When a new party is swept to power on a huge wave of fragile optimism and then faces the predictable setbacks of actually having to govern rather than just talk about it, there’s a peculiar bitterness to the nation’s disappointment. It’s peculiar because it’s tied in with self-loathing. We blame ourselves for our naivety. ‘We might have known.’ ‘We should have known.’ ‘We fell for it.’
