There are few institutions that do more to bolster the civic pride of many towns and cities than the local club.
There are a number of indications that compliance wouldn’t as be as good as perhaps anticipated.
From business rates to statues, reviving the town high street is a key demand of working-class voters.
While most people can’t formulate specific policies, their views are useful in conceptualising them in broad terms.
Polls show they’re more in favour of lower taxes than professionals and believe that much of Government spending is wasted.
Simply put: the party needs to “prove” it has cut to the bone to justify existing or higher taxes.
This agenda will be absolutely crucial if ‘levelling up’ is ever to become something meaningful to people on the ground.
Within the party, policies of the free market feel old school – and the language associated with it even more so.
Most obviously, this complicates their Net Zero strategy; you would have expected fiscal policy increasingly to have rebalanced towards green taxes.
Mainly because people didn’t want troops to be there (or in the Middle East) in the first place.
Delivering the target will require huge lifestyle changes, but you can’t ask voters to do what you’re not doing yourself.
Starmer could show he understands the priorities of working class voters by spending more on universities and backing an English Parliament.
The single most important thing for right-leaning outsiders to understand is that boards don’t control most of a firm’s political comment.
Asked who is to “blame” for children falling behind, most parents blame “the pandemic” rather than the Government.
Last week, middle class voters told us in focus groups that they were incandescent; we expect to hear the same this week from working class voters.