British politics is in the midst of a forced general election with still this complex question of whether as a country we're going to leave the EU or not; I am firm Remain and vote-LibDem person - a London living, heavily educated, academic person with a strong European identity

That said, I have enough friends and family who don't live in the same bubble as me (they have their own bubbles) and spend enough time (not as much as I'd like) in the North Tyne valley in Northumberland to know what London living pro European types look like from there.

A depressing thing for me is that both Labour and LibDems have lost the emotional trust I think of a lot of people in the UK - I appreciate in my bubble this will have people railing why, or trying to argue against me (but I'm not the person to argue against!).

In both cases the loss of trust is rooted in a nationalism / patriotism perspective. For LibDems, placing "Europe" and "European politics" on a pedestal really doesn't work for lots of people in the UK. You can claim they are unintelligent + bigoted, but that's unfair in my view

They want people who have influence over them to ... connect to them, have an appreciation of the Britain they live in; have quiet (or not so quiet in football matches etc) pride in the country. They don't mind UK's influence is diminished, they want their rulers to love the UK

Now, one could say they are misinformed; that they don't understand the realpolitik of big trade groupings, that if you are not at the table you are on the menu etc and we "need to learn to love Europe/Brussels", but I think this the wrong argument to gain trust with this group

Labour has lost trust in another way in my view - by saying that everything the Tories have done since the 1980s has been a disaster for the UK, including Brexit referendum, was wrong, misguided and self serving to an elite does not ring true to many voters

For the strongest Labour advocates, they bizarrely blend in the Blair years as a sort of Tory-lite sham-Labour project, meaning that all the successes in the UK of the last 40 years are apparently ... rubbish, should be discarded and raised to the ground for a better UK

Furthermore, many people feel I think feel the current Labour front bench care far more for an international left wing project, reminiscent of the 1970s/early 80s, than the people who live in the UK. Labour seems as motivated by things outside of the UK as inside.

It often comes across that anyone who voted for the Tories over the last 40 years will have to publicly recant their position before being welcomed into this Labour party; to vote Labour is to say everything has gone to the dogs for the last 40 years.

This loss of trust is why I think polls are so Tory at the moment; the other options are not connecting emotionally to a big chunk of the UK (mainly England, but also a big part of Wales, bits of Scotland; Northern Ireland is its own political universe).

I get people might think this is unfair; that the Tories play dirty (too dirty? dirtier than Labour and LibDems?), and that this all too cynical, but in my view this is not grasping the central issue that they are not making the emotional connection right.

I caution in just saying these people are stupid (they are not) or chronically mislead (Facebook placed ads aren't that good) or bigots/racist (UK has it's fair proportion of racists; they will vote Tory or BXP, but that's a minority of these voters in my view).

(and even if you believe any of the above, to get people to change their mind doesn't start from any of these positions)

Can LibDems or Labour get that trust in the next 2 weeks? Will tactical voting on the 'Remain' ticket override other concerns? Will Boris Johnson make a big enough gaffe to lose trust? I don't know, but it's pretty depressing being a UK voter at the moment.