The campaign for the May election of a London mayor and 24 members of the new Greater London Assembly is no exception. The mayoral contest has generated more media coverage than most elections, due to the crisis for the government of Tony Blair following the decision of former Labour MP Ken Livingstone to stand as an independent candidate. But one could be forgiven for thinking that the only constituency that really matters is the capital's corporate executives and stockbrokers. London is a city of two halves. As the number of millionaires and high-flying executives has increased, fuelled by rising share prices, so have property prices.
Great wealth exists alongside dire poverty.
Infant mortality is higher in the capital than the rest of the country. Such differences are found in all major cities. They express the fact that over the last two decades, successive governments have presided over a significant redistribution of wealth away from working people to the rich. Opinion polls conducted during the mayoral contest have revealed that most Londoners consider the issues of poverty and homelessness to be the most important. Yet these have received scant attention.