The north south divide - in Hackney

Three stories:
1 The Independent reports a remarkable 15% rise in voter registrations in Hackney. But did they register because they wanted to vote? I'm one of the newly registered - my mind was made up because of a £1000 fine threat.

2. New varieties of diametrically opposite views from Meg Hillier (Hackney South) and Diane Abbott (Hackney North) are still being discovered.

Last night Diane told "This Week" viewers that the worst thing about Gordon Brown calling Gillian Duffy a bigot was that it raised the issue of immigration. When asked her why talking about immigration might be a problem, she didn't have an answer.

Moments later she said that Hackney was an area with a high level of illegal immigration.

Then she said that she supported the idea of an amnesty for illegal immigrants - she specifically approved of the one proposed by the Lib Dems.

Compare that to Meg Hillier. According to this piece in the Guardian, Meg told the people of Barking and Dagenham: "We deport someone every eight minutes... We fingerprint anyone who comes in for over six months. Foreigners now have to carry special national identity cards."

3. Another interesting story: The Jewish Chronicle adds some extra detail to Simon Tesler's decision to stand as an independent candidate (Chops changes and councillor controversies) against his former Conservative colleagues. According to the JC, Tesler says he was dropped because he spent too much time working on ultra-orthodox Jewish issues. Matthew Coggins, leader of the Hackney Conservative Group, had a different story: "Mr Tesler was deselected not because of the time he spent representing the strictly Orthodox community but because of his lack of attendance at council meetings."

It also reports Labour supporting Abraham Pinter saying he is disappointed that Joseph Stauber couldn't be found a Hackney seat to stand in by the Labour Party. Some of these issues were discussed in Blood and Property: Chops changes and councillor controversies