Jolly good show

It’s tempting for a Brit to look over the Atlantic and smugly conclude that, after 240 years, the American experiment of self government has failed — that this ingenious country could not even find two decent people to run for the White House, and has instead laid on a political freak show that’s best watched from behind the sofa. British politics has its faults, we say, but we’re nowhere near as bad as that.

But who would be bold enough to say that had Andrea Leadsom not dropped out of the race, Tory members would not have voted her in? And looking at the House of Commons, can we really say that it’s functional? We have no opposition to speak of, thanks to the crisis in the Labour party. The main difference between Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders is that Corbyn actually won; both are old school socialists who found new energy (and supporters) through social media and the new era of digital clicktivism. In the US, the Democrats managed to stop this prevailing; the Labour party did not.

And what of Britain’s third most popular political party? Steven Woolfe was last seen running his Ukip leadership bid from a hospital bed after a brawl with an MEP colleague last week. As Nigel Farage said, this is the sort of behaviour you’d expect in a third world country. Even he looked taken aback by how quickly things were unravelling in his party: Farage’s shtick was the pint glass, the cigarette, and the rude joke. Now, on parliamentary premises his would be successors are behaving like louts. Once, such conduct would have ended any serious political career. Today, Woolfe is still favourite to win.

The forces we like to blame for corrupting the race for the White House have long been pervading our politics — and placing an ever greater premium on showbiz.