Post by doktorb🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ on Jan 3, 2024 9:22:54 GMT
This features content from Merseymike and Pete Whitehead as well as my own
In my well thumbed copy of Media Guide to the New Parliamentary Constituencies from 2007, Liverpool Riverside is perhaps notable for its very low turnout of 32.7, and the provisional Labour majority of 59.2. Turnout here has been lower, and the Labour majority much higher, and indeed this could rival nearby Bootle or Knowsley for monolithically safe Labour majorities. As the name suggests, Riverside is Liverpool's "central", taking in Kirkdale at the border with Sefton, and then moving along the regenerated Docklands into the urban and relatively leafy suburbs to the south. Boundary changes remove these latter areas, (Greenbank, Mossley Hill and St Michaels) and add the poorer inner city Anfield and Everton wards from Walton; this takes away the Green and Liberal Democrat vote and brings in almost entirely unchallenged Labour votes by the bucket load.
As many "central" seats are finding - Manchester and Leeds amongst them - regeneration means tall apartment blocks and new look industrial areas turning into leisure and residential areas. Liverpool's centre is no different. Following significant issues with the local council, massive binary changes to electoral wards created two waterfront divisions, both undersized, to future proof them as currently under construction developments turn the population from the low thousands to the tens of thousands: the face of Mersey-side Liverpool is definitely changing.
The seat contains the city centre and all of its famous landmarks. The larger population in the city centre has not led to notably greater turnouts at local elections and the higher turnout nationally appears to come from it's more longstanding settlements. Four of its seven wards - what was previously called Central, Riverside, Kirkdale as and Princes Park, containing most of the Toxteth area, are securely Labour, though their social characteristics are by no means identical. The former Princes Park contains much of Liverpool's longstanding BME population, whereas Kirkdale is a largely white working class area with much of the housing built in the Militant era. Both Central and Riverside contain areas of newly built apartments alongside areas of more notable urban blight - the Dingle, within Riverside ward being particularly bleak in parts. Those four wards contribute to the sizeable majority won by Liverpool's first MP of colour, the locally-born Kim Johnson.
Liverpool has a well fought reputation for stoicism and friendliness in the face of challenges. Its recent stint as Eurovision hosts opened up the city to the world, and within the new boundaries Liverpool FCs Anfield ground has been doing that for generations. Their much less successful neighbours, the blues of Everton, have their new megastadium currently under construction in Bootle. There are more decent pubs in central Liverpool than I could care to mention, but in the spirit of the forum, I'll name check The Ship & Mitre, and The Lion Tavern as personal favourites.
The wards coming into Riverside contain many terraced houses, and signs of once solid Victorian middle-class areas, particularly around Stanley Park in Anfield. This new seat could therefore be considered, demographically at least, as a contrast between the bright lights of tourist-y Liverpool and the inner-city beyond, where the Red team of both Parliamentary and footballing traditions continue the good fight in face of never ending scrutiny.
2011 Census
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In my well thumbed copy of Media Guide to the New Parliamentary Constituencies from 2007, Liverpool Riverside is perhaps notable for its very low turnout of 32.7, and the provisional Labour majority of 59.2. Turnout here has been lower, and the Labour majority much higher, and indeed this could rival nearby Bootle or Knowsley for monolithically safe Labour majorities. As the name suggests, Riverside is Liverpool's "central", taking in Kirkdale at the border with Sefton, and then moving along the regenerated Docklands into the urban and relatively leafy suburbs to the south. Boundary changes remove these latter areas, (Greenbank, Mossley Hill and St Michaels) and add the poorer inner city Anfield and Everton wards from Walton; this takes away the Green and Liberal Democrat vote and brings in almost entirely unchallenged Labour votes by the bucket load.
As many "central" seats are finding - Manchester and Leeds amongst them - regeneration means tall apartment blocks and new look industrial areas turning into leisure and residential areas. Liverpool's centre is no different. Following significant issues with the local council, massive binary changes to electoral wards created two waterfront divisions, both undersized, to future proof them as currently under construction developments turn the population from the low thousands to the tens of thousands: the face of Mersey-side Liverpool is definitely changing.
The seat contains the city centre and all of its famous landmarks. The larger population in the city centre has not led to notably greater turnouts at local elections and the higher turnout nationally appears to come from it's more longstanding settlements. Four of its seven wards - what was previously called Central, Riverside, Kirkdale as and Princes Park, containing most of the Toxteth area, are securely Labour, though their social characteristics are by no means identical. The former Princes Park contains much of Liverpool's longstanding BME population, whereas Kirkdale is a largely white working class area with much of the housing built in the Militant era. Both Central and Riverside contain areas of newly built apartments alongside areas of more notable urban blight - the Dingle, within Riverside ward being particularly bleak in parts. Those four wards contribute to the sizeable majority won by Liverpool's first MP of colour, the locally-born Kim Johnson.
Liverpool has a well fought reputation for stoicism and friendliness in the face of challenges. Its recent stint as Eurovision hosts opened up the city to the world, and within the new boundaries Liverpool FCs Anfield ground has been doing that for generations. Their much less successful neighbours, the blues of Everton, have their new megastadium currently under construction in Bootle. There are more decent pubs in central Liverpool than I could care to mention, but in the spirit of the forum, I'll name check The Ship & Mitre, and The Lion Tavern as personal favourites.
The wards coming into Riverside contain many terraced houses, and signs of once solid Victorian middle-class areas, particularly around Stanley Park in Anfield. This new seat could therefore be considered, demographically at least, as a contrast between the bright lights of tourist-y Liverpool and the inner-city beyond, where the Red team of both Parliamentary and footballing traditions continue the good fight in face of never ending scrutiny.
2011 Census
Age 65+ 10.3% 609/650
One person household 47.8% 3/650
Owner-occupied 29.6% 638/650
Private rented 36.5% 4/650
Social rented 31.9% 41/650
White 79.6% 630/650
Black 4.7% 110/650
Asian 7.7% 160/650
Country of birth Northern Ireland 2.4% 19/650 (highest outside N Ireland)
Managerial & professional 24.4%
Routine & Semi-routine 18.4%
Degree level 29.7% 194/650
No qualifications 21.4% 390/650
Students 30.9% 5/650
2021 Census
Owner occupied 31.8% 554/573
Private rented 39.0% 10/573
Social rented 29.1% 37/573
White 76.1%
Black 5.3%
Asian 8.2%
Managerial & professional 25.8% 474/573
Routine & Semi-routine 17.2% 481/573
Degree level 37.7% 140/573
No qualifications 16.6% 350/573
Students 29.3% 5/573
General Election 2019: Liverpool Riverside
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Kim Johnson 41,170 78.0 -6.5
Conservative Sean Malkeson 4,127 7.8 -1.9
Green Tom Crone 3,017 5.7 +2.4
Liberal Democrats Robert McAllister-Bell 2,696 5.1 +2.6
Brexit Party David Leach 1,779 3.4
Lab Majority 37,043 70.2 -4.6
Turnout 52,789 65.7 +2.8
Labour hold
Swing 2.4 Lab to C
Lab | 36051 | 83.3% |
Con | 3207 | 7.4% |
Grn | 1313 | 3.0% |
BxP | 1253 | 2.9% |
LD | 1240 | 2.9% |
Oth | 192 | 0.4% |
32844