I'd half expect Argentina to be odd, but its swing to the right is so extreme that the new leader Argentinians have voted in wants to rehabilitate the reputation of the people who drugged students, threw them out of planes and stole the dead people's babies.

And when you see The Netherlands, a country so sane that bicycles are used in preference to cars, electing a prime minister whose policies include suppressing Islam and replacing a principle of equality in the Dutch constitution with a clause stating the cultural dominance of the Christian, Jewish and humanist traditions, eyebrows rise so far that they're tickling the back of your neck.

Why is there this swing to populism in so many countries?

Only in some individuals is there hope.