[lbo-talk] London vote

[James Heartfield]

The UK punished the governing Conservative/Liberal Alliance in yesterday’s elections.
The exception was London, where the Tory Boris Johnson narrowly beat Labour’s Ken Livingstone.
Livingstone’s supporters complain that the wealthier outer suburbs outvoted the more impoverished inner London. (The ‘doughnut’ strategy)
But it is no longer true that inner London is impoverished and outer London wealthy.
Tim Butler, Chris Hamnett and Mark Ramsden’s analysis of London’s employment in the 2001 census shows that outer London and the South East is more working class than inner London. Inner London had more large employers, professionals and managers than outer London and the South East. Outer London had more routine, semi-routine and technical or lower supervisory workers than inner London. Inner London did have more unemployed than outer London, and outer London had more self-employed than inner London (p 72). This employment profile was new, following changes that took place after fifteen years of economic growth, say Butler and his colleagues (Inward and Upward: Marking Out Social Class Change in London, 1981–2001, Urban Studies 45(1) 67–88, January 2008).