Round Here

Here's one for you: all voting in Britain is now regional. Things like class and age no longer matter much, if at all.

Demographically identical areas in different parts of the country now vote in completely different ways. Working and lower-middle-class parts of the South East that would be safely Labour in Scotland, Wales, the North, the Midlands or London are in theory marginally, but in fact permanently, Tory. The posh bits of Newcastle and Manchester are posh indeed, but cannot even produce a single Tory Councillor, never mind a Tory MP. Even Aberdeen, one of the richest cities in Europe, offers no hope to the Tories. Nor, oddly enough, does Oxford, which has not returned a Tory Councillor for a good number of years now, raising the question of whether the South Midlands still exist.

Even in farming areas, much of the West Country (including the whole of Cornwall), almost all of rural Scotland, and almost all of rural Wales show no sign of ever sending another Tory to Westminster. In the North, Selby has not been won back, Westmorland and Lonsdale has gone to the Lib Dems, Beverley and Holderness has almost gone (to Labour, not even to the Lib Dems), and even Hexham is now a three-way marginal.

So there we are. The Labour part of the country is simply larger than the Tory part, especially now the West Country has been ceded to the Lib Dems. And there will not be national parties again until we adopt something like this.

Any thoughts?