Message lost in clichéd rant

Don’t Vote: It only encourages the bastards

They come around before elections to promise you the earth and you never see them again. They’re power-hungry fat cats. They get special training in how to lie and fudge on television and never answer a straight question. They cheat on their expenses, promote their pals and swan around in Mercs at our expense.

Politicians have never been popular, but they’re currently hated with a warmth and concentrated conviction that’s new. And not just in Ireland. That PJ O’Rourke’s new collection of essays about the body politic is likely to be a bestseller suggests that contempt for the people elected to make our laws is rampant in the US too.