Britain is broken and nothing can ever get better. It doesn’t sound like a winning election slogan, but the sentiment is increasingly taking hold in politics and the media. The rise of Reform and the rightwards shift of the mainstream parties has made doom-spreading a sport, with GB News and Nigel Farage taking turns to pick which shadowy forces – migrants, welfare or wokeness – are wrecking the country.

Conservatism once embodied national pride and preservation, but the new right is selling despair and destruction. The very people who have long accused leftwingers of “talking Britain down” now speak of “no-go areas” and of migrants raping young women. The Labour party under Keir Starmer has not exactly been soaked in optimism either, arguing that disability cuts are inevitable while wealth taxes are impossible.

This pessimism even extends to casting doubt on anyone who dares offer a bit of hope. Darren Jones, one of Starmer’s most influential ministers, told the Guardian last week that the Green party is making unfeasible promises ahead of the next election. “It’s their responsibility to explain to people how they would actually choose what to do if they were in government, as opposed to just promising things that are undeliverable,” he said.

The remark gives an insight into how Labour will respond as the Greens start to look like a viable electoral threat under Zack Polanski. But it also........

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