Is Theresa May really going to spend the next six weeks repeating the terms 'strong

[Ash]

Hang on, you're not actually denying that people are generally stupid, or, more specific to the topic being discussed, insufficiently engaged with politics to make informed voting decisions, are you? In fact I know many people who are engaged with politics who I believe are ill-equipped to make informed decisions - and I'd count myself among them (which is partly why I don't vote).

Where you are wrong is assuming that believing this (as I do and as I believe you do, if you are being honest) does not necessarily mean we think democracy itself is a bad idea. It could simply mean that we believe democracy is great (albeit flawed) in spite of the fact that most of the people charged with deciding who controls it at any given time are stupid.

Equally, with football fans, yes I absolutely believe they are too stupid for their opinions to have any credibility or worth in terms of their actual substance, but I also recognise that without them football would be nothing and that therefore their freedom to attend matches and, alas, to voice their cretinious opinions, should and must be protected.

People are not God. They cannot see all ends.

To recognise this is not to consider them stupid, as much as you would like us both to share your misanthropy. A person of low education from Stoke might have an intuitive understanding of how political power should be distributed that, in my opinion, could be superior to the view of a university professor who insists that she, as a highly intelligent and educated expert, knows best and that the best thing is for people like them to decide the law of the land.

On another level, if a Surrey stockbroker always votes Tory purely because he believes it is in his interests, while a west Cumbrian ship-builder always votes Labour purely because she believes it is in her interests, then so be it. Better that they care little for the detail of the policies but have their say, than for them to have no say at all.