In its 2019 annual Audit of Political Engagement, the Hansard Society asked if Britain ‘needs a strong ruler willing to break the rules.’ Whilst 54% of respondents said yes; only 23% said no.[1] Even given the long drawn-out stalemate over Brexit in that year – in which the “will of the people” seemed to be thwarted by parliament itself – this is a disturbing outcome. The nation promptly went ahead and elected a ruler willing to break a number of rules, before and during the pandemic. Democracy is not only under pressure in Britain. In 2020, the Cambridge Centre for the Future of Democracy warned that democracy worldwide is in ‘a…