The one thing that defined 2016 for me was the BBC news studio on the morning after we had voted to leave the European Union. I have never seen anything like it. The journos and the experts and the politicians were, of course, appalled. But what really got me was their shock and astonishment. They were utterly stunned. They could not quite believe it. And this evident disbelief became a sort of trope of the year, repeated with even more gobsmacked expressions after Donald Trump’s victory in November. I understood the anger — it is never very pleasing to see your side lose. It was the genuine surprise that seemed remarkable to me. That such a large number of people could disagree so fundamentally with