London's terrain proves harder for Conservatives to navigate

So Ed Miliband goes to East London to visit the pro-abstention humorist Russell Brand, saying he will "go anywhere and talk to anyone". This is not actually true. Chatting to a celebrity who refuses to use his votey-wotey? Yes. Actual unvetted voters? Different matter.

Meanwhile David Cameron spent an hour on Tuesday in marginal Enfield North (Conservative majority: 1,692). Or at any rate spent it at a marine radar factory on an industrial estate. The workers were allowed to ask questions - but the PM was their boss's guest. Not the ideal setting for robust political interrogation. A free election? Up to a point.

Unlike Mr Cameron, I hung around in Enfield, walking through random side streets, eavesdropping on conversations and travelling exotic bus routes like the 192 to Edmonton, the 307 to Barnet Hospital and the 349 to Ponders End. No one was discussing the election.

And, having passed thousands of houses and flats in this diverse corner of North London, I made the total political window-sticker and garden-sign count Labour: 7, Everyone Else: 0. Six of the seven were on a single window. The politicians have disengaged from the electorate, and the feeling is mutual.

There were more signs of life elsewhere in the capital, and most of them support the perception that London is the unScotland: the place returning to Labour more zestfully - or less grudgingly - than anywhere else. The UK Independence party is hardly a factor, but the constant churn of humanity is rendering the terrain harder for the Tories, especially as the population is defying life's most immutable rule and getting younger. Labour's planned mansion tax seems not to be hurting them.

Several Labour hopefuls have banded together to form their own social media network, sharing experiences and offering mutual support. And the mood music sounds good. Uma Kumaran is now the betting favourite to unship Bob Blackman, the Conservative incumbent in Harrow East (171 different languages spoken, Con maj: 3,403). This should be a classic Tory seat, a place of strivers not skivers; they can be spotted, shattered, on the early trains into town and the late ones back. Mr Blackman's problem is that these days they are mainly Asian, and resistant to the Tory message.

He insists his vote is holding firm, but there was an undeniable buzz round the local Labour HQ. Ms Kumaran is 28, born in London to a Sri Lankan family, has long raven hair and … well, let's just say she would be noticed in the Commons if she never said a word. But she will.

Labour are even optimistic south of the river in Battersea (Con maj: 5,977), where they have a 32-year-old banker-turned-UN worker, Will Martindale, up against the junior health minister Jane Ellison. This is a seat of extremes: the genuinely poor; the young salary-rich but property-poor; and the older group that's so-property-rich-the-salary's-irrelevant.

An unpredictable place too: "The other night there was a hustings on disability and we had all prepared answers on access issues," Mr Martindale said as I conducted my umpteenth coffee-shop interview of the month. "The second question was on fractional reserve banking."

He also claimed 250 helpers had turned out to canvass for him last Saturday. He was just showing me a picture of them - it looked like a leftwing protest march - when a fellow customer came over apologetically and said he couldn't help overhearing. "You seem like a very nice chap," the candidate was told by Johnny Yorke, who sells classic cars. "But you're batting for the wrong side. Who's going to pay for it all, matey?"

A polite exchange followed. Party leaders please copy.

© The Financial Times Limited 2015. All rights reserved.
FT and Financial Times are trademarks of the Financial Times Ltd.
Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in any way.
Euro2day.gr is solely responsible for providing this translation and the Financial Times Limited does not accept any liability for the accuracy or quality of the translation