Global instability: No countries for old democracies

It is not too hard, in this season of pantomime rehearsals, to imagine a script from those masters of the netherworld just beyond the sober, grind-and-queue lives most of us lead — the Coen brothers — constructing a conversation between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. The great filmmakers might contrive to have those unchallengeable leaders discuss the difficulties facing other world leaders.

“Theresa is having a hard time of it, Vladimir?”