I think YouGov had a better record than most other poolllsters at the last general election also. I’m sure Anthony can confirm details. I shall certainly give more credence to YouGov now also (I never did give too much to MORI who always seemed to overstate Labour support. I do wish they would ask my political opinions more often instead of the boring Brand Index thing - perhaps they arre hoping to avoid sending me a second cheque for £50

Don’t ex-leftie dictators end up spending their twilight years being cared for by some friendly Communist regime? Surely Ken will go off to Cuba and Venezuela and live out the rest of his days drinking fine red wine and enjoying the ladies provided by these poverty-striken regimes he did so much to support down the years.

London 2008 results - Vauxhall (new boundaries):
{Excluding postal votes}

Mayor:
Lab - 12,468 (49.77%), C - 7,205 (28.76%), LD - 3,120 (12.46%), Green - 1,123 (4.48%)

Constituency Vote, (Lambeth&Southwark):
Lab - 9,429 (37.87%), LD - 5,262 (21.14%), C - 5,077 (20.39%), Green - 2,833 (11.38%)

List:
Lab - 9,249 (36.88%), C - 5,133 (20.47%), LD - 4,132 (16.47%), Green - 3,301 (13.16%)

POSTAL VOTES for whole of Lambeth:

Mayor: Lab - 6,192 (42.96%), C - 4,629 (32.11%), LD - 2,212 (15.35%), Green - 647 (4.49%)

Constituency: Lab - 4,806 (33.55%), C - 3,706 (25.87%), LD - 3,340 (23.31%), Green - 1,444 (10.08%)

List: Lab - 4,524 (31.61%), C - 3,787 (26.46%), LD -2,551 (17.83%), Green - 1,623 (11.34%)

Vauxhall represented 36.60% / 36.53% / 36.63% of non-postal Lambeth votes for the 3 sections respectively.

I’ve just made a quick list of London constituencies which have both 30+% graduates and 30+% social housing:

Vauxhall - 41.3% graduates, 50.8% social, 92.1% total
Bermondsey/Southwark - 34.9, 56.3, 91.2
Islington South - 38.4, 52.8, 91.2
Camberwell/Peckham - 31.0, 59.5, 90.5
Holborn/St.Pancras - 41.1, 47.5, 88.6
Hackney South - 30.0, 58.5, 88.5
Islington North - 41.3, 45.8, 87.1
Poplar/Limehouse - 31.2, 50, 81.2
Hammersmith - 43.6, 35.6, 79.2
Hackney North - 35.6, 43.3, 78.9
Dulwich/Norwood - 41.1, 36.6, 77.7
Westminster North - 46.3, 30.4, 76.7
Deptford - 32.9, 41.5, 74.4
Southwark - 42.3, 31.2, 73.5

Interesting to see how socially divided some constituencies are.

What you might call “trendy” areas. The opposite of Havering and Bexley.

Indeed and none of them Conservative although Westminster North and possibly Hammersmith will be after the next election.

At the bottom of my list ‘Southwark’ should actually be ‘Streatham’ and I missed:

Greenwich/Woolwich - 30.9, 46.9, 76.8

A rather different situation applies elsewhere, where one of the advantages of having education and money is so that you can be away from the council estates. There must be some interesting social tensions in these constituencies.

Generally, I think it just suggests that left-wing people with degree level education, firstly, prefer to live in a city rather than small towns and outer suburbs, and also, it is linked to the sort of work they are more likely to do - education, social work, and so on. Tends to be city based.

In London there would also be many media and legal people.

Having had a look at other cities I can’t find a single constituency that has over 30% graduates and social housing.

Manchester Withington is just short on the social housing and Newcastle and Sheffield Centrals are just short on the graduates.

That’s because London is London! It tends to have more extreme characteristics in all sorts of ways - you also have the sheer numbers which aren’t present in any other conurbation.

I think in the provincial cities it may be more likely to be wards characteristic of those trends. Also, there isn’t the divide between suburb and urban in the same way - the part of Crosby I live in is quite bohemian and urban and is quite a lot like the description you give, but up the road, its Terry and June country, down the road, solid terrace-and-council-house.

Well I live in this area, and if these graduates are anything like me - then they are young, hjave recently left university and have moved to London because all the jobs are in the City or West End. They won’t bother commuting as they won’t have children and won’t be worrying about local schools etc.

They will live in shared flats or housing with similar people only because the inner city is the only place they can afford to buy property if at all. Probably on 100% interest only mortgages and will be renting out rooms to friends.

The younger they are, the more likely they are to vote Lib Dem too. So the champagne socialist graduate stereotype is a bit of a generalisation Richard, and there is no social tension to speak of between us and those who live in the council blocks.