as a
municipality by bring granted a royal charter.  Only the City of London
(approx. where the Roman settlement of Londinium was, and now the domain
of lawyers and bankers) and the City of Westminster (where the Houses of 
Parliament, Whitehall, No. 6's flat, etc., are) are _cities_.  

And the City of London is not the city of London.  The former,
colloquially the 'Square Mile', has its own Lord Mayor, but that is not
the mayor of _London_, currently Boris Johnson.  

What city is Boris Johnson the mayor of, you ask?  Ah, thank you.  None,
because London isn't a city, even though everyone talks about the city
of London.  He's mayor of Greater London, which is an administrative area 
and a ceremonial county -- but isn't a city, and is governed by its
mayor and the London Assembly.

If you were a UK citizen living near Heathrow, you'd get to vote for
councillors of the Hillingdon Council, for the London Assembly member
for Ealing Borough and Hillingdon Borough, for the mayor of Greater
London, for the MP for the Hayes and Harlington constituency, and for
the Greater London area's single EU Parliament representative.

Glad to help.


[1] Get it?