Why Islington?

[CruCru]

I keep seeing references (when reading about BREXIT usually but also other political issues) to "Islington dinner parties" / "the Islington elite" / "the chattering classes in Islington".

Does anyone else find this quite weird? I know that Blair lived there before he became PM but that was 20 years ago. Islington does have wealthy and / or educated people living there but it also has massive poverty (and a problem with gangs). I think it is the most populated borough in England (with Tower Hamlets close behind).

So why not refer to the Hampstead / St John's Wood / Kensington elite? It would make more sense.

Blair and Brown made their 'pact' in a coffee shop in Islington/Upper Street. I think that's the root of it.

I used to live in Islington, it's less champagne socialist now, more Tories sending their children to public school.

Because the sort of journalists that use the phrase are used to being lazy, and will happily trot out the same old tired nonsense, rather than actually do some proper investigations. In their defence, their editors and owners encourage that behaviour.

Yes, it probably is the root of it. But that was a REALLY long time ago - there are voters who weren't alive then.

People in Islington still overwhelmingly vote Labour, despite being quite posh, whereas people in the other areas you mention vote Tory. I did meet quite a few right wing Islingtonistas in my time, living in massive Georgian houses.

Kensington, etc are Tory so wouldn't have the same connotations as Islington does.

Sorry, cross posted with Yoko there.

Corbyn's constituency is in Islington North (not the posh bit).

Also Jeremy Corbin is MP for Islington North. The media sometimes portray him as a typical middle class left leaning politician who would eat kale, cycle everywhere, read the Guardian and send their kids to Grammar school if they could.

(Although I think Corbyn is a bit more left than that)

I thought Blair/Brown made their pact in a Loch Fyne restaurant in Scotland? Maybe that was another pact.

My understanding is that Corbyn divorced one wife because she insisted on sending their son to Grammar school and he disapproves of Grammar schools.

I would say Corbyn, despite being an Islington MP, is absolutely not the sort of person being referred to when the media talk about the Islington set. Islington set is New Labour, slightly left socially but economically not. Talk a lot about equality and everyone having a chance, but enormously privileged and not really aware of what life is like for the people living in the council estate across the road. I think the diversity of Islington is quite important to the definition. You have wealth & privilege right next to deprivation. Which you also get in Kensington, but the Kensington lot just don't pretend to care about it.

I don't know why some things become enduring stereotypes (or do we have to call them memes these days?)

This one came about because if the preponderance of Labour MPs who lived there - not in their consitutency, with a little flat within the traditional radius of the division bell. And we're a bit hooky about property and personal enrichment.

And it stuck, meaning an insulated political class who live in their little bubble. Other bubbles are of course available!

I think that Islington is probably still the best example of the demographic that people mean when they talk about "the Islington set". It is closer to the City than Hampstead / St John's Wood etc, and attracts a lot of successful high earners who are nevertheless more left wing or centrist in their views. The mix of council housing and large private houses in Islington also means that it attracts people who are happy to be in a more socially diverse area rather than moving slightly further out to a more sheltered environment (to the extent that anywhere is sheltered in London!). There are also still A LOT of lawyers in Islington!

Ps Kensington has a totally different feel to it, and I don't think there is a "Kensington set" demographic in the same way. I lived there briefly and didn't really like it. It seemed to be full of people living a very sanitized, expensive lifestyle that was a world away from the poverty existing only streets away. Islington feels far more laid back, and the divide is less obvious at first sight. However I don't think many wealthy people living in Islington are unaware of the huge discrepancies in opportunity that they and their children have.

I admit that I hate the term "Islington set" or "champagne socialist." I don't understand why people should be sneered at just because they are both financially successful and left wing in that they are prepared to pay taxes and support other people in society. I think there is often a snobbery about it, because those people have frequently made their own money rather than coming from a more "benevolent Tory" old money background. It is also partly a way of confining socialism and left wing politics to the working class. As exemplified by New Labour in its early days, left wing politics is a massive threat to the right wing when it is embraced by people who have economic power and could be described as "establishment" in terms of their careers. At the same time, the hard left have an interest in undermining the "Islington set" because they see their values as a softening of socialism.

Ah I see what you mean. I suppose that when I've read it, I've taken "Islington set" to be a group of people with money and influence. Hadn't thought it also meant left wing (although I'm not convinced that it is particularly left wing).

'Islington' has long been a synecdoche for champagne socialism.