Reports that Gen Z are increasingly disillusioned with democracy aren’t surprising. Too many powers in Britain have been handed to unelected quangocrats with no skin in the game while autocracies like China and the UAE are offering superficially attractive alternatives, says James Price

“Democracy is the worst form of government, except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” A recent poll has suggested that many young people, with their infamous short attention spans, have only ingested the first half of Churchill’s famous quip. It shows that Gen Z are ambivalent at best about democracy, with 52 per cent saying they thought “the UK would be a better place if a strong leader was in charge who does not have to bother with parliament and elections”.

As shocking as this may seem at first flush, one has to consider the material outcomes that our democratic institutions have delivered. No growth since 2008, soaring house prices, unsustainable mass migration, crime, social tension and rising debts. Allied to this (or likely caused by it) has been the total diminution in quality of elected politicians in recent decades.

Democratic safeguards have been eroded

I would contend though, that for nearly 30........

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