There's an important lesson for politicians in the fall of Leo Varadkar

So farewell, then, Leo Varadkar. The Taoiseach says he is stepping down because he is no longer ‘the best person for that job’. But the reality is that Varadkar found out the hard way that delegating decisions to voters can come back to bite.

This wasn’t the first time Ireland’s leaders have chosen to hand difficult decisions to voters

Varadkar’s fate was sealed earlier this month when his government suffered a crushing defeat in two referendums. Irish voters were encouraged to back changes to the constitution which would clarify the definition of ‘the Family’ to mean ‘whether founded on marriage or on other durable relationships’ and omit a definition of ‘the institution of Marriage’ as a concept ‘on which the Family is founded’. These were solid, progressive, liberal changes, supported by the partners in the coalition government – Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party – as well as many opposition parties, including Sinn Féin (with some reservations), the Labour party, the Social Democrats and People Before Profit.