Boris, bankers and Planet Zug

I've been reading about a man called Gareth and his new life on Planet Zug . Gareth escaped to Zug from London last year and frets about the dearth of Marmite, but otherwise declares himself content. His partner and their small children have just landed on Zug too, where Gareth is in charge of something called Quantum Global Wealth Management , an entity whose functions will be alien to you unless you've got billions of pounds and are wondering where to shove them. Why Zug? Well, it's a canton by a lake near Zurich . That means, Gareth says, it doesn't feel like the Wild West after dark as does rough old West Kensington, life doesn't grind to a halt because of a bit of snow and – yes, you guessed it – the government doesn't want to take more of your loot in windfall hits or income tax. According to its rulers, Zug already contains 1,200 Britons and more are coming. It is, in its way, a banker's paradise, the sort of place some 9,000 of the Square Mile's more prosperous inhabitants are considering fleeing to, according to a distress flare sent up last week by a deeply troubled Boris Johnson. Not everyone appears quite so alarmed. Former hedge fund manager Harvey McGrath , who chairs the London Development Agency for the banker-friendly mayor, said last week that although some large companies might be thinking about it he was "not aware of any specific financial institution that has declared it will relocate from London". Property companies are reporting rises in the prices of office space and expensive homes. Savvas Savouri, chief economist at hedge fund Tosca, has told the FT that "the idea that London is going to be full of tumbleweed in 10 years is not credible." Given this, I might make a small investment that the exodus of uber-capitalists isn't going to be that extensive. The mayor's economics adviser has told the Observer that City Hall's switchboard has been besieged by "very upset" bankers, but that's hardly a surprise. In stout defiance of the political tide, Boris has spoken up for the financial sector when even his own party leader was doing it down. If you were a London banker seeking a politician's ear which one would you bend? And they did pay for his election campaign , after all. Tonight, think of Gareth as you look up at the stars. Think of Zug, with its lake and its Ferrari showrooms. Think of its clean, natural beauty, its summer sunshine and its 18% income tax rate. It's easy to understand the appeal. But maybe it is just a variation on that of, say, Canada or Australia for Britons of less exalted means. Plenty have decamped to these places, seeking economic opportunity and a certain type of lifestyle dream. Many more have not. London will not easily lose the magnetising allure – "Wild" West Kensington and all – it holds for all sorts of citizens of the world, from the money mogul to the refugee. And if, in years to come, its prosperity is a little less dependent on the thrills and vagaries of global trading games, maybe that won't be such a bad thing . • This article was amended on 20 January 2010. The original version quoted Harvey McGrath saying he was "not aware of any specific financial institutions that will relocate from London". This has been corrected to "not aware of any specific financial institution that has declared that it will relocate from London"