An 'intriguing' and 'politically volatile' borough
London Blogger Dave Hill of the Guardian has been taking in the sights and sounds of Ealing recently, getting a feel for the borough prior to the forthcoming elections.
He walked from Ealing Broadway to Southall (having made sure he had visited Ealing studios) and describes the area as ''so intriguing, a blend of classic inter-war suburbia, leafy gentility and distinctive cosmopolitanism.''
But it's not so much the housing he is interested in as the politics.
He reports that political analyst David Boothroyd has predicted that Labour will win back "most if not all" the Council seats it lost after five Councillors defected in July 2007, but thinks it is unlikely to overturn the majority secured by the Conservatives the year before.
On the parliamentary front Hill believes the two Labour MPs - Virendra Sharma in Southall and Steve Pound in Ealing North - should be safe - but reckons one seat which is too close to call is the new constituency of Ealing Central and Acton.
He says it has all the ingredient of a 'cliff-hanger three-way marginal'.
Angie Bray is standing for the Conservatives, Bassam Mahfouz for Labour and Jon Ball the Liberal Democrats.
They'd be wise to prepare for more national media attention in the next few months.
February 24th, 2010
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