Potholes, bus fares and headphone dodgers: will Burnham’s strategy of ‘everyday fixes’ succeed?

New PM has prioritised small fixes to show voters Labour can make a real difference, and government insiders are delighted at the public’s reaction In the first episode of Armando Iannucci’s political satire The Thick of It, the hapless minister Hugh Abbot is in the back of a taxi, frantically brainstorming for an on-the-hoof policy he can announce to the assembled national press.

“So you want something sexy and eye-catching, and that is free and universally popular and instantly applicable. No one can…