More than once in recent weeks, I have recalled the time in 1948 when all the polls predicted that the Democrat US President Harry Truman would be soundly beaten by his Republican opponent, Thomas Dewey, a small man with a moustache. The Chicago Tribune famously reported on its front page “Dewey wins!” Alistair Cooke recorded how he met a Republican county chairman on a train and asked “what happened?” “I don’t know about anyone else,” the Republican replied, “but I know what happened to me. When I entered that polling booth ready to vote the straight Republican ticket, into my mind came the thought of our little man with a moustache, and I thought 'dammit, didn’t we just fight a war against a little guy with a moustache?’ For the first time in my life I voted Democrat.”