Our politicians are too fearful of public opinion to make decisions

Appeasement politics (as any parents will tell you) results in more tears and higher expectation, writes Alison O’Connor

We are being governed by our own bad temper. If each political era has its mood music, the current one is discordant notes and crankiness. The result is that our politicians are afraid of their own shadows.

In the long term, indeed, in any term, this is not a good idea. Politicians who are reluctant to take decisions (even basic decisions, necessary for the good of the country) for fear of displeasing an increasingly unreasonable public are a recipe for disaster.