The mood of the nation is more closely aligned to the success of its international teams in major competition than to budget announcements from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, or even the weather.
Second, they understood that as much as our government and our political parties had betrayed them in the past -- as much as our nation itself had betrayed its own ideals -- government, if aligned with the interests of its people, can be -- and must be -- a force for good.