“Perhaps we need a revolution!”
Cobbler Dave is half joking and half serious.
Stepping through the red door into his shoe repair business on a quiet street in Grimsby takes you back to a simpler time.
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There’s no price list, no click-and-collect and you certainly can’t pay on your watch or a phone.
He’s been running the shop for 37 years – it’s still cash only, it’s always been like that.
The shoes his customers bring in for repair tell a story of where so many people are with their finances – worn out by constant struggle.
Dave has been running his shop for 37 years
“There is a divide which is as big as it has ever been,” Dave tells Sky News.
I am speaking to Dave as part of Sky’s new Target Towns Series. We’re seeking to tell the story of the next election from the perspective of voters in the new constituency of Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes.
We’ll hear from locals all the way through to election night to understand the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, and to discuss how the future could look, depending on which political party is elected into power.
“You have got a group with a shedload of money and you have got people with nothing, scraping pennies, and it is frustrating,” he adds.
“They go on about inequality, well financial inequality is about as bad as anything.”
The Cobbler Shop, Grimsby
Old pairs of shoes are lined up on the counter awaiting attention – one of his regulars brings in an old walking boot which has lost one of its metal hooks.
“We get a lot of people now who are digging out old shoes or they are buying them from charity shops,” Dave says.
“They might be 20 or 30 or 40 years old and we are renovating them – some more successfully than others!
“We are doing 10 or 12 pairs a week, shoes of that vintage, and it is a reflection, I think it reflects it entirely, but that’s where we are at.”
Dave says financial inequality is ‘as bad as anything’
Alongside him in this one room workshop is Suzanne the seamstress.
The metal base of her sewing machine is around 150 years old and still going strong. The machine itself is “one of the new ones”, having been made in 1978.
Suzanne can fix almost anything but is exasperated by the state of the nation post pandemic and with so many people still navigating the cost of living crisis.
“It’s gradually just got worse and worse and worse – all the time the Conservatives have been in,” she tells us.
Seamstress Suzanne is exasperated by the cost of living crisis
“It’s like they have taken the heart out… of the whole country… as if we don’t need it somehow.”
Dave concurs. He isn’t registered to vote.
The latest leaflet from the Grimsby MP went straight in the recycling bin earlier that morning.
“I don’t trust any politicians…sorry I am disillusioned,” he tells us.
What would he fix first then?
Dave wants politicians to fix health and housing
“Health and housing,” he replies. “Why is it people are allowed to own loads of properties and are allowed to run them into the ground? Why are there so many empty houses?”
He quickly moves on.
“Transport. Look at the state of the roads – and don’t get me started on buses.
“Sports facilities, that’s another one!”
Suzanne rolls her eyes behind the sewing machine – safe to say it’s not the first time Dave has vented his frustrations here.
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This uber traditional shop is doing what it can – he’ll often just ask for “a couple of quid” if he knows someone is really struggling to afford a £10 repair.
It’s a subtle indicator of a faltering economy.
The chancellor may well help the nation with a few pounds here or there in his budget on Wednesday.
Any giveaways will be designed with a general election in mind, but it will take much more than some marginal gains to win over a community that’s recycling 40-year-old pairs of shoes.
Sky News’ Target Towns series aims to follow the build-up to the general election from a key constituency prized by both Conservatives and Labour – Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes.
To launch it The UK Tonight With Sarah-Jane Mee will broadcast live from Cleethorpes at 8pm