Brexit is now in full swing and the ups and downs of the negotiations seem likely to dominate thinking and media coverage for the next few years. Not an uplifting thought, unless you love mind-numbing detail combined with overweening rhetoric. 

But while the historic importance of Britain deciding to cut itself off from the EU feels profound, of most domestic interest is the fact that the vote for Brexit revealed a country very much not ‘at ease with itself’ – prime minister John Major’s key aim several decades ago.

Policy-makers and think-tanks worry about this. So too do social scientists and pollsters. More practically, councillors and chief executives look at their patches and try to see what they can do to provide a sense of purpose, wellbeing and hope to those parts of their locality which fall into the ‘left behind’ category.