People in rural areas are generally older (median age 45 vs 37) and Whiter (95% vs 77%) and more likely to be CoE. They are also more likely to be home owners. Basically rural people are more likely to be Tory core voters.
One thing you see a lot of in larger cities is income disparity; you don't have to go far to see both the wealthiest people and the poorest people. Especially in London... But even in the tiny little city of Newport up the road you see an awful lot of people sleeping rough. You see that a lot in central Cardiff too, but out in the suburbs where I now live I don't think I've ever seen anyone sleeping rough. Multiculturalism plays a part too - when I lived in Pontypool (which is pretty much the edge of "The Valleys") you would barely see a single non-white person. Cardiff has a hugely multicultural population and people here are - generally speaking - much more tolerant and welcoming in that regard. It seems to tone down the "I'm alright Jack!" attitude I used to see so often. You also can't forget the impact of universities. In the 2005 general election the Cardiff Central constituency was taken from Labour by a Lib Dem MP, but in the 2015 General election Labour trounced Lib Dems back into second place; in the most recent election the Lib Dems are now down in third place. It's generally understood that this is due in large part to the student population, much of which is condensed into the Cardiff Central constituency. Especially when you consider what the Lib Dems, in collaboration with David Cameron's Tories, did with tuition fees. Of course this is all personal experience but from what I gather it's not too dissimilar in other larger cities (not that Cardiff is really a large city when compared to the likes of Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, etc). EDIT: Also what Nexxo said.
This from Tim Stanley about why Boris, Davis and the usual candidates might be reluctant to challenge PM for the leadership. (from Telegraph, paywalled)
Well the Tory proto-govt have had to delay the Queen's Speech. Whether this is to give them more time to get the DUP on side or give tory backbenchers the opportunity to lynch Maybot remains to be seen.
Well at least she didn't get than manifesto carved in stone or there would have been an accident waiting to happen.
No but the queens speech does have to be written on goat skin [vellum], which takes ~a week... and is reported to be another contributing factor to the delay.
I thought they did away with actual goat skin a few years ago? I thought it was written on plain old parchment (paper) these days.
The Queen's schedule was rearranged for this coming Monday, so either somebody only just suddenly remembered "Hang on, has anybody got any Vellum handy?", or the delay is not down to lithographic issues. ::EDIT:: Current scapegoat = actual goat.
They wanted to (cost saving measure) but it was protested. This one however might as well be written on toilet paper. Single ply. Interesting factoid: There is only one company left in the UK that produces vellum, and the government is practically its sole customer.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/n...or-group-flag-in-downing-street-35814566.html "I never noticed that it was a UVF one" How about you pull the other one?
Yeah, there's no way in hell he didn't know that was a UVF flag. To give an idea of how common they are here - I noticed 2 on the way to the doctors this morning. Plus the Apprentice Boys flag looks absolutely nothing like it.
The vellum thing is a red herring the queens speech is written to vellum after the speech. Well that's a relief. But the article does state youth turnout was up. Add in greens and others you get a significant proportion.
But it is not a relief to the Conservatives to see their target audience swing to Labour. May tells MPs: I got us into this mess and I will get us out OK, they're screwed.
