Is there a crisis in representative democracy? Many people seem to think so. Brexit, Trump, Macron and even current events in Catalonia have all been read as evidence of this. Many commentators have treated them as a two fingered salute to unaccountable elites or as an expression of popular will that works around outmoded institutional structures.

Some will also see further evidence of this breakdown of the representative body politic in the annual parade of party conferences we have just finished.