At the end of an uninspiring year, British politics is broken. The party system traps people in defunct organisations with colleagues they cannot abide. An electoral system that no longer has its only justification of providing strong and stable government holds both parties hostage. The political class has turned into so many Mr and Mrs Micawbers, waiting for something, or somebody, to turn up. Meanwhile, Prince Harry is ruining radio programmes. It’s enough to make you want to emigrate.

Don’t listen to the conventional litany of reasons why nothing can ever change. Too much political analysis breaks the country into opposing pairs: homeowners versus renters, working class versus middle class, rich versus poor — and then concludes, as if by magic, that this requires two