Whoever wins today’s Makerfield by-election, an unsettling truth will remain: England is a country ill at ease with itself.

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Politically, we are a nation divided, with our leaders at best disparaged and at worst despised. Financially, people’s living standards are being squeezed across the income scale, with no apparent end in sight to the cost-of-living crisis that began with the 2008 financial crash. And even in this highly digital age, where connections should be plentiful, society feels more atomised and less united than ever.

It is against this bleak backdrop that Thomas Tuchel’s England embark on their World Cup adventure.........

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