Demagogues have taken over

FOR hundreds of years, the political struggle of the British people had been a matter of conflict between their profound beliefs concerning human society. Feudal lords still cling to ownership of vast tracts of land and property, while Conservative voters cling to those same beliefs, that there should be many divided classes, where the rich are superior people, far above Tory voters’ own children, and schoolboys from Eton and Harrow make the best prime ministers.

While one cannot consider that intelligent, it has now been replaced by an even more sinister form of society in the minds of voters, the worship of demagogues. Previous right-wing demagogues, Mussolini, Hitler and Sir Oswald Mosley, did possess considerable powers as orators, but present demagogues, Donald Trump, Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson, can scarcely string five words together. They are almost incoherent.

That is their astonishing power over populist minds, that they make the most extravagant promises, “to make America great again”, or “to make Britain the envy of the world”, without stating any trustworthy policies, or any intention to keep their word. Honesty plays no part in such politics, and success depends on the saloon bar attraction of flamboyant liars, widely admired by conformist nationalists.

Nobody believes anything. Politics is the same as “belonging” to a football club, or voting for celebrities on Strictly Come Dancing. We vote for our political party because we loathe the others, and emotions have damaged our ability to think intelligently, as they always must, so Boris was selected as a comic mockery of a world statesman. TV’s Spitting Image has returned, in the flesh.