On London Latest: Capital defences

Christabel Cooper responds to the populist Right, Lewis Baston unpicks a big Green by-election win, Richard Derecki on getting children "school ready" and more

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I am not going to mention the weather…

Instead, I’m going to coolly and calmly remind you that politicians who slight, sideline and denigrate London in search of opinion poll boosts and votes elsewhere are, at best, unwise and, at worst, contemptible.

A new fad on the populist Right, largely focussed on the capital, is to claim that reductions in the percentages of a category of people it calls “White British” - a category that would exclude the King - have led to a national decline.

Last week, I was delighted to publish a rousing rebuttal of such poisonous, stupid assertions written by the brilliant Christabel Cooper.

She asks: How come the part of the UK that has the most ethnically varied population is also both quite content with that state of affairs and by far the most economically successful region in the country?