The Britain I grew up in is gone. Things are getting worse, and nobody wants to avert course. People are banged up for posts on Facebook, but Keir Starmer refuses to root out complicity and corruption by those in authority over the horrific rape gangs. Postmasters and postmistresses are driven to suicide because a rogue algorithm ruined their reputations, but the government can pay billions to hand over the Chagos Islands to China-aligned Mauritius. Economic stagnation and money-printing galore, but the Treasury and Bank of England manage to remain immune from criticism. Our country approaches South Africa-style blackouts, but Ed Miliband wants to build more windmills. Our prison system is bursting, but the Home Secretary is set to import more criminals. These are the most obvious examples that spring to mind, but, everywhere we look, the British state is failing – from contracting, to infrastructure, to welfare. What on Earth has gone wrong?

It would be tempting to blame Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, and it is certainly true that they are guilty of an arrogant belief in technocracy for which they are now being punished. But the problem is deeper and older than those two stooges. We have a very powerful and unaccountable bureaucracy, quangocracy, and judiciary, all of which have been captured by left-wing ideology and work only to ensure their own job security. The “impartial” civil service and “independent” bodies that were variously brought in to stop corruption and outsource decisions to experts have now become the masters, not the servants. Democracy is being undermined – so much so that what we call democracy in this country is being rejected by increasing numbers of young people.

The mistake of multiple governments was believing that systems and people needed to be brought in to control negative aspects of politics and democracy. The medicine has turned out to be worse than the disease it sought to cure. It’s better to have a transparent system where politicians have the freedom to deliver as they see fit, and can be voted in and out accordingly, rather than a system where so much power is in the hands of the unelected that voting becomes pointless.