Politics is in turmoil again but perhaps we should look at ourselves for the cause, says Mark Smith

A recommendation: John Boyne. I’ve been reading some of his novels these last few weeks because the usual suspects tried to get him banished and cancelled for his gender critical views so I thought: he sounds like a solid and intelligent sort of chap, I’ll do my bit to anti-cancel him by reading his books. And I’m glad I did because one of them is particularly brilliant and started me thinking, again, about the mess we’re in and I’ve ended up having another one of my ideas I’m afraid. I’d be interested to know what you think.

The book I’m referring to is Mutiny on the Bounty, which follows a 14-year-old lad called John Turnstile serving on the ship as assistant to Captain Bligh. There’s a section early on in the book where Turnstile stands at the bottom of the gangplank wondering whether he should get on the ship or do a runner instead. He realises he’ll be cut off from his life on land but in the end he decides he’s got nothing to lose and heads up the plank and is away for two years. As for the fate of the Bounty: you know what happened next.

But that was 1787, a time when a sea voyage meant a message to your friends or family could take years to get there, and 40 years later – only 40 – there was the birth of the modern railway and things started to change. I was in York the other day for the opening of the refurbished wing of the National Railway Museum and the head curator Andrew McClean showed me round what used to be an old distribution yard. Goods in, goods out, like an Amazon warehouse, he said. He also showed me a beautiful old book stall from Waterloo station and explained how the stalls, connected by the railways, enabled news to be........

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