May 5th elections, North London & ‘Metropolitan elites’
In a speech at a recent Tory Conference Priti Patel claimed, despite being born in Islington, that what she referred to as the ‘North London, Metropolitan, Liberal elite’ were the people she was aiming her reactionary remarks at.
The term has re-appeared in media coverage of the May 5th local election results in England. In London did well. In my own Borough of Haringey Labour took 50 seats to the LibDems 7 their best result since 1998. Labour’s performance outside of London was patchy, some excellent results and some less good.
The claim is that Labour focuses on the interests of Londoners which are somehow different to people elsewhere.
People living in Tottenham, which last time I checked was definitely in North London, may wonder what this is all about. The area contains some of the more deprived, in terms of poverty, Council Wards in the UK. London overall has a higher portion of people living in poverty than anywhere else in the country.
The Tottenham Parliamentary Constituency contains few if any elites, or indeed liberals in a Party sense. It does contain lots of working-class people who have been on the sharp end of the policies of the Government for the last 12 years and want it to end. Now.
Keith Flett is a born & bred North Londoner, long time Tottenham resident & former Secretary of Haringey Trades Union Council
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