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"............Political fashions change. Once, the future seemed to belong to smiling Tony Blair types (or Bill Clinton epigones) who sought to offend as few people as possible, settle down on the TV studio sofa and try to look and talk as unlike politicians as it was possible to do. Locally and nationally, victory tended to go to the centrist candidates with the fewest enemies.
Now, people want leaders with something to say, who stick out from the identikit politicians - even if they are hated for doing so. Take Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders, socialists who haven’t changed their views in decades. Until recently, this confined them to obscurity. Now, both have found an appeal that astonishes those still using the late-1990s political playbook. If being ridiculed is fatal, why did Mr Corbyn win over more people in the last general election than any leader in any modern British election? If being hated is fatal, why is Donald Trump in the White House? ................."