[1andrew1]

I remember reading in Flip Chart Fairies that the sweet ground in politics which would gain most votes was being economically left wing (eg bailing out loss-making companies to retain jobs) and socially right wing (eg bring back the death sentence for some offences, don't let unskilled immigrants into the country, etc)

The Conservative Party under Johnson now ticks both boxes successfully. It has overturned previous Conservative thinking on state investment in industry. The Conservative Mayor of the Tees Valley won his seat on a promise to nationalise the local airport.

By following an interventionist approach in industry, it gives Labour less room to challenge the government and propose alternative ideas. At the moment, traditional home counties Conservative voters seem happy to go along with this approach as long as taxes don't rise but their house values do.