Social democracy has let us down and it must battle to regain respect

Willi Brandt believed in a democracy where people had choices and voted as educated citizens, writes Fergus Finlay.

THE Foreign Ministers of Europe gathered this weekend, to discuss the consequences of Trump’s election. From the shots on the television, they were sitting down to a sumptuous dinner, somewhere in Brussels. They had jetted in on government planes, and been driven to the banquet in a fleet of expensive cars.

At the same time, the leader of the far right in France, Marine Le Pen, was giving an interview to the BBC, in which she looked confidently to a future where she will be contesting the French Presidency, with analysts now predicting that she will (at least) make it to the final two. And as we know from the USA, there’s no predicting who will win a two-horse race.