As the name suggests, this is a seat of two halves. The Oxford half contains the bulk of the University, the main shopping centre and the up-market residential areas of north Oxford. It is here that a radical tendency has begun to show itself: Oxford is governed by a Green-Lib Dem administration. It is the suburban and rural areas on the outskirts of the city which might be expected to provide a different political complexion. Containing a large number of commuters both to Oxford itself and London, it has instead voted consistently Lib Dem.
Aside from the University it is also home to the John Radcliffe Hospital and to the largest immigration detention centre in the country, at Campsfield, near Oxford. Hundreds of asylum seekers have passed through it since it opened in 1993, and it has been the subject of condemnation by human rights organisations. There were disturbances at Campsfield in August 1997, but the nine African asylum seekers accused of rioting were acquitted when the trial collapsed due to the contradictory statements of Group 4 security staff.