Hello and one to the Red Box podcast I'm Matt Chorley in today's episode bringing you the best from my Times radio show

James Johnson has been on the podcast a few times has carried out a real focus group for us to find out what real people outside the Westminster

bubble think of the party leaders and other members of the cabinet. It won't make

great reading for all of them it has to be said. If you want to listen to my Times

Radio show I'm on Monday to Thursdays 10 till 1 you can find us on the Times

radio app on your DAB radios on your smart speaker or at times

radio.

But now let's turn to where those slogans and that sort of thing sometimes come from.

The government has been criticized for running all of its ideas, past focus groups and polling rather than necessarily doing what they think might be the right thing.

So what we've decided to do is run our own focus script to work out exactly what a focus group is.

James Johnson was a pollster and strategy advisor for Theresa May and now runs his own polling firm and carries

out focus groups all the time for various private clients,

but we're going to do what we've recorded one, so you can get an insight into exactly how they work,

and what real people really think about politicians and the decisions that they make and

what they go about doing.

It also will reveal, I think, hopefully, a little bit of how sometimes those of us inside the West Mr.

We will get obsessed with things which aren't necessarily getting cut through.

So James joins us now.

James has carried out this work for the Communications Consultancy Kecks-CNC.

Good morning, James. Or good afternoonNC. Good morning James or good afternoon even good afternoon

James. Good afternoon. It's nice have you. Right so before we get stuck into it and listen to

it because there's a fascinating listen we've got coming up but just explain to people

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