If Trump wins, Europeans will have to grow up

As many people have pointed out, if someone had awoken from a coma after 30 years and learned that one US political party was in thrall to Wall St and the other to Russia, they would be confused by 2016. But then right is the new left and liberalism, being the prestige faith, is bound to attract prestige people, while Russia is back to its pre-Bolshevik role as the great force for reaction.

Some Democrats even believe that Donald Trump is in the pay of the Kremlin, although, then again, more than half of Democrats believe 9/11 was an inside job. This may all be a smear, but Trump has given off alarming signals, including promises to withdraw American forced abroad; Putin would surely welcome his victory.

This is saddening. I admit to having a rather sentimental view of America’s role in Europe, being part of that generation who grew up playing out the Second World War in our bedrooms; I remember, aged 8, visiting Berlin and being aware that it was the US soldiers there who stood between us and this hideous political system.