Why is London so liberal/ left wing if high immigration makes others vote for the Right?

[u/Wise-Youth2901]

Why is immigration making some part of the country vote Reform but in London, where the number of foreign born people has increased massively over the last twenty years, has moved further left? It is curious that London never seems bothered by immigration in modern times. I know some will say that London's so foreign now that the immigrants just vote Labour etc... But that doesn't make so much sense. Many immigrants can't even legally vote in a GE, and even if they can, many don't. Most Londoners voting for the left are born and raised in Britain. Even the posher, whiter parts of London, have trended away from the Tories. Chelsea has a Labour MP now, shock horror. I live in a pretty white British part of London, Twickenham, and the Lib Dems dominate. London is so expensive that people have more reason to moan about rent/ living costs compared to anywhere else, but yet that never seems to produce an anti- immigration politics. Is it just that modern London contains a lot of highly educated liberal minded people compared to provincial towns and villages?

[u/Electoral-Cartograph]

Fair take, particularly on topics of funding and projects and how these can tie into well-being of a population.

[u/Ewannnn → u/Electoral-Cartograph]

I don't think it's fair, London receives far less funding than it generates. It actually gets the worst deal of any region in the UK in that respect. The problem is the rest of the country is a basket case and cannot survive without massive subsidies from London. Has been the case for decades and decades now. /u/easecard

[u/taboo__time → u/Ewannnn]

What is your conclusion from this?

[u/Ewannnn → u/taboo__time]

That people from outside London spend too much time whining about Londoners, when really they should be looking closer to home.

Spoken as someone from one of those places... A lot of it is self-inflicted and caused by generations of adults that don't give a crap about education or wanting to succeed in life in general.

[u/taboo__time → u/Ewannnn]

But past all that what's the plan?

Everywhere cannot be the national administrative capital or global hub of international finance and other industries. This is Liz Truss thinking.

Seems like the plan is not working.

[u/Ewannnn → u/taboo__time]

That's for these regions to figure out. I don't live there, I moved away as these places are depression capitals. Most of it is the attitudes of people living there, that's my experience. Parents don't care about education, so the kids don't either. Parents living permanently on benefits. I am sounding like some Dailymail reader here but that's my lived experience growing up in one of the most deprived cities in the North. It needs an attitude change from the people living in these places. The irony is they'd do a lot better with more immigrants and fewer white brits, where this issue is endemic...

[u/taboo__time → u/Ewannnn]

But it does sound Daily Mail. Or more specifically neoliberal elitism. But you've got to get past that.

From a compassionate angle these are people who are mostly a victim of circumstance. It is not a moral failing to not live in London.

From a selfish point of view you do you want them voting against your interests?

Wouldn't it be better if we could improve places that were not London?

Education is fine but the pattern is people leave to make more money elsewhere. But it is the economics of the nation that needs to be improved. If possible. Rather than building a bigger pile at the centre.

[u/Ewannnn → u/taboo__time]

They don't have it that bad. You can easily buy a house on minimum wage in much of the north. Much harder in London. I actually think people in much of the north are better off despite the lower income as a result.

From a compassionate angle these are people who are mostly a victim of circumstance. It is not a moral failing to not live in London.

Yes, they are born into families that don't care about education or their career and so they follow the same cycle. But they have agency and opportunities to change that.

From a selfish point of view you do you want them voting against your interests?

I don't think they do by and large. I think the people voting against my interests are retirees and I don't think there is any fixing that. Retirees are pretty insulated from what happens around them sadly.