Post by irishrover on Mar 26, 2017 19:58:54 GMT
Why are we talking about this?
Exactly, although to be fair there is a 'gap' between Manchester and Oldham/Ashton/Tameside. Not much of one but it is there. But on the other hand a more liberal definition would also include Wigan and Bolton both of which are now basically just commuter towns for Manchester (although I wouldn't say that to someone from those place to their face.....). Point being 'Manchester' is flipping massive really.
People seem strangely wedded to what amounts to a set of fairly arbitrary political boundaries of Cities that have, for completely understandable reasons, changed constantly since these Cities were first founded. I don't think there is any doubt that if you want to have a reasonable comparative measure of the size of a City in the 20th Century it is absolutely necessary to include it's 'wider metropolitan area' (as American's do I believe) - in other words its immediate commuter belt. If you don't it doesn't really tell you anything much about the place beyond peculiarity's of local political geography.