Are you a Gail’s or a Wimpy voter?

Liberal Democrat activists were reportedly told to ‘get out the Gail’s vote’, targeting people who visit the over-priced artisanal cafés. There are 131 Gail’s in the UK and around half are in Lib Dem marginals. If you’ve never come across one, think spinach, feta and filo pastry for £6, sold by a stressed Spanish girl in Twickenham.

I mentioned the Lib Dems’ Gail’s strategy to a Reform adviser. He laughed. ‘Oh, we tended to go after places with a Wimpy Bar at the election.’ I can confirm that Nigel Farage’s seat of Clacton-on-Sea has a Wimpy on the same road as his campaign HQ and there is another in Thurrock. Richard Tice is Wimpy-less after the one in Skegness shut down.

I was only dimly aware of Wimpy. My dad would talk of the chain with childlike fondness, although we never once went in.