UK local by-elections 2014

[Tetro Kornbluth]

The City of London is the strangest place...

[Tetro Kornbluth]

As hilarious as this is, it's worth pointing out - again - that Portsoken is not exactly typical of the City. Let's play with census statistics.

In the City as a whole an absolutely insane 57.7% of the population are in managerial/professional occupations: the figure in Portsoken is a much more normal 27.3% (which is actually lower than the figure for London and slightly lower than the figure for England). The City of London is still rather white (78.5% in total, 57.5% 'White British'). Not so Portsoken (51.3%, 36.3%: lower figures than London as a whole). Last, and by no leans least, 66% of households in Portsoken live in socially rented properties.

So Portsoken is basically a continuation of Tower Hamlets (but without the Bangladeshis)?

[Tetro Kornbluth]

As hilarious as this is, it's worth pointing out - again - that Portsoken is not exactly typical of the City. Let's play with census statistics.

In the City as a whole an absolutely insane 57.7% of the population are in managerial/professional occupations: the figure in Portsoken is a much more normal 27.3% (which is actually lower than the figure for London and slightly lower than the figure for England). The City of London is still rather white (78.5% in total, 57.5% 'White British'). Not so Portsoken (51.3%, 36.3%: lower figures than London as a whole). Last, and by no leans least, 66% of households in Portsoken live in socially rented properties.

So Portsoken is basically a continuation of Tower Hamlets (but without the Bangladeshis)?

Oh, it has Bangladeshis (about a fifth of the population).

So yes.

On that first point, I stand corrected.

Which makes me wonder why Labour didn't win here before. Or was this solely due to the whole 'respecting the traditions of the city' nonsense? The business vote isn't all that high either (albeit still significant).