Just one more sad story from the mean streets (or something.)

Boris?

When I named him 10 months ago that Boris was a bad memory and a mooted Tory candidate that I laughed off.

Well that’ll learn me!

Any suggestions for a name for a seven toed British Tabby/Maine Coone/ Asian Leapord cat with an exotic look and very odd behaviour?

On analysing the result my initial feeling (it felt like when my pet dog) died was tempered by the elation of retaining the Enfield & Haringey GLA seat and regaining Brent & Harrow. This bucked the outer London trend (why is Haringey outer London?) but then as with comments on Havering becoming more Tory, Enfield or Harrow are going the other way. The social and demographic factors for this need another thread (there are other examples, by 2020 I would suggest Wakefield will be a Tory seat but Basingstoke a Labour one, regardless of the national result).

I must admit I don’t personally know anyone in London (friends or work colleagues) who changed their vote. This suggests differential turnout is a factor – Labour supporters feel let down and stayed at home and Tories feel enthusiastic about their party and turned out. This will also be magnfied by activists. At the 1997 general election night after night I canvassed with dozens of Labour activists but saw not a single Tory activist but I guess the Tory activists were out in numbers this time (they didn’t bother with Wood Green though).

Labour still has to face why its supporters feel let down though (there will have been ‘Brown factors’ and ‘Ken factors’ I am sure).

On the overall local government system. The formation of the GLC and then the 1972 Local Government Act were a sensible set of reforms with clear and powerful-ish two tier local government across the country. It replaced a incoherent system of ’swiss-cheese’ counties and unitary county boroughs which we have now reverted too (with the added embellishment of the occasional directly elected Mayor). My initial thoughts would be Edward Heath got it right(!) and we should go back to the two tier system with the old powers restored. Boundaries might need to change, we should avoid things like Avon, Humberside or Salop! Along the same lines perhaps we should de-merge the 32 London Boroughs (Haringey is artificial but Wood Green, Hornsey and Tottenham have some resonance with communities).