Although this story started in Clacton-on-Sea and Hartlepool, it is a story about everywhere. As it seems that politics and policy-making have become distorted towards the interests and experiences of a narrow elite, somewhere the interests and feelings of a new working class have become further buried, and it is time they were brought to the fore. Although a parliamentary majority cannot be won on the working class vote alone, without understanding its needs and interests, no political party can secure an outright victory.

For all of the insightful attempts to carve up and understand changing British electoral patterns, nothing beats social class for its explanatory power in British politics. But social class is changing, and political parties need to change too. In this concluding chapter I draw together the arguments that flow throughout the book, and set out the policy agenda that arises, exploring the social and political attitudes of the new working class. As I said at the start, more than anything, this book is an appeal to the political parties and policy-makers to listen to the concerns of these voters, and to act on them.

Policies do matter, but should be viewed in the context of what and whom the electorate thinks the party or candidate stands for. While policy pledges provide the voter with important clues as to who the party is and whether it is perceived to be ‘on their side’, policies do have a transactional dimension, even if straightforward ‘retail’-style policies can only go so far. Where political parties sometimes go wrong is in failing to tune into the emotions that run underneath the surface, but that are decisive in how our ‘political brain’ responds. The moral foundations theory (Chapter 3) is a useful framework for political parties to develop policy within, especially for those on the left who have historically been less effective at triggering the full range of moral foundations.

All political parties are guilty of talking to themselves too much, assuming that their ideological frame of reference relates to voters more than it actually does. A rousing speech about the evils of privatisation might go down well on the floor of the Labour Party conference, but the public are not as bothered as party activists about the means of public service delivery.