London's HQ coup

01.11.47: LONDON HAS been voted the world's most important city, overtaking New York and leaving Beijing trailing in its wake.

Having retained its role as Europe's top financial centre, London has also become the most important headquarters location for European companies. Much of the credit goes to the city's innovative automatic public transport system, pioneered by successive London mayors, which has made traffic congestion and pollution a thing of the past.

Politicians say London's status was saved by the government's last-minute decision not to relocate the English parliament to the Midlands. "That would have turned this place into a ghost town," said one. DS