Cierco would have told Ed Davey to grow up

How much longer has Sir Ed Davey got as leader of the Lib Dems? One gets the sense that his efforts to appear as a spring chicken rather than a serious political problem-solver are leading him ever closer into the pot, with a sprig of bayleaf between his teeth.

The ancients tended to take the view that there was a behaviour appropriate for each age. Cicero talked of ‘Nature’s single path’, weakness being characteristic of childhood, seriousness of middle age and maturity of old age. But youth’s intensity led them to view their elders and betters as worse than useless. Plato in his Republic associated this with democracy: ‘Teachers are afraid of their pupils and curry favour with them, while pupils despise their teachers… the young turn any conversation or action into a trial of strength with their elders; meanwhile, older people adapt themselves to the younger ones, ooze frivolity and charm, and model their behaviour on the young.’

This was shocking to the ancients in general because they firmly believed that adults knew better than their young. They did not regard children as fashion accessories or extensions of their own personalities, but as small adults, needing training to turn into proper adults and bring credit to their family (what it was really all about). But, as Pliny the Younger moaned, ‘Today’s young know everything, respect no one, imitate no one, and set their own standards… few will yield to age or authority, because they think they know better. They are wise at once, know everything at once, respect no one, learn from no one and take themselves as models for imitation.’ But Plato argued that rebuking and admonishing the young did no good ‘these days’. Male and female alike had to be raised responsibly, body and soul, in the stabilising light of goodness and reason.