In these days of despair for the left, there are still reasons for hope | Martin Kettle

As the writer Zadie Smith makes clear, the electoral bodyblows of 2016 could prove to be moments of inspiration

Receiving a literary prize in Berlin two days after Donald Trump’s election, Zadie Smith reflected ruefully that it is hard to find happiness in the face of immense political setbacks. “These are the darkest political times I have ever known,” Smith observed in her acceptance speech – republished this month in the New York Review of Books. As “President Trump rises in the west, a united Europe drops below the horizon”.

Related: Does the left have a future? | John Harris

The history of dashed hopes is as long as human history itself. Our era has no monopoly of despair

Related: The story of the Russian revolution: from the archive, 16 March 1917

Continue reading...