Destructive populism is leading us towards dark times

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At the outset of the First World War, the foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, presciently said: “The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”

More than 100 years later I am certain that if Sir Edward was alive now he would be making an equally erudite point, but with one major difference: “The lamps most assuredly will not be going out all over Europe, only here in the UK.”

And given that I am older than he was then, I fear the second part of his wise words coming to pass, literally and metaphorically, unless our politicians cease this destructive populism.