A few years ago I was sitting with my family waiting for a ferry to France when we were pigeonholed. A researcher with a clipboard came along the line of cars doing a survey for the ferry company. She only had one question: what newspaper do you read? Our income, qualifications and even occupations were probably not dissimilar to the Daily Mail-reading family in the Mondeo behind us. But by knowing we took the Guardian and clocking our beaten-up Citroen she could draw a range of conclusions about our attitudes, consumer preferences and politics.

The experience of watching the US election coverage this week caused me to recall this incident. We finally got to see people out on the street of the big cities celebrating Biden’s victory. These people had been largely absent from the election coverage because they are less telegenic than Trump supporters. Having only been to the US a few times, and never ventured outside the large cities, I found it reassuring to realise that the America that I experienced is still there.

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