"Michael Bell" wrote in message
...
[snip]

Looking at that now, 15 million is probably a bit of an exagerration;
but it's certainly well over 10 million, I think more than 12 million.
That's still more than Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and Birmingham
combined.

I'm not sure you're right there. As so often, it depends on where you draw
the boundaries. But the difference can't be large.


Capital cities are big because governments want them to be,
think how
Ankara grew from a small town to a metropolis when it was made the
Turkish
capital, how Moscow grew when it became capital after St Petersburg.

[snipped]

In the case of Scotland, Edinburgh is only the 'capital' due to an accident
of history....... The Scottish Executive seems determined to inflate
Scotland's 2nd city at all costs though.....

Glasgow (Scotland's largest city) appears to be a *major* irritant to the
Edinburgh establishment's plans for world domination (or at least, to their
version of Scotland)..

Glasgow was the second city of the British Empire, a big, interesting place.
Edinburgh is a joke 'capital' with ideas well above its (small) station.

Capital does *not* always mean first city.....