I’m past the stage in my parenting journey where I could have any influence over my kids’ screen time. They would be much more likely to invade my privacy, grab my phone, perform some search in settings that I don’t understand, wonder out loud how it’s possible for WhatsApp to take up that many hours in a person’s day, and I would say, “What goes on between a person and their phone is a sacred and never-to-be-breached thing.”

But, I still keep up with government pronouncements on the matter of phones and young people, in my quest to unlock a deeper mystery: how did Labour get so unpopular? I know why they’re unpopular with me; I could make a stab at why they’re unpopular with Reform voters and with Conservatives. What I don’t understand is how they fell foul of the squashy middle: the people who, given the choice, would always rather agree with the guys in charge; the people who’d identify as the centre; the people who determinedly don’t follow politics, don’t have strong views, and just wish it could go about its business more quietly. That army of compatriots whose........

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