Building blocks of everyday life, from the NHS to roads to libraries, have been eroded by Tory underinvestment

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Thursday’s general election looks likely to be a historic pivot: one of those long-remembered moments when the established order at Westminster is swept away by what Jim Callaghan, the victim of one such shift in 1979, called a “sea change in politics”.

Yet as Guardian reporters fanned out across the UK during the campaign to spend time talking to voters and non-voters in 15 varied constituencies for the Path to power series, they found precious little hope that things will be different come 5 July.

He has written hit films like 24 Hour Party People and cooked up the Queen’s Olympic skydive. But now, having been crowned Children’s Laureate, he’s on a mission to show kids that books will change their lives

Frank Cottrell-Boyce doesn’t believe in pessimism. Even being announced as the UK’s brand-new children’s laureate in the week when all eyes are focused on Westminster and the polling booths makes him hopeful that people will turn to a cheerier story in search of relief, meaning he can leap into the classic “and finally” spot on news bulletins. “I’m happy to be that skateboarding duck,” he grins as he chats over Zoom from his home on Merseyside.

But to be chipper is not merely a function of his temperament, as his speech at the acceptance of the title made clear. Quoting William Beveridge, whose groundbreaking report laid the foundations for the modern welfare state, Cottrell-Boyce insisted that “scratch a pessimist and you’ll find a defender of privilege”; and it’s his intention, during his two-year tenure, to demonstrate that making children’s lives better by increasing their access to books, reading and what he calls “the apparatus of happiness” is critical to the prospects of the generations to come – and that the cost of ignoring that is unthinkable.