No need to be rude, Michael, you know little, if anything, about me, so your attempts at provocation are completely meaningless and ineffectual, AFAIC.

FYI, I was very well-educated, both academically and professionally, and I understand democracy perfectly well, but I also am sufficiently well-educated and intelligent enough to know that politicians are well-versed in how to press the right buttons to persuade elements of the electorate to vote the way they wish them to vote - frequently nothing to do with reason and information, but rather emotion and mis-, dare I even say dis-, information. Witness the kind of tactic used so frequently by the mouthpiece of the Tory party, The Daily Mail, in which they seek to sow seeds of discontent over e.g., immigration (scrounges, job-stealers, etc.) or Muslims (terrorists, child-abusers, yadda, yadda), the Labour Party (caused a world-wide financial crash, blah-blah-blah) by, at best, distortions of the truth and, at worst, bare-faced lies.

You, too, know this perfectly well, but it suits your purpose in this exchange to pretend otherwise. Disingenuousness personified, sir.

On this basis, I see little purpose in engaging with you further.