‘Things are just completely coming full circle here. For me to be here with you all in the heart of Manchester this Friday morning, at the end of a fairly big week, is just everything to me,’ said a Mr A.M. Burnham MA (Cantab.) after he had sent all his advisers up the hill to Manchester only to send them back down again. Seneca would have had something to say about that.
Addressing his friend Lucilius, Seneca points out that it is no surprise that his travels have done nothing for his state of mind and goes on to quote Socrates: ‘Why do you wonder that globe-trotting does not help you, seeing that you always take yourself with you? You cannot shake off the reason that sent you on your travels.’ So what was that reason? Mr Burnham knows about Manchester already. Did he achieve anything there which he would not have been able to do just as well in London?
The point is that Mr Burnham intends to devolve his power to local communities across the country of which he has no experience whatsoever and about which he knows nothing. That is the situation in which Roman emperors found themselves.
True, they had sent their own choice of governors into every one of the Roman provinces, whose job it was to work with the locals in Rome’s best interests. Nevertheless, there was nothing like finding out for themselves.
Take the Emperor Hadrian. From ad 121-126 and 128-134 he traversed the whole empire. In this way he could consolidate the reality of imperial rule, secure the allegiance of the local elites, deal with grievances and legal disputes, satisfy himself of military arrangements and the protection of borders, and encourage the maintenance of the imperial cult, while demonstrating imperial benevolence by funding public works e.g. temples, aqueducts, theatres and granting Roman citizenship to deserving individuals.
If Mr Burnham really intends to raise living standards in every postcode, then instead of going back home every week he might consider instead doing a Hadrian every week and showing real interest in all areas of the UK.
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