Thanks to the sneerocrats, the political bores are back in power

Never mind bureaucracy. Forget technocracy. Put to the back of your mind the rising lawyerocracy, like those 1,000 puffed-up, demos-fearing lawyers who yesterday insisted that the EU referendum result is not binding. For there’s a worse ‘ocracy than those, one which has an even greater draining effect on politics, one which leeches the life and colour from public debate. And that’s the sneerocracy, the rise of a meme-making, mick-taking, cynicism-stoking Twitterati and commentariat who never — but never — give a politician the benefit of the doubt and whose trade is snide rather than substance.

Consider the fall of Andrea Leadsom. I know, I know: the only thing we’re meant to say about Leadsom is ‘Ding dong, the witch is dead’. The stupid woman said something stupid and therefore she deserved to be destroyed, amirite? Actually, her fall is more complicated than that. It deserves analysis. For it speaks to the spread of the sneerocrats, who are like a carbuncle on political life, ready to drag down any politico who misspeaks, says something off-colour, cracks an unwise gag, or commits some other breed of thoughtcrime.