Do politics matter at all?
It is likely that the ordinary man, not being an ideologue, would agree as he grows older with Arthur Balfour’s famous epigram: “In politics nothing matters very much, and few things matter at all.” This is only partly to do with sub specie aeterni, etc. For the rest, there is the simple recognition that politicians always make politics (and the questions and policies with which they concern themselves) out to be much more substantial and consequential than they actually are. The “democratic process” consisting of popular debate and involvement in the form of public demonstrations, solicitation of opinion by the polls and private and public organizations, print and electronic journalism,
