“Boosterism” has become the buzzword of the beginning of Boris Johnson’s career as prime minister. 

The boost refers to the rockets that the new occupant wants to place under the economy, whether it is the tax cuts he talked about during the Tory leadership race or the infrastructure spending that he has been more keen to discuss since landing the top job. 

It’s a handy term for the new prime minister to seize on, alliterating neatly with his personal brand, like the ‘Boris Bikes’ and less happily the ‘Boris Bridge’ (otherwise known as the Garden Bridge) when he was mayor of London. And it marks a rhetorical break with the austerity that the Conservatives have overseen during the last nine years. 

The infrastructure part of the equation was flagged up in a speech Johnson delivered, standing next to Stephenson’s Rocket, in Manchester’s Science and Industry Museum last Saturday. 

As well as committing to the Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) link between Manchester and Leeds, Johnson identified affordable housing as one of his priorities. 

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