Why Britain’s politicians are obssessed with potholes – and why they still can’t seem to fix them

By Dominic Davies, Senior Lecturer in English, City, University of London

The Labour party has announced a pledge to fix 1 million potholes across England in each year of the next parliament. Adding just £320 million to the £8.3 billion already promised by the Tories, Labour said when it made the pledge on June 12 that this “multi-year funding settlement” would end a “sticking-plaster approach” to the country’s broken infrastructure.

Election campaigns always seek to give the “feeling” of improved infrastructure, even when meaningful promises on major projects aren’t actually…

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