They say you get the leader you deserve...

I READ recently that ‘honest politicians are now a rare breed’ and found myself in complete agreement. So contemptuous are politicians of the modern voter that they don’t even bother hiding their cronyism and ‘fat cat’ payoffs.

I blame the rise of populism which was given a turbocharged boost by the Brexit debate which quickly descended into selling competing emotional visions of the future.

There was a time when the voters would consider carefully the policies being put forward by opposing politicians and also make a judgment on the character of the person.

Now, however, it seems you can be a proven liar, sacked from previous employment for dishonesty, be a serial womaniser who refuses to state publicly how many children you accept paternity over, but as long as you say what a sufficiently large chunk of the population want to hear you’ll get voted in.

‘Oven ready Brexit deal’. Get in. ‘If the EU don’t give us what we want we’ll stick it to them because we’re the greatest and don’t need their stupid trade deal’.

Right on Boris. ‘Britain will have a world beating track and trace system’ Operation moonshot – doesn’t that sound hi-tech and wonderful? Concerned that we have one of the worst Covid death rates in Europe, the deepest Covid recession amongst European countries? Don’t be. Ignore all that negativity and moaning from the Opposition, we’ve done a fantastic job.

They say you get the leader you deserve and sadly when you vote into office a known chancer like Boris, our very own mini Trump, we have well and truly got what we deserve.

Paul Thomas, Highbridge, Somerset