State of the nation Pollster Deborah Mattinson speaks to us about her new book, which tells how New Labour's failure to listen to what the public were saying wrecked its relationship with voters. Deborah Mattinson, co-founder of Opinion Leader Research, spent more than 20 years conducting and analysing focus groups for the Labour Party, working closely with Gordon Brown throughout the New Labour period. But the relationship came to what she calls "a sad end" last year as the party became increasingly unwilling to hear (or unable to stomach) what voters were saying. In her new book, Talking to a Brick Wall, Mattinson uses focus group findings to tell the story of New Labour "through the eyes of the voter", chronicling the breakdown of the relationship between politician and public from the 1980s right up to this year's general election and Labour leadership contest. Research: What made you decide to call your book Talking to a Brick Wall? DM: Two reasons. One is that my observation would be that voters and politicians, rather than talking to each other and listening to each other, are now talking to a brick wall. It's a two-way thing. Voters are not being heard by politicians. That then becomes a vicious circle because it means that politicians are talking a language that voters don't understand and aren't interested in. "Politicians listen very hard when they want to be elected. They listen when they get answers they find it easy to deal with -- they are