Westminster drinks parties are rarely a source of political enlightenment. This season, like many events of 2016, proved to be an exception. The Institute of Economic Affairs held its Christmas jamboree last week (excellent canapés, acceptable wine) with a star speaker.
Jeremy Vine, the BBC radio presenter, served up to entertain assorted hacks, flacks and wonks, made a striking point. If this roomful of political elites spent more time listening to callers on his Radio 2 show instead of the earnest debates on the Radio 4 Today programme, they might have seen Brexit coming. As a listener to both, I clocked that he was right. The UK’s two most popular radio stations represent the persistent 52:48 divide.
A meditative letter to the Financial Times from Keith Craig of London defined 2016 as the year “People Like Us” — those who have been filled with despair and disbelief about populist uprisings — lost control. “We FT readers had our decades in charge and we blew it for everyone but us,” Mr Craig wrote. “We have two failed wars and the Middle East in flames, China expansionist, Europe enfeebled, America ineffective and Russia resurgent.”