People are kinder than our cynical politicians will give us credit for

An expiring Tory party lashing about for electoral resuscitation by doubling down on pugnacious policies. A Labour opposition that has straitjacketed its pledges and ambitions with its fears of blowing its strongest chance in years to gain power. That is the slim space that now defines Westminster, making the preoccupations and tones of our politicians seem more remote than ever.

- Nesrine Malik

The result is a widening gulf between people's reality and what they are told they actually care about. Take immigration - a topic that is firmly established as something many should have "concerns" about. But attitudes among the public are flexible, dependent on the type of immigration and the political mood.

Whatever these attitudes are - hard, soft or indifferent - they have coexisted for a long time now with a large voluntary infrastructure of pro-immigrant and pro-refugee organisations. But no. It must all be deportations, detentions and a general asylum policy direction that is against international human rights law.

Never mind that the UK has one of the most positive attitudes towards refugees in the world, according to an international poll. During the 12-month period in which the government made "stopping the boats" a cornerstone policy, support for refugees increased.

The same inversely proportional trend applies to strikes. Within the same period when the government was introducing anti-strike laws, a Sky News poll showed that support for strike action rose instead of fell.