Below is the start of the lead piece from the latest edition of the On London Extra newsletter, published on Substack. It links to the rest at the end. Sales of On London Extra finance the whole of this website. A free trial is available.
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An opinion poll has found that 58 per cent of likely British voters would favour rejoining the European Union if offered the chance, while only 37 per cent would oppose it. The London sub-group of the Ipsos survey points to 66 per cent of Londoners wanting to rejoin. Yes, the regional sample size was small. Yet that two-thirds majority feels plausible given that 60 per cent of Londoners voted to Remain ten years ago and that national backing for Brexit has fallen.
The nation, it seems, has been coming round to London’s way of thinking, as have some Londoners who voted Leave. At the same time, though, the capital has continued to be treated by politicians of different kinds as a useful enemy, as a suitable case for neglect and as a problem for the rest of the country.
These strategies have been informed by an enduring Brexit-related state of mind. The EU Referendum outcome has been persuasively described as an expression of anti-London feeling, often directed not against the capital as such but at a London – make that a “London” – of the imagination symbolising things Leave-voters disliked, such as the indifference (perceived or otherwise) of Parliament and Whitehall, cultural and ethnic human variety, and a rich and out-of-touch “metropolitan elite”.
Read the rest of this edition of On London Extra here.