Given the importance of Fountains Road to his job prospects, Ben Gummer mp seems oddly relaxed about the rather ambivalent views he samples along it. They are not hostile; most residents of the 1970s-built semi-detached houses that line the road, in south-west Ipswich, receive the hardworking Tory uncomplainingly, with often a glint of recognition. To have any hope of defending his slender majority in Ipswich in May, however, this is the sort of hard-up, middle-class terrain Mr Gummer must win-and a chill afternoon's canvassing provides no promise of that. In a soft Suffolk burr, most people say they have not decided how they'll vote; almost none shows enthusiasm for the Tory-led coalition government and its toff leader, David Cameron. Yet Ipswich is enjoying its lowest rate of youth unemployment on record, so neither do they complain much. And even Labour Party voters say they have a poor impression of Mr Cameron's main rival, Ed Miliband: "He doesn't seem right," one says. Having long expected a tough fight, Mr Gummer and his team of eager activists find this adequately encouraging.
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