Descent into the swamp: A dark genie escapes from the bottle

At a moment when a European Union prime minister, Malta’s Joseph Muscat, is forced to resign over the proximity of the investigation into the car-bomb murder of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia to his office it may seem precious to fret about our democracy and the relationship between legislators and citizens.

At a moment when America’s president is hollowing out the deep-state agencies that won the last cold war and, unless rescued, may not win today’s cold war it is indulgent to fret about our body politic and the standards it observes.