Recent statistics show that the proportion of young adults living with their parents in the UK is larger than ever: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/young-adults-live-parents-at-home-property-buy-homeowners-housing-market-a8043891.html
50% within a generation: http://england.shelter.org.uk/news/may_2014/house_prices_could_quadruple_if_we_dont_act,_warn_kpmg_and_shelter
There are currently more than 300,000 homeless people in Britain: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/homeless-stats-uk-latest-figures-new-study-shelter-housing-a8042841.html
Sofa surfing: https://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2017/sep/27/homelessness-young-people-centrepoint
a ‘surge’ in overcrowded in homes: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10863346/Figures-show-surge-in-overcrowded-homes.html
average house prices in the UK more than trebled: https://www.allagents.co.uk/house-prices-adjusted/
I have heard horror stories of tenants: https://twitter.com/KateBWebb/status/1026872241764610048
Cycle Lifestyle: http://www.cyclelifestyle.co.uk/history-cycle-lifestyle-magazine
the London Cycle Map Campaign: http://www.cyclelifestyle.co.uk/london-cycle-map-campaign
the Journal of Modern Wisdom: http://benirvine.co.uk/journal-of-modern-wisdom/
my first book: see Einstein and the Art of Mindful Cycling
Londoners drink too much: https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/what-its-like-to-swap-las-cleanliving-culture-for-london-a3620206.html
5.
‘there is no racist like an anti-racist’: http://takimag.com/article/the_will_to_outrage_theodore_dalrymple/#axzz5S1gQMv5H
7.
Matt Ridley: see The Rational Optimist
Roger Scruton: see The Uses of Pessimism
James Bartholomew: see The Welfare State We’re In
James Delingpole: see How to be Right
Theodore Dalrymple: see Life at the Bottom and Our Culture, What’s Left of it
Steven Pinker: see The Better Angels of Our Nature and The Blank Slate
lifting a billion people out of extreme poverty: https://www.economist.com/leaders/2013/06/01/towards-the-end-of-poverty
government spending in the UK has risen relentlessly in real terms: https://www.economicshelp.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/government-spending-nov-2014.png see also: https://www.economicshelp.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/government-spending-real-1967-2012.png
an era of pandemic social problems: see Theodore Dalrymple’s Life at the Bottom
Consider the facts about net migration to the UK: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/bulletins/migrationstatisticsquarterlyreport/november2015
the UK welcomed roughly half a million new immigrants each year during that two-decade period: https://www.migrationwatchuk.org/statistics-net-migration-statistics
In 2009 the London School of Economics estimated that there are 725,000 illegal immigrants in Britain: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/mar/10/boris-immigration-london (also: an organisation called Migration Watch has suggested in 2010 that the UK figure is as high as 1.1 million: https://www.migrationwatchuk.org/briefing-paper/190)
Tony Blair’s government wanted to attract more immigrants to the UK: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/dont-listen-to-the-whingers-london-needs-immigrants-6786170.html
In 1991, there were 950,000 Muslims in Britain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_the_United_Kingdom
today there are an estimated 4.13 million: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/11/29/5-facts-about-the-muslim-population-in-europe/
in 2017, 85% of British Muslims voted Labour: http://www.brin.ac.uk/2017/religious-affiliation-and-party-choice-at-the-2017-general-election/ (also: in the 2015 general election, 75% of British Muslims voted Labour) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/11573827/Christians-Jews-and-Muslims-at-the-general-election-which-parties-do-they-vote-for.html)
‘free movement’: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/free-movement-europe-past-and-present
eight former communist countries: https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/sites/near/files/pdf/publication/elarg-factsheet_en.pdf
the total number of EU citizens is approximately 500 million: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_European_Union
approximately a quarter of the people who immigrated to the UK came from EU countries: http://www.eumemes.eu/images/most_immigration_non_eu.jpg
mass immigration has cost the UK over a hundred billion pounds: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/78781000/gif/_78781191_migration_effects1_464.gif (image taken from this BBC article): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29910497
the NHS is in ‘crisis’: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/may/05/nhs-lowest-level-doctors-nurses-beds-western-world
continual increases in government health spending: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/BA1A/production/_94224674_health_spending_growth.png
745,000 new migrant GP registrations: https://www.migrationwatchuk.org/key-topics/public-services-infrastructure
AIDS, Hepatitis and Tuberculosis: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-191209/Migrants-blamed-diseases.html
almost a third of all births in the UK were to foreign-born women: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/19/nearly-one-three-births-foreign-born-mothers-rate-hits-record/
two thirds of secondary schools have reported an increase in class sizes: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43322412
a threefold increase in the number of schoolchildren taught in classes of 36 or more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-38506305
primary school class sizes have been increasing throughout Britain: In England, Scotland, Wales
40% of secondary schools in England are full or overcrowded: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/secondary-schools-full-crowded-capacity-crisis-education-liberal-democrats-a7956386.html
a huge increase in government spending on education in the last few decades: https://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/uk_education_chart_20.html
at least 1.1 million schoolchildren speak English as a second language: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10895056/At-least-1.1m-pupils-speak-English-as-a-second-language.html
there are 240 schools where over 90% of pupils do so: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/english-not-the-first-language-in-240-schools-with-five-primary-schools-having-no-native-speakers-at-8886572.html
five primary schools where the number of pupils who speak English as a first language is zero: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/english-not-the-first-language-in-240-schools-with-five-primary-schools-having-no-native-speakers-at-8886572.html
one in nine schools: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/10611050/Revealed-The-one-in-nine-schools-where-English-is-not-first-language.html
in 2015/16, the government allocated £267 million to schools to support non-English speaking pupils: https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-04-28/36005/
From 2001 to 2016, immigration added at least 5.4 million people to Britain’s population: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/08/22/80-rise-britains-population-15-years-migration-analysis-finds/
Every year for the past twenty years: https://www.migrationwatchuk.org/statistics-net-migration-statistics
Many pundits talked plaintively about a ‘Brexodus’: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/nov/30/net-migration-to-uk-shows-largest-annual-fall-since-records-began
It was an increase in net migration – yet another increase, including an increase in net migration from the EU: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42178038
the catchment area of a sought-after state school: https://www.independent.co.uk/money/spend-save/uk-parents-move-house-school-catchment-area-quarter-best-education-a7908046.html
some immigrant communities have been overrepresented in certain types of crime: For instance, ‘African Caribbeans’ are overrepresented as suspects in acid attacks in London (https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/5d38c003-c54a-4513-a369-f9eae0d52f91), ‘Black males’ are overrepresented in convictions for ‘street crime’ in London (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7856404/Police-statistics-shed-fresh-light-on-link-between-crime-and-race.html), and Muslims are overrepresented in ‘grooming gangs’ (https://www.quilliaminternational.com/press-release-new-quilliam-report-on-grooming-gangs/) and Female Genital Mutilation (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4509360/Muslims-lefties-slammed-denying-FGM-Islam-link.html)
65% of Labour supporters were Remainers, compared to 39% of Tories: https://yougov.co.uk/news/2016/06/27/how-britain-voted/
Leavers tended to display higher levels of conscientiousness than Remainers: https://www.onlineprivacyfoundation.org/opf-research/psychological-biases/personality-authoritarianism-and-cognition-in-brexit/
13.
See Mindfulness and the Big Questions: Philosophy for Now
There is evidence to suggest that marriage makes people happier and healthier: See Richard Layard (2005), Happiness: Lessons from a New Science (London: Penguin), pp. 65-66.
Compared to most universities, Durham hasn’t succumbed quite so abjectly to the strictures of political correctness: https://www.bowgroup.org/policy/durham-britains-first-conservative-uni (see also James Delingpole on Durham University: https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/03/for-a-real-oxbridge-education-you-now-have-to-go-to-durham/)
16.
house prices have resumed their precipitous rise: https://www.economicshelp.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/house-prices-since-52.png
while outpacing earnings: https://www.economicshelp.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/house-price-to-earnings-ratio.png
the average UK home now costs in excess of £230,000: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-house-price-index-for-april-2018
The cost of renting has soared too – to the highest level in Europe: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/11694273/Revealed-The-most-expensive-rents-in-Europe.html
the average rent now at £750 per household per month, almost twice the European average of £400: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/11694273/Revealed-The-most-expensive-rents-in-Europe.html
The average Briton spends over 40% of his regular income on housing, a figure which is the third highest in Europe: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/jul/19/uk-housing-costs-third-highest
One in seven private tenants pays over half his regular income on rent: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/jul/03/one-in-seven-private-tenants-pays-more-than-half-income-in-rent-study-finds
The average first time buyer pays a colossal £52,900 in rent before owning a home: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/feb/12/uk-first-time-buyers-average-rent
Young people today are paying three times more for housing than their grandparents did: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41323442
Young people today are paying three times more for housing than their grandparents did: https://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/house-divided-how-unaffordable-housing-drives-uk-inequality
over four and a half million people receiving housing benefits: https://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2016/jun/22/housing-benefit-cost-claimants-single-mothers
(including around a million people in work): https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/number-of-people-in-work-claiming-housing-benefit-soars-9647752.html
At an annual cost of £24 billion: https://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2016/jun/22/housing-benefit-cost-claimants-single-mothers
over a million families are currently on housing waiting lists in England alone: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jun/09/more-than-1m-families-waiting-for-social-housing-in-england
One report found that 24% per cent of private renters in England had moved home in the past 12 months, and 29% had moved three or more times in the past five years: http://blog.shelter.org.uk/2016/02/renting-families-move-so-often-they-are-nearly-nomadic-new-research/
pubs: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43492043
petrol stations: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-2053699/Death-petrol-station-Forecourts-half-1990s-boom-hit-record-low.html
libraries, community centres: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2015/11/we-lose-our-community-centres-cuts-we-are-losing-our-humanity-nation
playing fields: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1495245/Scandal-of-the-vanishing-playing-fields.html
high street shops: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/apr/11/tough-year-high-street-internet-shopping-weak-pound
The UK’s newly built homes are among the smallest and oldest in Europe: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/10909403/British-homes-are-the-smallest-in-Europe-study-finds.html (see also: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11113110/Three-reasons-why-Britains-housing-market-is-broken.html)
One survey found that 50 per cent of respondents wanted to live in a detached house: quoted in Unaffordable Housing: Fables and Myths page 9
one of the top ten most congested countries in the world: http://blog.greenflag.com/2018/slowly-does-it-britain-in-the-top-10-most-congested-countries/
the rate of housebuilding has declined steadily since the early 1970s: See page 18 of researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7671/CBP-7671.pdf
slum clearance: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/standard/history/scotland_britain_1880_now/housing/revision/3/
large ugly tower blocks were increasingly favoured precisely because the government was failing to build enough homes: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/09/20/may-misses-thatcher-understood-people-want-home/
Five-year planning blocks: see Unaffordable Housing: Fables and Myths page 15
large increase in planning regulations: See Mark Pennington (2000), Planning and the Political Market: Public Choice and the Politics of Government Failure (London: The Atholone Press), p. 90
green belts: http://ajrae.staff.shef.ac.uk/img/gb_overview.png
the UK’s long term trend for urban population growth: https://www.statista.com/statistics/270369/urbanization-in-the-united-kingdom/
brownfield sites: see Unaffordable Housing: Fables and Myths page 10 and page 15
One authoritative study found that the proportion of urban land in the UK is around 8 per cent: see Unaffordable Housing: Fables and Myths page 26
Cities with plenty of gardens can be more biodiverse than farmland, with its agricultural uniformity: see Unaffordable Housing: Fables and Myths page 29
net importer of food: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/food-gap-in-the-land-of-plenty-british-farmers-are-good-at-producing-but-the-uk-still-has-a-pounds-1445706.html
national building regulations: http://www.buildinghistory.org/regulations.shtml
numerous updates have sought to make buildings more environmentally friendly: https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Environmental_legislation_for_building_design_and_construction
Further updates have emanated from the EU: see https://ec.europa.eu/energy/en/topics/energy-efficiency/buildings and https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/research-topic/standards-construction-eurocodes
100 regulations that, he insisted, were needlessly limiting the activities of housebuilders: https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/cameron-claims-victory-in-bonfire-of-the-building-regulations/8658068.article
burnt to the ground with at least 71 people inside it: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/grenfell-tower-fire-victims-list-dead-presumed-killed-71-people-sir-martin-moore-bick-inquiry-a7945866.html
‘Britain Needs More Slums’: https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/planning-transport/britain-needs-more-slums
the tale of Gerald Ringe: https://www.building.co.uk/focus/i-just-feel-the-whole-system-is-rather-stupid–one-mans-14-year-battle-with-the-planning-laws/3091534.article (See here for another example of obstructive building regulations: http://blog.buildllc.com/2012/01/when-the-building-code-contradicts-common-sense/)
land values in Britain remained more or less constant, but they started to climb after the Town and Country Planning Act was passed: see Unaffordable Housing: Fables and Myths page 17
the price of land with planning permission increased compared to the price of land without such permission: see Unaffordable Housing: Fables and Myths page 17
agricultural land in England today is worth on average £21,000 per hectare: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/jan/31/britain-land-housing-crisis-developers-not-building-land-banking
The UK has the highest property taxes (measured as a proportion of the government’s total tax takings) in the developed world: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/12/12/uk-has-highest-property-taxes-developed-world/
The decline started in the early 1970s, continued up to the present: researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7671/CBP-7671.pdf
Public spending rose continually, trebling in real terms: https://www.economicshelp.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/government-spending-real-1967-2012.png
Welfare spending rose too: https://www.economicshelp.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/benefit-spending-real-terms-500×361.png see also: https://fullfact.org/economy/welfare-budget/
7% of the world’s total welfare spend: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/chancellor-george-osbornes-summer-budget-2015-speech
over the last few decades, government borrowing has mushroomed: https://www.economicshelp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/uk-debt-100-years-600×446.png
One Afghan family was found living in a £1.2 million mansion: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/budget/7846978/Budget-2010-Afghan-family-receives-150000-per-year-in-housing-benefits.html
Since 2007, local authorities have handed out a ‘Local Housing Allowance’ to claimants: See A Broom Cupboard of One’s Own: The Housing Crisis and How to Solve It by Boosting Home Ownership by Ross Clark (Kindle version), loc 172
in order to build a 3 bedroom home, housing associations spend an average of £150,000, compared to private builders who spend just £90,000: cited in https://www.spectator.co.uk/2015/07/housing-associations-have-failed-to-build-houses/
26,000 homes per year, despite being awarded £62 billion in government funding: https://www.channel4.com/news/housing-associations-homes-property-bob-blackman-david-orr
many of the Chief Executives of these housing associations are being rewarded with enormous salaries: https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/insight/inside-housing-salary-survey-2016-47874
private developers have built way more homes than the government and housing associations combined: https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/10989/why-did-local-authorities-in-england-and-wales-stop-building-homes
planning permission to build more than 600,000 homes: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/dec/30/revealed-housebuilders-sitting-on-450000-plots-of-undeveloped-land
a 30% rise since the year 2000 in the proportion of people who own a second home: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/aug/19/second-home-ownership-up-30-since-2000-research-finds
foreign investment has added a whopping 20% to UK house prices over the past 15 years: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/house-prices-pushed-up-20-by-influx-of-foreign-cash-mq7rgsqqn
in 1996 the Association of Residential Lettings joined up with a group of lenders to launch ‘buy-to-let mortgages’: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/buy-to-let/11176988/1996-the-birth-of-buy-to-let-Britain-in-numbers.html
the number of private landlords rocketed from tens of thousands to a record 2.5 million at the time of writing: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/housing-market-buytolet-landlords-investors-record-high-despite-tax-hike-stamp-duty-a8292146.html
Between them, these landlords own around 5 million rental properties: https://homelet.co.uk/letting-agents/news/article/how-many-landlords-and-tenants-are-there-in-the-uk /
One government report has estimated that the growth of buy-to-let mortgages may have added ‘up to 7%’ to house prices: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20120920065246/http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/507390/pdf/684943.pdf
more people in Britain have a ‘favourable’ view of socialism than of capitalism (36% versus 32%): https://yougov.co.uk/news/2016/02/23/british-people-view-socialism-more-favourably-capi/
more people have an ‘unfavourable’ view of capitalism than of socialism (39% versus 32%): https://yougov.co.uk/news/2016/02/23/british-people-view-socialism-more-favourably-capi/
40% of the overall vote: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2017/results
Younger voters in the election were more likely to vote Labour: https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/inlineimage/2017-06-13/Age-01.png
‘a great economist’: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4483990/David-Gauke-warns-Labour-s-UK-hard-left-experiment.html
In a recent BBC interview, when asked “is there anything that capitalism gets right?”: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/jeremy-corbyn-asked-name-one-11927502
“the overthrow of capitalism”: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-44189922/john-mcdonnell-says-overthrowing-capitalism-is-his-job
“Marxism is about the freedom of spirit, the development of life chances”, and is “a force for change today”: https://article.wn.com/view/2018/05/11/How_John_McDonnell_is_leading_the_surprise_rebirth_of_Britis/ See also: McDonnell on Marx: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2018/05/how-john-mcdonnell-leading-surprise-rebirth-british-marxism
“I want to be in a situation where no Tory MP can travel anywhere in the country or show their face anywhere in public without being challenged, without direct action”: https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/09/watch-john-mcdonnells-call-for-direct-action-against-tory-mps/
‘Secure Homes for All’: https://labour.org.uk/manifesto/secure-homes-for-all/
Among economists, the consensus is that rent controls discourage private investment in new housing, and therefore restrict supply, thus hurting the poor the most: Rent controls https://capx.co/rent-controls-just-dont-work-heres-why/ See also: http://uk.businessinsider.com/does-rent-control-work-no-it-actually-increases-rent-prices-for-most-people-2015-9 And: https://www.thenational.ae/business/property/rent-controls-create-shortages-and-diminish-quality-1.609209
“rent controls exist in many cities across the world and I want our cities to have those powers too”: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-41415567/labour-conference-jeremy-corbyn-on-housing-costs
as Anthony Breach explains: http://www.centreforcities.org/blog/rent-control-deepen-housing-crisis-uks-expensive-cities/
out of 218 Labour MPs, only 11 planned to vote Leave: http://home.bt.com/news/uk-news/how-mps-voted-in-the-eu-referendum-11364110245462
one report estimating that fewer than 12% of academics today are conservatives: https://www.adamsmith.org/research/lackademia-why-do-academics-lean-left
socialism-indoctrinated students: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/universities-luring-millennials-to-communism-leading-don-warns-zmm2nn76g
Capitalism has lowered the costs, and increased the quality, of almost everything we buy today: https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2016/09/02/the-point-about-capitalism-is-that-it-makes-things-gloriously-cheap/#2a30efef30a2 See also The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley, especially Chapter 1.
older voters were more likely to vote Leave: https://yougov.co.uk/news/2016/06/27/how-britain-voted/
Britain’s older voters will be dead soon, so we shouldn’t care what they think: (for example) https://twitter.com/Sam_BTT/status/1043553755550109697
By 1987, more than a million people had taken advantage of the scheme and were now homeowners: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_Buy
Public spending rose in real terms under her administration: https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2013/04/margaret-thatcher-in-six-graphs/
an acceleration of the post-war trend towards Soviet-style management in the public sector: https://www.lawliberty.org/2014/04/08/did-thatcher-leave-a-legacy-of-freedom/
George Osborne, the Chancellor who rolled out the scheme, acknowledged that it might serve to inflate houses prices: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/may/07/osborne-warned-mortgage-scheme-may-inflate-housing-bubble
which it did: https://www.ft.com/content/fdbb8a00-5dfe-11e5-9846-de406ccb37f2
while also boosting the profits of private builders: https://www.ft.com/content/5a2171aa-a778-11e7-93c5-648314d2c72c
called for tax rises: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45412543
“purposeful and active state”: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2018/7-september/news/uk/welby-backs-call-for-purposeful-and-active-state
criticised the Tories’ benefit reforms, described zero-hours contracts as “evil”: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/universal-credit-zero-hours-contracts-archbishop-canterbury-justin-welby-benefits-amazon-tuc-dwp-a8534136.html
lavishly praised unions: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/church-of-england-trade-unions-justin-welby-archbishop-tuc-congress-2018-a8533436.html
“highly political”, because “he told the rich… they would face woes”: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/justin-welby-politics_uk_5aabed59e4b05b2217fe6f73?guccounter=1&guce_referrer_us=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_cs=ND0AtZxW5B2HURsCXyPHsA
Pope Francis has been even more florid in his left-wing rhetoric: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/is-the-pope-a-socialist-95558
Here is Hilton reminiscing about his time in power: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21004113
Average house prices in the capital have reached a bewildering £500,000 in the last few years: https://www.ft.com/content/c5071070-7d62-11e5-98fb-5a6d4728f74e http://www.theweek.co.uk/london-house-prices/page/0/54
the average wage in London around £30,000 per year: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11113110/Three-reasons-why-Britains-housing-market-is-broken.html
for the last three years, London has been the most expensive city in Europe to rent in: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/london-rental-prices-highest-europe-2018-flats-property-landlords-third-year-paris-a8160066.html
Like most places in the country, the capital has suffered from a lack of housing supply: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/64158/1/Fernandez_Arrigoitia_Housing_in_London.pdf
In 1991, the population of the capital was just 6.4 million. By 2016, that figure had grown to 8.8 million. And by 2021, it is expected to have risen to 9.3 million: https://www.trustforlondon.org.uk/data/londons-population-over-time/
at least 37% of the people living in London are foreign-born: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_London
That’s around 3.32 million in total, of whom around a third are EU citizens: http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/london-population/
two out of every three babies born in the capital had at least one foreign-born parent: https://www.ft.com/content/41b5b302-b7e5-11e6-ba85-95d1533d9a62
graduates, almost a quarter of whom have been moving to the capital within six months of graduating: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/nov/21/london-one-quarter-graduates-uk-universities-centre-for-cities-report
as do immigrants: https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/areas-more-immigration-always-vote-13073361
Muslims, of whom there are around a million today in the capital: http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/london-population/:
In the 2017 General Election, Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party won 49 of the capital’s 73 constituencies: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2018/04/corbyn-s-capital-story-how-london-became-labour-city
In the EU referendum, almost 60% of Londoners voted Remain: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36612916
Sadiq Kahn was the first ever Muslim to be elected Mayor of London, gaining almost 57% of the vote: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_mayoral_election,_2016
From 2000 to 2013, 620,000 people who identified as ‘white British’ quit the capital: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21511904
London’s houses are twice as overcrowded as those of the rest of England: https://www.trustforlondon.org.uk/data/overcrowding/
In 2015, 26 people were found living in one 3-bedroom home in East London: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jun/25/overcrowding-housing-raid-26-living-three-bedroom-east-london
over 300 languages spoken in London: https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/arts-and-culture/vision-and-strategy/20-facts-about-london%E2%80%99s-culture see also: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/european_languages/definitions.shtml
Gang violence including knife crime: https://news.sky.com/story/line-18-gang-warfare-is-killing-londons-young-black-men-11447089 see also: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/immigrants-from-war-torn-countries-fuelling-gang-crime-7171157.html
acid attacks: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/26/europe/london-acid-attacks-2017-intl/index.html
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