So the big moment finally arrived and to everyone’s shock a new majority Government was formed. As the political silly season reached its crescendo it seemed that each of the main parties was hell bent on trying to win the ‘working vote’ over any other demographic. 

This state of affairs is in stark contrast to days of old when it was very clear which sectors of the population that each party was targeting, with little effort being put into winning the hearts of their competitor’s strong holds. The relevance of this observation to our industry though is that the Conservatives surprisingly put more effort than ever into winning the respect of lower-income workers. A case in point was the MP for Harlow in Essex, Robert Halfon. Every day between 7am and 9am, then again from 4pm to 7pm, he could be seen sitting on a chair by the dual carriageway of the A414 giving oncoming drivers the thumbs up—part of an outlook he calls ‘white-van conservatism’.

As the political silly season reached its crescendo it seemed that each of the main parties was hell bent on trying to win the ‘working vote’ over any other demographic”

To qualify this a little bit, he was directly after support from what he calls ‘aspirational working-class voters’. And it was part of a wider Conservative strategy to mop-up a beaten Lib Dem base, tackle a weakened Labour, and try and win back support from UKIP—which adopted the strategy of telling people whatever they wanted to hear and making promises that no straight thinking political party could ever hope to honour in power.

As part of this effort Mr Cameron promised 50,000 new apprenticeships, expanded free child care, cancellation of income tax for those on the minimum wage, a freeze on key revenue-generating taxes until 2020, and even a revival of the right to buy scheme.  So, it seems surprisingly that for the first time since Mrs Thatcher that the vast majority of the sign industry’s members are in effect now being wooed by the Conservatives. That said, I think Mr Halfon is going to have to hang out on the A414 a while longer to convince us their love is sincere. So, it seems industries such as ours are back on agenda and the focus of all the current top four, lets enjoy it while it lasts.

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