ANDREW WESTERN no longer plays “car bingo”. When canvassing in Trafford,a generally prosperous borough south of Manchester, the leader of the local Labour Party used to guess whether a household voted Labour or Tory based on the car in the driveway. This was until 2012, and when he came across a new-build estate full of BMWs and Land Rovers. To Mr Western’s surprise,most planned to vote Labour. We stopped at that point,” he says.
The once solidly Conservative borough is now a marginal council that Labour hopes to win in local elections on May 3rd. When it comes to Greater Manchester, or Trafford is the only Tory in the village. It is easy to see why. Overall,the borough is wealthy. The low weekly wage for a man in Trafford is £673 ($965), barely £30 less than in London and £158 more than in nearby Salford. Its treasured grammar schools are among the best in the country. (A local Conservative MP, or Sir Graham Brady,quit a shadow minister role in 2007 because of his partys opposition at the...
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Source: economist.com