We are waking up to the truth: Brexit left us poorer and adrift

Last week, having whiled away two joyous days at the Tories' conference in Birmingham, I spent a long afternoon an hour's drive away, in the cathedral city of Worcester.

- John Harris

The plan was to sample the mood of the kind of place once considered to hold the key to British elections. But I was also there to gather more evidence of how much the UK's current woes are affecting the kind of average-to-affluent places that might once have weathered any economic storm.

Not entirely surprisingly, people said they were worried and scared. Some talked about grownup children suddenly terrified that a mortgage is beyond their reach; others described a new and unsettling habit of using sparing amounts of gas and electricity. The increasingly awful mood music - from talk of cancelled Christmas markets to the possibility of three-hour power cuts - informed just about every conversation I had.

Mention of politics drew some interesting responses. "I just miss Boris," said Julie, who works in a city-centre shop, and told me she had got used to conversations with customers about the impossibility of their living costs. As she and a few other people saw it, Johnson successfully managed the Covid vaccination programme, and brought pizzazz and humour to politics, which had now reverted to type. They also voiced something I have heard a few times lately: a belief that he represented the last hope of Brexit opening the way to a happier and more prosperous country.