Our dismal leaders make me mourn the decline of the professional politician

The collapse of the old order in the West provoked a collapse in confidence in ‘professional politicians’. It was a boo phrase as reliable as ‘heretic’ in the medieval church. A speaker wishing to endear himself or herself to the audience only had to say that the country was sick to the back teeth of them to earn a round of applause.

On a material level, there were rational reasons for the loathing. We do not say often enough that Western societies have failed their peoples. The average Briton or American has not had a pay rise for over a decade. Growth rates in Britain appear to have taken a permanent knock, and that is before Brexit. Any people can put up with suffering if they know it is a temporary measure. Give them austerity without end and permanent wage cuts and they will revolt.

As important as the economics is the psychology behind the revulsion.