This recycling facility in Southwark sorts 100,000 tonnes of rubbish a year It is noisy, dusty and smells, unsurprisingly, like your bins. Conveyor belts carry cans, bags and cardboard all around us.

At the general election exactly a year ago, London voted heavily for a change of government, affirming a trend underway for more than a decade in which the capital has steadily become a more ‘Labour ...